By Toki Blah
I was asked to write something about the demolished Motphran Overbridge. Apparently it had a nostalgic and sentimental value for a lot of people. Why so, is difficult to imagine, because the old Motphran overbridge, considered from all practical aspects, was simply the most expensive flea market (iew die jain sekhon han) ever constructed. Beyond being a public eyesore it hardly served any purpose at all. It never served the interest of commuters; it never served the interest of the people; it never made crossing over to Iewduh all that safer; it’s very purpose was never clear; it simply catered to the livelihood requirements of a few second hand cloth merchants and in the end, even these beneficiaries by default, never shed a tear over the demise of this misplaced public enterprise. The Motphran Overbridge however did serve to mirror an enigma of our times – the puzzle called Meghalaya!
By the 1970’s, vehicular and pedestrian traffic were vying with each other for space in and around Motphran. There was a practical demand to segregate one stream from the other and an overbridge, to ease pedestrian communication to and from Iewduh, was a genuine need. This genuine need was however answered with a faulty solution. It very soon became obvious that a basic flaw in design and location had taken place. Commuters avoided using the bridge as both its ends it did not conform to their requirements. Money, time, premium space and manpower wastefully invested in something that served no practical purpose. Thirty years down the line one is forced to conclude that the Motphran Overbridge was simply the outcome of unplanned emotion. The bridge failed to serve the purpose it was meant for. The rest is history!
This history rings a distinct bell. Didn’t we get statehood in the same manner? A nostalgic drive down memory lane would recall that the emotive slogan of ‘No Hill State, No Rest’ was never really supported with any vision as to what we would do with full statehood once we got it. All of us were carried along an emotional bandwagon for a Tribal state of our own. Now that we’ve got statehood; now that Meghalaya has been in existence for the last 43 years, what use have we made of our achievements? As a state, Meghalaya has simply served to expose some bitter home truths. Parliamentary democracy as a concept is something beyond our understanding and we have made a mess of it. Institutions, traditional and modern, that we were once proud of, now lie in ruins round our feet. Since we tend to be ashamed of our elected political leaders, we obviously have a serious leadership crisis in our hands. As we dwell on these dismal aspects of embarrassment, the similarity of our hill state to that a dilapidated and useless Motphran bridge, leading nowhere, serving no purpose, refuses to fade away.
Meghalaya is a political institution that was created because we once had a wish and a desire. A wish for a Tribal state of our own; a desire for leadership of our own; our own road map to the future; a desire to chart our own destiny. Now what do we have to show for it? Unemployment on the rise; an environment that has gone to the dogs; an economy best left unsaid; militancy spiralling all over the countryside; society fragmented by selfish unthinking leaders; imminent breakdown of civic amenities in all our urban centres; educational and health care systems, once the pride of the region, now struggling for survival and most alarming, basic infrastructural amenities in all spheres, floundering on the verge of collapse. The general wellbeing of the people and the state has literally crumpled. The only institution that has thrived and flourished amidst all this hopelessness has been meaningless politics. Politics and a political system that is proving to be irrelevant to the needs and requirements of the state, reigns supreme. We are a people betrayed by an institution we created. Can anything be more ironical than that?
I personally believe that the time has come for serious introspection on the issue. As a people of this Hill state called Meghalaya the time has come to question and identify this entity called ‘Politics’! What is it? What is it composed of? What do we want from it? ‘Politics’ to the man in the street is the process by which we identify, evaluate and elect leaders. Political parties exist to project and groom such leaders. It’s supposed to be that simple. Tragically this has not happened. Problem is that we have gone about it the wrong way. There is this cultivated demand for Good people as leaders. ‘Good’ is a relative term and that’s where the problem starts and a corrupted political system has been quick to exploit this demand for good people. Liberal distribution of money during election times quickly enhances the profile of Goodness and of winnability. Capability; qualification; ability; the aspiration to serve; the aptitude for visionary thinking has been sacrificed at the altar of Goodness. We are paying the price for this sacrifice. The institution of politics exists. Its composition however has been corrupted, infected and soiled with ‘Good’ for nothing people whose only objective is how to come to power and then use power for their own selfish interests!
The most recent display of how ‘Good People’ in irrelevant politics has destroyed the basic profile of indigenous leadership was the political musical chair played out in the KHADC. The All Regional Parties Alliance (ARPA) ostensibly came about with the pious declaration that only regional unity is capable of delivering on the provisions of the 6th Schedule. This myth was soon exploded. ARPA has now metamorphosed into an outrageous experiment on how a minority party should lead a triangular coalition. An experiment that is based solely on emotional sentiment, unfounded Hope and wishful Optimism. If ARPA was once bound together by a need for regional unity, it has now apparently degenerated into regional desperation. One hopes that the game of musical chairs does not deteriorate into a game of political soccer, with the KHNAM as the football to be kicked about by the HSPDP and the UDP. In the process, another political institution of Meghalaya, the Autonomous District Council has once again displayed its Motphran Bridge like characteristic. Out of place; out of time; unclear about the rationale of its own existence; diseased by the same virus – meaningless and opportunistic politics. Will we ever learn?
One can come to no other conclusion but to the sad admission that 43 years of Meghalaya statehood and experience with politics, political parties and politicians has left nothing except a bad taste in the mouth. Instead of visionary leadership we have only exploitative leaders. Desperate attempts at alternative leadership had been made from NGOs and Pressure groups. Even militancy has given it a try. Such attempts, thank God, have generally failed as kneejerk emotional solutions, especially solutions from school dropouts and the barrel of a gun, are not the answer. What Meghalaya needs is a roadmap for the future. We need visionary leadership to articulate this roadmap. Of concern is the reluctance of the intelligentsia, people from the academia, people with administrative experience and opinion makers to step out of their ivory towers, into the open and to provide sense and direction. Or is Meghalaya and its people forever doomed to be ruled by ignorant pirates, buccaneers, extortionists and third rate politicians. Is that our destiny?
Author is President of ICARE an organisation that focuses on issues of Good Governance.