My first piece appeared in this publication on October 17, 2005. Much before that in 2003, we (my young family and me) decided to make our birthplace Goa our base. We lived out of the country at the time and just to make sure we will be able to adjust I started keeping tabs on Goa and how the systems worked here. One thing that came out strongly was the power the local politician yielded on the populace and how they almost treated their constituency as their personal fiefdom and the constituents’ willing slaves. This scenario had to change and thus began my journey to educate Goans through this publication by basically keeping them one step ahead of the politician’s move. Right from educating them (before GST) that the money spent by government is their own money collected on the smallest purchase they make and not necessarily the fancy personal income tax, to the pitfalls of corruption it has been a long road.
Although the road is long with lot of pitfalls on the way, for the first time it appears there is light at the end of the tunnel. For a lay person the recent election results might look the same old, but they are not, they have actually shown a lot of promise and might eventually be considered as the beginning of the end of all things dirty in the politics of Goa, provided the good work is not abandoned. Before we go into the data, congratulations are in order for the voters of Benaulim, Velim and St Andre constituency. The honest voters prevailed over the greedy ones. Does not mean the other constituencies do not include honest voters, it simply means the honest did not make an effort to dissuade the greedy ones and hence could not beat the finishing tape at the race.
How many voters are honest while voting in Goa? We should be asking this question to the Election Commission but they don’t want to go that extra mile to collect the data. So here is some data calculated backwards. Total honest vote in Goa is around 38.49%, a whopping 5.18% higher than the winning B party. How is 38.49% arrived, it is the sum total of 21.06% of voters that did not vote, AAP 6.77%, RG 9.54% and NOTA 1.12%. The remaining voters that voted the BTC teams (not Bitcoin please) have to prove they have not received money because these parties have bribed their voters left right and center and so the onus is on them to prove it otherwise. Vote share analysis of the BTC team is waste of time because most votes are purchased and will not remain with them if they shut the money tap. Same logic applies to the honest vote; if money was given to these voters it will have to be proved because these parties fought on principles and did not indulge in bribes. Now don’t take the above percentage as final and find technical faults, they are basically to illustrate the trend as most commentators made complicated assessment of the election but completely ignored the biggest trend of all, the increasing percentage between honest versus the greedy vote. The percentage is not enough to form a government but the honest vote percentage is only going to grow and that bodes well for Goa’s future.
While Benaulim and Velim deserve all the applause for rejecting the money rain, the icing on the cake in these elections are the voters of St Andre who not only elected a relatively newbie, but were shown the moral compass by their families all the way from the UK. If reports are true, families in Goa were told in no uncertain terms that they will not receive any financial aid from UK if they were involved in accepting bribes for voting. This move although looks trivial might be the first step Goans have taken to keep an eye on their folks in Goa who are busy two timing family members and politicians involved in the degradation of Goa. A satisfying feeling to those involved in educating Goans by their relentless writings.
Let’s not take the entire credit on writings as the only education influencing Goans living abroad, they also get to see first-hand how systems works with absolute no political interference and politicians at best relegated to framing laws that are seriously debated by the opposition, so no crooked law gets passed that is detrimental to the public. In a short span of time Goans in UK have shown the power they can yield, even if it means arm twisting their folks in Goa. While there will be a lot of debate on their rights to interfere in elections in Goa, we will readily accept their strong purchasing power that currently drives the local economy.
Lots have been written by many including me about the split vote phenomenon that prevails in Goa. Unfortunately in Goa elections are not fought on issues but by micro-managing the voter. This is the reason the professional I-Pac-Man consultant from Bengal was not able to garner seats for their party. While the Bengal party late entry into Goa is always going to be questionable, there is a split factor of the honest vote that Goans have to care about the most. Honest votes have been divided between AAP and RGP and if both party’s intentions are clean then there should be some meeting point down the line. Both parties will have to keep their ego aside and fight together if they intend to defeat the B-team’s election machinery that has institutionalised split voting.
The reclamation of Goa is imminent but the B and C teams are going to use all the tricks to stay in office, they are going to entice, confuse or mask their failures and try to keep Goans as ignorant as possible. However, the honest vote has tasted success too and it is just a matter of time for the trickle to turn into a flood. Why do people like me spend time educating Goans; simple, when you buy a computer or a cell phone if the operating system is corrupt the hardware, however, fancy price you pay will turn useless. Same goes to all Goans who concentrate only on building their personal palatial houses, these homes will eventually turn useless if everything outside it turns corrupt and starts crumbling. The choice is yours to make.
(The author is a business consultant)
