Tag: Editorial

One of the most interesting debates in recent times is on the rather provocative question of whether a formal degree in journalism should be made mandatory for somebody to be

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/journalists-and-degrees/

Something must be done to break the deadlock in Churachandpur. If the agitation for autonomy or whatever else must continue, let it, but everybody must step down a little to

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/end-the-ccpur-entangle/

So many people, particularly journalists who come to Manipur return with the impression that it is a failed state. Most of these assumptions are however made on their first encounters

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/songs-of-dark-times/

It is there for everybody to see that today the Kangla is becoming an important tourist destination not just for outside visitors to the state but also internal sightseers. People,

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/kangla-tourism-hiccups/

Two issues that should not be left for just discussion, but which should be acted upon without much delay and with utmost concern are unemployment and corruption. Although the two

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/corruption-and-unemployment/

The crisis developing next door in Arunachal Pradesh is ugly and unfortunate. The state, as we all are watching is steeped in controversy once again, though this time it has

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/arunachal-in-ugly-crisis/

The incident three days ago in which a bomb was place outside the residence of the editor of Impact TV is more than just unfortunate. It is a challenge, and

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/slow-strangulation-2/

The balance between modern and tradition is extremely tricky and problematic as is demonstrated at practically every issue that confronts the state, and indeed the Northeast. This is to a

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/things-fall-apart/

he Wangkhei Thangapat road leading to Thumbuthong Bridge across the Imphal river, now an important link between Imphal West and Imphal East, has finally been repaired. This route, as those

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/finding-missing-link-vital/

Leader Writer: Grace Jajo This is one of the most successful and ambitious campaign in the present generation to befool both the illiterate as well as the literate ‘educate’ population

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/fallacy-of-the-unique-id-aadhaar/

A basic difference between the West and the East in attitude towards ideal citizenship is rather pronounced and fits into a familiar stereotype. Once again, it is about a rather

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/absent-civic-citizenship-2/

People who visit Manipur for the first time or after a long gap, have often remarked that their impression of the state is that it was strikingly similar to Cuba

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/the-siege-within-2/

Practically every commentator of politics of Manipur must have said or written about this. Indeed practically every lay debater in the morning tea stalls in Imphal as well as on

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/coordination-needed/

Persistently writing on a single topic has the danger of repetition of points. But this is a characteristic hazard of all campaigns, including journalistic ones. We have no scruples about

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/looking-east/

How much is culture responsible for the progress made or the lack of it of any given society? Or more provocatively in our context, how much is culture responsible for the embrace or resistance to modernity and development? These are questions that keep returning because of their continued relevance. There are any number of books written on the subject, addressing and seeking the roots of so much disparity in development all over the world. The intriguing nature of the question has also assured many of these books to become best-sellers. Just to cite two examples in the possession of IFP are Jared M. Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel” and Professor David S. Landes’ “Wealth and Poverty of Nations”. But another one “The Central Liberal Truth” by foreign aid worker, Lawrence E Harrison, which says culture does make a world of difference in attitudes to modernity and development must also be in the list of important works on this subject. The thought if pursued, developed, and applied earnestly and consensually, can also pay dividends for the Manipur society. How much have our own varying cultures been a catalyst or inhibitor of modernity and development? Complaints about the lack of these qualities as consequences rather than causes of lack of development are not uncommon, but what has been uncommon is any sincere, soul-searching attempt to gauge the conditions that might have possibly contributed to things going wrong on the way. What has been the role of culture and tradition in our grappling with this issue of gravity? It would indeed be an interesting academic study to make an assessment of the correlation between development and the willingness of a community to accept change. We would for one vouch that the praxis, at least in this case is extremely strong.

Another study by American economists Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel, to demonstrate the same praxis between cultural grounding and development is interesting from this vantage. The study takes into account records of illegal parking tickets earned by diplomatic vehicles from different countries in New York. The figures seem hardly a coincidence. The two economists found out that diplomats from countries that rank high on the Transparency International corruption index pile up huge numbers of unpaid tickets, whereas diplomats from countries that rank low on the index get barely any at all. For instance, between 1997 and 2002, they found out, the UN Mission of Kuwait picked up 246 parking violations per diplomat. Diplomats from Egypt, Chad, Sudan, Mozambique, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Syria also committed huge numbers of violations. By contrast, not a single parking violation by a Swedish diplomat was recorded. Nor were there any by diplomats from Denmark, Japan, Israel, Norway or Canada. The reason for this as per their conclusion is, human beings are not merely products of economics, but are also shaped by cultural and moral norms. “If you are Swedish and you have a chance to pull up in front of a fire hydrant, you still don’t do it. You are Swedish. That’s who you are.” In this light, another politician thinker of the mid 20th Century, Walter Lippmann, who once said in a speech: “All cultures have value because they provide coherence, but some foster development while others retard it. Some cultures check corruption, while others permit it. Some cultures focus on the future, while others focus on the past. The question that is at the centre of politics today: Can we self-consciously change cultures so they encourage development and modernization?”

