Tag: Editorial

In the wake of the rising incidents of White policemen killing Black American youth on the streets in the name of anticipatory crime fighting, an interview of a White father worrying about his Black toddler son from his Black wife was touching. He said, within the latitudes that his job allowed him, he was thinking of moving to England. He reasoned that though White racism is unlikely to be absent in England either, at least he will have the comfort that the police there are not lethally armed as in America, so that though his son may still confront racism there, he is less likely to face the danger of being gunned down on the streets. Indeed the pictures that emerge of the American police in the media often tell very disturbing stories. In the recent firearm mayhem White biker gangs created in Waco, Texas, which left 19 dead, the gang members were merely rounded up and made to sit, while armed policemen stood guard. Some policemen were sitting with them and even seen talking to the arrested men. Contrast this with pictures of Black men arrested on the streets, where the police are often seen pinning the arrested men face down on the street or against a car, dread locking them, handcuffing them, or else guns pointed at them in combat readiness. Although media pictures are selected to catch the eye of the readers, therefore not always perfectly faithful to the reality on the ground, this general difference in approaches can be also confirmed by google searching images of arrests of Black men and White men. It is interesting in this regard that President Barack Obama is mulling the idea of downgrading the armoury of the civil police of his country to at least not resemble the military. If the police are trigger happy by nature, they can be trigger happy only if there are triggers to pull.

These thoughts come to mind in the wake of the gunning down of a youth in the Sawombung area along the Ukhrul road yesterday by the police. According to the account of a survivor, Konthoujam Vivek, they were returning towards Imphal in a car with friends from a favourite picnic spot of Imphal residents, when a police party signalled them to stop. Sensing that they would be in trouble for they smelled of liquor, they zoomed off without stopping. Thereupon they were chased by the policemen and at a turning they found themselves cornered between the chasing policemen and another police party coming from the opposite direction. It was there they were fire upon and his friend Konsam Kourounganba was hit fatally while he received a shrapnel injury in the neck. What a tragedy this was. It would be enough to give goose pimples to any parents. Like the man in America worried about his son, many of them must be also considering sending their children off from Manipur. They will have their shares of problems wherever they are, but elsewhere it would be less likely for them to die the senseless death that Kourounganba met.

Given the law and order situation in the state, it would be unreasonable to expect a sizing down of the police force or their armoury. It is also true the policemen too live on the edge in the present circumstance. But there is nothing that says strictly disciplining them will harm their morale. In fact, they may stand to gain from a reorientation. Let them know there is no room for mistakes, especially those caused by recklessness. There is no gainsaying that as of today, the armed wings of the Manipur police constabularies, the Manipur Rifles, IRB and the police commandos, are given to brutish arrogance that only the intoxicating power of the gun can give. This was evident even in the case of the escorts of the Manipur Speaker beating up a man for not giving way to the Speaker`™s convoy promptly enough, even though it was well past duty hour. These men are not empowered or protected by the notorious AFSPA. Yet, the climate of impunity usually associated with the AFSPA is loudly evident in everything they do. Like those covered by the AFSPA, they have come to think they are out of bounds of ordinary law. This is what is making life dangerous for everybody. The government must take action to reverse the trend. It must ensure that those found callous about causing deaths and injuries to another are made accountable and punished as per the law in proportion to the harms they cause.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/trigger-happy/

Extraordinary times these are that Manipur is living in. But its tragedy is, these extraordinary times are being met by a general ordinariness of mindset all around. A mindset characterized by inward looking selfishness and obsessive narcissism. Almost by compulsion of circumstance, few if any are able to see, or are bothered to see, beyond the self and visualise the broader picture of what the future may shape up to be for everybody. An acute myopia has been forced on everybody, rulers and subjects alike, and life in Manipur has ceased to be about living but increasingly about surviving. Everybody is unto himself, and in such a circumstance, the obsessive self absorption which has become the general rule is understandable. After all, when the individual is left to fend for himself in a free for all situation, the principle of survival of the fittest would become the norm. An insatiable appetite for power and wealth, ill-gotten most of the time, is only one important consequence of this. What becomes abandoned in the process is the broad liberal ideology that liberalism is also very much about everybody giving up a little liberty so that everybody can have liberty together. Also ignored is the understanding that acute and widespread self-interest at the cost losing sight of the larger common good as it were, is not in anybody`™s self interest in the ultimate analysis.

There is another danger of ordinariness of leadership. It can have extremely grave consequences for everybody`™s future. This hypothesis cannot have a better illustration than in a particular counterfactual study done on the fortune of France and the French Army in the mid 19th Century which historians agree was the finest in terms of organisation and military hardware at the time. This army was at its peak at the time of the rise of an aggressive Prussia under Bismarck known all along for his imperial designs. James Chace, professor of international relations at Bard College, USA, writes in `What If?` a volume of counterfactual studies by military historians dubbed as some of the finest minds in the contemporary Western world, that given a wee bit more commitment, the French marshal Francois Achille Bazaine should not have had to surrender to the Prussians at Metz on September 1, 1870 along with 6000 officers and 173,000 men, as the French Army was far superior. Unfortunately the French leadership at the time was marked by a remarkable ordinariness. He laments that “¦ an inept, posturing nephew (Napoleon III) of the greatest military commander in modern times (Napoleon) became the unwitting destroyer of the primacy of Europe.` Had Bismarck been denied the runaway victory at Metz, there is unlikely to have been the First World War, consequently no Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which in turn led to the Second World War. There would also not have been the Bolshevik Revolution, no Soviet Union, therefore no Cold War either. The course of history for the next 150 years that followed, and horrors of the last century would have been irrevocably changed. If Europe was not thus destroyed, economically and in terms of human resources, the continent would have remained unmatched in economic prowess. But hundreds upon thousands of its finest minds presumably would have been amongst the millions of casualties of these wars, and for the good or the bad, the American Century too would have been delayed or perhaps even still born, he says.

The moot point is, what our leaders do or don`™t do today, will definitely have a profound bearing on the future of the place, if history is any evidence. The least that extraordinary times need is leadership inertia. When Manipur`™s being, physical and metaphorical, is eroding in a total administrative vacuum, it is outrageous that our leaders still have the leisure not to think proactively to meet the challenges, and instead continue to leave it up to the mythical healing power of time to mend things. Poverty, unemployment, bad law and order, sliding incomes etc, on the one hand, and piling garbage, run down roadways, drinking water shortage, sinking rural health facilities, decaying education system etc on the other, cannot afford to be met with fading government presence. Bribe givers and bribe takers alike, when the ship sinks as it definitely would if things to not change for the better, everybody will drown, and no amount of wealth in anybody`™s hand can save anybody.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/ordinary-meets-extraordinary/

In the aftermath of the sorry episode in which escorts of the Manipur Legislative Speaker, Th. Lokeshwor, beat up a sub-inspector of the police for not giving way to the VIPs convoy promptly enough, there is one more thing of importance made bare before the public: It is no longer possible to distinguish between spontaneous and stage-managed protests. While there were wide condemnations and adverse media coverage of the high-handedness of the VIP and his escorts, there were also protest pickets, or wakat mipham in colloquial lexicon, supporting the atrocious behaviour of the VIP and his men, although these were restricted to the Speaker`™s home constituency and the Assembly Secretariat. They were even demanding penalty for the victim for daring to stand against what they considered disrespect of VIP privilege. It is another matter that no one took them seriously, for what they were demanding was quite obviously against the pulse in the veins of practically every common man on the street these days. Although not many would have faced the same degree of atrocity as the unfortunate victim on that fateful evening, practically everybody would have experienced the indignity of being honked and sirened out of the way brutishly by these VIPs and their uncouth escorts.

