By Patricia Mukhim
The number of aspiring politicians has grown by the day. Sitting MLAs and the wannabe variety are all geared up to join this or that party. The churning is akin to blending something in a mixer. Soon we will lose count of who has joined which party; who could not get tickets from which party and the new party that he/she has joined. It’s a confusing scenario. Naturally voters too cannot be blamed for being totally confused as to which button to press on, inside that sacred booth where only they and their emotions talk with each other and argue about who to vote for. It’s pretty much like watching a movie where an actor faces the mirror and sees another vision of himself there who’s accusing him of many character flaws he was unaware of. I guess that’s conscience speaking. Alas! During elections, the conscience goes on a holiday and emotions take over our being…all of us, including the so-called intellectuals and the rationalists who believe they think and vote with their minds and reason.
The book, “The Political Brain” by clinical psychologist and political strategist (a deadly combination by any standards), Drew Westen, speaks of the futility of appealing to voters on the basis of issues. Westen concludes that the vision of mind that has captured the imagination of philosophers, cognitive scientists, economists and political scientists since the 18th century – a dispassionate mind that makes decisions by weighing the evidence and reasoning to the most valid conclusion – bears no relation to how the mind and brain actually work. When campaign strategists start from this vision of their mind, their candidates typically lose. In short, Westen concludes that politicians by and large have no long- term vision. They focus on the immediate because that’s what people remember and they don’t have to wrack their brains too much to imagine a future they don’t know or a past they want to leave behind. What matters to voters therefore is the here and now. So why blame politicians for not having a vision when that envisioning is not going to win them votes.
In recent times we have been reading a lot about the garbage strewn all over Jowai for want of a dumping ground (respectfully referred to as a landfill). By all counts if people were to use their rational minds, then the present MLA of the area Wailadmiki Shylla will not win the 2023 elections. But ask anyone privately and they will say, “But what can the MLA do when people are not ready to give land for a landfill?” People forget that the Urban Affairs Minister, Sniawbhalang Dhar whose remit it is to find the landfill is from the same party as Shylla – the NPP and the two are related. Hence the MLA has not been heard to be aggressively tackling the garbage issue because he would otherwise embarrass his boss and the man behind his winning the last election. For now, the Jowai garbage problem seems to have a quick-fix solution – bury it in an abandoned mine. But at what cost to the environment? Sure the garbage will be filled and then what happens to the water bodies surrounding that place thereafter? The decomposed garbage is sure to leach into water bodies.
That said, let’s gird our loins and check out what are the sexy issues before the rational and thinking people of Meghalaya.
Issue 1. Corruption in high places. Does it matter? Of course, it does but who cares? If corruption was an issue then how come political aspirants want to join the NPP which is driving the MDA Government which has been responsible for illegal transportation of coal and which is ongoing even today. People who visited Garo Hills recently said they saw trucks being loaded with coal at Rongjeng. They were too scared to take pictures though.
Issue 2: Health – maternal and infant deaths, women’s anemia, lack of health facilities in the rural, unreached areas. No properly equipped cancer treatment centre in Government hospitals. Do these issues matter? They may do so for academicians who read the stark statistics provided by NITI Aayog or National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and for the thinking, rational class but not for the large majority of voters. Not even women themselves. At the end they vote for the person who diverts their mind away from these issues because they are too grim to cogitate on.
Issue3: Education: Teachers’ salaries unpaid for several months. Their other demands such as integrating them into a single deficit system remains unmet. Teachers have to hit the streets to demand their rights. Quality of education in rural areas is questionable. Quality of textbooks prescribed by MBOSE are decrepit. But are these issues going to influence voters at the polling booth? The only people who care for the above issues are the teachers themselves. The rest of the voting population will vote the way their hearts dictate.
Issue 4: Roads and bridges: Most parts of rural Meghalaya are without motorable roads. Farmers carting products to the market have to grin and bear. Most of their products rot for want of connectivity. Pregnant women deliver inside ambulances or taxis. The sick are half dead by the time they reach hospitals. Does this issue matter? Yes, it does to the people living in those godforsaken areas but when they go to vote they don’t do it en-bloc. They vote based on their closeness to the candidate; its payback time because the candidate helped them during a bereavement or helped them buy school books and uniforms for their kids or paid their hospital bills. Emotions will overflow and that will decide which way the election cookie crumbles.
Issue 4: Agriculture: Farmers are largely the affected constituents. What they should be demanding are processing units, cold storages, marketing facilities initiated by the government, crop insurance in view of freak weather conditions. Livestock rearing is still a risky zone because of the lack of insurance and also the technical know-how to deal with immediate problems such as animal flu/bird flu etc. This issue matters a lot to rural Meghalaya but here too farmers don’t vote as a constituency. They vote as individuals because farmers don’t sit to discuss issues before elections. Even the Farmers’ Union is unable to make the farmer’s issues important enough during elections. Result? Farmers vote as individuals; to each his own. And then after a Government is formed, farmers will realise they defeated their own purpose.
Issue 5: Environment: Does anyone care enough about the Lukha and Lunar Rivers even in Jaintia Hills? Who cares about the Wah Umkhrah or Wah Umshyrpi in Shillong? Have these rivers ever become election issues? Has garbage collection and management ever been an issue in the Greater Shillong constituencies? Does tree felling in the Garo Hills, Jaintia Hills, East and West Khasi Hills been a matter of concern for anyone? No, we see trucks carrying logs that are a few inches in girth. We only gasp in horror, gossip about it, put it up on social media, get comments galore and that’s the end of the story. Illegal coal mining with its hazardous consequences has never been a serious enough issue. Hence the likes of Sniawbhalang Dhar who continually plead that rat hole, coal mining is an age-old tradition in Meghalaya will continue to be re-elected because no one really cares enough to want to stop illegal coal mining. Do people living beyond East Jaintia Hills empathise with the residents of Sutnga Elaka who breathe polluted air due to coke units? No, in the end we all vote for selfish reasons.
Issue we are likely to vote for en-masse: Since as Drew Westen says, people vote with their hearts and not with their heads so the issues that trigger our emotions are those that make up the lyrics of election songs and phawar ( chants). Those will be about “Jaitbynriew ha tmier riat” (the people perched on a cliff – cliffhanger literally. But they have been on that cliff for 50 years now without the fear of falling or the hope of rising). Emotions will be kindled around the issue of the “jaitbynriew” which is under threat of being subsumed by the non-tribals who have taken away everything that belongs to us – our land (How with the Land Transfer Act in place?) Oh yes, they do it by marrying tribal/Khasi women. So let’s pass a law to disenfranchise all Khasi women marrying non-tribals and their children too. Yes, that makes a perfect emotional election appeal. And this will win votes. This is also what’s happening in the country at the moment. The majority Hindu community is feeling acutely threatened by the minority Muslims and Christians.
This is how politicians in Meghalaya have won elections and will continue to win the 2023 elections. This is how the people of Meghalaya have been defeated for 50 years and stuck in a rut. We sign our own death sentence. After all, no one puts a gun on our heads while we vote. Its free will and we sign up for being where we are today.
As for voting for a ‘Change,’ forget it; we love the status quo. Tye more things change the more they remain the same. Long Live the Jaidbynriew!