After Ignorance, the second biggest ailment that our entire world suffers from is Corruption. It’s a cancer that afflicts every avenue of human society, and every nation on earth. The logical solution we need to immediately administer is none other than to remove the cancer-causing agents, the candidates we have elected five years ago. It’s all over the media, Goan society is presently in a sick and sorry state of governance and political turmoil. And it’s we who are to blame, it’s us who must share the shame. But Redemption indeed is in our hands.
Take heart, the remedy has always been with us. (It’s what we like to call, tongue-in-cheek albeit, “our better halves”. The key word is “better”). Yes, it is our women. For an absolutely gracious and positive change in our precarious system of government, we must ensure that this time around we elect only women to the next Legislative Assembly. And we need to win by a landslide, if not every single one of the forty seats.
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Women candidates, not akin to an immature state of arrogance and high-handedness, would be less likely victims of the demands of greed and over-inflated egos, are less prone to substance abuse, and above all corruption-resistant.
It will take hard work, will power, incisive planning, dedicated focus, a deep understanding of the logistics involved and great individual sacrifice, yes. However, it can and must be done, no if’s, and’s and but’s.
The most powerful tool humans possess is the mind, our thought process. Think about it, think about what we will gain, what will change. There’s no denying the superior will power, the inner strength and steadfastness of character that nature has endowed upon womenkind.
What will our Goa be like after we have forty high-powered women candidates, each one endowed with natural motherly instincts, taking care of us, bestowing their love and tenderness with devotion to every detail of how a country should be governed? The desired changes, once we achieve an All-Woman Legislatively Assembly, could be endless. “MLA” will not mean Money Looters Association anymore. It’s a serious shame on our Societies that the Election Commission as to formulate a “Code of Conduct” for potential candidates, rules that are quickly brushed aside and observed more in the breach then behaviour!
•The health and well-being of all citizens would of course be the first concern for the new legislators. •Which translates to projects that will counter problems that are damaging to the environment.
•Strict enforcement of Environmental Laws.
•The purity and cleanliness of the waterways.
•The control and quality standards of the fishing industry.
•A Mining Policy the way Goan stakeholders want it.
•An elaborate and comprehensive education system that reaches out to every citizen and every discipline.
•A Clean and Efficient, uncorruptible Bureaucracy.
•Private toilets for all households in the State that have not as yet benefited by this essential facility.
•A safe and clean water supply system with an incremental masterplan to provide direct plumbing to every household.
•An efficient, uninterrupted and steady Electric Power Supply System .
•Promotion and support for Goa-Centric Industries and Services.
•Special Senior Citizen Health and Help lines.
•Highly efficient Waste Management and Collection platforms across the State and all major towns.
•Water and Sewage treatment, including Rain Harvesting Projects.
lection.
•Beautification Plans with a Spirit of “Goa First”.
The list could go on… and on. Everything that needs to be done to bring the State to a level of just, intelligent, efficient, transparent and all-inclusive administration. Nothing less.
We need to get started NOW. The dates and guidelines for the coming election will soon be announced. Forms and Compliance Data need to be filed along with a Rs ten thousand deposit. Responsible groups of local citizens in each of the forty constituencies need to work out their plans to identify and locate the right candidate. Once that happens, and a Manifesto Document has been formulated, Operation Door-to-door should carry the message to every eligible voter.
Questions: What are these outsiders doing here, other than looking to expand their business of amassing great fortunes? Does anyone really believe, no matter what their irksome loudspeakers and “Manifestoes” declare, that they truly have our welfare at heart?
And then there’s our own people looking down upon us from their high horses, candidates we foolishly elected five years ago, making hollow promises, offering “free” stuff! It’s all paid for by our taxes, so what’s “free”. They will always look upon us as fools. It’s time to take our homeland back from these thugs, some from Goa, others from who knows where, including the throngs from the land of Bongs.
A full House of Goan Women Legislators is indeed the final answer, and only solution for all that has gone wrong in our polity, our culture, our communities, our lands and our unique way of life. The Trophy and Title we shall earn will be that Goa was the first country in the history of the world to be totally free of the cancer called Corruption.
(The author is now a permanent resident of Goa)