These VIP convoys, although the chief minister, Okram Ibobi had once publicly pledged would prohibit them from taking shortcuts through the Kangla, still continue to do so. On second consideration, maybe this much should be allowed in view of the increasing and perennial traffic congestion on the main avenues that surround the Kangla, but many of these VIP convoys do not have humility and courtesy to do so silently. Even though within the Kangla there are only pedestrians who come to sightsee or pray, many of them still insist on using their beacon lights and sirens, as they zip by. Their eagerness to announce their presence is bewildering, and their act of doing so, a complete public nuisance. Probably they also know they are being a public nuisance, and one gets the feeling that like most spoilt brats, they enjoy the knowledge of their nuisance value. It is unimaginable this is happening when elsewhere in the developed world the effort is to scale down the pomp and fanfare of the State. Even in India, the arrival of Narendra Modi, and much more than him, Arvind Kejriwal, is giving new meaning to what VIP status should be.

Manipur however loves to be in its time warp and lives complacently by the values inherited from the colonial era where the colonial State towered over everybody and the plebeian public must by law be in mystified awe, if not in cold dread of all institutions and individuals that represented the State authority. The ideas of contempt of privileges reserved for these institutions, subjudice, sedition, etc are all about this. The legal understandings of these notions are however transforming, and sensibly too. Even in common usage, all the pompous honorific such as `Your Honour`, `Your Excellency`, `His Highness`, `Her Majesty` are all coming to be replaced by the more plebeian `Sir` and `Ma`™am` even in official communications. This equivalence brought about by an empowerment of the ordinary citizen, is one of the main features that distinguishes democracy. But in Manipur`™s time warp, there were protestors, outraged by the seeming disregard of `VIP Honour` by the man who did not side his car immediately, even if the traffic demanded he delayed doing this for a while so as to cause the least inconvenience to all on the road and to himself.

The blame for this arrested development of the mind in this regard however must go a lot deeper. Stage managing public protests have become a trend amongst our civil organisations, in the process robbing them of their values. Practically every day of the year, there are some group of women in some corner of the streets somewhere with a few placards announcing tired slogans, doing the biddings of some organisation or the other, supposedly protesting. And as in the case of the young shepherd of the school parable, who habitually played the prank of raising the `tiger` alarm and was ultimately killed by the tiger because nobody believed him when he screamed `tiger` when the animal actually appeared, nobody today pays any heed to these ghostly figures on street corners doing their wakat mipham. In Manipur`™s absurd theatre today, there is no longer any certain way of distinguishing spontaneous from fake responses of the people.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/destroyed-spontaneity/

We have been deliberately trying to play down the unfortunate developments in which two labourers were inhumanly beaten to death in captivity and another 12 year old student tortured in beastly manner by cadres of the KRF militants, now on Suspension of Operation, SoO agreement with the government, for fear of the consequences this can have. Others were less concerned but that is their outlook. Whatever the case may be, what was feared, has happened. In the blind rage that followed, especially in the locality of the deceased labourers, there has been one more innocent casualty. The driver of a Shaktiman truck who probably unaware of the developments, tried to pass a blockade along the Imphal-Jiri road by protestors against the KRF affront, tragically ended up killed, while more were injured. Several vehicles were also put to fire. Moreover, the disturbing reports are, there were attacks on some Kuki villages in the vicinity in which houses and churches were torched. In an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday, the government has decided to clamp indefinite curfew in the Patsoi area where the two dead labourers belonged, so that the violence does not escalate any further. Commendable in the midst of the crisis is the fact of civil organisations belonging to both the Meitei and Kuki communities, which by force of circumstance found themselves on the opposite sides of the dividing line of the present tension, standing together to denounce the violence and appealing to all earnestly for the return of calm. Blessed are the peacemakers, as Christ preached in the Beatitude, for the kingdom of heaven will belong to them.

Peacemaking however is not just about crisis management, as peacemakers in conflict torn states like Manipur are often left to do. It is on the other hand also about identifying deeper issues that run behind these conflicts, and in a spirit of accommodation, seeking to resolve them conclusively. Often also these conflicts are fallouts of faulty or sometimes sinister policies of the government which is often inclined to tackle only the immediate, without a thought on their larger and longer term implications on the society. In this light, the SoO itself, its genesis and what it has been reduced to today, must come under some serious scrutiny. This consideration is important for on an incremental basis in the past few months, militant groups covered by SoO have been responsible for triggering one crisis after another, many of them with extremely dangerous portents.

When SoO came to the surface for the first time in the state about 10 years ago, it did become evident it made its entry into the body politics of the state surreptitiously. It was an agreement the Army signed with certain Kuki militant groups operating in the Moreh area, by which the Army suspended its operations against the latter without disarming them, self professedly to prepare for an ultimate peace negotiation. When it came to light, there were flutters in the official circles, and wide suspicions everywhere that the Army was playing its own politics, and was using the Kuki militants as their proxies to fight Meitei militants in the Moreh area. Subir Bhaumik, a former NDA cadet, says as much without mincing words in his book, `Troubled Periphery` (Sage 2009). Events at the time seemed to support this claim, for ethnic tensions in the Moreh area had escalated to an unprecedented high not long after SoO came into force. A lot has happened ever since. The state government is now on board, and many more militant groups, including many splinters of Meitei organisations are under the SoO umbrella.

This notwithstanding, after more than 10 years of SoO, peace negotiations are still nowhere in sight. Prospects of peace remain equally distant. And now, the SoO groups are routinely breaking the ground rules of the agreement, haranguing the public. The question is, what should the government do now? As we see it, there are only three options. First, begin peace negotiations and bring about a permanent settlement so these militants can return to normal life respectably. Second, if the government feels the time is still not ripe for any substantial negotiations, ensure that the SoO signatories strictly abide by the ground rules of the agreement. Third, if this is not going to work at all, and is instead going to remain a cause for strains in ethnic relations, banish SoO altogether. We do hope the first is the outcome.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/to-soo-or-not-to-soo/

The distasteful episode in which police constables attached as VIP escorts to the Assembly Speaker and Khundrakpam MLA, Th Lokeshwor, brutally assaulted a superior officer of their own police establishment because the latter would not promptly give way to the Speaker`™s convoy, should be cause enough for the government and the people alike to reflect on what is going wrong with Manipur. Indeed, it must be acknowledged that there are many things, plebeian to profound, not so right with Manipur and its ways today. To begin with an image most immediate evoked by the current controversy is the almost absolute lack of traffic order on our roads. Worse still, the roads have become the arena for contest of power, status and perceived self importance amongst their users. Leading the destruction of this traffic order are the VIPs who seem to think the roads belong to them alone and whenever they pass by, all else must make themselves scarce.

Let there be no dispute about this that the roads belong to all citizens in a democracy. Since every class of vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists have to share them, there would have to be a definite system and management to ensure all get their rightful share of this important public facility. This is precisely where city planners in Manipur have been miserably failing. Even in the capital city Imphal, there is hardly a road with pedestrian pavement or cycle tracks. In stretches where these are indeed marked, they are used as vehicle parking area. This being the case, pedestrians, cyclists, rickshaws, two wheelers, cars, passenger buses, trucks… all share the same space on the roads. For whatever the reason, even heavy passenger vehicles are still allowed to enter and park within the city core, as is the case with the Keishampat bus parking outside the state library. It is amidst this chaos that our VIPs expect all to give way the minute they are sighted, without any delay. It is for the failure to do this that the police constables escorting the Speaker, Th. Lokeshwor, decided to take the law into their own hands and severely beat up and rob their superior officer, as if being VIP escort is a promotion in service rank. If this had happened in the Army, little or nothing could have saved these constables from a court martial. But even in civil jurisprudence, there are laws that act as deterrents against such shows of extreme indiscipline in a supposedly regimented organisation. To ensure the prestige of the state police organisation is not unduly hurt, the police brass, and the home department, must ensure this show of unprecedented insubordination does not go unpunished.

