By Toki Blah
Elections to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly are due for next year, 2023. Keeping in vogue with the Covid virus the political parties of Meghalaya too are mutating into various variants of their own. Mutation within political parties however is mostly caused by a shortage of a basic nutrient called money. It is rumoured that as per the assessment of political pundits in Meghalaya, it is the NPP that has the dough (how they got it, from whom and who collected it for them, is perhaps a mystery that only coal that was never mined but transported itself nightly by ghostly trucks that don’t exist, can answer) but it is likely that more and more 2023 aspirants will be gravitating towards this party. The Congress is believed to have become dry as far as funds are concerned and many believe that this is the main cause for its sudden disintegration. The TMC is sending up trial balloons and of the so called Regional Parties the less said the better. They neither have the money, the appeal nor the zeal. So they shall continue the survival practice of picking up crumbs that fall from the table. What is obvious is that some party perhaps on its own or through a combination with other parties will form the next Govt. That much is clear. What is not clear and is a cause of major concern are the intentions and plan of action of this next Government. Will it continue with the tradition of the present MDA and continue to remain mute, indifferent and inert to the development needs of Meghalaya? Will the spree of looting and exploitation of Meghalaya’s natural resources carry on unabated?
As a common citizen of Meghalaya I fret and lose sleep over the fact that the politicians of our state have lost their sense of direction. Politicians and political parties are busy and more concerned about winning the next elections and forming the next Govt.
Their loyalties more to the party they belong than to the state they claim to represent. News headlines of both local English and vernacular papers are full of such bombastic claims and promises. I suppose this is being done both to attract the attention of the public as well as to boost morale and self confidence of the party. Nothing wrong in all this. Of concern however is the silence of parties as well as politically inclined individuals as to what they intend to do once they win and form the next Govt. There is the silence of the graveyard over this subject. 50 years of statehood and all our leaders can to is celebrate the event without even batting an eyelid on the growing profile of Meghalaya as a Failed State. So what are we celebrating about? The collapse of democracy? The disappearance of democratic norms and values? The erosion of traditional values and ethics? Please enlighten me for I really don’t know what the celebration is all about. As a citizen I would have accepted an acknowledgement of failure. We are mortals and to fail is just part of a learning process. I lose sleep when our elected leaders pretend and fail to accept reality; I fret when we celebrate 50 years of flawed governance without even expressing the need for introspection; I become anxious when elected representative and their parties are more concerned with winning than with providing the state with a vision for the future. Admitted that winning an election is desirable but winning is just a means to achieve an end, which is providing good governance to the electorate who have given you this electoral victory. This crucial aspect of parliamentary democracy seems to have been overlooked. Service to the state and the people no longer counts. Most shocking is the fact that the Govt is more than satisfied perhaps even eager for the Judiciary to intervene on issues of governance be it traffic regulation, saving our water bodies or investigating a crime of illegal mining apparently masterminded by some powerful being from within the bowels of the Secretariat. Now if the Judiciary is to do the work of the Executive, pray tell me why should I come out on election day to vote? It’s a fundamental question, not on the validity of the Representation of the Peoples Act; not on Judicial intervention, but simply because it no longer makes sense.
The usual ploy used to ensure that the facade of democratic setup is maintained is the call for the voter not to waste his vote and to come out on election day and exercise his right to elect the leader of his choice. It is acknowledged that casting of votes to elect a leader of ones choice is the corner stone of parliamentary democracy. Political parties are therefore set up, equipped with a visionary document called a party manifesto, to be placed before the electorate to help the voter make his choice. That is how the system is suppose to work. In Meghalaya a distorted and immoral version of the above has been in practice.
Manifestos are never made and even if they are its usually a cut and paste job which the candidate of the party is totally unfamiliar with or one that he contemptuously uses instead of toilet paper. Even coalition Govts refuse to come up with a common minimum programme. So much for a vison from the parties.
The electorate of the constituency is rarely consulted on the candidate of their choice. Instead someone from somewhere is brought in for the people to vote and the only credentials required of this someone is a bankroll to purchase votes. The process is adoringly termed the “winnability” factor which has for the last 30 years been solely responsible for the introduction of scoundrels, unscrupulous businessmen, certified idiots and worst, members of the coal mafia, persons directly responsible for the destruction of our fragile environment, into the hallowed hall of the Legislature. It has resulted in the election of public representatives who are megalomaniacs; who occupy an Assembly seat or a Cabinet Ministerial chair with the sole intention of pilfering the state exchequer to enhance his or her family business. So voters are supposed to come out on election day to vote for such people? Thank you but no thanks. I would rather stay home and read a book . That gives me greater pleasure than abetting a process of robbing my grandchildren of their future.
For the last fifty years perverted politics, lack of vision and a distorted governance has pulled the state from the pinnacles of glory it use to enjoy to the depths of despair it now finds itself. Meghalaya has too many institutions of governance, each waiting to trip the other. We have the government, the district councils and our traditional institutions. We have analysed the composition of the government and reasons why it fails to respond to the needs of the people. We have the Autonomous District Councils hanging like cancerous appendages that have contributed next to nothing to the well-being and development of the state but we lack the moral courage to advise the Centre to abolish these anomalies we inherited from Assam. Then come the traditional institutions, the Dorbars, still endowed with the respect and prestige from society, but unsure of their own legal status and confused with whom they should associate themselves with, the State government or the ADCs.
50 years after statehood and our systems of governance still in a state of flux and confusion. Into this murky arena of existence the Pressure Groups have jumped in with their own version and perception of the future of the jaitbynriew. They have nothing to offer but fear for the future and the demand for more protection to safeguard our minority status. I feel I too would like to put in my two pence worth of opinion. Many may not like what I have to say but it needs to be said. Unless Meghalaya immediately discards the perverted leadership we have adopted; unless we have a vision and roadmap for the next fifty years; unless we recognise that economic strength backed by quality education and Hope is our only lifeline to survival, unless we improve our systems of governance and unless we rediscover the value systems and principles of our forefathers, we are sunk. Another 50 years from now and we will disappear. ILP or no ILP we would be gone. The danger dear reader is not from without as we are led to believe but from within. Set our house in order and we shall be fine, we shall thrive , we shall prosper. Continue on the present course and we are bound to sink. Sorry the truth is always bitter but it has to be said and someone has to say it.
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