By Toki Blah
The 1960’s, that was the era of the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Drain-pipe trousers were just coming into fashion; Beatle style long hair a fashion statement by a dare devil few; girls were still in pigtails and buns, shrouded in their tapmohkhlieh – that now extinct Khasi woman’s cloak that so successfully concealed those exciting curves of womanhood from wondering teenage boyish eyes. The 60’s, when budding political dreams of self autonomy began to stir and awaken in every hearth and home of these hills. With the innocence of adolescence we had faith in ourselves; believed in the ability of those we trusted; and cheered those who would lead us to statehood. The universal cry of “No Hill State, No Rest” stirred the soul, filled our hearts and echoed over every hill and dale. The 70’s dawned and we got our Hill State. We proclaimed it as “a patch of beauty and grace, a shining outpost of India” and named it Meghalaya, for we are a people that love nature and the name symbolised the perfect blend of humans with their natural environment. For most of us who grew up with the heady Hill State movement, those hazy crazy days still burn bright in our souls, for in them was conceived our hope for the future. That was the Meghalaya some of us love to recall.
People of this generation will ask “What was so great about Meghalaya of the 70s that you old fogeys so love to recall?” Not much really but there was peace and tranquillity then. There was Hope in the air then and the present cloying air of depression was yet to set in. A sort of ‘Today is OK and so will tomorrow’ feeling prevailed. Can’t really describe it but that gentle breeze of tolerance for each other; respect for elders; and social security seemed part of everyday life. There were lesser schools and colleges then but both teachers and students were sure of their ability to give and receive quality education. Ailments, aches and pains were as common as they are today but strangely a tonic mixture from the local physician served as effectively as today’s Rs 500 prescribed drugs. The televisions was unknown yet leave alone smart-phones but people still managed to connect as a family, as friends and as a society. Family was then precious and people thought, spoke, acted and lived as family. I wonder whether all this still makes sense today but it’s what Meghalaya was 45 years ago.
We achieved statehood and began our tryst with our own destiny. We didn’t have much. People laugh when we say the highest paid then was Rs 1200 a month. They say it’s what they now make in an hour. We didn’t have much money but there were a bunch of leaders whom we had confidence in. Leadership then came in all shapes and sizes; from all sorts of backgrounds; but they all had one thing in common – character and the credibility to lead and inspire. The bar and its legal elite contributed the most to this pool of qualified leaders and not far behind were the academicians and other professionals. They were leaders with a mission; propelled by a vision. Strangely they had faith in themselves; led from the front and we followed. When election time came, we the public, financed their campaigns. Today we wail, “Where have all the leaders gone; Long time passing?” We sing in nostalgia for past leaders who could lead, because today our leaders choose to simply follow behind “ka sur u paidbah”(the voice of the people).
As the ‘Voice of the People’ resonates in our streets and our institutions of governance, a bizarre concept of democracy begins to emerge. Polls to our State Assembly show record of 60 – 70 % voting by the indigenous electorate. Fifty five out of sixty MLA seats are occupied by indigenous representatives and they inevitably form the Government of the day. People exercise their right to vote to get the government of their choice but the instant a government is formed, it is immediately perceived as an entity hostile to the interest of the every indigenous person who voted it to power! The interests of the government and its acts of governance are always at odds with the interests of the community. There’s only one explanation for this strange phenomenon. Votes are cast based not on vision, ability or ideology of the candidate. Candidates win not because of quality of character but because of some other consideration. Leaders of our political parties refer to this consideration as the ‘winnability’ factor. It simply means the ability to buy votes! The political system encourages this profanity. In practical political terms it means handing over power to people who are totally ignorant; unprepared and unfit to use it. They only know one thing- political power is to be used to feather their own nests by milking the public exchequer dry! Service to the community; the electorate and the state, furthest from their minds. There is a trust deficit between the leader and the community. The growing mistrust between the government and the public will therefore continue to grow.
As the search for credible political leadership continues to grow and as an indifferent, corrupt party based political system at State and Assembly level continues to offer cheap, unreliable and shoddy substitutes in its place, the frustration of the common man reaches a point of desperation. The only other constitutional institution capable of providing an alternative is the decrepit and non functional Autonomous District Council. Sadly however these too have been contaminated with party politics and ADC performance for the last 60 years is nothing to write home about. The people of Meghalaya are therefore denied even a Hobson’s Choice and politicians are fully aware of it. The people are trapped. In desperation the people turn to those milk and water organisations known as Traditional Institutions. These boast of traditional leadership qualities but in the end are, in reality, just another ‘neither here nor there’ NGO. In our desperate search for quality leadership we see potential leaders located at multilayered systems of governance. Unfortunately they all fail to deliver. In a manner of speaking, Meghalaya is spoilt for choice, as far as choice of leadership goes. On the other hand we just can’t come up with any. The paradox that is the Meghalaya of today!
Will effective leadership be forthcoming in the future? Will the 2018 polls produce this great desire of Meghalaya? It’s a question none can venture to predict. For the time being and as far as Meghalaya is concerned, quality and value based leadership appears to be a thing of the past. Even tradition seems to have abandoned it. On the rise is leadership of opportunity and the incidence of poverty (where lack of money is associated with poverty) is an opportunity too good to be missed. Crorepatis now form the majority of our representatives. Nothing wrong with wealth as long as it is not used to exploit and suppress people, but tragically that is what is happening in Meghalaya. The system has found that the poor can be bought. Maintaining or increasing levels of poverty then becomes a secret political agenda that cuts across all parties, since it sustains political patronage; the fertile ground for the type of political leadership we are currently experiencing.
So Meghalaya can perhaps claim that it has a leadership crisis. A crisis however should be seen from two different perspectives – either as a threat or as an opportunity. It all depends on how we approach our own crisis. History shows that a crisis in any society usually throws up leadership to free society from the calamity it finds itself in. For Meghalaya the calamity is twofold – firstly, too much dependence on leaders with only money and pretty little else to offer and secondly, our preoccupation and obsession with the past and so called tradition. Moneyed leaders have failed us. Let us also accept that leaders who only glorify the past with very little vision for the future have also let the state down. Our history and past is important to remember but tradition should only guide, it must never dictate the present and our future. If as a people we can rid ourselves of the two, the road to the future promises to be exciting and fulfilling. If not, the possibility of continued stagnation with all the frustration and anger it brings along, is more likely than not.