The question is profoundly relevant to our situation. How receptive has our own cultures been to a vision of a modernised future. Can we say the same thing that has been said of the Swedish diplomats who would not park in front of a fire hydrant even in the dead of the night when no one is watching, in referring to our own elite? Do we see signs of any moral and social obligations that would stop someone from littering the streets with their kitchen garbage? Do our consciences come to play in checking personal urges for unfair and corrupt practices? Are there any unwritten norms that make people guilty at breaking one-way traffic norms? It is indeed a telling revelation that most often it is siren blaring, flag waving VIP vehicles that violate these norms. There have also been tremendous debates as well as idle talks about the infamous, lethargic work culture in the official establishment. Has there ever been an inherent, cultural checking mechanism that informs the place that such lethargy amounts to dishonesty to profession as well as to self. These data are convincing and they show that there is indeed a correlation between such cultural attitudes and the march of modernity. Shouldn’t we then self-consciously make the effort to change the detrimental aspects of our cultures so that they encourage development and modernization? We must keep in mind that little brownie points scored, as for instance in the tussles of supposedly disparate interests of hills and valley, will not matter one bit if they stand against the tide of time. In the end, nothing can stand against the future, and there can be no argument that the future is headed for the modern.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/culture-and-progress/

One of the unforeseen but serendipitous fallouts in Manipur of the local area development funds made available to legislators, has been a sudden and quantum jump in the standard of young badminton players. The local area development funds, as we all know is a relatively new programme introduced by the Government of India in 1993 to ensure that durable assets are created at every Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies of the country, and under this scheme, a respectable amount of fund is earmarked annually for each legislators to invest in infrastructure building in his or her constituency during his tenure. Different legislators invest this fund differently to cater to the needs of their communities. As it has turned out, in the Imphal area, responding to the demands of their local communities, most MLAs have invested this fund in building community halls. Today, practically every locality has a community hall, and these have indeed been of great service in very many ways. As Imphal city gets progressively congested because of rapid urbanisation, traditional homesteads have transformed radically in response. One of the most prominent of these changes has been for the traditional courtyard and the shangoi (extended porticos) surrounding flanking it in practically in all direction, to either shrink drastically or else disappear altogether. This is the space where traditional family ceremonies, beginning from the feasting in celebration of birth to sankirtan held as part of last rites for the dead were once held. These disappeared but important spaces have now found a convenient common replacement in the new community halls.

But these community halls are serving their publics in another very important though unforeseen way. Almost all of them, when they are not used for ritual ceremonies, which incidentally is most of the time, become badminton courts for local children to hone their skills. As it is turning out, the reflex game that badminton is, is turning out to suit the sporting temperament of local youth very well. Indeed, arguably because of this phenomenon, Manipur today is becoming a force to reckon with in National badminton circuits, especially in the junior and sub-junior categories, with the promise that when the current generation of junior players come of age, they will retain the respect they earned in their junior days, to become champion materials in the senior and open categories as well. In the recently concluded National sub-junior badminton championship at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur put a formidable show, especially in the boys section, bagging two golds and one silver. However, it is not just those who emerged at the top who impressed, but equally those who did not make it. On their given day, they could very well have beaten the very best and be at the top themselves. Even those who lost, did so only after giving their opponents, many of them who went on to win medals, big scares. The awesome team and bench strength of Manipur did not miss the audience either. It was flattering to hear many actually inquire as to how many badminton academies Manipur had. It was even more flattering to see they were in utter disbelief when the answer was, “none”. Mark our words, if nothing catastrophic happens to deflate the spirit, Manipur will soon see the emergence of champion materials from its current stable of extremely talented young players.

