Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Rtd)
Forest Colony, Kohima
Today’s election has less to do with choosing upright representatives of quality and character. Corers have been spent by each candidate in the recently concluded electoral process in Nagaland. It is the ‘mother of all gambling’ if ever there is one, where even a rat can win a hand with money in the pocket. The Christian values, the traditional honesty and true concern for the welfare of the citizens have no standing in a situation such as this. It does not in any way imply that all those who now represent us in the Legislative Assembly are unworthy of our respect. They do. Nevertheless, their future actions are bound to be dictated by compelling circumstances beyond their control. We cannot undermine the fact that only a few prominent contestants had been caught red handed with arms and ammunition and crores in the bag to fight an election. The rest were only fortunate not to have been caught in the act. It is a barometer that clearly defines the critical level of rot the Nagas have sunk. After such a devastating financial engagement, it would follow as a natural compulsion for all the modern day Ali Babas to deploy every possible means to regain this expenditure…as the saying go ‘by hook or by crook’. Given the present scenario, ‘crook’ would more than likely fit the bill. The stake has been much too high and the worrisome implication is that the average common man will pay the price with all our representatives hell bent on leading us down the road to self-destruction. The negative impact of the election is bound to surface in various forms in various fronts.
At a very elementary level, this is how the sequence of events will pan out: The elected representatives from the dominant party get assigned their respective Department(s). The immediate objective would be to recuperate the election ‘investment’ already made; the long term agenda would be to generate additional personal revenue for the next husting. This will be done with vengeance and with a sense of urgency against the uncertain political future. Such intents would be camouflaged with high sounding rhetoric of public welfare development. What is said in broad daylight would be meant for public consumption but what transpires in the dark would revolve around vested interest of a very personal kind. This has been the repeated way of the world no matter which political party is at the helms of affair. The operational principle applies across the board and situation gets worse even as the stakes go higher.
At this point in time, each Heads of Departments will have already presented the budget of the department to their respective political bosses. Without doubt, a determined eye would have been focused on the development budget. The discontentment and clamor for bigger Departments with bigger budget says it all. Even a brainless individual will be able to discern the writing on the wall. After all, the answer to the ‘recuperation’ drive, lies within this out-lay of the department. Contract works and job appointments will be awarded to people critically connected to one’s political survival as their upper end priority for the next five years. The deserving citizens without political clout or connections will have to stand in the queue forever and ever. Amen. In every case, a high percentage of commission will be fixed without exception. Such deduction of commissions would not be limited to the political class and their Party Fund but would include the omnipresent bureaucrats and technocrats thrown in down the line. With the contractor‘s profit margin added, the actual fund that gets spent on the ground would perhaps be around 10% of the project fund more or less. The quality of work carried out would take a severe beating. When a glaring case of corruption comes to light it would becomes extremely difficult to take disciplinary against the un-regretting defaulter since everybody that matter would have a finger in the pie. One has to deploy a very powerful magnifying glass to assess the record of persecution of the corrupt. It is a fertile environment that allows corruption to thrive and thriving it is.
The other Ali Baba elected members who unfortunately get consigned to the opposition bench will cry foul at every step taken by the treasury bench, if for nothing else, regretting their lost opportunity to do the very same thing they voice their objections to. The inconsequential debate on the floor of the Assembly would generally reflect a casual cover up effort of misdeeds committed by those in power. Often, the comical aspect of argument and counter argument thrown around the floor of the great Assembly is to have the ruling party state that it was only following the practice that the opposition members had created at the time of their governance in the first place. A loud thumping on desks from the loyal treasury bench would put an end to the proceedings. In all of these happenings, Mr. Right and Mr. Wrong would discretely be sitting on the back bench…fast asleep. This is how the game has been played ever since we took charge of our own. Nothing much has changed.
On the other hand, the electorates are oblivious to the tsunami they have set in motion and are now blissfully enjoying a fleeting moment of spending this ill gotten gain that the sale of votes has brought them. The much touted ‘clean election’ posters will take a center stage in some dingy dark dungeon, forgotten till the next election comes around perhaps, for this cycle to be repeated. This damning cancer is not about to go away.
Be this as it may, let me first sincerely applaud and affirm that the NBCC’s campaign for ‘clean’ election was certainly a worthy cause regardless of the end result. It was needed and it was done. However, I dare say it was much too presumptuous to think that such a festering cancer could be cured to a level of tolerance within such a short time frame. Practically speaking, the ‘clean’ election campaign seemed to have had an exclusive impact on the Bank Accounts of all the contesting candidates who did ‘clean’ out their savings in order to purchase votes.
Political thinkers over the ages deeply believe that greed factor is an inherent nature in mankind. The more you get, the more you want. No amount of campaigning is likely to annihilate this basic instinct in man. This desire for more does not necessarily limit itself to monetary gains alone but finds relevance in every other spectrum of life including better status, more power wielding, more comforts, conveniences and security of existence. Reducing the degree of this hunger for more is the next best option we have. The NBCC hoisted its’ banner to accomplish this almost impossible task. We can only hope that this flag is not left flying at half mast. The NBCC must understand that in every endeavor they must be prepared to accept both the positive and the negative outcome and galvanize their resolve and renew their effort to achieve what they set out to accomplish. The wiser minds would introspect and analyze the causes and take remedial measures to right the wrong rather than feel discouraged over the failure. What needs to be remembered is that the Church is the only Organization that has a strong presence at the grass root level. Given a true spiritual leadership, transformation and reformation within the community would be within the sphere of possibility. I am however convinced that moral reform cannot be achieved through the force of law.
Take the case of prohibition for instance. Rather than waste its energy to coerce and threaten the political class into submission, the Church leaders should be spending more quality time and effort to educate, persuade and lead its congregation by example and strengthen the individual conviction towards a better Christian way of life. While the primary objective of prohibition is aimed at the decrease in alcoholism and crime we have accomplished neither. Prohibition is a sham and a joke. Nagaland is perhaps the ‘wettest’ Dry State in the world. Everybody who still draws breath knows it. The Church knows it too assuming it still is breathing. The possibility of prohibition being brought under tight control is remote because the enforcers are themselves the users. In order to undo one evil we have multiplied it by adding hypocrites and law breakers in greater number. Alcoholic habit has not diminished even by a liter because of prohibition being in place. All that prohibition has achieved is the change of source from where people get their alcohol from at a higher cost. A heavy percentage of alcohol related death in Nagaland certifies this fact. How then is it that we are so totally blind to our surrounding reality? Prohibition has successfully generated underground economy in the trade and sale of alcohol. People in the United States of America went through the same sequence of events where religious zealots, Women organizations, other NGOs rooted for prohibition law to be retained as we also are insisting. Taking stock of the ground reality, better senses seemed to have prevailed and the law maker of the USA showed courage and went on a war footing to abolish prohibition because prohibition had perpetuated a far worse evil in the society including the mafia regime of the bootleggers. History is a good teacher should we pay attention to it. The Church should instead, seriously focus on a more immediate devastating development of electoral degeneration which is eating into the very core of our survival. This is the ultimate home truth that the church must recognize and act. The task before the Church leaders is to sensitively define its responsibility and prioritized its role in the society. Until then, we the citizens of Nagaland, stand condemned to a second rate existence.
