By Toki Blah
In the day to day life of the ordinary citizens of Meghalaya, especially those of the Khasi Jaintia Hills, a question lingers in the air. People ask, they wonder, they speculate and they worry about the role, function and responsibilities of our grassroot system of governance, the institution fondly known as the Dorbar Shnong. Our Dorbars have been identified as traditional institutions of grassroot governance, and therein lies the trouble. As indigenous people we have been discouraged, subtly dissuaded and deterred from asking too many uncomfortable questions about the efficacy and functioning of tradition. Tradition is a holy cow, something never to be questioned; to be delicately handled only by ordained priests such as third rate politicians, academicians from their scholarly ivory towers and power hungry office bearers of traditional bodies and by no one else. For others to raise the alarm, to evaluate and to criticise that tradition has been hijacked; usurped and becoming increasingly irrelevant is akin to blasphemy. Come to think of it, it’s time now for some serious blasphemous discussions on the subject.
The first question that comes to mind is what exactly, irrespective whether it is modern or traditional, is the role, duty and function of any grassroot institution? What are the basic and fundamental essentials of a Dorbar or a Panchayat for that matter? There is the claim that grassroot institutions are platforms where the purest form of democracy prevails! True, but if the institution itself is unclear about its primary role, mission and purpose of existence, then such a claim becomes tenuous and doubtful. Today this is exactly what is happening to our durbars and if the truth be said , they have lost focus. The mandate of Grassroot institutions like the Dorbar is to provide basic fundamental services to the community they serve. This system of service delivery is called governance. A question arises – are the durbars providing governance which is in tune with the needs of our times? Governance in traditional durbars of the Khasi Pnars was provided by male elders of the community led by a Tymen Shnong. In their traditional role in times gone by, village durbars provided governance to isolated villages and the governance needs of such habitations were few, limited perhaps only to issues of security and peace and tranquillity within the village. In the 21st century the services demanded from the dorbar have increased a hundred fold. They range from NOCs, supervision over development works, managing the water and transport systems of the community, preventing minor internal crimes within the shnong but the most challenging is providing equitable leadership and linkage to communities that view Govt and its agencies with suspicion and hostility. Having said this, let us admit that the dorbar instead of providing this vital bridge between community and the administration has for reasons unknown, decided to politicise the dorbar system and what it stands for. Today the Dorbar is spearheading confrontation with Govt. This has produced governance of confrontation instead of governance through cooperation. Needless to say, confusion is the outcome and the victim of such inequity, as always, is the common man.
One of the biggest handicaps that Meghalaya faces is the multiplicity of institutions of governance and the role they perceive for themselves. We have the Govt, the ADCs, the himas and now a mushrooming of apex bodies of durbars that call themselves Synjuks. The sad fact is that each and everyone of these institutions is focused on one and one issue only – how to garb themselves with political power! All of them of course vow that they exist for the interest of the common man. Nothing is further from the truth as each exist only for themselves and their vested interests! As such confrontation with each other is the main strategy to ensure survival. Look at the pointless quarrel between the Govt and the KHADC. Each exists because of the Constitution which has clearly defined their respective subjects (not territorial areas) that each entity is suppose to handle. Today the row is over who has jurisdiction over 6 Schedule areas and non schedule areas (essentially it is a question of territory). The battle cry has been over where the other side should or should not intrude. That there has been utter failure to perform as per mandate of the Constitution has been conveniently hidden from the public. All this stupid charade is then passed of as governance!
What ever might be the shortcomings of the current autumn session of the State Assembly, one or two issues of import that came out for discussion are (a) The silent invasion of drugs into our society, especially amongst our youth (b) the urgent need for civic Urban Governance and waste management systems in our societies. Our very existence as an urban community depends on it (c) the pressing need for Govt, ADCs, political parties and traditional institutions to come together; to identify themselves as social stakeholders and to act in unison to save Meghalaya society. How refreshing to note the realisation in the State Assembly that political posturing has not done any of us much good. None can dispute the urgency in addressing the above social needs on an emergent and participatory footing. One is therefore encouraged by this rare political vision displayed by our MLAs. This type of visionary leadership needs to be encouraged. The despair arises from the fact that none of the above social aliments flicker on the radar of our traditional bodies. Political millage through absurd demands such as exemption of Government servant Rangbah Shnongs from Govt service rules continue to dominate the traditional mindset. It is a non issue which at best is an ego problem of Rangbah Shnongs who work in Govt departments. What has it got to do with the welfare and wellbeing of the common man? What has it got to do with the future of my children? How does it help to bring about Good Governance in our shnongs? God only knows.
As raised in the Assembly discussions, most shnongs are faced with the silent invasion of drugs. It is a fact, a horrible fact that threatens the very fabric of our culture and way of life. The collective body of the durbars , the SNSBH, may prefer to turn a blind eye on the issue but fact is many individual durbars are affected by it and if the truth be told are scared witless, because it has pared no one. It is clear that the menace of drugs cannot be dealt by any single individual or by the dorbar alone. It demands a collective effort by all. There is this urgent call for coordinating our collective efforts to tackle the problem. The Dorbars need to coordinate their efforts with the police, with the district administration, with social welfare with the health department. The MLA, MDC, the Rangbah Shnong and religious leaders need to work together as a team. This is what society expects of them and they must not let society down.
It is the same on how we handle urban and civic governance. Everyone is seriously concerned over the civic deterioration of Shillong and other urban centres of Meghalaya. The Municipality has not been allowed to function but at the same time the 6th Schedule has failed to provide any alternate institution. In the meanwhile the state needs to come up with a workable waste management system. We need to come up with policies and plans on how to collect, transport and effectively dispose off our wastes. Working together offers a viable solution to our problems. It is the key. We need to reorient our institutions, be they the Dorbars, the Municipality, MUDA, the KHADC or the Urban Affairs Department. We need to reorient our focus and vision on the issue. The bureaucrats involved need to listen to the people, the people need to listen to reason and logic. Noises made from the Assembly and the Govt appear to be in favour of such a paradigm for the new century. It is the hope of this essay that the new Minister I/c Urban Affairs take charge of this singular aspect of urban governance and call, at the earliest, a joint meeting of all stakeholders to discuss the issue. Hopefully we can come up with a viable and workable proposal not only for this generation but for the next 90 years to come.