Even as the city planners hopefully begin applying their minds how best to sort out the traffic optimally, let there be certain very definite norms put in vogue in according VIP privileges too. Since the Speaker is in news, we will use his example. When the Assembly is in session, the Speaker and indeed all legislators must be given priorities equal to those given to ambulances and fire service vehicles on emergency duties, while commuting to and from the Legislative Assembly. Nobody will dispute it is wrong for an Assembly session to be delayed because the Speaker was stuck in a traffic jam. Everyone must be obliged to pull aside and make way even it means some inconvenience. When the Assembly is not in session, but the Assembly secretariat is not on holiday, the Speaker and other VIPs should still get priority on the road, though not so desperately urgent as in the earlier scenario. But in off duty hours or on holidays, if the VIPs decide to go visiting friends, or party in each other`™s houses, or returning late evenings from their courtesans`™ homes, their convoys should not be allowed to use their beacon lights or the sirens and make themselves a public nuisance. People are generally decent, and will give them way, but this should be left to the latters`™ discretion and the VIPs should not complain. Let a little humility be a quality of these VIPs. As the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi said a year ago upon assuming office, they are but public servants and not masters.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/grading-vip-privileges/

Every profession has its moral codes, some written but most of the time unwritten. Journalism is no exception and indeed this is a question that has continued to haunt the profession since its inception. This is particularly so because journalism`™s best practices also are determined by a notion of objectivity that would have the journalist be simple observers and reporters of events and not be their participants. The troubling question is, to what extent can this journalistic definition of objectivity, especially in situations of human tragedies, remain ethical. Two powerful images should put this argument in perspective. One is of a certain freelance photojournalist, Kevin Carter, who won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for photojournalism in 1994 for his photograph of a severely famished, virtually dying, Sudanese girl toddler crawling towards a UN food centre some distance away, during a famine in this conflict torn nation, even as a vulture stalked her as if ready to pounce on her if she drops dead. The picture was first published in the The New York Times and it shocked the entire world, so much so that this prestigious newspaper had to issue an unusual editorial comment in a subsequent edition that the girl did make it alive to the UN food centre and that Carter chased away the vulture before leaving the scene. But the scene, and probably his inadequate response to the human situation apart from his journalistic instinct of making headline news of the event, haunted him so much ever after that he went into a depression he never recovered from. According to his father he was often found crying alone inconsolably. Carter ultimately committed suicide the same year he won the coveted prize.

The second image conveys a totally different picture of journalistic responsibility. Seventy five years after his death near the summit of Mt. Everest, on May 1, 1999, George Leigh Mallory`™s body was discovered during another one of numerous search expeditions spanning seven decades to find his, and his climbing partner, Andrew Irvine`™s, bodies. Bad weather however prevented a closer examination of the body on the day. On May 16, two men in the expedition, Andy Politz and Thom Pollard, carrying with them a tent and some supplies, returned to the spot for a closer look after lasting out a bout of bad weather at the expedition base camp. Pollard, had writing assignments including numerous offers for a book at the time. The two had with them a metal detector to try and locate the camera that Mallory was known to have taken along, and Kodak Company was of the opinion that the exposed film in the camera still could be processed as it would be well preserved by the perennial subzero temperature, and because the film in it was black and white, hence less prone to chemical degeneration. When they came to the body, Pollard`™s reaction was in his own words: `The sight of Mallory`™s foot protruding from the end of the rocks was the most powerful and humbling site of my life. It brought tears to my eyes.`

Then the two proceeded about trying to detect Mallory`™s camera. In the process, Pollard came face to face with Mallory. From Pollard`™s description, the likeness of Mallory was well preserved with calm but closed eyes. He had a golf ball size wound in the forehead with two shards of bones protruding out of it confirming he died instantaneously when he fell. Then the thought occurred that Pollard had a camera with him. But on second thought, and in consultation with his expedition partner Andy Politz, they decided it would be wrong to take a picture of Mallory`™s face, and so today the only picture of the dead legend`™s face, a man who possibly reached the summit of Mt. Everest three decades before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay did but could not return to tell his tale, is what Pollard carried back in his memory. Politz did not even want to see the face and be burdened with the responsibility to tell what he saw. Here were two men who overcame the pulls of their careers and professional ambitions even at a moment they found the elixir to reach the pinnacle to keep within what they thought was the demand of human decency. But beyond the instant glory and material endorsements they would surely have received had they been less scrupulous, they earned something else. Respect and gratitude of the sane world, away from the maddening crowd of instant wealth and instant success seekers.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/career-and-beyond/

In Manipuri there is a saying `Angangdi ningthadagi khangbani` (the child is known from his nappies). The ring of Freudian foreboding is remarkable. In layman terms, in the Freudian personality dynamics, the infant is a bundle of raw instincts or `Id`. It responds to hunger, fear, pain etc, only. It urinates and defecates at will, cries when hungry or afraid, laughs when pleased etc. The first intrusion in its life of what Freud calls `Superego`, or the norms and traditions of civilisation, is generally in the form of toilet training: `No wetting while in the bed`. As the child grows older, the demands of the Superego too grow. The child begins to be told which behaviours are acceptable and which not, first at home, then in school and college. Consequently, the conflict between the demands of the `Id` and the `Superego` also gets progressively more intense, and in the negotiation between the two contrary demands, is born the rational `Ego`. Personality disorders of different hues are attributed to the inability of the `Ego` to effectively strike a balance between the two demands. Quite obviously, without the `Superego` there can be no civilisation. But when the `Superego` gets too overbearing, instinctual drives in the child would become dwarfed. This is why the development of the rational `Ego` is vital, and this is precisely what the Manipuri adage refers to, when it said the child is known from its nappies. It refers to the natural aptitude of the child to respond to civilisational norms without detriment to its own personal integrity. It is indeed amazing that this was said before Freud, but interpreting it the other way around, the unlikely congruence of traditional wisdoms and Freud`™s theory, is also because Freud depended in a major way on literature to construct his theory. The fact that his best known contribution to the lexicon of psychology, `Oedipus Complex`, is straight out of literature is evidence enough.

