By Aristotle Lyngdoh
According to the Bible there was a time that the whole world spoke one language. And the advantage and potential of that unilateral language helped mankind at that time to nearly achieve the mission of building what is known as the Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel is nothing but a human celestial mission to reach God’s place. Seeing the potentiality of that mission, it prompted God to immediately act and destroy the plan simply by striking confusion in the language that they were speaking. But the question remains as to who brought down the Tower of Babel.
The recent language imbroglio within the State’s legislature has been criticized widely both inside and outside the State. The situation could have been prevented had the Honorable members of the August House displayed their stature of being people’s representative with higher standards and values. But unfortunately, their intentions are revealed and their credibility tested from the reaction and counter reaction on the language spoken rather than its contents. Such reaction has revealed their weaknesses and short comings. They failed to understand that the Governor of a State is a constitutional head and not an elected representative. He (the Governor) is vested with the power to summon the legislature of the state and address its first session. The bottom line here is that he has to address the House. The House on the other hand cannot start its business without a presidential address from the head of state. Hence, an address has to be made and delivered in some way or the other irrespective of any language spoken (provided that its contents are translated and circulated). This is a rule and a precedence of decorum. Why should we feel offended by the Governor speaking in an official language? This has made me to think about the pre-colonials days when the Khasis successfully made their conversation with the British. I strongly believe that the only medium of communication at that time was from English to Bengali (Sylheti) then to Khasi and vice versa. Probably those Khasis who were living at the borders were the main interpreters at that time. In fact we should not to be ashamed that most of our Khasi words and terminologies are also borrowed from other languages; most likely from the Bengali or Hindi, both of which are branches of Sanskrit. Personally, I do not see any controversy on the language of the speech because a speech is a speech but it is the contents therein that should matter a lot.
For the elected members, to react against the language of the speech rather than its contents show immaturity and foolishness. The Language Act has specifically stipulated that the associate language can be adopted at the district level only and not at the state level. So, who is breaking the law here? The Congress member (Ms. Ampareen) has reacted just because there is a saffron taste in the Governor’s speech. While for the KHNAM member Adelbert, it is a golden opportunity and a break-even for him to speak in the language or dialect that he is more fluent in and one in which he is less confused. But for Saleng to speak in Garo is purely another reaction against the two who have spoken in their own mother tongue (Khasi). Of course he is right in his own way to prove a point that language is a means for communicating; not for parading ego. Whatever be the reason, the fact is that all of them were trying to make their presence felt with infamous issues. There is nothing wrong in speaking in one’s own native language but when there is a third person who does not understand a bit of it, it is unwise to further continue in that language. But this is somehow exempted from the Marwaris who have to handle their business and trades wisely especially before the non-Marwaris customers.
Another thing that I want to remind is the types and section of communities that these representatives are representing in the State legislature. So far, the present representation is geographically based and covers a wide section of the society. Therefore, as representatives of all sections of the society, they should do equal justice to all members of the society or the electorate who have elected them. The state’s legislature is not like the floor of the United Nations where representation is multi-linguistic from all countries and nations of the world. If the representation in the legislature of our state has changed from geographical based to community based, then by that time I imagine that it will be quite an interesting atmosphere for then our state legislature will also have numerous local interpreters/ translators to carry out the business of the House. But by speaking in their own language both the legislators have committed an offence and insulted some section of their electorates who are either English or Hindi speaking. Here is another example of lawmakers who do not respect the law they have made and the pledge they have avowed while taking oath.
Coming back to the tower of Babel, literally, God did not destroy the Tower of Babel but the confusion and uproar occurred when everyone was speaking in a different tongue. This led to the collapse of the intended mission. The goal got diverted by another mission and that is of finding one’s own roots and similarity. From the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, it seems as if God is testing the attitude and intention of mankind on how to cope in the midst of diversity and ethnicity of languages and tribes. It is a clear lesson from this story that the enthusiasm and spirit of building anything remarkable will get distracted and shattered when those involved in it start to establish and project their own personal priorities first.
Looking at the general failure of the State on all fronts, this is purely due to the lack of accountability at every level of administration. All the employees and functionaries are doing their jobs without a sense of accountability to anybody. It is here that the legislature of the state has a vital role to play in extracting and demanding accountability from all its functionaries. Accountability for discharge of duties in appropriate and proper manner is still absent from the system. Employees are paid but productivity is not assessed and therefore progress and development are affected. For instance, time and again we have been talking about the state of affairs in the education system. There is a consensus that teachers especially at the primary level should be well trained. But as far as the future of small children is concerned, how can accountability be ensured in this teaching system in order to build a lifelong foundation.
When the concept of ‘Checks and Balances’ is absent from the entire political system, it is the Legislature that should straighten things up in the right direction. But that situation can happen only when our legislators are persons of high virtues and integrity.