FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
What is the lesson that we need to learn from the flames that are leaping from the family home of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother who just resigned as Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa? As they watched their home get burnt by angry and hungry people of Sri Lanka, who are seeking revenge from a ruling establishment that has kept them without food or money, they saw a nation burning and its nationals enraged, hurt and pained.
What is the lesson we learn when a ruling party MP in Sri Lanka is killed during clashes between protesting public and the police and army?
And what is the lesson we learn when the homes of several MPs are similarly damaged, and their luxury cars dumped into lakes and water bodies?
All of the above happened in 24 hours of unprecedented anger and violence of desperate Sri Lankans against a government that has made the country go bankrupt with no food or medicines and no money to procure them.
The lesson we learn is one. Nobody can buy the soul and spirit of the people if they do not sell. The same applies to Goa. Real Goans will never sell
When the spirit of a nation is amputated. The desperation of pained people will have no bounds. But when the spirit of people is intact and strong, nobody can ever sell it or do deals with it. Hunger brings pain and hunger makes people commit mistakes, but one must see what has led them to do it. An amputated spirit and people of an amputated nation will go to any extent on empty stomachs to cry out and lash out. They don’t even realise they have crossed the line. Hurt, hunger, and pain do this.
This holds true for countries, and this holds true for states. But what is ever dearer is the soul of a civilization, the soul of people, and the soul of the land they live and love. What is Goa without its soul? What is Goa without its universal fabric of harmony? What is Goa if its soul is amputated? And while the people of Goa have and will continue to protect the fabric of the land and its society since that is their very own, there is a great deal of responsibility on the system which is chosen to represent them and protect them.
No Goan will ever sell his or her future to a system that comes to buy it. And while it is the responsibility of all people and all parties to see that they support and hold hands with souls who will not sell the future of their children and unborn children, the responsibility is even more on those who control the system to save the soul of Goa.
The soul of Goans is intact and it's non-negotiable
The consistent manner in which the people of Goa have displayed this spirit of fighting together for the future of our children is absolutely commendable. As Herald has reported children across Benaulim and neighbouring villages, some of them even as young as six to eight years old, joined a signature campaign to petition the Prime Minister to have a bypass through their villages on stilts, to protect the fields of farmers, whose futures would be destroyed if their fields were flooded and crops destroyed. Of course, Children and their parents feel for the farmers, but they also feel the pain of a lost future if they don’t fight for it now. Therefore, should the system be with the people or with the forces that give them pain? Let all of us introspect deeply.
Royla Fernandes, Ex-Sarpanch, architect and activist speaking on a discussion on this issue on Herald TV on Tuesday said, “We started this campaign on November 14, 2019, Children’s Day. They have played a very big part. Their parents have got energy because of them. It is for their future and of those who are yet to come into this world.”
There can be no discussion on this and no deal. And the system should not only protect the soul and fabric of Goa but must be seen to be protecting it, by its actions. Even small things are significant. When someone chosen by the people of one State goes and meets perpetrators of hate speeches and defends them, even a strong fabric gets hurt. The narrative of hate can NEVER be the narrative of leadership.
The cradle of leadership is meant to protect and not hurt. When the bough breaks the cradle will fall
The bough (the main branch) of a tree is used to hold a baby’s cradle together. If the bough broke, the cradle, with the baby, fell. Honesty and integrity are boughs of the cradle of leadership. When this bough breaks the cradle of leadership falls. So, one should be careful what kind of leadership one is producing.
Therefore, honesty and integrity are not only expected but it cannot be dealt away. One can see so many examples of not just a leadership chosen by the people but leadership that sits in institutions of faith, trusted by the people faithfully, that misuses its position and goads people to make choices according to what these institutions feel and not what the people feel and the land needs.
And when those who enjoy the trust of people play with it and make individual choices across Goa and not a universal choice that is good for the whole of our land, then a situation erupts where a system comes to power with a full majority without the will of the majority. This is the bough of integrity that gets broken. The consequences are there for all to see and experience.
One example explains this well. In the last elections Luizinho Faleiro, the most experienced and tallest of the former Chief Ministers in the election mix (even though he did not contest, but that was later) could have first held his previous party the Congress, and then of course the party he joined, TMC together, and give it leadership and experience like none other. It is no secret that non-political institutions that have sway over communities made political choices and did not only take interest in politics. But they were a part of it and let their individual likes and dislikes dictate the choices of parties and candidates they would support. Going beyond the domain of preaching they delved into the practice of politics in a manner even many politicians would not. They made clear political choices and openly and publicly displayed and communicated them.
The people of Goa are clear, but the system is at a crossroads. The right path is too damn hard but it’s made of principle, made of character
It is all about choosing the right part. About practicing what one preaches. About harmony, unity, integrity, honestly, and justice. Those who have the privilege of leading people have a choice – whether to take the easy path and see the valuable future of our children get destroyed. Or choose the right path of integrity.
It is going to make the leadership of Goa proud one day if they follow this path.
And we need leaders to do this. To follow the hard path which is the right path. Because when the sxxxt hits the fan, some guys run, and some guys stay. If we do not protect the spirit and fabric of the people, we are killing the very spirit that the institution of democracy instills.
