The by-election in Poingunim is a turning point for the people of Goa where It is an opportunity for all Goans to come to the aid of democracy. Not a democracy contrived and manipulated with vote-buying and influence-peddling, but an opportunity to elect an MLA who will address the burning issues of the day, writes BEN ANTAO.

REFLECTING UPON the politics in Goa, I am reminded of what Malcolm said in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a political play of power and ambition dramatizing the barbaric rule that gripped Scotland in the Middle Ages.

“The night is long that never finds the day,” said Malcolm, the son of King Duncan, whom Macbeth had murdered to usurp the throne. As it turned out, Macbeth was ripe for shaking and the long night mercifully yielded to dawn.

Such a long night seems to have descended upon the political state of Goa, as if the goddess Kali herself had seduced the politicians to launch her yuga of unfathomable darkness, so much so that the masses have become the victim of democratic perversion for almost two generations now. Nevertheless, even a long night cannot last forever, in spite of and despite the politicians and their politics of ambition, greed and power. It’s against the laws of nature and physics and chemistry that a night will not see the light of day.

ATROCIOUS CONDITIONS: Margao's Hospicio is unhygienic and filthy.

Therefore, a new day must be born and will dawn in Goa. And, symbolically, this dawn may break out in Poinguinim in southernmost Canacona taluka, where the aboriginal Velips make their home and hearth, and where a by-election has been forced on the people by the willful politicians of the day and their machinations.

Here then lies an opportunity for all Goans to come to the aid of democracy. Not a democracy contrived and manipulated with vote-buying and influence-peddling. Here is an opportunity to elect an MLA who will serve the people (not himself or herself), one who will address the burning issues of the day and press for changes desperately needed to improve living standards and quality of life not only in Poinguinim but in all parts of Goa.

Allow me to count the changes:

1. During my visit earlier this year I happened to visit a relative in the Hospicio at Margao. I was shocked. No words can describe the conditions inside this hospital. I shall be charitable and say this health care facility cannot be called a hospital. It’s a place to suffer, not to get well, a place to die, not to get healed.

The reason for the depressing, unhygienic conditions in the hospital, I’m told, is that the facility is used mostly by the needy and disadvantaged sections of society. The affluent and the well-to-do employ the services of private clinics. Elsewhere, notably in Panjim, the atrocious conditions in public hospitals have already been documented by theGoan Observer.

This situation has got to change—health care and its safe delivery must be a top concern of elected politicians, whether they are in government or in the Opposition.

2. The condition of roads and the state of traffic in the major cities - Margao, Panjim, Mapusa - have been a constant source of worry and fear. There are no pedestrian sidewalks in many of these places and crossing the street in the chaotic traffic is tantamount to jumping into a well without knowing how to swim. Every time you cross a street in the places I’ve named above, you put your life at risk. The local media has written about these death-traps on the roads and streets for years now, yet the state of affairs persists. Even allowing that politicians are immune to this hazard, the people who have elected them are not.

3. I understand that government ministers and other politicians have people going to their houses to seek favours for work that should ordinarily be done by the bureaucrats in their departments. This is a curiosity that begs the questions: Does this not put the people in their debt unnecessarily? Can the people then complain that the ministers and politicians are making money on the very things that result in bad roads, bad electrical sub-stations, bad street lighting, illegal constructions, cheating, buck-passing, and robbing where the police seem to look the other way or turn a blind eye? Why should people have to pay baksheesh to government servants to move files, for which they are paid anyway, and to get work done expeditiously?

Actually, there is a way to halt all this. Elect only politicians of integrity, those who are committed to serve the people and not themselves.

4. During my visit I was asked why Goans leave to work abroad? The simple answer is there aren’t enough jobs to go around for all the graduates coming out of the colleges - medical, engineering, commerce, science and arts. The job situation in Goa has always been a bugbear, even during the colonial days when young men who did not study in the Portuguese Lyceum had to seek employment in other parts of India and abroad on board the ship.