We dig up this discussion again in the light of the recent show of absolute degeneration of civilisational values in the incident in which the escorts of Speaker Th. Lokeshwor savagely beat up a man because he did not give way to the Speaker`™s convoy promptly enough. This is despite the fact that the Assembly was not in session and therefore there could not have been any urgent official business for the Speaker. But beyond these individual transgressions of civilisational propriety by those who wield State power, there is a larger canvas on which a disturbing paradigmatic change in the definition of a leader in sponsored economies like Manipur has been happening. Half a century ago, leaders who emerged were respected figures who earned their reputations through humility and dedicated service to society. Most of them were school teachers who endeared their communities with their service, thus the honorific `Oja` associated with the older generation of political leaders. In the decades that followed, a small transformation in the nursery of political leadership happened, and apart from the Ojas, there also entered a league of retired bureaucrats with sizeable purses. Although it is known that corruption is generally the way to wealth in a stagnant economy like Manipur, especially for government officials, these men were sobered by age. Although their contribution as leaders is hardly anything to talk about, as retired administrators, they at least were blessed with the grace of maturity. However, in the last one or two decades, things have changed dramatically and a new breed of political leaders have emerged. These are former government contractors in their 30s and 40s, who are stinking rich through organised plunder of public money in partnership with bureaucrats and politicians. Under the skin of a political leader, they essentially remain contractors at heart and continue their plundering ways. While as contractors, they were only given to brazen display of wealth, as politicians they also want to flaunt power in equally brazen fashions. What has evidently been allowed to wither is the civilisational pressure the `Superego` exerts on the infantile, instinctual `Id`. The `Ego` too has been overwhelmed by the primitive appetites of the `Id`. Greed, lust, need for dominance, are now the order of the day, resulting in a disorder psychologist Thomas A. Harris called `I`™m okay you are not okay,` in his seminal book I`™m Okay, You`™re Okay. This is the character of our new political leadership by and large. Fifteen years ago, when the late Chief Minister, Oja Wanghengbam Nipamacha bought a Mitsubishi sedan for his personal use, there were eyebrows raised that he could fiddle while Manipur burned. Today even the children of our new political leadership would not want these automobiles as toys.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/despicable-lust-for-power/

The manner in which the escorts of the Manipur Assembly Speaker, Th. Lokeshwor Singh, savagely assaulted a person, who too turned out to be a police officer himself though in civil dress at time, is to say the least, scary. It tells of the same climate of impunity and that people have so far associated with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA, only this time, the atrocity committed was not by forces empowered and protected by the AFSPA, but by the state police. It would also not be wrong to say the brazenness of the assault is unparalleled. Not even the AFSPA empowered Army personnel would have gone to the extent. The assaulted man, Arambam Amitabh, was beaten up in broad daylight, in spite of his identifying himself as a police officer, in front of his wife and children, that too on the busy thoroughfare outside the Kangla western gate. It was indeed an arrogant pronouncement of impunity, and wilful disregard for the law. It was equally a declaration that the only effective law in this land is defined by the power that flows out of the barrel of the gun, and that the bigger the gun, the more forceful the law. There is nothing reassuring about this outlook, for history is lesson that this can only lead to a competition to own the biggest guns.

What makes the matter even worse is, the violence witnessed was not on account of anything grand like waging war against the nation. The poor man was being publicly savaged and humiliated because he was not prompt enough in allowing a motorcade of the Speaker to overtake and pass his vehicle. Since the Assembly is currently not in session, we cannot help wondering what the urgency was all about. Or were the Speaker`™s escorts given the impression that the Speaker owns the roads in Imphal, and that all traffic on the roads must side and come to a grinding halt to make his vehicle pass every time he decides to be on the road? And if somebody, for whatever the reason fails to do this as if by instinct, they have the right to simply beat and humiliate him like an animal? Since nowadays even animals have rights, such cruelty would have amounted to an affront on the law. Hence while cow slaughter has been made illegal, in Manipur it seems humans can be brutalised and slaughtered at will by those who are supposed to be holding up the law.

The complete absence of remorse could not have been more chilling. The VIP convoy simply drove away after the assault. At no time did the VIP make a move to intervene and put a halt to the nonsensical savagery. It was as if he was endorsing the whole macabre drama. We can be only grateful that as his convoy left the scene, the VIP did not roll down his window halfway and throw a coin at the injured man before rolling up the window again, in the manner the noble in Charles Dickens`™ `A Tale of Two Cities` did to the peasant his horse carriage injured on a street of Versailles. There has not been any apology from his side either, and instead, there are already talks of filing counter charges of first assault against the injured man, and that the security escorts were merely acting in self defence. Imagine an unarmed man, travelling with his family, which included young children, making a bare hand assault on a score and more men with lethal weapons. The conclusion is simple. Either the injured man thought he was Superman, or one of those Marvel Comic heroes, or else those reportedly making these counter charges are liars.

Let us come back to earth. Nobody will deny VIPs do deserve some priorities. But this cannot be to all extent. Moreover, even if there have been perceived breaches of the law, there are civilised ways of dealing with these. The brutish manner in which the VIP escort party resorted to assaulting a man for delaying the passage of the Speaker`™s convoy on the road, is nothing but hooliganism. Let the law take note of this, and if it is interested in saving itself some grace, have the thugs punished.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/impunity-redefined/

What a parody. And now sections of the Meiteis want to be classified as tribals. It is a parody because there is almost a contest today to be considered backward and primitive, not for anything else, but for the sake of some preferential treatment in the government scheme of things. Pride and dignity in the ability to take the world head on without needing props is becoming a thing of the past. True there are situation in which certain sections of the society which have lagged behind because of unfair historical reasons need to be extended the liberal state`™s facilities of positive discrimination, but this is a bitter medicine to enable these sections to catch up and be at a par with the rest before open competition becomes the rule again. A very curious twist in the understanding of the terms tribal, tribalism, backwardness etc have happened because of the nature of statutory incentive structuring. Today these terms are no longer a sociological condition but a Constitutional definition. Under the circumstance the criteria that make somebody a tribal is not about primitiveness of lifestyles, customs, worships etc, but simply a matter of finding a place in the Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. In the Indian context then, we are no longer talking about `tribes` in the real sense of the term, but `Schedule Tribes`. For surely, a Class-I Central government officer from the tribal belt of the northeast for instance, posted in New Delhi, owning a flat, car, mobile phone, bonds in the money market, and for whom credit cards are virtual oxygen for survival in the advance market economy, cannot by any stretch of imagination, be still considered a `tribal` except by the sterile definition given by the Constitution.

The truth is, the Constitution continues to stick to its definition, hence the mad race to be defined thus, the latest to join in being this section of the Meiteis. This is close on the heels of the Adivasis in Assam. Some years ago, the world witnessed the shocking incident in Guwahati`™s Beltola when Adivasi demonstrators, demanding to be classified as tribals in Assam, were savaged by residents of the area, after, it is reported, the demonstrators started rampaging shops in the vicinity and cars parked on the roadside. All of us also watched with horror on the television, an Adivasi woman atrociously stripped and physically abused by the mob, even as onlookers did nothing more than click pictures on their mobile phones. Some of these images later found their way into the newsrooms of various newspapers and satellite television channels. The reprisal was reprehensible and deserves universal condemnation, but having said this, it is essential to go beyond the immediate. What is it that made the Adivasis in Assam, who are the descendants of indentured labourers brought from the tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, to the state by the British during colonial days to work on their tea estates, suddenly decide they should be classified as tribals. Should a tribal who has volitionally shifted from his original land and tribal environment be still entitled to be called a tribal, is the million rupees question. Sanjib Barua in a recent article in The Telegraph tried to tackle the problematic question. The reason why the Adivasis (tea tribes as they are also known as) of Assam landed in Assam`™s tea estate and not in the sugar cane plantations in Mauritius, Fiji Islands or the Caribbean, is just a matter of having signed on different labour contract forms of the then British India government. Descendants of those who went to these other destinations have risen to become Prime Ministers and Presidents or win the Nobel Prize. Would it be appropriate to call Sir Vidya S Naipaul a tribal? Would he like the idea? Doubtful! The Meiteis, especially the Sanamahi faith followers who have been in the forefront of this demand, must reconsider their decision. Reservation would only deepen their addiction to government jobs, and in the process prevent the diversification of the place`™s economy. Vietnam`™s miraculous resurgence after the devastation of 30 years of war, is attributed to such a diversification of economy and consequently human resources, and this often contrasted with the stagnation of the Arab world despite its tremendous natural resources, resulting from the latter`™s addiction to doles and easy money. It would also split the Meitei society further. Indigenous worship does not always have to equate with tribal status. In any case Sanamahi is still a very important deity of the Hindus Meiteis too. There is something seriously wrong in a community which once prided itself for having evolved into a monarchy politically and economically regressing to the extent of wanting to be called primitive again.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/royal-challenge/

