By Avner Pariat
It should be obvious to people now that politics in Shillong is drawn along two hard lines – that of the Liberals and on the other side are the Conservatives. This is a simplistic generalisation, of course. We all have streaks of both sides in us. On some issues we might be Liberal while on others we might be deeply and rigidly Conservative. For instance, when it comes to enjoying vast quantities of alcohol we happily submit to it but we might be more Conservative to calls for democratic reforms within our respective churches. Such is society, a maelstrom of contentions and power dynamics, a mix of Right and Left. However in light of the latest disruptions to Law & Order, Peace & (occasional) Prosperity in our beloved capital I think it is important to take this time to ask the question – why do these things keep happening time and time again?
To this end I would like to propose an admittedly simple analysis regarding the dominant philosophical outlooks of the people here as I have encountered them thus far. In brief, these antagonisms manifest themselves into the real world because there is a wide and seemingly insurmountable ideological riff between the aforementioned groups. It would be useful if we attempted to characterize who are the Liberals and who are the Conservatives that I speak of. Again I concede that my analysis would be a non-exhaustive simplification so bear with me.
The readers of ‘The Shillong Times’ for the most part would fall into the Liberal camp. The types of opinions expressed herein, harping as they do on ideals of tolerance, humanism, personal liberty and individualism qualify the readership and contributors as such. This is also to a considerable extent a well-off set of people steeped in privilege and/or wealth. Most would have been educated in English medium schools (usually situated in the Laitumkhrah area) and many hold important government rank in addition. They are usually what we would call upper and upper-middle classes. They are at the vanguard of societal shift and they decide the nature of development in the state. And the place that all Liberals of Shillong throng to, the place most talked about – and disliked by the Conservatives – is Laitumkhrah. Or Laimu as it is affectionately called.
The antithesis of the Liberals are people of limited means, people whose first language is a vernacular dialect, people educated in (underfunded) local language schools and who are almost entirely dependent on their physical labour be it in contract-work, farming and other non-specialised and “unskilled” occupations. They have no political offices, they barely have any political agency, and they are still largely unaware of the vast political power they have, unlike the Liberal class. By popular depictions, it would seem all “Westside people” (especially from Mawlai) are herded into this category.
Liberals can’t seem to “get” these guys; they can’t seem to understand their motivations. Often times they cannot even engage nor interact with them directly in the local language and this has led to more gaps in communication; which in turn has sown seeds of enmity and friction! They are oftentimes referenced with disdain, derision, contempt. Their anger and complaints never seriously assessed and certainly never given the time and energy they deserve.As a child of both worlds – birthed and raised by both “West” and “East” (Mawlai and Laban & Laitumkhrah) – I would like to warn my beloved Liberals about one thing: a tsunami is coming and it will destroy our world. And, to be very honest, for most part we will deserve it.
We should never have attempted to defend the indefensible. For a very long time, we ignored the elitism and blatant corruption within our society. We justified it always in some way or form even if we did not profit from it ourselves. Here I want to say that I do not believe that the majority of our state’s people are corrupt but that we have let the corrupt minority dictate terms to us. We have been deafeningly silent on the rotten and unjust economic system which has been perpetuated on the overwhelming majority, which are the Conservatives. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to pay the piper!
The day we tolerated and normalized corruption is the day we allowed inequality to blossom. The rubbish – Liberals like to spout – about Meghalaya being an Egalitarian society, is no longer even remotely true. The Liberal propensity for self-delusion, for comfort over Truth was never ever what the Conservatives felt. They never believed it – never in its entirety – because it was at odds with their lived experience.
The systematic, ongoing theft perpetuated by the Liberal elites in the government – or those associated with it – have finally drained Meghalaya of its life. Come to Mawlai as my guest, go to Nongmynsong, go to Jhalupara, go anywhere! See how many people are struggling to make ends meet after decades of robbery and bankrupt governance. Please do not blame the Pandemic – it was a catalyst – but it was certainly not the root cause of their poverty and misery. For this, we must blame both Congress AND NPP governments. They are two sides of the same coin. And we bloody need a new coin.
When powerful Liberals kept shut because they did not want to stir trouble or to confront the crimes of their own class, they fostered economic disparity. Instead of asking legislators, and public figures, the difficult questions about accountability and transparency, about systemic overhauls, about how they planned to bring about economic justice, they chose to wait and watch for a magical Messiah to descend from the High Heavens to save them. Now that faithful decision – or faithless depending on how you see it – has in turn allowed numerous banned (and unbanned) extremist outfits to catapult themselves into the Conservative imagination. They have come in with the solutions which Liberals refused to give. And those solutions are quick-fix, violent and dangerous for everyone in our society. Including for the Conservatives themselves!
What is to be done then? It is clear that simply having peace meetings and conflict resolution seminars cannot be the only solution. We consistently need to perform such activities. We must engage and ask people to come forward. We must bring all sections together. Liberal and Conservative, tribal and non-tribal, Christian and non-Christian alike. We will never have a perfect solution but we can all agree, that peace is what we all desire. Once that is decided on, we must then turn our attentions to the real issue underpinning the strife, hatred and violence in our society and that is the lack of Justice, in particular Economic Justice.
We can no longer look away from what refuses to go away. We cannot pretend to not be aware of it for it for it is stinking up the air; it is poisoning us. To continue to be spineless to the issues of poverty, inequality and lack of Economic Justice is to tempt Fate. And Fate is very much at the ends of its patience with regards to Meghalaya. In closing, I want to remind you all of this (tragically) relevant quote by George Bernard Shaw from Major Barbara –
“The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty”
(The writer is Spokesperson, New Dawn a recently launched political party)