Another “New Year”; but the same old problems. Problems that may, or may not, concern us. Every day the paperboy brings more, our daily dose of what we should be concerned about. The state of the roads? The electricity supply? Food prices? Pollution? Crimes of every category? Water shortage? Stories of new scams and corruption charges? Road accidents? Poisoned fish? Land scams? Unrest in the Mining Industry? Political protests disrupting normal life? Sub-standard public transport? Low-grade Healthcare infrastructure? Outdated, inefficient garbage collection and sewerage treatment systems? Haphazard and ineffective education programmes? A corrupt bureaucracy and law-enforcement agencies?
Oh! Goa, how far does our list of trials and tribulations extend? The once envied charisma and character of Goa and its people is gradually, sadly, being eroded, in five-year installments. Those of us, who are truly concerned, don’t count. Those, who should be concerned, don’t care. And it’s we who must shoulder the blame! It’s we who handed them the mandate, the sacred responsibility of maintaining the pride and glory of the most advanced State in the Nation. For that one moment of privacy in the polling booth, flushed with the high-five of victory, with a fist-pumping air of euphoria, we voted. “I’ve done it, things will be just fine from now”. But a few months on, we stand betrayed.
We were foolishly tricked by soon-to-be-forgotten manifestos and false promises into surrendering our precious vote to someone who would soon be spending (or rather earning) the next five years practising the art of “skimming off the top”, getting filthy rich on money that rightly belongs to some of the poorest people on earth. Then they take all the credit for executing ‘Public Works’ with our money. Their mantra: “We have done this for you”’
‘Public Works’ means more taxes. That’s one of the first statutes you learn in Economy Class. But then when you are out in the real world you soon learn: Public Works means more kickbacks. Yes, the PWD does get it done to keep up the charade, albeit a low-grade, sub-standard, poorly executed shoddy job undertaken by equally corrupted contractors. “Unjustified Project Delays”, “Unforeseen Cost Escalations”, are just well-entrenched evil practices that we all see through. They treat us as idiots, and we must be fools as we are the ones to give them that rope to hang us with.
Idiots? That word comes from the Ancient Greeks. The wise men of that Great Civilization, in the process of designing a perfect democratic system that would be fair and acceptable to all, divided the population into three categories. This was part of the blue-print to ensure an equitable, happy and prosperous way of life for all citizens in the societies within their jurisdiction. “Society” is a Greek word which means Friend. Democracy is also a Greek word.
The three societal divisions were: one, Idiots; two, Isolationists; and three, Idealists.
Idiots were those who lived a mean and selfish existence, thinking only about themselves and never caring for the well-being or welfare of anyone else. A truly miserable way to live. They were narrow-minded, greedy, of lower intellectual capacity and generally considered unsociable. They tended to live off the wealth of others.
Their objects of worship were mundane artifacts like urns (painted pottery), jewelry, furniture and property. They were by law, represented in their parliament and were, coincidentally, called MLAs, (Members of the Looters Association).
Isolationists: This group, somewhere in the middle as far as sociability and intellectuality was concerned, were molded by a provincial, “tribal” mentality; leaders in a way, but concerned only for kith and kin within their sphere of influence who had a distinct linguistic and cultural identity among themselves. Anyone outside of this configuration was considered an enemy. Hence they were inherently warlike always ready to attack anything alien to their way of life. They worshipped War Heroes, men of exceptional physical strength. But they remained aloof from doing any service for their fellow countrymen.
Idealists. This group consisted of the upper echelons of Greek Society. They were intellectuals, philosophers, poets, artists, teachers, mathematicians, scientists, astrologers, musicians, and above all, administrators. They were good, wise and noble, as opposed to the greedy, idiotic, selfish kind. They were leaders who followed the people’s wishes. They cared only about the well-being of their Society, never about themselves. They believed that one must live a life in the service of others which was the ideal to be. Their only ambition was to govern a nation with true democratic principles. For them, every citizen had a voice, Idiots or otherwise. Every concern of everyone was attended to and taken to its logical and equitable conclusion. Only men and women of high principals and unquestionable character were selected to operate and govern the nation.
So how does the World’s Largest Democracy fare? We are the Custodians of the Great Indian Culture that declares to all Nations, that the Source of Creation actually resides within each and every human, every creature, every atom and every sub-atomic particle. But not every Indian takes that to heart. That would mean that we are all One. But if you say “We are all One”, you imply that there are more than one! Now that’s a conundrum that would take an eternity to figure out.
How did we turn our Democracy upside down? There are the “good” guys. We need to identify the Idealists, get them to listen, get them to act. Make them adhere to the Oath they took when they were sworn in, and not steal the hard-earned money of the poor. It’s time we turned it around. If not, we will end up living in an utterly chaotic, lawless world with everyone doing their own thing.
Ironically, that’s Democracy in its purest form.
(The author is a permanent resident of Goa after many years of living abroad).