Of all the athletics feats in history, the one accomplished by Roger Bannister on May 6, 1954 at Oxford University`™s Iffley Road Track, is considered the greatest. Bannister`™s keen rivalry with Australian John Landy, another mile runner, also the most romantic. Bannister ran the mile for the first time in human history under four minutes, a barrier many at the time thought was the absolute limit of human capability. Bannister had an able competitor in another young man, John Landy in chasing this record thought to be unbreakable. When everybody had come to believe they were fighting for a lost cause, it happened at Oxford. Aided by two pace setters, Bannister crossed the finish line in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, just one sixth of a second short of four minutes. It was a moment for the world to celebrate. A barrier that none believed any human could cross was breached. If the event itself triggered euphoria, what followed was even more amazing. Nearly halfway around the world, just six weeks after Bannister did it, John Landy also accomplished the feat, completing the distance in 3 minutes 57.9 seconds, chipping off 1.5 seconds more from the record set by Bannister.

What made Landy suddenly able to do it after hearing of Bannister`™s achievement is the interesting question. Unlike Bannister, he did not need any pace setters to achieve the feat. In today`™s extremely competitive environment, using a pace setter would have put a cloud on records thus broken. Pace setters are fellow runners who are not in the competition for the top spot but who merely run ahead of the man meant to break the record for some time to make him chase them and then drop out. Bannister`™s record, although great, was still in the strict sense of the world, a team effort of three runners in which he took the lead role. All the same, nobody can deny the greatness of his feat. Moreover, Bannister beat Landy in a meet in Vancouver in August 1954 in which both ran sub-four-minute miles. The moot point is, the breach created by Bannister and later by Landy, ultimately resulted in a dam burst with runners after runners, from Steve Ovett to Sebastian Coe to Steve Cram to Noureddine Morceli to a whole stable of the finest mile runners, either emulating the record or else bettering it. Today the mile record stands at an incredible 3 minutes 43.13 seconds set in Rome in 1999 by Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj. American Steve Scott has also created a record of his own, having run the mile under four minutes 136 times in his career. They too have a lot to thank Bannister for opening up the road ahead of them. The Bannister story has subsequently been repeated in many other disciplines where human limit had seemed to have been reached. To name just two, the incredible long jump record by Bob Beamon, the sub 10 second 100 meters sprint by Jim Hines, both set at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, have all been relegated to history.

The obvious inference is, many of the hurdles and barriers before human goals, although may appear to be physical and insurmountable, often turn out to be more psychological. Just the knowledge and conviction that a goal is achievable can transform human endurance, approach and indeed capability. Which is perhaps why pioneers have a great role in charting the course for any society. The issue comes to mind in the event of some candidates from the state making it through the UPSC conducted recruitment test for the top Central government services, including the IAS and the IPS. For a middle class society like Manipur, the middle class dream of getting into the government services remains predominant and no dream has been as big as getting into the IAS. Although there have been some major consolations that some in the reserved categories have been entering these services, amongst the state`™s general category candidates, there still seems to be a mind block preventing them from going the extra distance and achieve the goal. Few now and then have made it, but they have been exceptions rather than rule. Our prayer and hope is, a breach has been created in the psychological barrier that had prevented candidates, many of them brilliant, from making it into these services. And just as Bannister and Landy did, we do hope the breach results in a dam burst, so that the place can actually begin dreaming beyond this middle class dream and reach for the sky without a sense of `sour grapes`.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/breaking-mind-barriers/

No State can wither away voluntarily. That is of course if a nation is to remain a cohesive, political entity. This is the hard lesson idealists, especially diehard followers of the intellectual colossus of the 20th Century, Karl Marx, have to learn. The State also predicates the military. As it stands today, the success of a republic is preconditioned by the military prowess it is able to acquire. People`™s rule does not mean marginalization of the State instrument. The past is the proof, but the present is no exception. And so it is symbolic that India, as any other country, celebrates its military on every anniversary of the day the day it became a republic 65 years ago by showcasing its latest military hardware in New Delhi. Civil processions of cultural and industrial contingents only follow the show of military strength, but these civil processions hardly can be said to be primary, although theoretically in a republic, the ordinary citizens are supposed to be ultimate sovereigns. In the state capitals, scaled downed versions of the same militaristic rituals are played out on the same day. The police and paramilitary forces in smart uniforms march to assure that behind the government is the power that flows out of the barrels of the guns. In war or peace, it is always the military that forms the overriding backdrop.

This is not a question of the State machinery doing a Kafkaesque turn and becoming an independent alien entity, accumulating power and defending the process of this continual power acquisition. There is a general will amongst the people that the State should evolve the way it has always been, with its military leading the way. The gun precedes the butter, regardless of what economists say. The response to a poll a little over a decade ago by a national magazine is interesting in this regard. On the question of what they considered as the pivotal event that launched India on the path of progress, an overwhelming number of respondents gave as their first choice the 1998 detonation of five nuclear weapons at Pokhran.

This logic is everywhere: In India as elsewhere. The military always predicates development. Take the instance of the North East Council, NEC. One of its chief requirements is for the Governors of the state to present a report of the law and order situation in their states and with this as one of the major guidelines, developmental plans are to be chalked out. It is also interesting to note that one of President George W Bush`™s defences for his invasion of Iraq now is that his country`™s aggression is all about making Iraq a true republic whose benefits can reach its people in an equitable way. It is another matter that the invasion has reduced Iraq today to a state of total anarchy. The earlier reasons professed for the war, as we all know, was the alleged weapons of mass destruction, WMD, in the deposed dictator, Saddam Hussein`™s arsenal. Although we object to the self righteousness and the assumption of egoistical sublimity in this attitude of the West `“ that WMDs are safe in their hands, but not in any other`™s `“ perhaps there is no other way of looking at peace than to think in terms of a balance of military power, rather than disarmament and demilitarization. This is not a question of pessimism but acknowledgement of a harsh reality.

The point then is, under the circumstance, the quest for peace must be reoriented for it to be meaningful. Even though many peaceniks will think this is perverse, deadly weapons in the possession of the State, it does seem continues to be a source of security and wellbeing for the people of the State. Ironic as it may sound, the republic must have weapons, the deadlier the better, to be able to convince its people it can guarantee them peace. There is also a reverse inference to this whole argument. Just as the military predicates the republic, challenges to the republic cannot but be of a militaristic nature. Insurgencies cannot be conducted through correspondences and appeals, but by violence alone. This is the tragedy, and the only way to get around the problem permanently would have ultimately to be to remove the reasons that spawned insurgency in the first place. Easier said than done.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/war-as-destiny/

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, non-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.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/bandh-menace/

Catholic schools in Imphal are open once again much to the relief of everybody, but especially parents of students studying in these pioneering institutes responsible for the initial spark that ignited a revolution in school education in the state. From all indications, there was a compromise reached with the militant group which was demanding a reservation of 15 percent seats in these schools, and in a less insistent way, in other premier private schools as well, for children of economically weak and underprivileged sections of the society. We do hope whatever the compromises reached to bring the faceoff to a conclusion were, they would not affect these schools adversely, for these are private institutions which run on their earnings, and therefore compelled by the basic logics of economics to live within their means only. But let all be reminded that it is not so much admission into these schools and tuition fees which put the burden on parents, but more so the cost of books and uniforms. Surely the schools cannot be expected to meet these expenses as well.

