By Patricia Mukhim
Elections not only raise a lot of dust. There is also a lot of noise. And now that people use their smart-phones smartly all election speeches are recorded and circulated. So recently there was this case of an NPP candidate who had convened an election meeting where the number of food packets ran short. The man (later he clarified that it was in jest) told those who did not get the food packets to go and have liquor instead. It seems that too many people in Meghalaya are enticed by elections and are willing to forego a day’s work just to attend an election meeting. Its either that or they have no work at all – nothing to do so they just attend one election rally after another. The quest for freebies as Toki Blah said on Meghalaya Day over Radio Mirchi, has entered our lifeblood and cancelled out all sense of reason and shame. Let’s stop calling ourselves, “Ka jaidbynriew tip briew tip Blei,” (a community that recognises humanity before it recognises God) because we are no longer that. It’s just a carefully cultivated myth that we have designed to define ourselves to the outsider. If we were touched by flashes of conscience why would we elect those who have abused democracy and turned public money into their own personal money through the MLA scheme? Think!
And about noise, well, I am reminded of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence.” Paul Simon says, “Hello darkness my old friend/ I’ve come to talk with you again/ because a vision softly speaking/ left its seeds while I was sleeping/and the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains/within the sounds of silence. Like Simon we all have visions of Meghalaya planted in our brains but articulating that vision means giving up our comfort zones and walking alone. And who wants to walk alone in this close knit tribal society? We are so afraid of being castigated by our relatives and clan members as being too vocal about things we cannot change. “Why don’t you just shut up and keep quiet like all of us instead of standing out like a sore thumb and always questioning the government? What if you need a favour? Who will you go to? And in any case how do you change the stubborn mindsets of people? You are just setting yourself up for depression!” I have heard my near and dear ones tell me.
And then I think of the next verse of this song….”And in the naked light I saw/Ten thousand people, maybe more/ People talking without speaking/ People hearing without listening/People writing songs that voices never share/ And no one dared/ Disturb the sound of silence. So yes there are thousands of people hearing election speeches without actually listening to what is being said because listening is painful. Listening to lies and lumping them is what the hoi-polloi have learned is democracy. What is said does not matter to their lives. Those who talk are people who don’t mean what they say, so why should anyone listen? Listening involves the heart, the mind and the emotions. When you listen to someone you respond either negatively or positively. Listening hurts but when you just hear, it slides off your ear drums into nothingness. So people continue to hear without listening just to allow their ear drums some exercise but they keep quiet because it is safer not to ask questions or to break that stunning, piercing silence about the issues that hit them really bad. The issue of their gnawing poverty; their joblessness; their having to drop out of school because parents are unable to pay their school fees! I know how it feels because I was once sent home for not being able to pay the school fees in Auxilium Convent! That’s something one can never forget.
And then the last verse… And the people bowed and prayed/To the neon god they made/ And the sign flashed out its warning/ In the words that it was forming/ And the sign says the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls/And tenement halls/And whispered in the sounds of silence.
The Khasis, who are never short on catch-phrases call politicians, “Ki lei san snem” (the five-year gods) and how appropriate that is. Some of us literally worship the ground that politicians walk on simply because they attended a funeral of a family member and even provided the wherewithal (money, water tanks, rice bags) to meet the exigency. “How can we ever repay her except to give her our votes? After all, how much is a vote worth? And the MLA will continue to help us in the future too! And who are we to judge; why should we judge? Aren’t they all the same anyway? At least our MLA gives money to the poor; to those who have to pay hospital bills or buy school books for the kids, even if that is stolen money. And who does not steal in this day and age?” That’s the basis of our voting behaviour, isn’t it?
So yes the sign has flashed out its warning in the form of the Socio-Economic-Caste Census 2011 which points out that 76% of rural Meghalaya is landless. Like a fool I have been writing about the seriousness of this issue again and again. I spoke to a leader of a political party about this troubling statistic which even the United Nations has taken cognizance of but he evidently has not seen it. Then he says, “It must be wrong Kong. It cannot happen in Garo Hills because the Maharis and the Nokmas are very vigilant about anyone taking over the land of the poor.” So fine! It means Garo Hills is not where landlessness in Meghalaya is prevailing. But in West Khasi Hills landlessness is rampant and this is borne out by an IFAD study conducted in 2002-03. The 2011 Socio-Economic-Caste survey has only endorsed that finding. Some politicians I spoke to have said that the 2011 Survey must be wrong and the meaning of landlessness has to be more nuanced and better defined. That’s called “living in denial” because accepting the truth of the matter is uncomfortable. Why? Because those who own land in rural Meghalaya are the elite from the city! They include politicians and bureaucrats who have already done prospective buying. So let’s all deny this fact. If we do it long enough and sit through it in silence it might just go away.
Hence the prophetic words of the 2011 census are willfully ignored. But can our politicians put their hands on their hearts and say, “This Survey has got it all wrong. The State of Meghalaya has a more correct Survey.” So where is that counter survey from the State of Meghalaya? Until we have another Survey the 2011 National Survey stands. Economist Veronica Pala and Walter Fernandes in a well researched book, “The Development Dilemma: Displacement in Meghalaya 1947-2010,” have clearly pointed out that the Meghalaya Government does not even have a record of how much land it owns. For purely selfish reasons some politicians of Meghalaya have not allowed a cadastral survey to be carried out. So we don’t actually know how much land Meghalaya owns vis-à-vis Assam from where the state was carved out. And now no one wants a cadastral survey because we might discover how much land is owned by whom. If that information comes to the public domain then we will have a war in our hands.
A Government that believes in serving a public cause and is concerned about livelihoods and entrepreneurship should have first ensured that people have land on which to farm and are not bonded labourers. And if people have become landless then the remit of the Government is to introduce land reforms at the earliest! But of course no Government has the political courage to upset the apple cart since politicians will be the worst affected by such legislation.
So yes the words of the prophet and many prophets warn us of the impending doom of this growing poverty and landlessness. But who wants to listen? Silence is better, no? For now politicians and the public are shutting their ears to the unsexy statistics because it is unnerving. And we will continue to vote for the status quo because that does not disturb anyone. We are all happy with the Sounds of Silence….Let’s Vote for Money for now. What else do we have to vote for? We can’t possibly demand good candidates. And what does ‘good’ mean anyway? The Legislature has ceased to be a Hall of Fame. It is now a Hall of Infamy and Dishonour. Happy Voting! For now we are better off worshipping the neon gods we have created.