By H H Mohrmen
The beginning of a new year in any tradition is an occasion to celebrate though the question still arises, whether there is really a beginning and an end as such. Yet the change of seasons which influence human activities since the beginning of human understanding is something people recognize and appreciate. It is for the same reason that we have our own calendar and like any ancient calendar it was based on the movement of the moon in its cycle. Ours is a lunar calendar and it is different from the Gregorian calendar in that the latter has an eight- day week. Otherwise there are twelve months in year in both Khasi and Pnar calendar.
Our society is very much influenced by western culture and celebrates the end of the 12 months Gregorian calendar year on the thirty-first of December. The first month of the year in the western calendar was named after the Greek god Janus; the god in the Greek pantheon which has two faces; one which looks forward and the other backwards. Perhaps the month was named after Janus because it is the time to look forward and look back as well.
Life is like a circle where the end always meets the beginning, or where there is no beginning and no end, because that is where the twain meets. In the Khasi calendar the first month is called Kyllalyngkot, maybe this has to do with the nights getting shorter (lyngkot) and the first month in the Pnar’s calendar is Duiatra, but the names of the two months prior to the first month are important. They are named as Khonchonglad (November) and Kmaichonglad (December). Chonglad in Pnar context means leisure time and ‘khon’ and ‘kmai’ in this context means little and big. The highlanders are famous for rice cultivation; in fact rice is their major crop, so the crop has much influence on the agrarian life of the people. And in rice cultivation, November and December are post harvest months when people tend to spend this time of the year leisurely before they resume to the cycle of ploughing, sowing and harvesting again.
Hence this is a very important time of the year, because it is both the end and the beginning. It is also the time when we try to look back before we move forward, be it at the personal level or at the societal level. It is the time to reflect and question ourselves and hope and plan for the next three hundred sixty six days of the year. If we look back at the state of affairs in Meghalaya, the Government did not give us any reason to cheer in the year was, but the glimmer of hope for the people of the State came from the other important democratic institution. The Shillong Times was right that the Hon’ble High Court passed many important judgments which gave the state some sense of direction in the area where both the legislative and the executive had failed us. In fact the entire year was marked by protests and agitations against the State Government which were the outcome of the High Court’s decisions, be it the Rangbah Shnong conundrum, the MUDA tangle or the still pending case of politicians occupying two offices of profits at the same time. The order of the court banning the media against publishing or carrying news about bandhs which had brought change in the way the pressure groups agitate or protest against the government’s apathy to their plight. More importantly it gave people respite from the bandh culture which had affected the state and which is welcomed by all.
Celebrating the coming of New Year will be meaningless if we do not relax, sit back and recall the past to plan for the future. Though there are many important landmark rulings by the court but there is still much to be desired. We witness the ever growing crime against women in the State, but we are yet to see the Court’s judgment giving due punishment to perpetrators of such crimes. We read of crime against women almost on a daily basis, but what about conviction? Is it wrong to say that it seems like the rate of conviction is negligible when compared with the numbers of crimes reported. Common people of the state are in a dilemma. We feel the pain of women whose modesty was outraged but we are yet to see a ray of hope on this imposing predicament which is a pall of gloom that envelopes the state.
There is a huge gap between the crimes reported and the conviction rate. Yet, in some court ruling on the crime against minor girls like the one passed by the fast track court of Jowai is confusing if not contradicting to a layman. In the case it was confirmed that the victim was a minor when she was raped and the culprit had also admitted in public that he had sex with the girl. In a lay person’s understanding this proves beyond doubt that a crime was committed against this minor. It was expected that the court would punish the rapist. Sadly that did not happen. In common parlance we can say that the rapist was instead allowed to go scot-free. I maybe wrong, but at least this particular case has reached the high court, so we hope it will shed some light on this case. Personally, I am afraid to think of the kind of precedent that we are setting here. One hopes that the court is much more stringent when passing orders in crimes against women so as to discourage men from involving in any such crimes which are growing by leaps and bounds. We hope the New Year will bring much respite to women who are awaiting justice for crimes committed against them. We also hope justice will prevail and not be prolonged any further. .
In the year that was, Dr Mukul Sangma has not been able to given the people of the state even grounds to hope and with the kind of government we have we don’t really know what to hope for in the New Year. The state government has failed on all fronts. The state of the Health Department which is one of the most important departments is in shambles. The trauma centre at Nongpoh CHC was not functioning and it was reported that Department of Atomic Energy found that the Cancer Wing at the Shillong Civil Hospital which was started since March 2011 is yet to function. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. A visit to the CHC, PHCs and Health Sub Centers in the rural areas will give one a true picture.
Most people would not have access to education, if we were to depend only on state run schools and colleges. Yet the education department has not been able to provide these government run schools and colleges, their basic needs. The case in point is the Kiang Nangbah Government College, Jowai, in which the students have to hit the streets to make their voices heard. The engineer-politicians and contractors nexus has provided the state with substandard roads which needs regular annual repairing. The department should be ashamed because in many cases public has to take upon themselves the responsibility of repairing roads.
The PHE department of Meghalaya is like the opposite of Midas. Every project the department handles remains incomplete for decades; be it the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme, the Jowai Water Supply from Wah Umngot, the Raliang and the Mynso water supply system et al. The list is not exhaustive.
And there is a nagging report purposely leaked to paint of a sorry state of the financial health of the state due to NGT ban on supply of coal from Meghalaya. But the question is: Isn’t it true the NGT has exempted the ban almost throughout the year. When the state is in such a situation it is difficult to see any hope in the coming year. Dr Sangma and his team need to work harder to give the people of Meghalaya at least some reason to hope.