By H.H. Mohrmen
He was everything that we want in a politician: humble, sincere, hardworking, simple, and down to earth. He was praised not only by his friends and near and dear ones but even by his adversaries. Unfortunately, he died too soon, and most of us mourned the loss. He is a living example of what Kahlil Gibran had wished in his life when he said: “When I was born, I was the only one crying, but everybody around me laughed in joy and happiness. I want to live in such a way that when I die everybody around me will cry, while I smile my way to eternity.”
The Person I Knew
I had the opportunity to know him when Dr. Ricky A.J. Syngkon was a co-member of a committee of which I was a part; we later became friends. Dr. Ricky was an expert member of the RBI-mandated Board of Management (BOM) of the Jowai Cooperative Urban Bank for the year 2023–24. As a Professor at North Eastern Hill University, we were fortunate to have him as a member of the BOM.
I recall that he was very sincere in his work, and whenever he was unable to attend a meeting in person, he would even insist that we send him a link to enable him to join online. The advantage of technology was that he would join the meeting even while travelling to visit rural areas. Such was his dedication to the work entrusted to him. However, I have two stories that, in my opinion, define who Dr. Syngkon truly was.
After one meeting of the BOM in Jowai, he wanted to give me something, so I accompanied him to the car he was driving at the time. He opened the dickey of the car to collect the item he wanted to give me. When he opened it, I saw something unusual inside and could not help asking him what those items were for. He told me that he used those tools during his free time to conduct Bible classes in churches in rural areas. The items I saw inside the car were a whiteboard and a projector.
The second story is from after he had won the election to represent the people as a Member of Parliament of the Shillong Parliamentary Constituency. Along with some friends, we arranged to visit and congratulate him on his victory. He suggested that we come in the morning. We reached his residence at Nongsder, and he invited us into his kitchen. To our embarrassment, we were surprised to see that he himself prepared tea and toasted bread for all of us. We had our breakfast, and before we left, I told my friend that I could not and would not let him wash my cup and plate. He tried to prevent us from doing so, but we insisted and prevailed. We took the cutlery to the wash basin and washed all the cups and plates. These two stories tell me about his approach to work and his humility as a human being.
Politics Is a Dirty Game
Even today, people are skeptical about whether clean politics is really possible. They question whether an honest and upright person can join politics and maintain his or her integrity. Many of us have been fed with the notion that politics is dirty and that honest and upright people will not be able to withstand the test. Honest and upright people refuse to join politics for fear lest they will not be able to maintain their integrity and would succumb to pressure. People have a preconceived notion that if a good, honest person joins politics, they ultimately change once they become muddled in it.
Like me, there are many citizens of this great country who remain hopeless because their view of politics is shaped by the common saying that politics is a dirty game. My view of politics was shaped by Khushwant Singh in a joke that he wrote in one of his books. The joke goes that there was a father who had a five-year-old son, and he wanted to know what his son would become when he grew up. So he decided to put him to the test. One day he kept three things in the living room and said to himself, “My son will become the person associated with the item he touches first.” He kept a sacred book, a gun, and a bottle of liquor on the table and said, “If my son touches the holy book, he will become a priest; if he touches the gun, he will be a criminal; and if he touches the bottle of alcohol, he will be a drunkard.” The day came, and he ushered his son into the living room. The son was initially a little perplexed. Anyway, he took the holy book and put it under his arm; he took the gun and shoved it down his waist; and finally, he took the bottle of alcohol and drank from it. The father, who was watching his son from a secret corner, said to himself, “Damn! He is going to be a politician.”
With apologies to Khushwant Singh and the politicians, I am not saying that this is a general representation of all politicians. But I think I am also not wrong in saying that we all agree we have this notion that politics is not clean, or that those who are involved in politics are not honest.
How Is He Able to Touch So Many Lives?
Why did people connect with Dr Ricky Syngkon? The reason is that he was the opposite of almost all the politicians we see now. In a world where the goal of every politician is to accumulate wealth and drive the latest and most expensive vehicle available in the market, we had Bah Ricky, who rode a scooty even to attend official functions. In a world where every important person wishes to have a cavalcade of vehicles following him or her there was Dr. Ricky, who always travelled alone and whose only goal was to reach his destination on time. Or even the not-so-important people like relatives or supporters of politicians who wish to travel in a vehicle with tinted glass, a beacon light and blaring siren, we have Dr Syngkon who remains an ordinary person to the last.
One thing that is obvious is that Dr. Ricky was clear in his mind about the kind of politician he wanted to be—a politician led by his faith as a Christian. He wanted to be a politician with a difference, and he became one. This is a true example of a life defined by the religion he followed and, above all, guided by his faith in the Lord whom he so faithfully served. He lived a Christ-like life, and he served the people as he served his Master.
Is Clean Politics Possible?
In a world where a politicians main goal is to enrich themselves and their supporters and to usurp power to acquire a status that is not due to them, we often ask: Can a politician be clean, or is there such a thing as clean politics?
If there is any lesson that we learn from his life, it is the fact that Dr. Ricky showed us that it is possible to be a politician and remain truthful to one’s principles. Some may say that he was a politician by accident, but if we care to watch his videos, we would see that he was very clear in his intention that he joined politics to counter the popular narrative that politics is a dirty game. His humility was experienced by all those who had the chance to meet him, and this remained even after he became an MP. He did not have a PSO, nor did he require a guard to watch his house; as he said in one of his interviews, he placed his trust for his safety in the hands of God.
Dr. Ricky Syngkon’s short stint in politics is a testimony that a person can be both a politician and remain true to himself. He was indeed a model that a person can be clean and still remain an effective politician. In him, we saw how a politician led by strong and deep faith became a politician with a difference. Dr. Ricky’s political tenure, though brief, made him a role model of a clean and effective politician. We have many Christian politicians in our midst, but what made him stand out was that he lived by his faith, and the foundation of his politics was his faith. He is a shining example that clean politics is possible if we have honest and upright people with good intentions joining politics. But the important question is: how many leaders like Dr. Ricky A.J. Syngkon do we have in the state, and how many does VPP have?
