By Avner Pariat
There are a lot of groups these days that run around trying to spread hate while professing love. This is as true for many political outfits as it is for the zealots within organised religions (these are intertwined in this country, mind you). They make me sad. I don’t know about you but I personally have no time for these hate games. They are pointless and never productive. No one gains from them. All that we will have left in the end is bitterness and “black” hearts. One of the main purveyors of this sort of ware in our time and place is the Right Wing zealot. There are so many things wrong with this type of person I do not know where to start. They claim all of Christianity as their own. They claim that theirs is the definitive answer to all of the questions of the world. They decry anyone who questions them as having a “perverted mindset”. I don’t know where this type of person has come from because I do not remember them being so popular and brazen in the years of my childhood. Maybe something new has slipped in between the floor-boards of our Church. Maybe they were always there, who knows.
In light of the troubles of the past weeks, many Right Wing zealots have taken to Facebook to defend the people who took part in the fight. I cannot defend or condemn anyone completely because none of the parties involved were entirely in the right. There is a line of compromise which is acceptable to all and that is what we must aim for. But this might not be good enough for the hardliners. My main issue of contention is how many of these people misuse the words of the Bible and Christ to justify their bigotry. That is unacceptable. They seem to forget that, firstly, Christ was non-violent because he used Love as a weapon. He was never a bigot. Also he was a great believer in dialogue (Jesus is always portrayed as a great talker) which is why he never had the need to cast stones (or tear gas) upon people. I only need press forward these points.
Everyone seems to take so much pride in their ability to attend Sunday service or their contributions towards Church work but there is something very important that is missing: the responsibility of a Christian. The Bible and in particular Christ’s teachings insist that Christian help others even if they belong to a different group (from the Good Samaritan), that the Christian condemns violence (Simon Peter was chastised for cutting Malchus’ ear), that the Christian is calm and collected in spite of raging storms. I do not think that having these qualities will diminish us in any way. In fact, as a “tribe” facing the Modern world, these are absolutely vital if we are to continue into the future from strength to strength. We need not be scared of anything, we can be the masters of our own destinies. Sitting down and resolving issues over the table, with purpose and aim, is the only way out of this and other maelstroms. Then I am quite sure that we will see problems as clear as the light of day, we will see solutions and not abstractions. We will be able to look deeply into the eyes of the hiding politicians and businessmen who are the ones responsible for sowing discontent and they will tremble at the calm and cool countenance we face them with.
That we need dialogue is very clear now more than ever. No one is listening to each other. “Dkhars” do not listen to Khasis, government does not listen to people and so on. We need to stop this downward spiral and in this situation it is the role of Authority to step in and lead the way. A good example of this is the recent incident in Jowai on the 5th of June. An altercation between a local person and a non-tribal brought Iawmusiang to a halt for a few hours. Tempers were running high after the tense situation involving Them Metor and it could have led to a disastrous series of events. But thankfully, the authorities (police) within the marketplace were quick to dispel with the problem. Kudos. This is positive interaction, this is how matters should be resolved. The case was investigated properly, the culprit accosted, life went back to normal. Why must it take curfews and brutality to teach us this?
Government and traditional institutions need to be more pro-active on all fronts. Programmes need to be designed that can further the goal of prosperity through peace because one cannot live without the other. I recently argued for the government to channel money into “bridging” programmes between communities. Some might fear that these will lead to come sort of erosion of own distinct identity. I beg to differ. If we empower our own communities, no amount of exchange will degrade our bonds. We must take, as we have taken in the past, certain aspects (skills, knowledge) from the non-tribal. We need to also teach them a thing or two for sure. We are all in this together in spite of what hardliners say. In the end, it is we as a tribe that will benefit. But we must be rational; we must deal with issues through policy not petrol (cocktails). Equipping all our people for the 21st century is the main task now because whether we want it or not the world is coming through to us in a myriad of ways. “Dkhars” are just a more visible and perhaps more immediate concern. But our task as young people is to ensure that our own enterprises, businesses, even ideas and writing can withstand the crucible of domestic and (later on) international competitive rigour. The world, my dear friends, is much, much, much bigger than Them Metor.
In closing, I must write a few words with regards to the constant stream of messages and forwards I have got in the last few days vilifying Patricia Mukhim. Now I might expose myself in resisting these as a “liberal pervert” but I don’t care frankly. It is alright if we disagree with Patricia Mukhim, it is fine if we are offended by her apparent lack of empathy for the Khasi people, or if we are annoyed that she has certain perspectives which we do not share. That is fine. But why must we attack her on a personal level for them? Patricia Mukhim and I have disagreed on a thousand and one things, we have even lost our tempers a number of times. I accuse her of being too Liberal, she accuses me of being a renegade. We do not share the same beliefs (how boring would that be) but I have never called her a “cannibal” (I hope not!), a “whore” or other derogatory terms. I have critiqued her words but never went after her character or conduct. Some people have written long boring rants about why she is wrong and that is nice to see but they tarnish their own reputation and work by lowering themselves, time and again, to personal assaults. Again I must insist: be rational, stay calm, write, edit. It is well and good to have your work shared on Facebook and be gloated by it. However ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ are trendy, they disappear over a day or two. If we are serious about our craft, we work at and aim for a higher standard!