Patricia Mukhim
While sharing a conversation with friends in the bureaucracy who have spent considerable time in Meghalaya and observed things from close quarters, the key points that emerged were (a) the aspirational levels of our youth were low (b) they may earn five figure salaries outside Meghalaya but always want to return to the nest and are satisfied with a four-digit salary (c) Our propensity to place too much premium on our clans have stunted individual thinking and growth, both of which are essential to entrepreneurship (d) Thinking as a clan prevents the Khasi/Jaintia/Garo from reaching the point of dissatisfaction with the status quo because he/she cannot critique a corrupt politician from his/her clan or kpoh (family line) (e) our youth have no decent platform to air their views other than the conventional pressure and interest groups whose agenda is suspect (f) the salaries that young people in Delhi and elsewhere would not even agree to work for are up for grabs in Meghalaya (g) the youth have no political space since the veterans would never yield them that space and that goes for the Dorbar Shnong too (h) call it the unimaginative educational system or family conditioning or societal flaw but our youth dare not raise questions on any issue including those they know impinge on their personal and professional growth. They are still afraid of questioning the system using logic, reason and statistics and not by the use of force (i) parents still believe they can pull strings to push their sons/daughters into government service (j) many parents today (quite a good number are government employees) invest substantial sums in the education of their children outside the state but don’t get back the returns on investments. Each of these points is a challenge to be addressed.
Now considering that 65% of the population of Meghalaya today is under the age of 35 years we should all collectively be agonising about their future, more so the Government. But is the Government really seized of this problem? Creating sports infrastructure and promoting music, fashion shows and 180 degree types of festivals or even employing a few hundred here and there on contract basis is unlikely to solve the mega problem that stares us in the face. Yet all our elected MLAs have only a short term vision. The Shillong MP spends all his waking hours pushing a Bill in Parliament which would render the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Order null and void so he can appease his coal mining lobby and continue with the “business as usual” mode. It’s pathetic that we have an MP who only raises questions in Parliament to support his own business and that of his cohorts. Thankfully the Question raised by VP was shot down, pronto.
On Monday, the State Government led by its so-called visionary Chief Minister who pays ample lip service to the youth, invited only the elderly patriarchs of Khasi & Jaintia Hills to discuss the impending local area governance Bill. The enlightened, responsible young men and women to whom the future belongs were not invited because in this society no one takes the youth seriously. Above all the women who form half of the population of Meghalaya were also kept out of bounds! And then what transpires after the meeting is even more humorous. A geriatric (sorry for using the word) who no longer has his pulse on events around him (DD Lapang) is anointed the Chairperson of the group of elders that will deliberate on the much touted Bill to define the powers and functions of the Rangbah Shnong. Also left out were the non-tribal citizens who make up 13% of the population of Meghalaya. Are they not full citizens? Don’t they have better claim to good governance considering they pay income tax and other taxes that non-tribal business people have to pay? Who will look after their interests at the local level? And if the Dorbar Shnong is to be used only by and for the tribals then does it have the legal authority to impose its diktat on non-tribal residents? These questions must be answered by the State Government when it thinks of the proposed Bill. As for PT Sawkmie’s proposal that the Village Administration Bill of the KHADC be passed forthwith one can only say that the KHADC cannot make a stand-alone Bill that will not affect the other ADCs. Besides the Bill suffers from some glaring flaws!
Now coming to tradition, I hope I will live to see the day when that word is exorcised from the Khasi-Jaintia consciousness and vocabulary. Tradition is the smoke-screen that has allowed all forms of rent-seeking habits and gender discrimination to persist. But the moment we say “Khasi” and “Jaidbynriew” we go into spasms of jingoism. What, by the way is Khasi exceptionalism? Does this exceptionalism bestow exemption from critique? Is uniqueness, perfection? Does our difference require that development be arrested? If the idea of being Khasi is rooted in conservatism and preservation it will hinder progressivism which alters our thought patterns and our refreshes our worldviews (remember even computers have to be refreshed every now and again). When we think Meghalaya do we see a State struggling to be maintained or one struggling to be made better? Seeking to enshrine and preserve our vision of Meghalaya or of being Khasi, from a period in the past, robs it of the infinite possibility for adjusting to the present. The present is all about adjusting to a new global economic world order whether we like it or not. Leftist Ideologies are good for academics but don’t bring rice to the table. Meghalaya which still needs welfaristic treatment from the Centre will have to chart out a future that is pragmatic and leads to greater self reliance because the funds are no longer going to flow unquestioningly and sans accountability from the States.
Renowned psychologist/psychiatrist Wayne D Dyer in his book, “You’ll see it when you believe it,” says, “Learning to be detached from the past and the traditions that are an important part of many peoples’ lives is one way to eliminate some of the suffering in this world. Take a look at all the people who are fighting wars around the globe today and you see them suffering and dying in the name of tradition. They are taught that what their ancestors believe is what they must believe. With this logic they perpetuate the sufferings in their own lives and in the lives of their assigned enemies.” Dyer says the force of tradition is so overwhelmingly powerful that things such as what education we seek, what vocation we choose, who our friends will be, how we will vote, what we wear, how we speak and even how we choose to think are determined by attachment to traditions. But ignoring these traditions means complete ostracisation from family and neighbours. Learning to be detached from tradition, Dyer says, often takes a great deal of courage and for those who do detach themselves there is a terrific price to pay. However, the price for remaining attached is far greater and paying it creates much more havoc in our lives. Ralph Waldo Emerson reminded us, “Be not the slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far so you shall come back with self respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old”.
Dr Dyer further says that while we can respect and appreciate the past and the ways of our ancestors but to be attached to having to live and think the way others before us did, because we showed up looking like them in form, is to deny ourselves enlightenment. This, Dyer believes, is how people and their institutions have controlled others for thousands of years. Demanding and instructing children to live only by established rules can turn them into unthinking servants of anyone in authority. Attachment to the past is responsible for giving guns to little boys, turning them into killers, telling them who their enemies are and conditioning them in non-thinking conformity. They grow up with the belief that to be unattached to the past is dishonourable in the eyes of God. Remember there was a priest who in these very columns suggested that Khasi traditional institutions are of divine origin!
The Dorbar Shnong is a necessary institution for modern governance and as such it should not deviate from that goal. Tradition should not be dragged in to exclude women or to go back to the Instrument of Accession to empower an elite that already controls power over land and resources. In fact these power holders should be cut down to size and the powers they hold should be redistributed since they have ceased to serve the interests of the poor and needy in the society. In fact this new Bill should do away with all past practices that were exclusivist in nature.
The youth of Meghalaya who has the mandate to vote should also use their thinking power to drive this State towards new goals.