By Kyrsoibor Pyrtuh
The old year has slipped into eternity and the new begins, but we the people shall continue to strive and fight harder to achieve our dreams. I pray that we will be blessed with good health and more wisdom, while I call upon everyone not to shy away from engaging with each other with civility despite our razor-sharp differences. We cannot afford to alienate the other and the State and Community will not progress in an environment where one group tends to alienate the other and vice versa. In our march forward we reaffirm that truth and justice are our guiding principles.
We are the Community which continues to live in denial and this is self-damaging. The Society is in a state of flux and will something new come along and will there be any productivity in the State in 2023? The ancient sage, Ecclesiastes is not telling us to be content or complacent with the state of being when he uttered, “Is there a thing of which is said, ‘See this is new’?” It has already been in the ages before us.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10). Thus, S.J Samartha in his exposition of the teachings of Ecclesiastes wrote, “Repetitive actions help us grow. They provide continuity, stability and opportunities to grow whether in our personal lives or in our institutional existence. Tradition does have an important place in human life because it provides us with the ground work, the foundation, without which life would lose a sense of direction and orderliness.”
But the past years for us in Meghalaya have been the dry and dead valley. Critical thinking is dead and no new ideas have emerged in politics, economics and religion for that matter. In fact, innovative ideas and progressive ideology are being suppressed violently even before they are formed. A community cannot prolong its existence without ideas and innovations. What we have now is just a copy-cat or cut and paste version, whereas originality no longer matters and creativity is considered demonic. Our schools, colleges and universities are not engaging anymore and time may come that they will no longer be a place of learning and experimenting with new ideas. They will rather become temples for indoctrination and our children will be forced fed with a single story. Though such a time is not too distant when even local histories are no longer read and told if they are not popular nor accepted by the majority. Majoritarianism (both National and Local) is knocking at our doors and it will lord over our psyche and further lead to exploitation of the masses and the weak. The politics of majoritarianism thrives in the Society or State or Nation where people are suffering from economic hardships. On the contrary history had proven that majoritarian politics had never been able to alleviate the pains and bring solutions, rather it creates more discord and disillusionment in the long run.
Today fear is enslaving the Community. We the people are fearful of men and women who are corrupt and who abuse power. The threat to our lives and being comes from the powerful nexus between political-business classes and criminal elements who are usurping power like none before. Fear is destroying our potential and reduces life to nothingness. If there is any resolution to be taken this new year it is to overcome this fear and put a challenge against the menace of corruption and criminality in governance and politics.
Can the State of Meghalaya become productive this new year and in the near future? By looking at the various performance indices of the past year (s) it can be said in definitive terms that the present and the future are extremely tense. Let us recap the figures and research findings which are telling the lamentable conditions of our State. In the economic sphere, Meghalaya recorded a meager 2% growth rate and is the slowest in the country. The minimum wage paid to workers in the State is pretty low at Rs 381.00 as compared with Sikkim which pays workers at Rs 500.00 per day. Further in the Net State Domestic Product (NSPD) Meghalaya is ranked at the 30th position with the per capita income of Rs 82,182.00 and is amongst the five States with lowest per capita income in the Country. As per the research findings, in Shillong a family of four needs to earn Rs 20,000.00 to barely survive.
The health indicators also show Meghalaya as the worst performing State. According to the Government’s own report, “Stunting among children is 44%, anemia among pregnant women is 53.30%, both infant mortality and maternal mortality rates are alarming where infant deaths for every 1000 live births is 34 and Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births is 197.” (Social Welfare Department: Women and Child Development 2021). Health care has failed abysmally and besides other diseases, we the people are facing a huge challenge against cancer as Meghalaya is the highest in cancer prevalence and East Khasi Hills District recorded the second highest cancer incidence rate. Cancer causes not just untimely deaths, but also cost peoples’ earnings and livelihoods so dearly. Although cancer is treatable, but access to quality treatment is nil for the people in the State, excepting those who can afford treatment outside and regular Government employees whom the State reimburses fully for their treatment, whereas the rest are suffering for want of quality clinical treatment and support.
Sadly, those in power are always in denial mode that education in the State is rotting and will collapse sooner than we thought. In the recent past different groups of teachers were on the streets to protest against the ill treatment meted out to them, like the non-disbursement of salary, regularization of their employment et al. Has the Government arrived at the final and conclusive solution to these problems which seemed to be perennial in nature in Meghalaya? What if the Government had only done patch work just to appease the agitating teachers? So, in 2023 again the streets will be replenished with agitations and protests! We should also not forget that sundry NGOs and pressure groups are already on their toes to agitate for the fulfillment of their longstanding demands. We are gazing at the rough and turbulent road ahead. Therefore, it is vital for the people and communities to engage and deliberate and not to allow hate and targeted violence to distract us from the real issues, like poverty, unemployment, crimes, corruption, degeneration of environment and tribal land alienation etc.
In the social sphere, we are now divided by the high concrete walls (both symbolically and practically) and gone are the days when a neighborhood is an extended and inclusive family. Ten years ago, Kong Silverine Swer in her piece “Memories from the Umkhrah” lamented over the degeneration of an egalitarian society like ours and she cried out that those high walls have successfully managed to create strangers out of next-door neighbors. Alas! the high concrete walls also symbolize the divide between the haves and have-nots, the ruled and rulers. Those are the impenetrable walls that deny access to basic needs like food, shelter, clothing and water to majority of the population.
This is the election year and the election to the State Legislative Assembly is just two months away. Of late the entire State and Capital City was buzzing with festivals; many of them being election induced festivals where money and prizes are in abundance. I have nothing against festivities, but election induced festivities are problematic as they are organized for the specific purpose of grabbing votes and are meaningless since they are held only months or weeks before elections and once in five years. It is a huge wastage of public money with zero productivity.
This new year we are all praying for peace, but peace is a relative term and there can be neither peace nor hope without Truth and Justice. The State needs peace and development, but buying peoples’ votes with money or intimidation with physical violence or ostracization if they don’t vote for a particular party or individual (s) will never bring growth and progress. Rather this could push the State to complete break-down.
Wish all a blessed New Year
(Kyrsoibor Pyrtuh is an Independent Candidate from KAM Meghalaya, 17 North Shillong Constituency)