One other thing became clear after witnessing the Visakhapatnam championship. Indian sports, not just badminton, is coming of age and the days of amateur enthusiasts is getting over. Now you have young talents giving their entire time and energy to single sports in various sports academies. It is no longer a question of an engineering student also interested in badminton, but a badminton student also desiring at least a basic academic degree, and completing the formalities to get one. Young players and their parents are now increasingly putting their entire stake into the sports they pursue, hoping to win not just a career but also glory from them. Just as traditionally many students give everything to win a medical or engineering seat, or else to get through the civil services examinations, there are today young sporting talents equally focused on winning a place in society through sports. There will be heartbreaks, just as in all other fields, but given the energy invested, there will also soon be world beaters. In some of the elite sports such as badminton and tennis, this is already evident. There is nothing to say such breakthrough will not begin to happen in other sports as well. The upcoming Rio Olympics will be an interesting indicator if the dawn of an Indian sporting revolution has already come in sight.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/happy-serendipity/

Corruption has become such a crippling issue in Manipur today, and everybody knows it too, yet precious little has ever been done to seriously challenge the scourge. As we see it, there are two approaches to a resistance. One is at the individual level, and nobody has scripted the spirit of this approach better than George Orwell when it remarked: ‘in time of universal deceit, being honest is a revolutionary act’. Unfortunately such a revolution has few or no follower these days in this land where the ultimate aspiration and ambition have been reduced to government contract works, either as broker from the position of the officialdom, or else as contractor, ready to compromise work for unwarranted profits. The other approach is to tackle corruption at the institutional level.

The fact is corruption has never been an issue of significance in any crucial exercise of public decision making, the most vital of these being the periodic elections to the state Assembly. The matter again is unlikely to have any significance in elections in the near future. By and large, those who can spend big will have the upper hand, it is as if leadership quality is measured in terms of the depth of the pockets of candidates. Everybody is in awe of wealth, but nobody ever enquires with any seriousness how that wealth had been acquired. So much for all the fuss about corruption, but a universal lack of discretion has legitimized and institutionalized corruption deep in the social psyche. One of the reasons for this incredible public behaviour is perhaps overawe, as the entire system has become corrupt and there is no longer any single person to blame.

Compounding the problem is another widespread psychology. The most vehement complaints against corruption have seldom turned out to be driven by moral stance, but induced by disguised envy. The most ardent crusades against corruption have always ended up co-opted, becoming as corrupt, if not more, once they have joined the officialdom’s ranks. The history of Manipur’s political leadership has been largely defined by this phenomenon. The incentive structuring of the system has also been such that it has induced corruption in every heart. The general attitude is, when in position of official power, corruption has come to be generally treated more as a service perk than moral erosion. Bribe givers and bribe takers, and so too vote buyers and vote sellers, share this same degenerate moral platform, and no longer is burdened by remorse.

How can this dreadful cycle be broken? Appealing to public conscience alone will not be enough as this conscience itself has blunted. Since executive power has become the fountainhead of official corruption, it is executive power itself which must be tackled. This can only be done by a system of checks and balances introduced into the system itself. It is a truism that whatever its drawbacks, there is no way the system can be done away with altogether. At best, another system can replace it, and the new system too would be exposed to the same corrupting influences of executive power. Two very effective legislations are today available. One is the Public Interest Litigation, PIL, mechanism, and the other the Right to Information Act, RTI. A citizens’ activism is called for to make these become truly the nemesis of official corruption. If such an activism can rekindle public conscience against corruption, and wealth comes to be qualified by the manner it is earned, half the battle would have been won.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/honesty-as-revolution-2/

If there is anything desperately overdue on the part of the Manipur government, it is in asserting its presence and authority in the affairs of the state. The state has been in total chaos for a long time and it is time to put a halt to the decay process. It has become a tradition for one and sundry organisation to call strikes, bandhs and blockades, for whatever grievance they have against the government, legitimate or otherwise. But much as these disruptive modes of protest have become a nuisance, it must be remembered that they are also an index of a lack of public faith in the governance process and its capability of delivering justice. Very few today, even those who abhor bandhs, believe the government has the ability or inclination to calibrate public needs and entitlement, obsessed as those in charge are with more personal benefits to be had from the levers of governance entrusted into their hands. Even so, the time bomb of social discontent continues to tick on, waiting for a trigger to set it off. This bomb has exploded many times before causing ugly scars on the body of our society, and yet the old game continues, rewinding the clock even before the dusts from the last of these periodic explosions settled. If the government had been credible, people would have understood when it genuinely did not have the resource to complete certain tasks. But sadly this is exactly where things have gone awry.

