By Gregory Shullai
We have finally learned better. We have become more mature in dealing with our politicians. The result is finally what is of consequence and we have the result-and that is what matters now. The formula of our happiness must follow the principal of a “Yes” or a’ “No,” and in the present context, for many there is a sense of happiness at the result; a yes at bringing home the Voice of The Peoples Party (VPP). The people have found their spot of sunshine, a relaxation and an escape from having to accept what is and what has been forced upon them all these years. Perhaps also a hope to get back to the old ways. And were the old ways sounded out at the rallies during the campaign trail? Again, it’s a big yes. There is a need for us to be just in our criticisms and support for what has happened. No one wants to be untrue to oneself so we must speak out what it is we object to and what it is we hope for. Coming to power is normally a costly business not only in a monetary sense but in a more conscientious way because one can become foolish, corrupt and insensitive and actually stop thinking altogether. Most rich men fail to feel the prick of a guilty conscience but the conscience holds on and when they are proved wrong it gets stronger. The elections were an exciting phenomenon from the day the campaigning began, and to stay cheerful after the results have been declared is no inconsiderable art…for the ones that didn’t make it that is, yet what could be more necessary than cheerfulness? Whatever the results may have turned out to be success lies not only in the result but in the high spirits and the hope that one carried throughout the entire election trail because nothing succeeds in which high spirits have not played an important part, and judging from the various rallies that I attended I must declare that there was plenty of high spirit from start to finish.
Now that everything is done and dusted, for those that were in the reckoning, it is a time for a re-evaluation of the values that they relied upon and not let the shadow of their success or failure as the case may be lift them up or weigh them down. The winners must not forget the promises they made and the hopes they inspired, though that is easier said judging from the promises that have been made in every past election and the broken promises we the people have had to endure time and time again. This time, to be fair the winning Party, the VPP, made the simplest promises and their recovery from the campaign trail is what I would say is the most suited to me and to many…number one – the promise to expose corruption wherever it exists and to root it out once and for all. There was another hint at the promise of demanding Article 371 in the State for the purpose of direct funding to the Autonomous District Councils. The first I heard repeatedly at a rally in the Malki Laitumkhrah Constituency by Ma’am Deiti Majaw (now an Executive Member of the KHADC), and the latter from none other than the President of the VPP himself.
Fulfilling a promise is perhaps the best form of recovery from a tiresome campaign trail, and surely it will suit the VPP more than any other promise that may involve other key players. These two promises are theirs to act on alone…they need no support from anywhere to fulfil these promises though the demand for Art 371 may require the blessings of the Govt at the Centre, in other words the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and why not? the VPP is sitting in the Treasury Benches at the Centre. Ultimately the point is to what end does one engage in politics if not for the development of the State? That meaningful ends are lacking in the State is my objection to this Government. Consider the fact that the Umiam bridge after an expenditure of 41 Crores has a reduced carrying capacity; from 9 tons to 5 tons…only bad ends, only contempt for the people, only slandering, only denying us of our legitimate developmental goals, only denigration and violation of every concept of our rights through corruption, consequently every means the State Govt adopts is bad. The people in the Khasi Jaintia Hills can no longer rely on the State Govt to bring about development…they must turn to the District Council, and the District Council must do whatever is needed to get direct funding from the Centre…isn’t it true that Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Assam and so many other States are being funded directly by the Centre? Tell me why should the District Councils in Meghalaya not get the same benefit? There is more corruption in the State of Meghalaya than there is space in one’s head to hold, that is what our eyes see, it is also what our ears hear. And for that reason alone, and for many more, the KHADC must now do everything in its power to get direct funding from the Centre because there is no hope for development if we leave development in the hands of the State Government. I will try to be as just as I possibly can in what I have to say to the way the State Government is functioning without being untrue to myself, so I state what it is I object to.
