By Janet Hujon
Meghalaya to me is like a crime scene where the murder has already been solved. We know why, how, when and we know who. Elementary, my dear Watson – yet, despite all this overwhelming evidence, those who should are unwilling to pass judgement on the criminals. This begs the next question – why? The obvious answers: greed and mutual profit, thus ensuring connivance and silence. So we have looting, gagging, fatal shootings, the still-unexplained death of an honest policeman, forgotten deaths in coal mines, a wrecked environment and shamefully so much more.
In the UK, Prime Ministers Johnson and Sunak are fined for much less – attending illegal parties and not using a seat belt – schoolboy delinquencies in comparison. Yet to add insult to injury our helmetless so-called leaders merrily ride pillion through our streets because, emboldened by having escaped punishment for far graver crimes, they know no one will complain now. Tragically, however, what their open defiance of the law clearly tells us is what we the voters have become – completely impotent. We no longer protest. We accept the status quo and let them ride roughshod over us. But in a few days we will be given the power to make a moral comeback and grab that power we must.
Disgust and disillusionment are understandable responses to any prolonged exposure to stomach-churning politicking. But inaction by staying away from the ballot box isn’t helpful either, especially if those who wish to abstain are decent, honest people. Now, more than ever, they have to show what decency and honesty means by swelling the numbers of those voting for good. For posterity’s sake, restore the old laws. To be Pontius Pilates at this critical juncture in Meghalaya’s destiny is as much a cop-out now as it ever was.
The age-old lament that ‘all politicians are the same’ may be true, but it is only so because by not exercising our rights at the ballot box, we are guaranteeing that the same corrupt candidates, bolstered by their donors and vote-banks, are re-elected. We can harangue legislators all we like for corruption, but aren’t we equally to blame for not supporting a worthy candidate and then leaving the door open for those who cynically keep poor people poor. With lives blighted by landlessness, hunger, basic medical care and education, the poor readily accept cash incentives for votes – moral niceties play little part in a life dogged by need and deprivation. Compared to their circumstances, water shortages, electricity outages, potholed roads in Shillong seem mere inconveniences – not that medical and educational amenities are easily accessible in the city either.
The majority of deprived communities live in the villages, and unfortunately the Khasi word for those who live in villages – ‘nongkyndong’ – is loaded with condescension. The word means those who inhabit corners, those on the fringes not fortunate enough to live in thriving urban centres. The word implies being unnoticed, forgotten, poor, sans progress – although what progress means today in Meghalaya is not exactly uplifting, for it has solely come to mean the accumulation of unimaginable wealth to impress. Sadly, many, nongkyndong or not, are impressed. Meghalaya’s government is clearly of the wealthy, by the wealthy and for the wealthy.
What a crying shame that this disdainful government ignores her own and invites experts from outside the state to whom they pay colossal sums of money. If only that money had been channeled into supporting our own, it would have been twice blessed – blessing both people and the environment, affording respect to both. Indigenous people are repositories of wisdom, and not a trophy to be touted by politicians keen to bolster their own grassroots credentials. But then our government knows not the meaning of respect because it supports unthinking arse-licking subservience.
(To see the part money plays in public life in Meghalaya go back to Pink Floyd’s 1973 hit ‘Money’ – uncannily accurate. https://www.google.com/search?q=pink+floyd+money+lyrics&oq=Pink+Floyd+Money+Lyrics&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0i13i512l2j0i22i30i625l2j69i60l3.11364j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
In contrast ponder over this insight: The man to whom little is not enough will not benefit from more. – Columbanus)
Even if we leave the uber-wealthy aside, there are also the comfortable and the complacent. After all, when your own comfort is guaranteed, what positive part can any legislator play in your life? ‘Don’t need them because I’m all right, Jack’ –a myopic view that prolongs the agony of those who have suffered enough who will only be further exploited by their occasionally generous masters. Political exploitation depends on voter apathy and has led to the same end – a state economically, financially and morally in tatters.
Into this vacuum created by an indifferent electorate enters the populist and obviously popular politician who assumes with ease the best performing role of caring candidate. S/he who champions local causes, woos the ordinary people, the marginalized, the minorities – all of whom feel grateful to have a listening ear, especially within the context of Meghalaya’s communal, divisive politics. While there is nothing wrong with addressing neglected issues, it would be wise to check for signs of opportunism parading as compassionate politics. Behind the façade of geniality, check for signs of stealthy gains and flattery. Is the candidate really selfless? Ask yourself who is manipulating whom and for what reason.
It is therefore refreshing and hopeful to see the new crowd-funded parties – VPP and KAM – equipped only with idealism, passion, revulsion for blatant theft and a yearning for the restoration of a government for all the people. But once again presented with relative unknowns, there is voter hesitancy. Can one really vote for activists who champion ills lurking in Meghalaya’s underbelly? Why focus on topics that are not exactly pretty and that mar the image of a happy-go-lucky state with its tamashas, festivals and rock concerts aimed to boost the government’s flagship cause – tourism. Moreover, in a society venerating the virtues of discretion and reservation, aligning with the outspoken risks ridicule and scorn and even ostracism in certain circles. Strange, because in any ethical universe, those who speak up for the powerless and the voiceless would have been hailed as heroes and saints. Think Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Oscar Romero. Ironic, too, because for years now the good people of Meghalaya have rightly denounced successive uncaring governments. Yet, where is the round of applause for those who care and want to help the helpless – who, whether you like it or not, are also part of Meghalaya.
So is there hope? If you can bear to listen to some of the speeches before switching off from sheer boredom, I wonder who you would be persuaded by. Pots calling kettles black, scripted speeches that fall flat, justifications for party-hopping, liberal use of abstract phrases like corruption-free, development, connectivity, education – all of which these very same people have rendered meaningless, slogans they think sound modern and progressive, like ‘women/youth empowerment.’ Then there are the saccharine appeals to voters delivered with feigned humility, fawning references to the Centre (just in case)… And surprise, surprise, it is the self-serving incumbents who promise to serve the people and deliver a corruption-free government. Surely they should have been doing this all along. So, if you want to puke, do so now.
In 1947, India gained independence from a foreign power and gave her people the opportunity to stand with moral pride amongst world powers. It is now time for our own independence movement to give ourselves an identity that is not that of being the most corrupt state in the country.