The spirit behind the demand however was honourable therefore we are happy a solution has been reached amicably. It was meant as a means to bridge at least some of the widening disparity between the well off sections of the society and those left behind by circumstance. But the matter has left bigger question unanswered. If the intent is to have the masses access good school education, why are there no serious campaigns to ensure government schools are capable of providing good education? Unlike private schools, which run on the money they earn, government schools are run on public tax money, and therefore available free or else at greatly subsidised rates to students. Teachers and staffs in these schools are much better paid than their private counterparts, and the funds available for the upkeep and expansion of their infrastructures, at least on paper, are much more liberal too. The vital thing lacking in these institutes however is commitment of the government authorities as well as staffs running them, to the mission of spreading education. These vital qualities are enforced rigorously in private schools by survival needs.

Had this been otherwise, and if government schools were as good as the best private schools, which they can very well be, given the commitment, imagine the benefits, not just for the underprivileged sections, but everyone. Parents then would only have to worry about their children`™s admission to the school nearest to their residences. None would have had to pay more than the taxes due under the education head. The egalitarian society this would have ensured would have been unmatched. In such a situation, opportunities would have been extended equally to all, and whatever differences that emerges thereafter would have been solely the result of the aptitude and industry of the individual students. Such differences would no longer have resulted in any sense of injustice too. This is very much a reality in Communist countries, China for instance, but it is not exclusive to them. Capitalist welfare states too have done well in the regard. In Britain for instance, as in India, government schools are run on public tax money, therefore virtually free. Parents can send their children to exclusive and expensive private schools, but those who do not, have nothing very much to lose. This is the reality in most other developed countries too, regardless of political ideology followed, for they all know improving the quality of education is investment in the future.
Once upon a time, government schools in Manipur were competitive and committed. A look at the alumni of government schools of the first half and mid 20th Century will testify this. An ever growing culture of corruption and nepotism thereafter marginalised talents, and thus sowed the seeds for the present decay. Why aren`™t all those who vow to bring egalitarianism and quality education thinking of revolutionising this sector instead of victimising the privately run institutes? It would not be wrong to say private schools rescued school education in Manipur, so should not the effort instead be to make government schools imbibe the examples this success story set? We also only wish there were the equivalents of Catholic schools in the higher education sector too, to spark another revolution of the nature school education has seen in the state.

Leader Writer: pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/education-thoughts/

The case for the conversion of Jiribam into a full-fledged district remains hot on the anvil. Although decentralisation is desirable, the question that comes up in this case is, to what extent can anybody push the decentralisation argument without going out of the ambit of reason? If Jiribam does become a district, it would be the smallest district in the state with barely a lakh or so population. The district conversion, we suppose, will ultimately, if not immediately, be also accompanied by most or all of the bells and whistles that a district normally has, such as sub-divisions and blocks etc. If all these are allowed, who knows every fifth village in this new district may come to have an SDO office. And since there would be very little real work for these offices, like in so many other similar cases in Manipur`™s administrative history, they too would probably become ghost offices, with officers and staff existent only on paper. Ultimately, again as in so many precedents before it, government posts created to complete the official formalities of having full-fledged district headquarters and sub-divisions probably would become redundant because they have little use. Soon enough, maybe many of these posts would come to be transferred along with those holding the posts to places where they can be put to some use at least. By necessity as well as pressures from the employees themselves, probably the destination would be again Imphal. We already know how much such transfers with posts have been used in the past as the whipping stick to lash at a supposedly Imphal-centric administration, but these moves are not always motivated.

Having said this however, the Jiribam issue remains problematic in other alternative scenarios too. At the present Jiribam is being administered as a sub-division of the Imphal East district. The drawbacks and handicaps faced by the population there because of this are obvious and beyond dispute, considering the 220 km distance between the present district headquarters and this sub-division, as well as the immense hazards of travelling on the progressively deteriorating NH-53. There were also suggestions as to why this dub-division which was adjacent to the Tousem sub-division of Tamenglong district was not affiliated to the Tamenglong district instead. On the face of it, this seems like a reasonable suggestion, but there are definitely more to the problem, and again little to do with ulterior motives of Imphal. On the other hand, the problem has precisely to do with the disparate administrative and land revenue tenureship norms followed amongst non-tribal and tribal populations. If a way was to be found whereby the two norms were made reconcilable without depriving anybody of democratic rights, such as enfranchise rights etc, there probably would not have been any tangible objection to Jiribam becoming a part of Tamenglong. But such is not the case at this point in time, and even administrative districts are not seen as administration devices of the state, but as ethnic territories.

It is also on consideration of this same irreconcilability of administrative norms and land revenue tenureship that the Hmar students have been raising a voice that no Hmar village should be clubbed to the proposed Jiribam district if it does come to be a reallity. For Jiribam district, when and if it does come into existence, obviously would come under, among others, the Maniput Land Reforms & Land Revenue Act, which till date has not been made applicable in the hill districts. Even if the proposed new Jiribam district comes closer to reality, the challenge before the state government would be to evolve a mechanism by which the two radically different outlooks to land revenue administration, discover and agree to a meeting point. For as it stands today, it would not be fair to have Jiribam continued to be administered by remote control from Imphal East, or merged with Tamenglong, but by the same principle, the apprehension of the Hmars and other tribal communities that they may end up marginalised in a non-reserved environment is understandable and deserves a concerned ear. It will not be easy, but the government must have to find a way to negotiate this sensitive issue without unduly hurting anybody`™s legitimate and rational, as opposed to unfounded and irrational interests. It success in resolving the Jiribam issue can be the cue to a future solution to the myriad ethnic frictions on the larger canvas of the entire state.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/jiribam-litmus-test/

The increasing frequency of riots by black Americans in America, among many others, is a source of valuable insights into ethnic conflicts back home. In the wake of the latest of these riots at Baltimore, President Barak Obama came out strongly in a media statement during a joint appearance before the press with visiting Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, which the American intelligentsia has described as the 15 minutes Obama was painfully honest. He was described as being consciously acknowledging his blackness and at the same time speaking from as a non partisan leader of a multi-ethnic nation. In his characteristically articulate manner, he condemned the crime on the streets, but also in no uncertain terms pointed out how America is still inherently racist, without actually mentioning the word. He condemned police brutality but acknowledged it is the circumstances they are thrown into which made them resort to what they have done. In similar manner, he condemned the (black) street rioters, saying that the violence and looting they perpetrated cannot be treated as protest or resistance, but plain stealing, therefore criminal, but also attributed the blame for the community turning lawless to the inequalities that not just the American system allowed, but also the (white) Americans by and large have encouraged by their insensitivity to the issue of inequality and deprivation of opportunity to the community increasingly prone to street rioting. All this was said in 15 minutes of his address to the media. `In those environments, if we think that we`™re just gonna send the police to do the dirty work of containing the problems that arise there, without as a nation and as a society saying what can we do to change those communities, to help lift up those communities and give those kids opportunity, then we`™re not gonna solve this problem,` he said. `We can`™t just leave this to the police. I think there are police departments that have to do some soul searching. I think there are some communities that have to do some soul searching. But I think we, as a country have to do some soul searching,` he continued. The lecture could very well have been by a Harvard social science professor.