To many the victory of Ma’am Deity Majaw was an unexpected one (we must remember she was fighting a heavyweight). She now has the unwavering support of everyone to fulfil that straightforward fixed promise she made. She has a definite plan in mind and when one relies on a fixed plan of action in a democratic system the person must be prepared to face the huge shadow of doubt and uncertainty that sets itself above, below and all around the individual. There will be times when she may be filled with frustration at the procedures to be observed and the evidences to be presented but she must face these inevitabilities, inevitabilities that may break even the strong hearted at times, because these very inevitabilities are also capable of bringing about an all-round rejuvenation of body and soul of the people. Indeed, it will take a lot of inner strength to fight corruption, especially since corruption finds its base at the higher levels in Government.
For those who have been keeping track of the corruption going on in the State and the lack of any disciplinary measures against the perpetrators, the news that Shri Jairam Ramesh veteran Congress leader and Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) Chairman Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment Forests, and Climate Change, had taken up the matter with the CBI after Meghalaya was branded as the “Most Corrupted State in the Country,” vide his letter dt 21st Mar 2023 addressed to The Director Central Bureau of Investigation (circulated on WhatsApp), just when we were settling down to this embarrassing stigma, must have raised some hopes, but time has proven that his letter was just an exercise in dialectics, and when that happened, the corrupt got on top believing that no follow up action repudiated the charges; basically, a form of bad manners, as if one was compromised. But perhaps there were other reasons – the Bureau may have found itself like the proverbial mosquito in a nudist colony which didn’t know where to start. It was normal for the people to begin accepting their fate. Blatant corruption had been going on for the past ten years, and when the same people were elected back to power, they believed God had forsaken them. They were beginning to realize that their fate was not in their hands and that the only formula for remaining sane was to accept what was handed out…not wanting anything different, not looking forward for help, not glancing backward with regret and not even hoping in any form of deliverance. They had begun to believe that it was their lot once and for all; that they had to bear with what had become a fixed way of life, a necessity, and that there was no point in concealing it…no matter what opinion we the people might have of ourselves it was all an idealism, because what we had become in the last ten years was bad, and therefore like the faithful ones that we are we had to love it – accept it, and we had begun to settle down to this state of mind, knowing that there still was that faith in the opposite values – and suddenly a deliverer has come, the VPP has won the KHADC.
To be honest no one in power has the right to call out “the most corrupt” and do nothing about it, because not doing anything implicates the person himself, and if having been notified in writing, the CBI did nothing about it, they too stand condemned. However, they have a defense…Meghalaya is one among the nine States in the country that the CBI do not have original jurisdiction. The State must hand over the investigation to it.
People seldom corrupt only once. The first time they do it they develop a guilty conscience, and for that reason they commit a second and a third and the conscience no longer stings them any longer. They remain fixated at the first step of their political career, and in a political career the first step is where bribery, gifts, offers, relationships, etc. are used to influence one’s moral values and therefore it is imperative that one quickly passes over the first step because if one doesn’t, one will settle down on the first step as do most of our present-day politicians. The aim of every conniving businessman, or bureaucrat for that matter, is to not let the fresh politician pass over the first step – they must find ways and means to get them to settle down there. But there are those that never want to settle down on the first step and I think our MDC from the Malki Nongthymmai Constituency is one such person.
Maybe this success of the VPP is the wake-up call the people of the Khasi Hills have been waiting for, for without an infusion of fresh blood into the political arena we cannot attain anything different, we cannot expect anything different. As things stand now, I set apart with high reverence the members of the VPP because when members of every other party were settling down on the first step of the stairway of a political career along came a party that openly condemned this “stuck at first step” process. For them it’s more about the second and the third step and beyond. The party has not cowed to the ruling conglomerate in the State Assembly and that itself is credit to their self-belief. The idiosyncrasy of politicians which consists in mistaking the final goal (money) as the first is the most dangerous – and the legislators from the VPP have not fallen for that either. It does appear that in the interest of the Khasi Hills, we now have to look to the KHADC if we are to rise above what we are because if we want improvement the State Government has nothing to offer but to interpret entertainment for development which more precisely is a misinterpretation.
