Editor,
Mr. HispreachingSon Shylla,who passed away on August 7 this month, has had a long innings of over 30 years in public service (1988-2020) during which he had held many public offices including that of Chief Executive Member of KHADC. In his political career, Bah Shylla had championed many public issues, the last being the contentious Khasi Social Custom of Lineage (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 which was passed by the Council during his brief second stint as CEM of KHADC.
My association with Bah Shylla began when he was the CEM of KHADC during 2004-08. I remember our meetings in his office in 2005, during which he requested me to explore new avenues of funding for the council. Shylla was very keen that the Council take up more developmental activities such as development of market infrastructure which would directly benefit the rural farming community of the state. Given the precarious financial position of the Council and its large committed expenditure, Shylla wanted to tap other sources of funding apart from the grants and shared revenue that the Council receives from the union and state governments. He wanted to find out whether it was possible for agencies such as NABARD to support rural development projects of the Council under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund and other such schemes. I remember discussing with him the possibility of securing soft loans for projects which could generate revenue to repay the loans.
This vision that Bah Shylla had for an enlarged developmental role for KHADC and his understanding that the Council needs to look beyond the available sources of finance is something that I have not seen in other leaders of the Council. The action that Bah Shylla took subsequent to our meetings truly set him apart. Not satisfied with my offer to provide him and the Council with informal advice, Bah Shylla got the executive committee to offer me an official appointment as a consultant to the KHADC with clear deliverable goals. All this was happening way back in 2005-06 when such practice of appointing development consultant in governments was not very popular unlike what we find today. It is another matter that I did not get the permission of my parent department to take up the offer of the Council, and the subsequent change of guard in the KHADC brought to an early end to this initiative of Bah Shylla. In all this, Bah Shylla was ahead of his time.
My association with KHADC did not end here. In 2013 I took a renowned Professor from IIT Mumbai to meet with an executive member of the council and discuss the possibility for initiation of a project on Preservation and Promotion of Khasi language through Language Technology involving the Center for Indian Language Technology, IITand KHADC. In spite of the keen interest of the Professor, who was doing all this because of his past connection with Shillong and his desire to contribute something to the people of the state, this project could not take off. I sometimes wonder whether this project would have had a positive outcome had someone like Bah Shylla been in office at that time as he would have definitely taken personal interest on something as unique as this.
On a Sunday in the month of May this year, when the state was under lockdown due to the Covid-19, I received a call from Bah Shylla requesting me to arrange for some clothing and other necessities of daily use for two frontline workers who were under quarantine and needed the items urgently as it was difficult for them to get it from their homes located far away from Shillong. Looking back, I’m disappointed that the situation in 2005 did not allow both of us to work together but I’m glad that atleast I was able to respond to the request of Bah Shylla which he had made on behalf of the two frontline workers.
May his soul rest in peace.
Yours etc.,
Sumarbin Umdor,
Via email
Education liberates
Editor,
Apropos the article ‘Mission Education : A Pending Project’ (ST Aug 14, 2020) by Shalabas Syiemlieh, there have been raging debates about the long-term benefits of education as a crime-prevention measure. Education, always has been, and always will be, the most effective way to combat adversity. Rather than making harsher laws to prevent children from making mistakes, we should encourage them to become productive members of society by providing them with free education and life-skills training.
In our society, most of the time, when issues of crime prevention are brought up, the first line of defense and retaliation is a reactive measure to a crime or a series of crimes. For instance, when looking at the increasing numbers of substance abusers in Meghalaya, the first method of response is often finding a way to toughen punishments and penalties to discourage substance abuse. When not finding ways for stricter punishments, the next focus goes towards finding ways to restrict access to such substances, another preventive measure that focuses on preventing the action, not the motivation behind the action.
By putting more focus on education and early childhood development measures, children will hopefully be less interested and less prone to committing crimes as they get older. A focus on education helps provide a more permanent solution to this problem, as the mentality of the potential perpetrator of such crimes has completely shifted due to their education and upbringing. It’s high time the state government understands that keeping children off the streets matters more than improving their labour market prospects and as it could also prevent the birth of slain criminals such as Fullmoon Dhar.
The article has also shed light on the mysterious world of the “Dark Web”. On the one hand, we see the rise in crime “on the streets” due to the many barriers children living in poverty face in accessing education, while on the other, we see educated, sharp and talented people misusing their skills in crime “off the streets” – on the internet. Although the original Sub7 has not been maintained since 2004, several similar hacking programs such as “Sub7Pro” and “Sub7Extended” are available for illegal sale on the Dark Web thereby posing a huge threat to governments, corporations and more so, the general public. As our country celebrates its 74th year of Independence, it’s time to change our policies on these issues. It’s now or never!
Yours etc.,
Malcolm Lyngdoh
Shillong – 14