Editor,
I am a keen reader of both Albert Thyrniang and Barnes Mawrie’s articles/letters since I know both of them. While Mawrie in his letter dated March 10 captioned “Fighting corruption- A losing battle”, seems to tell us readers and indeed the public of this state that we should all give up fighting corruption, his co-religionist and fellow priest Thyrniang stands on the premise of the Bible that evil in all its forms should be challenged. Thyrniang even mocked the prayer held before the swearing in at Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s home or wherever. Thyrniang’s stance is that religion should be kept completely out of politics which is what people who believe in the secular nature of this country are saying about the BJP. What’s good for Christians should be good for the BJP too right? And I completely agree with Albert Thyniang and his powerful articles. Mawrie’s articles/letters by comparison appear staid and compromising. And that’s not difficult to comprehend. Conrad Sangma iThios s a Catholic by faith and the stance taken by many in the Catholic Church is that Sangma is being unduly criticized because he is a Catholic whereas ministers from other denominations escape scrutiny.
This division among the Khasi-Jaintia community which is based on religion and religious denomination is also a very divisive factor apart from other divisions such as the rich and the poor today. The poor have only grown exponentially; the rich tribal elite which supports the Government are real winners and they take it all, as Abba says. The rich tribal elite belong to different Christian denominations and are regular church goers. I wonder what they really pray for or pray about when they are preying on what belongs to the poor in this State.
To have church leaders like Barnes Mawrie also implies that the Church is in collusion with the corrupt hence his plea that we cannot fight corruption so we should learn to live with it. I am not a Christian so I wonder if Christ preached that the rulers should be allowed to do whatever they like and that Christians should only be praying in their homes so that the leaders wake up from their sinful natures. It sounds so cool right? Keep praying at home quietly and when there is need to use the system do it. If priests and churches start calling out corruption then they may not enjoy the benefits that can accrue to their institutions. So it makes sense to run with the hare and hunt with the hound.
In this aspect I am grateful that we have an Albert Thyrniang who speaks his mind and speaks on behalf of the millions of poor people in this state who are and have been deprived of the benefits of governance for over fifty years now. My unqualified support therefore goes to the likes of Albert Thyrniang. May his tribe increase for they are what the Bible calls the, “the salt of the earth and the light of the world,” in the true sense.
Yours etc.,
Della Maris Kharkongor,
Via email
Online voting in advanced countries
Editor,
It is interesting to read the letter, “Online voting impossible” by W. Passah (ST, March 6, 2023). I do appreciate his viewpoints. Each individual has his/her own angle of looking at things. Brainstorming alone makes way for perfection.
However, I wish to add a couple more points in this subject. Firstly, everything is “dynamic” in this world. Sooner or later, tomorrow’s innovation will push away what we were used to until yesterday. We hardly find a REMINGTON typewriter being used anymore. Even in music players, the evolution happened so fast – starting from the gramophone and revolving record player to cassette players to Walkman to MP3 CD player and now the digital phase. A big transition within a short span of time — even Thomas Edition will be baffled if he looks down from heaven!
We must be ready to cope with the galloping pace of technological advances even as we shall be further overwhelmed with numerous facilities and conveniences which we can’t imagine now. So, as EVM has edged out ballot paper voting, it is not absolutely “improbable” that within a couple of decades, digital voting will replace EVMs in a big way. All flaws we believe that the EVM has would be fixed by then. Of course, every new thing is initially doubted and resisted. Didn’t many distrust computations by a “calculator” for many years initially? This is human nature.
Incidentally, Estonia was the pioneer country that introduced online voting way back in 2005, followed by Switzerland, Canada, the USA, and France for the local/municipal elections. Several states in Australia have embraced online voting for those with disabilities or sicknesses. I think it is not a bad idea, at least for those away from home.
Besides fingerprints, iris and OTP authentications, face recognition and artificial intelligence technology, which are already in an advanced stage, will undoubtedly enable us to fix the many shortcomings that we have now. What we now consider impossible MIGHT be quite possible in the near future. Of course, we can’t rule out some glitches, as hackers and cyber scamsters are also tiptoeing! But this does not mean that humans should remain static.
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali,
Shillong
Crime a social disease
Editor,
Murder rates have risen significantly in our state. The bodies of the victims are usually found to be mutilated indicating the cold- blooded nature of the murderer. Have we ever questioned what makes a person commit such heinous crimes? Studies have revealed that there is a strong association between crime and childhood experiences. One of the major risk factors that makes a person commit crimes is a disturbed childhood. Community medicine defines family as “the primary unit of society” and any problems faced by the society is termed as a social disease. Crime is a major social disease and our society is replete with many broken and problem families. A child growing up in an atmosphere where it is not provided with emotional safety and where his emotional and mental needs are not met has a higher risk of committing an offence. Such a child who has never felt emotionally secure grows up into an adult completely lacking empathy and in some cases they even develop paraphilias.
If we look back into the childhood of the serial killer John Gacy, we notice that he endured a difficult childhood with an alcoholic and physically abusive father and he was also exposed to sexual abuse. Jeffrey Dahmer, the Milwaukee cannibal had a similar history. I would therefore like to convey that it is our duty to fulfil and meet the emotional needs of our children just as we provide for them physically and financially even in adverse conditions. Health is a state of physical, mental and social well being therefore we must be aware and ensure that the children of our society are healthy in every aspect. Strange behaviours in children such as aggression, anxiety, anti-social behaviour, bed-wetting at an elementary school age etc must be picked up and diagnosed. Children are the future of our society. Are we raising future healthy adults or are we raising future Jeffrey Dahmers?
Yours etc.,
N. Lyngdoh,
Via email