The temptation to quote more from Obama`™s speech is difficult to suppress: `This is not new,` he continued, `It`™s been going on for decades. And without making any excuses for criminal activities that take place in these communities, what we also know is that if you have impoverished communities that have been stripped away of opportunity, where children are born into abject poverty; …` the trouble can only increase he added. `If we are serious about solving this problem, then we`™re going to not only have to help the police, we`™re going to think about what can we do, the rest of us, to make sure that we`™re providing early education to these kids, to make sure that we`™re reforming our criminal justice system so it`™s not just a pipeline from schools to prisons, so that we`™re not rendering men in these communities unemployable because of a felony record for a non-violent drug offense; that we`™re making investments so that they can get the training they need to find jobs.`

Many of us will agree Obama has also practically summed up the dynamics behind much of the conflict we witness in the Northeast. Here too the State`™s resort has been to strong-armed measures, and what more proof of this we need than the continuance of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA. These strong-armed measures, it must be agreed, were also a response to serious breaches of law. What is equally true is, these measures notwithstanding, the core issue of conflict remains unresolved, and is unlikely to be in the foreseeable future if attitudes do not change. This is so, because the disease and its symptoms continue to be confused here, as Obama says is the case in America. A soul searching by those throwing these challenges to the State; a soul searching by the instruments of these strong-armed measures; but most importantly a soul searching by the larger national civil society is called for. What Obama has also questioned is the idea of democracy itself. At its core, mere granting of adult franchise to all is not all there is about democracy. Ensuring a fair access to opportunity and preventing excessive disparity in wealth and status, are just some more values that are inevitable in making the idea of democracy complete. Only when this happens, the enviable situation of the citizenry abiding by the law out of respect and not fear can come about.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/05/to-respect-or-fear-the-law/

It is time for the human rights debate in Manipur, where the endless string of mayhem for the past many decades has disoriented the people of the finer points of rights and entitlements, is given a fresh approach. The clash between draconian laws and brutal counter laws, decrees and diktats, has desensitized their finer appreciations of the beauty of even the much hyped idea of freedom. Today, if an ordinary man on the street were to be posed the question as to what he thinks freedom is, the answer in all likelihood would be the rote, superficial, textbook or else indoctrinated definition of it. If he or she understands or believes more than just what it is being advocated to mean, the answer is likely to be a studied silence. A silence induced by fear, whichever side of the fence the belief leans towards amidst the intense conflict over the issue in the place. But an honest answer to the question is important. For one thing, on it will hinge the solution to many of our problems. For another, many other questions of import will necessarily have to be derivatives of it. As for instance, linked to it would be our understandings of rights, justice and a sense of a benign republican polity.

When things get complicated, it is always helpful to refer to the thumb-rule that says begin from the basic. A good way of doing this is as Economics Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen says in his book `Development As Freedom`, to consider the term `unfreedoms` rather than the more ethereal `freedom`. What are the conditions in our individual as well as community life that shackle and weigh down our ability to exercise our freedom of thought, belief and action? Poverty, unemployment, deprivation of political voice, inadequate empowerment to participate and formulate policies that govern our lives, depletion of a sense of purpose in life, shrinking of hope of acquiring the skills and abilities to enhance one`™s own quality of life? What are the `unfreedoms` that are coming in the way of our sense of a more comprehensive `freedom`? We will not presume to know the answer but all we can say is that these are material for honest and intense introspection for all of us at this juncture of our history. This is also the only way we can separate the illusory from the substantial, so vital in our situation.

More urgently, a similar introspective approach is also called for to refresh our understanding of the `human rights` question. The question as to what is `just` and what is `right`, may be relatively easy to answer from the legal standpoint but not so when it is considered as a moral query. This is a very old doubt of humankind and has appeared in literature and philosophy through the ages, and quite interestingly, in this debate, there have always been a grudging admiration for those who have presented dissenting views to the accepted and dominant reasoning. In John Milton`™s `Paradise Lost`, Milton himself seems at times to tacitly empathise with Satan`™s reason for rebelling against what Satan described as God`™s dictatorship, however benevolent. In the Hindu scripture of Bhagavad Gita too, there are many who see Arjuna`™s initial opposition to Krishna`™s sermon that nothing ultimately matters except doing duty to God even if this means bloodshed. Among these who see the human predicament in Arjuna`™s dilemma, is again Amartya Sen in his `The Artumentative Indian`. While duty to God is important, shouldn`™t a consideration of the consequences of this duty be any less important, Sen ponders.

Closer at home, Ratan Thiyam seems also to agree with Arjuna. In his `Kurukshetragi Pirang` (Tears of Kurukshetra) which considers what might have happened after the Mahabharat War, against the backdrop of wails of war widows and orphans, the director poses the same question that Arjuna posed Krishna. This victory of the good over evil can be pyrrhic and even cynical. One is also reminded of Max Weber`™s notion of the `State` as the sole wielder of `legitimate violence` in the larger interest of the citizenry. The non state players in our conflict situation also presume this right to legitimate violence, aspiring as they do to be States. In the Weberian sense then, the two are very much the different sides of the same coin. The point is, this `legitimate violence` has increasingly been the cause rather than deterrent of violence against the citizens. Can `legitimate violence` then still be morally legitimate?

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/04/rights-and-wrongs/

There is a well known unwritten rule about rules. It simply says, know the rules well enough to creatively break it. It sound rather absurd, but one supposes its logic is derived from the fact that while rules are absolutely necessary in bringing about a semblance of order in every walk of life, no rule can cover everything about any walk of life either `“ hence the need to go beyond the rules without debunking the rules altogether at some point or the other. This rather oxymoronic notion seems now ready to be called into play in the ongoing debate on quality education in Manipur. The question is, must education be all about formal education only. The obvious answer is `no` but said in many different ways. This acknowledgement for instance is why schools and colleges emphasize on the need for extracurricular activities. But what about in the extreme cases of alternative education advanced as a total or near total substitute for formal education? The question comes to mind as the world observed November 24 as the International Day against child abuse. It is not a surprise at all that so many think employing children in various physically trying professions must constitute child abuse. The most cited examples are children employed in motor vehicle workshops and other skilled jobs. Should not there be exceptions? For one thing, in many of these jobs, it is not only a question of employing children as in exploiting cheap, unquestioning, labour, but also a lot about apprenticeship where these children are taught skills on the job so that they are prepared for make a profession out of the training to keep the family hearth burning in adulthood.

The need, as one sees it, is not to generalize all kinds of child labour as abuse. If they are employed for unproductive, non-educative menial jobs such as dishwashers in restaurants or floor scrubbers, and for the profit and benefit of their employers alone, then obviously it would amount to abuse. But not every child job profile is or can be of the nature. The motor vehicle workshop case is a fit example. It is because of this tradition of apprenticeship education that Manipur today can proudly boast of a rich human resource of skilled labour in areas such a motor, electrical mechanics, blacksmith, goldsmith etc. Many of these skilled hands have had no formal education, yet they have a self made job although they would be automatically disqualified to white collared categories of jobs. This is not to say formal education can be done away with for anybody. It should not be too. But what is called upon is for education curriculums and schedules to be restructured so that formal education reaches out to those in these non-formal educations (apprenticeship) and not the apprentices having to bend over backwards reaching out to formal education. They must be made to learn the letters alongside their apprenticeship so that they will have a broader scope to enhance their skills through not just practical experiences, of which they would have acquired in plenty, but also from the inexhaustible knowledge banks accumulated through the ages in books.