Now the conditioning of the people’s collective psychology by prolonged exposure to the corrupt and frivolous governance has been such that nobody believes the government even when it is genuinely not in a position to execute obligations. They have also come to believe that the only way to make the government listen is through arm-twisting tactics. In this way, the governance process in Manipur has been reduced to a series of knee-jerk responses for both the government as well as the people – government fails to oblige the demands of certain interest groups, the groups call blockade, government concedes something, reinforcing in the process the belief that the tactics pays, so that the next time a similar situation arises, the same dreary cycle of Pavlovian stimulus-response trap is repeated. It is for this reason that one of the most major task before Manipur today is to restore the credibility of the government institution, indeed the most important institution of a modern polity. Needless to say that in this project the major responsibility must rest on the shoulders of the government that be – in the present context, Okram Ibobi’s team. The government’s moral hold over its subjects, for so long eclipsed by distrust, must now be brought out of the shadow. It is not unreasonable to believe this will be the germ of a new salvation process for Manipur.

A lot of the allegations of corruption against the government have no documentary evidence to support it, none-the-less, numerous circumstantial evidences have ensured that many of the negative images thrown at it have latched on like painful carbuncles. As for instance, after seeing the condition of the roads even in the heart of Imphal, who wouldn’t believe money meant for road building have been siphoned off, including the 10 percent of it which is rumoured to be reserved to fill a certain very privileged pocket. The same impression would be what comes across from every other issue of governance. Maybe the government did genuinely have limitations to meet many of these obligations, but given the credibility and reputation it has acquired, who would believe it when it makes clarifications. How is it ever going to shake of this terrible reputation? How is the head of government to get himself exorcised of the demon of “ten-percent” image haunting him? The government must not treat the issue lightly. After all, on it depends the health of future governance. The terrible and counterproductive stimulus-response relationship it has come to have with the public, must undergo the right therapy for a conclusive resolution. To begin with, it must make governance transparent and accountable. This must be followed up by a commitment by the government to lead by examples. Only then they can with authority be firm in dealing with habitual bandh callers and other saboteurs of normal life, and purge the society of a dangerous, growing menace.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/12/bandh-menace-2/

The question of ethnic identity has been a preoccupation of the Northeast for quite some time now. The issue is sensitive and it does need to be addressed but those of us in the Northeast, and others who have been close watchers of the region know very well how very dangerous it can become should it come to be articulated in political terms. The danger is compounded in ethnically diverse milieu such as in Manipur where the numerous new identities begin reducing the entire identity question to one of setting each’s terms for power. The reality has also been, ethnic identity is articulated by an assertion of differences and uniqueness, making the evolution of a common framework for governance next to impossible. It is for these reasons that there is a need to treat ethnicity, like religion, a private affair and politics restricted to the realm of a pure science and art of governing to the extent possible. Only such an approach can make discourses on governance in the Northeast meaningful, for then there will be room for exploring the applicability and benefits of established and tested political systems of government: Democracy being the most relevant. This is to say, in the ethic situation, the definition of secularism must not mean just separation of Church and State, but also ethnicity and State. It is not by coincidence that the scourge of communal violence, so much a feature of other regions of India, is virtually absent in the Northeast, but in its place it sees an ever increasing tendency of deadly ethnic conflicts. The recent gruesome killing of Adivasi settlers by Bodo militants in Assam is only the latest reminder of this.

The proposition then is to prepare the democratic governance mechanism as a common denominator on which the foundation for peaceful resolution of problems can rest. This common denominator has indeed been what is missing, say for instance in Manipur, so that the various politically awakened ethnic groups have been pulling the politics of the land in all conceivable directions, paralysing governance and throwing up dangerous situations with extreme violence potential at every turn. In an ideal situation, the Naga ceasefire extension question, the Sixth Schedule tussle, the Sadar Hills district creation, etc, should have been sought to be settled purely as ethnicity neutral, administrative mechanisms, and equally important projected as such publicly. If such an approach was successful, the outcomes would have been much more in the nature of a win-win situation for all, and not one in which for every win by any ethnic group there is also necessarily a losing group. This cannot be a recipe for peace.

