By Patricia Mukhim
The life of the average citizen in Shillong is one of desperation, frustration, anger, worry and what have you. I am sure that if anything should shorten our life spans it would be the stress levels that rise like a thermometer inside a glass of hot water. Yet we citizens will not come out to the streets to protest the denial of our basic services which means clear roads on which to drive on, basic safety from thefts and mugging; the fear of being run over by speeding two-wheelers, if not a four-wheeler; the right to have lighted roads at night. Above all our right to drink clean, pure water!
Indeed, what is shocking is the recent survey of the safety and potability of our water systems. We have to thank the FKJGP for taking upon themselves the onus of getting the water from 44 localities tested for purity and safety. The results of the tests are frightening. The water we drink has Coliform and E. coli organisms, low pH, high turbidity, and excessive iron content in the unsafe localities. This certification comes from the State Food Testing Laboratory, Commissionerate of Food Safety. Only two localities were drinking relatively safe water. They are Demthring and Mawblei. It would be educative to understand why the above two localities have better drinking water. One reason could be that they are not dependent on the Greater Shillong Water Supply System that comes from Mawphlang. The River Umiew at Smit which is used for washing clothes, vehicles and what have you actually flows all the way to Mawphlang and the same water is being supplied to Shillong residents. So it’s no surprise that the water even has faecal matter in it.
We are reaching a dangerous stage in our ecological journey even as our water systems, rivers, streams are dying up essentially because sand mining is happening on a grand scale. The Khri river flowing towards Patharkhmah was once a pristine river. Now it is muggy and sluggish. All the rivers in Meghalaya are today in this same state. Unregulated quarrying has resulted in the destruction of our aquifers and even swift flowing rivers like the Umkhen are now reduced to a large drain carrying the sludge and septic tank discharge right from the military cantonments – Assam Regiment Centre, Gorkha Regiment and the local villages. The Elephant Falls so frequented by tourists carries the septic tank discharge of the Headquarters Eastern Air Command. Much has been spoken about these challenges but they remain unaddressed.
The reason why the problems in our state persist is because of the culture of silence. After the FKJGP report was published by all news media one expected a public outcry; a protest in front of the State Secretariat or gheraoing the Minister for PHE to take immediate action and ensure that the Department finds ways and means to deal with all the impurities that are being forced down our human systems. But other than discussing this horrific state of affairs at every gathering there is no public mobilisation. As usual we are experts at passing the buck and we will now depend on the FKJGP to organise a rally on this issue too. That’s how lazy and pathetic we have become as citizens.
We are hardly citizens of a democracy because if we genuinely understand that real power rests with us and not with the Government that rules over us then we would have used that power to hold the government accountable. After the report on the ugly state of our water system was published, the Government would not have been allowed to go about its duty with complete nonchalance in a ‘business as usual’ attitude. Chief Minister Conrad Sangma would not have attended a song and dance function at the City Centre because that’s dispensable. The CM would have been under pressure to call an urgent meeting on a matter of life and death for millions of citizens – the deprivation of their right to clean drinking water. But no, none of us felt the need to protest. We have become inured even at the prospect of being slowly poisoned by unclean drinking water. Those who can afford an Aquaguard or some other water filter would know that they cannot really filter out the iron content in the water. But what about large sections of the population that cannot afford a water filter and whose kids must be drinking this polluted water and getting sick with dysentery and diarrhoea all the time and perhaps even typhoid. Sometimes you wonder if the Government is trying to tell us “If you can’t drink tap water, buy bottled water.” But seriously we have come to the lowest point in our governance system and there is a total unconcern from the political class, knowing they can bribe their way back to their respective chairs once every five years.
It is disconcerting that education doesn’t really teach us democracy. Democratic politics is designed to be the politics of voice. While there is a certain value to silence it does not work in a milieu where politicians are half deaf and fully blind to their duties and the citizens largely uninformed. Participatory democracy means deliberative democracy which requires that we voice our concerns with the expectation that they will be addressed. It is Voice that organises us and binds us as a force to reckon with. Voice is a tool of empowerment and Speech is the paradigm of political agency.
Our democracy unfortunately is put on its head. In meeting after meeting and in every conceivable gathering it is the powerful elite that get to lecture and talk down to us. Aren’t these platforms meant to empower citizens to speak their hearts out and for the self-styled democratic monarchs to listen? Why must these servants of the people be allowed to spout their rhetoric and inanities to us day after day? Why are the voices of the masters of democracy – the people- invariably muted?
Today what we need is vocal citizenship. We need to voice out the things that steal our sleep and our peace of mind. When we gather together for a protest we realise we are not alone and that unity indeed is strength and that’s the only way to push the lethargic political and bureaucratic system into action. The ruling dispensation uses certain ploys to maintain power and that is by creating a dominant discourse where the views of those that think like the government are amplified while dissident views are excluded. This is how the MDA Government through its doles to a certain section of society has been able to silence those with the power to speak. Now it is the ordinary citizens that are excluded from this elite club that have to organise themselves into an entity that can no longer be taken for granted.
A protest is aimed at altering the status quo; to redefine the agenda and start a new debate. Initially the power holders will ignore the protestors but if the protest grows louder they will first create the narrative that the protestors are a needless public nuisance but finally they will be drawn into the debate and to listen to what the protestors are demanding.
Above all, in an electoral democracy protest provides an important platform for the minority groups too. Too often in an electoral system it is possible that the party/parties forming the government can become tyrannical and override the rights of minorities. Protests are one way of correcting this tyranny of the majority. In Meghalaya, we have never ever had a platform that brings citizens together irrespective of community. A public protest need not depend on an organisational call. Any citizen can and should be able to mobilise a protest on a genuine cause and expect other citizens to respond. The dependence on an organisational banner runs counter to democratic norms. It implies that those that don’t belong to an organisation cannot be part of the protest. It’s time to try out new methods of protest for our right to live with dignity in this State and in this hyper-pluralistic city of Shillong.