To each according to his potential, must be the motto. It is not essential for everybody to be MA, or Ph.D degree holders. These should be for those inclined to and have the aptitude for academics and researches. Not every job must be white-collared ones either, but unfortunately this seems to be the popular notion in the present times. Because this is so, so many of the traditional professions, of which there are many in the state, are systematically withering away. Everybody today wants a government job and the rest has become senseless. Compare this to some of the famous and prospering traditional professions such as in Europe. One can at once think of the tradition of Scotch Whiskey making. Some families have been in the profession (business) for over four centuries. Under the circumstance, the perfection they have reached is also not altogether unimaginable. Sports professionals too leave formal studies early and consider their professional trainings as much education as what they would have done picking up a Ph.D degree. Nobody can say for instance that Pete Sampras did injustice to himself for opting to leave school young to concentrate on a career in Tennis. The same can be said of so many other extremely successful professionals. Formal education is important no doubt, but let it not exclude all other non formal skill learning process as exercises in illiteracy.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/04/apprenticeship-as-education/

The Chief Minister, Okram Ibobi`™s worry at the thought of the Centre ending the special category status for North East states, ought to be a worry for everybody in the Northeast. With perhaps a little exception in the case of Assam, for the rest of the hill states, including Manipur, this can mean very disturbing scenarios. At this moment, the economies of all of these states are virtually Centrally sponsored, with 90 percent of its budgetary requirements coming as the state`™s share of the Centre`™s tax resources. Even then, these states have been showing deficits because they are not even able to raise the remaining 10 percent. As `sponsored economies` they have been so used to annual budgets much larger than their actual means that it would be disastrous if their budget sizes were forced to be reduced suddenly.

Consider the case of Manipur. If the approximate strength of government employees in the state is one lakh, and their mean salary is about Rs. 30,000, the monthly expenditure on salaries alone by this conservative estimate would be Rs. 300 crores a month, or Rs. 3600 crores annually. This means the annual non-plan budget size of the state would have to be at least Rs. 3600 crores. What about the plan section of the budget? This can be limitless, as so much roads, hospitals, dispensaries, market sheds, bridges etc, are left to be built… Just to keep the public infrastructures from degenerating and disappearing, probably a plan size that at least matches the non-plan budget would be the minimum requirement. This would make the annual budget requirement total up to Rs. 7200 crores. As of now, states like Manipur cannot probably even imagine raising this kind of money from taxes. Of course, the state will continue to have a share of the Central taxes, but as a non special category state, this will probably be in the vicinity of 10 percent of its annual budget, not 90 anymore.

Although details are not out as yet, the Central government probably means it will take much of the burden of funding the plans these state`™s take up, but would leave the states to take care of its non-plan expenditures, of which salaries form the bulk. Can the state, from its own earnings, pay the current salary standards of its employees? At this moment, even simple arithmetic says this is impossible. From the state`™s own tax resources, sparing Rs. 3600 crores for this head seems a remote possibility just as yet. But in the unlikely scenario of the Centre insisting this will have to be the case, in all probability government employees will also come to earn by the current actual market standard of Manipur, and like employees in the state`™s fledgling private sector, take home around Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 10,000 a month. Or maybe less, for unlike the private sector enterprises, which are forced to live within their means, and therefore do not over-employ, the government sector is full of non working employees, who are either out for tea most of the working hours, or else on cease work strikes.

This scenario is unlikely just as yet. There will be some formula or the other evolved to ensure these states do not descend into total anarchy. But this scare ought to ring the alarm bells. As long as the times are good, perceptions may not change. But if the Indian economy for some reason decelerates and difficult times return, people in richer states whose taxes are subsidising the `sponsored economies` of the Northeast may begin to protest, and budgetary cuts in these states may become unavoidable. Manipur, like the other Northeast states, must introspect seriously on the matter, and begin to learn living within its means. Individual incomes of its people by and large must not be inflated too much above what the real GDP of the state permits. At this moment, this real GDP is stunted and stagnant, though as a sponsored economy it has been growing superficially. The trouble will begin when the sponsors decide not to sponsor. What is grotesque is that this stunted economy also has now thrown up a coterie of contractor-bureaucrat-politician nexus, building opulent mansions and driving super expensive cars. Their narcissistic unconcern of the plight of the larger society and shamelessness of possessing wealth far beyond legal sources of income is simply frightening. If Jared Diamond`™s description of ancient societies which once flourished but ultimately became extinct is anything to go by, the emergence of this unconcerned elite does not auger well for Manipur`™s future.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/04/sponsored-economy-woes/

The Chief Minister, Okram Ibobi`™s worry at the thought of the Centre ending the special category status for North East states, ought to be a worry for everybody in the Northeast. With perhaps a little exception in the case of Assam, for the rest of the hill states, including Manipur, this can mean very disturbing scenarios. At this moment, the economies of all of these states are virtually Centrally sponsored, with 90 percent of its budgetary requirements coming as the state`™s share of the Centre`™s tax resources. Even then, these states have been showing deficits because they are not even able to raise the remaining 10 percent. As `sponsored economies` they have been so used to annual budgets much larger than their actual means that it would be disastrous if their budget sizes were forced to be reduced suddenly.

Consider the case of Manipur. If the approximate strength of government employees in the state is one lakh, and their mean salary is about Rs. 30,000, the monthly expenditure on salaries alone by this conservative estimate would be Rs. 300 crores a month, or Rs. 3600 crores annually. This means the annual non-plan budget size of the state would have to be at least Rs. 3600 crores. What about the plan section of the budget? This can be limitless, as so much roads, hospitals, dispensaries, market sheds, bridges etc, are left to be built… Just to keep the public infrastructures from degenerating and disappearing, probably a plan size that at least matches the non-plan budget would be the minimum requirement. This would make the annual budget requirement total up to Rs. 7200 crores. As of now, states like Manipur cannot probably even imagine raising this kind of money from taxes. Of course, the state will continue to have a share of the Central taxes, but as a non special category state, this will probably be in the vicinity of 10 percent of its annual budget, not 90 anymore.

Although details are not out as yet, the Central government probably means it will take much of the burden of funding the plans these state`™s take up, but would leave the states to take care of its non-plan expenditures, of which salaries form the bulk. Can the state, from its own earnings, pay the current salary standards of its employees? At this moment, even simple arithmetic says this is impossible. From the state`™s own tax resources, sparing Rs. 3600 crores for this head seems a remote possibility just as yet. But in the unlikely scenario of the Centre insisting this will have to be the case, in all probability government employees will also come to earn by the current actual market standard of Manipur, and like employees in the state`™s fledgling private sector, take home around Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 10,000 a month. Or maybe less, for unlike the private sector enterprises, which are forced to live within their means, and therefore do not over-employ, the government sector is full of non working employees, who are either out for tea most of the working hours, or else on cease work strikes.

This scenario is unlikely just as yet. There will be some formula or the other evolved to ensure these states do not descend into total anarchy. But this scare ought to ring the alarm bells. As long as the times are good, perceptions may not change. But if the Indian economy for some reason decelerates and difficult times return, people in richer states whose taxes are subsidising the `sponsored economies` of the Northeast may begin to protest, and budgetary cuts in these states may become unavoidable. Manipur, like the other Northeast states, must introspect seriously on the matter, and begin to learn living within its means. Individual incomes of its people by and large must not be inflated too much above what the real GDP of the state permits. At this moment, this real GDP is stunted and stagnant, though as a sponsored economy it has been growing superficially. The trouble will begin when the sponsors decide not to sponsor. What is grotesque is that this stunted economy also has now thrown up a coterie of contractor-bureaucrat-politician nexus, building opulent mansions and driving super expensive cars. Their narcissistic unconcern of the plight of the larger society and shamelessness of possessing wealth far beyond legal sources of income is simply frightening. If Jared Diamond`™s description of ancient societies which once flourished but ultimately became extinct is anything to go by, the emergence of this unconcerned elite does not auger well for Manipur`™s future.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/04/sponsored-economy-woes/