There is no justification in always shifting the blame for the ethnic turmoil in the Northeast to extraneous factors either, for the potential for the conflicts was always there and it only needed to be awakened. Sparks can light up only dry cinders. And if it is to be assumed that this turmoil is an inevitable part of formerly closed worlds of ethnic communities opening up to the world outside, there should be no need to lament the lost innocence. The approach then should instead be to face the challenges of this opening up, and seek to resolve the issues causing the turmoil. To ignore this would amount to advocating that ethnic communities should never grow up and remain trapped in their time warps. True, experience will throw up many previously unforeseen problems. True the new world order will require major overhauls of worldviews and this can be painful, but this must be treated as the challenges of the brave new world before the ethnic communities. English eccentric poet William Blake wrote of this thin line that divides innocence and experience, didn’t he? Such pains were also witnessed during other epochal changes, such as at the onset of the industrial age in Europe, which Charles Dickens described famously as the best of times and the worst of times. Who knows the Northeast may be also passing through such a period, and if we are prepared for it, our worst times may yet prove to be the threshold of our best times?

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/11/moderating-ethnicity/

A lot many water bodies have died up in the Imphal Valley. In their footsteps may follow the rest of the remaining natural water bodies in the valley area, including the Loktak in due course of time. Purely from common sense, the lifespan of a lake in a land-locked valley with only very few rivers to act at drainage system to flush it perennially, cannot be that very long, and indeed is known to not be very long. For regardless of whether there is a river system draining water away from a valley, there will always many more other rivers that drain into it bringing down tonnes of silt each year from the surrounding mountain catchments areas. It can quite well be imagined why the battle to save fresh water lakes in small valleys have been almost always a losing battle. The best that have been done is to delay their deaths, but the cause for optimism is, advancements in science have come up with ever better techniques to increase the longevity of these lakes. Perhaps someday, it will become a reality when this delay of lake decay can be for always. But the fact remains that without this sort of intervention of science, valley lakes cannot live forever. This is what Manipur should be cautious about.

Rivers can change their courses, and so when silt deposits raise their bed high enough, the finds another alternative path of least resistance. This phenomenon is not altogether unknown even in Manipur’s recorded history. In fact, Manipur’s ancient court chronicles indicate there have been routine artificial dredging of river beds through compulsory contributory labour known as “laloop” under different kings, and even of artificial diversions of river courses. Considering the sizes of the rivers here, these projects could not really have been too awesome or daunting. All the same, although of a totally different dimension, the idea of river linking in the larger context of the vast Indian sub-continent which is in vogue in current times, has never been alien to good administrator kings in the state’s ancient history. Even now, in spite of what the critics of the river linking project say, we do feel it will be an experiment worth the while in Manipur. Just one case should suffice to illustrate. Diverting the Nambul River from the heart of Imphal city would do miles to the health of the river as well as in flood control within the Imphal municipal area. The water too may acquire more irrigational value in the process. The stretch of the river bed thus dried up can become part of the master plan of an Imphal city sewerage project.

Saving our lakes, most particularly the Loktak, will be a far more difficult proposition. But perhaps this will also have to be linked up with a river management project. Perhaps the solution is in devising a way to have our rivers safely deposit their alluvium loads they bring down from the hills in special reservoirs along their meandering courses before they empty into the Loktak. But it is not only the fate of its lakes that the ecology of Imphal Valley is threatened by. The inescapable fact also is, whatever material is introduced into its soil will remain there forever precisely because there is very few rivers flowing out of the valley and draining it. Take for instance chemical pesticides or chemical fertilizers, or for that matter chemical effluents from factories in the future. Most of the residues from these are simply going to continue to accumulate in the soil. Who knows what effect such residues will have on the soil in a couple of hundred years. Just suppose it begins turning acidic or alkaline, or in the worst case scenario, poisonous. Considering pesticides are poisons in all senses of the term, poision, this is not altogether impossible. Again in the absence of a flushing mechanism, it will take eons before these soil conditions can be neutralized. This will indeed be a nightmarish scenario. Abolishing chemical pesticides or fertilizers can also mean present day disasters and it would indeed be stupid to recommend such a measure unthinkingly. What must however be done is to make sure that to the extent possible, only bio-degradable alternatives are used. Or even if there are no real substitutes to chemical agriculture boosters, their long term consequences must be closely monitored and regulated. While we all celebrate the fecundity of the alluvial soil of the valley and its salubrious climate, the obvious fragility of the valley ecology have seldom been part of any serious reflection in official policy making or the general understanding of the issue? This is most unfortunate, and indeed myopic.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/11/fragile-valley-ecology-3/