Tag: kanglaonline

Leader Writer: Wangkheimayum Bhupendra Singh
The state as it is has become a long story of agitations and demands cropping up on a daily basis and the never ending construction works of various developmental projects. Demands for separate districts, alternative arrangements, territorial integrity, compensation for the dead, and so on have ruled the state for quite sometime. It is high time that both the people and the government realized the depth of the crisis which is fast engulfing the state, before only the proverbial ashes remain of the state. The people of the state as it is seem to be only trying to find fault with every action of the government, whereas the government is happy to ignore them all and let it linger a little bit longer before the issues subside by themself. In the process, both the people and the government are left high and dry. The people who had elected the government are frustrated at the government’s apathy, while the government is anxious as to what new demands the people could bring up next. The problem lies not only with the government but also with the general public. While it is important for every community to think for the welfare of the community and have all the fine intentions towards the future of the community, what should be all-important is not to offend the interest of the others while making their demands. The means to realize my own good and wants should not at any level affect the overall good of the society. The time is such that all the three major communities of the state feel threatened in the company of one another, which certainly is not only bad for the communities concern but for the overall good of the state as well. The insecurity between the major communities should be checked before it gets out of hand and leads to such catastrophe from where it would be hard for the state to bounce back. The people before making their individual or separate demands should first consider its impact on a larger scale. However reasonable the demands may be it will lose its credibility if it will hurt the interest of the general public or other communities. Though we are all the more happier that no communally hyped incident has come up so far, nonetheless, we should understand that we are already on thin ice and it is upto the people of the state to divert any situation which may destroy the very existence of the state.

When the world over people are racing towards development, the state seems to be going backwards into history with all major players in the state happy with thinking only about their own good and forgetting the collective good of the state in the process. It’s time for all players to start thinking about the collective prosperity rather than confine oneself to just oneself. When the world over, people are fighting for peace and unity, the players in the state are disturbing peace for division of the state. People of the state are happy with building walls around themselves, happy in their own small world. We are fighting for what we want before realizing what we need. There should be a certain divide as well as a connection between want and need. For obviously it should be impossible to realize one’s want before realizing one’s need and vice-versa. Like-wise there is a certain divide between one’s own good and the collective good of the society. While it is all-important for someone to have fine intention for himself and his community, the fact remains that his good intentions should not harm his neighbours. However, the people should also realize that tolerance and acceptance are needed for a peaceful co-existence. People should not oppose a demand just for the sake of opposing. Tolerance of what is just and reasonable and the ability to accept the demands will certainly help in unifying the society. 

The end point is it will not serve any purpose for all concern if we remain adamant with the demands for our own good at the expense of the others and if the others oppose the demands just for the sake of opposing it.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/of-oneself-and-the-collective-good/

A very frequently debated question in Manipur is what constitutes freedom of the press. The classical definition of this freedom is that while news is sacred, opinions are free. That is to say, freedom of the press does not give the liberty for media organizations to tamper with news, but it gives these organizations every right for its editors and leader writers to interpret news events the way it pleases them, just as it is in everybody’s right to agree or not agree with these opinions. In fact the very idea of a meaningful problem solving discourse presumes everybody has the freedom to keep and express opinions without fear or apprehension. The object of a serious discourse hence is to discover a “site” where ideas can interact, interchange, replicate and expand themselves, to borrow a very intellectual understanding of the proposition from the French Philosopher, Michel Foucault, as elucidated in an essay “What is an author?” Against this backdrop, we are of the opinion that even the phrase “freedom of press”, is limited in its scope for the right to keep and express opinions cannot be exclusive to the press alone, but anybody who believes and values a discourse. This dictum that facts are sacred but opinions free must apply to everybody. Any objection to this betrays a fascistic mindset which informs itself that nothing else is worthwhile except its own opinion. This is the surest obituary for the civilized problem solving mechanism (in our case conflict resolving mechanism) known as “discourse”.

We are at a loss to remember how many times this obituary has been written in our society in the past. The bans, the boycotts, and worse still, threats to life and limbs to those who raise dissenting voice have obliterated all scopes for any healthy discourse. Our society has become so rectilinear in its approach and vision of its past, present and future, so very contrary to life’s multifarious nature. It is not just the press alone but practically everybody is expected to fall into line with these approaches and visions. But it is not too late yet. We can still allow the age old wisdom of the free media – that “news is sacred and opinions free” – grow and flower again in our society. Only when this happens, our ideas and visions can have the chance to rejuvenate. As of now, let us be honest, they are aging. We continue to live our lives on yesterday’s slogans, extracted from dog-eared manifestos of a bygone era. Only freethinking debates and discourses can tune our society out of our anachronistic present.

How free is the Manipur press then? We suppose we can only justifiably answer for ourselves. How free has the IFP been in discharging its important duty of providing informed views on events that happen in the state? Our honest answer is, while we have tried our best to work as per the dictum that news is sacred and opinions free, which we whole heartedly believe in, we must have to confess that we too have been guilty often of shooting the piano player after ignoring the bandmaster and the composer. We too cannot wash our hands of the guilt of blasting the government only, for the carnages committed by other agencies. In the cases of some of the most atrocious public crimes in the present times, such as that of the library arson in the wake of the Mayek agitation or the ban on Little Flower School by a students’ organization at about the same time for the school refusing to allow its students to enlist in students to public “students’ unions” (which are actually political proxies of various radical organisations) or other such coercive campaigns some of which ironically direct attacked media freedom, and over which the entire state media even have had to stop publication for days together, it is surprising the only agency the media was ready to blame was the government. The government perhaps deserves all the choice sound bites, but when the criticisms are silent on other agencies responsible for these affronts, something terribly rings hollow. As for instance, the government failed to anticipate the library arson but it did not burn the building. The government failed to prevent the routine bomb blasts in the state but it did not throw the bombs. We fear that this hollowness, if allowed to linger on, will be the demon that destroys the credibility of the media in the state before the eyes of the world. Such an outcome would be such a great loss for everybody. The media’s biased discretions in these matters of course speak of the liberal nature of our so called democratic polity. Our plea then is also for this liberal spirit of democracy to be imbibed by all so that true and honest discourses can begin happening again in our society.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/a-view-on-views/