After India’s annexation of Goa in December 1961, the employment situation has improved but not enough apparently to keep the sons and daughters of the soil rooted in their place of birth. It seems to me that the lust of Goans to emigrate is a deep psychological need that will not likely go away anytime soon in this generation or the next. Goans will continue to emigrate in efforts to seek better jobs and education and higher standards of living than what’s available at home. It’s no exaggeration to say that only politicians and businessmen have struck it rich in Goa in the wake of tourism and hospitality industries.

Goans, obviously, cannot blame the outsiders or the bhaile for the jobs they cannot or would not perform, or the jobs they feel that don’t pay well. Still, the job scenario can be brightened with foresight and planning. This is an area where the committed politician can make a difference by insisting on long-term planning for jobs, to put in place the necessary infrastructure that new graduates can tap and fit into.

In addition, the civil service can be refreshed and animated by cleansing the odour of political ideology (language and religion) out of it. Affirmative action should be introduced to give Goa-born applicants a first crack at the job and preferential treatment to the aboriginal tribes (Gauddis, Khunbis and Velips) in the civil service. Legislation to this effect will pave the way to achieving equality of opportunity for all, particularly the hitherto deprived. Are there not political candidates in Goa whose hearts beat with fervor to redress injustices stemming from caste distinctions? There must be some.

5. It isn’t news anymore that home and personal security are in jeopardy in Goa. People are keeping pit bulls, Doberman pinschers, German shepherds and other ferocious canine species in their houses to fight off robbers and muggers. Still, break-ins, robberies and thefts occur too frequently to give people virtual heart attacks. Here the role of the police comes into sharp focus. But the policing, being routinely politicized, has proven to be quite ineffective, I’ve learned.

A key aspect of modern democracy is for the government to maintain law and order and security through its policing mechanism. To work effectively, the police must be independent to do their job and, what’s more, they must be seen to be independent by the citizens. Therefore, the police department should be run and supervised by a civilian services board drawn from concerned and caring citizens. Once the government has appointed such a board (say ten members, depending on the size of the town or city) the board must be left free to do its job, without any appearance of influence peddling from the politicians. Such a civilian-run police services board operates in Toronto and I offer this idea as something to consider for Goa.

There are other issues and changes — environmental pollution, bus transportation, parking, crowded markets — but I couldn’t possibly count themall.

Now here is the challenge to the people of Goa as they contemplate on the upcoming by-election in Poinguinim and the candidate for election. If you choose bravely and fearlessly, you can make this by-election the beginning of the end of the dark night that politics has created in the state.

To use a cliché, Rome was not built in a day. Accordingly, Goa will not rise from the swamp of corruption or wake up from the miasma of inertia, in mere one election or even two. However, a foundation has got to be laid.

So forget the traditional political parties aligned to India-wide jurisdictions. Instead, go for the local party or groups that appear to have seen the ‘light’ and are ready to do battle with the existing system to usher in clean governance, a fundamental, democratic right of all Goans. There are a number of good people in Goa today, people of goodwill, decency, intelligence, political savvy and money to force the changes and make it happen.

There is the Goa Su-Raj Party (Goa Good Governance Party); there is the Nitoll Jinn Trust, dedicated to press for clean governance inside the government departments; and there is the Lok Shakti, the power of the people. Together these groups can field an acceptable independent candidate for the by-election in Poinguinim, and support the campaign with funds, guidance and volunteers. They did it in the recent elections in the South Goa parliamentary constituency. And they can and must do it again in Poinguinim to rid the scourge of Hindu fundamentalism and communalism tearing the secular fabric of India.

Now is the time to rally the forces of goodwill, to wrestle and beat down the monster of BJP communalism, to cry halt to the craven voices of the corrupt Congress. Now is the time to change the politicians. Poinguinim must be seen to be only the beginning of the end of the long night that will eventually yield to a new dawn of hope, peace, equality, and prosperity for all.

And remember — you read it here first.

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