Patricia Mukhim
The State Government has done well to prepare the Prevention of Disqualification (Members of the Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya) Amendment Bill, 2015 and to get it passed by the legislature recently, despite heated protests from the opposition benches. The Act which takes effect from October 1, 2015 effectively puts paid to the pernicious legacy of allowing one person to be both MLA and MDC. Opposition to this Bill was expected. In any case the Opposition in this State and in the country is not known for ‘constructive opposition’. They oppose because they have to, so one cannot take their posturing too seriously. For the State Government it was a way of averting another court verdict which would have pushed it to come up with a Bill within a stipulated date.
Given the judicial activism of our era it was only a matter of time before the courts would have taken a call and passed a judgment in favour of the public interest litigation (PIL) filed on the issue of dual posts – i.e. one person as MLA and MDC, since this has created a peculiar situation and conflict of interests. This was most evident in the case of HDR Lyngdoh who was both MDC and MLA and was also the Minister in charge District Council Affairs. When the question of the Village Administration Bill of the KHADC came before the Government, Lyngdoh had to torpedo some of the clauses although he must have been part of the formulation of the Bill as MDC. How is it that it took so long for people to figure out that it is actually sheer ambition and the need to keep opponents at bay which prompts MLAs to also contest as MDC? Naturally HDR Lyngdoh was also the first to resign.
Defending the Bill in the Assembly, the astute Dr Mukul Sangma who was accused by the Opposition of actually ambushing those MLAs who are also elected MDCs, said, “There is no question of ambush or malafide intention. The legislation is required and its purpose is to set things right in sync with the spirit of the Constitution so that we will not be caught unawares and confronted by any situation.” Sangma was probably trying to retrieve the lost space of the executive and legislature which in recent times is being appropriate by the judiciary. The PIL is likely to be decided in favour of the citizen who is challenging the idea of dual legislative posts. Adding to the dilemma of the Councillors is another PIL by RTI activist and leader of the Mait Shaphrang Movement, Micheal Syiem, seeking the abolition of the District Councils which he had publicly argued have become redundant and merely a second tier legislative body which has failed to meet the aspirations of the people.
There can be no two views that the District Councils have become redundant after Meghalaya attained statehood. The Councils have neither the resources nor the vision for development. Their inability to manage their finances over the decades has made them forfeit the right to run primary schools and rural health care centres. Now all that the Councils focus on is how to get direct central funding since the State Government has over the years starved them of funds and because they have failed to develop a revenue model for their sustenance. The Councils employ several people but most of the appointments are political in nature and therefore superfluous. The Councils were intended to be a bulwark against the onslaught of a mainstream Assamese culture at a time when the United Khasi and Jaintia Hills were part of undivided Assam. This vanguard role ended the day Meghalaya became a separate state and was ruled by the tribal representatives. If we continue to have district councils even today, we are implying that the State Government cannot take care of the interests of the tribes. But is that a fact?
If it comes to conservation and promotion of our culture then I believe that the Art and Culture Department has that primary role and also the resources to make that happen. In any case culture is not a static thing and human beings don’t need an external agency to act out their cultural practices. So far the state of Meghalaya has allowed us a free space for the expression of our culture. The various folk dances and cultural cum religious festivals receive the generous support of the state. The only time that Khasi Hills District Council wanted to take up a grand project called the Monolith Festival and also to create a Heritage Village the project allegedly ran into a scam. The Heritage Village at Mawphlang is badly maintained. At the moment it is the State Government that is pushing funds to make the place presentable for the International Mei-Ramew Festival. So to my mind the district council is an institution that has outlived its utility. One only wonders as to whether any serious evaluation and academic study has been conducted to assess the relevance of the councils today. If not, why not? Institutions that have become decadent and are there to serve the interests of a few tribal elite cannot continue to be resuscitated. The Planning Commission is one good example. It is a faulty decision to conceive of a central planning body for a country that claims to be a federal structure. Similarly, if the district councils have become just a waiting room and training ground for MDCs to get elected as MLAs, then the question is whether they really play an important public role.
Another very familiar scenario is that of an MLA not wanting to cede political space to a second rung leader to contest the MDC elections. Often, if that space is given then the MLA usually has a pact with the MDC that he would not usurp the former’s preeminent position. The people we call leaders in politics are actually not leaders in the true sense of the term. A leader serves his/her people and they are his/her prime concern. Leaders are not insecure little despots wanting to wield power permanently if possible and bribing people to get re-elected. If there were no perks why would anyone spend so much money during elections? This point was very cogently argued by Fabian Lyngdoh in his article, “Some Points to Ponder on the Ar-Maloi (dual post) issue (ST September 30, 2015). It is no trade secret that our elected representatives enjoy their tenures because they hardly serve. If they did serve we would not have to murmur about the condition of our roads, water supply, education and health care. On the contrary those in the Government enjoy such excellent perks plus the VVIP status that they would never ever want to lose it. Hence if the MDC gets ambitious and throws in his/her hat in the legislative assembly election, there is a real fear that the person could win that election and upstage the former MLA. This is THE reason why most MLAs don’t want another contender in the district council elections. Simple. No rocket science to figure this out! All this bunkum about people wanting to elect them for both posts is political crap!
The reason why the present KHADC, CEM, PN Syiem is digging in his heels and posturing as the champion of the poor, brainless, paranoid, illiterate, uneducated, illogical, perpetually threatened ‘Jaidbynriew’ of which I am one, is because this is a golden opportunity for him to challenge the present CM, Dr Mukul Sangma. If Syiem comes out victorious with his VAB he believes the numerically superior Khasi-Jaintia community would unequivocally re-elect the Congress Party in the 2018 election of which he would by then have become the undisputed leader and therefore the Chief Ministerial candidate. Do we wonder then why Dr Sangma saw through this chicanery much before we did?
We watch the antics of these politicians and wonder why we deserve them in the first place. Like most logical Indians I too believe that parliamentary democracy with its quirky electoral politics has failed us. But like they say, the alternatives might be worse. My futile wish is that the electorate wakes up and takes the money offered during election and vote for the most deserving person. This was tried out in Kenya and Vietnam and it worked. We should spread this message in Meghalaya too.