-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Add your name to the CLEAN GOA INITIATIVE | | | | by visiting this link and following the instrucitons therein | | | | http://shire.symonds.net/pipermail/goanet/2005-October/033926.html | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The power to say No
by V. M. de Malar It's a cornerstone of freedom, the central and crucial aspect of free will, the final determinant of a democratic system. It is always powerful when a community or people has the ability to affirm its will and choice, it is even more meaningful when the people can properly exercise its right of refusal. The simple power to say no, we in Goa are gripped in a struggle right now that will establish whether we really are a free people with attendant rights and privileges. If we fail, make no mistake, it will demonstrate once and for all that our system is irretrievably broken, that special interests have corrupted our democracy completely. All in all, it has a been a good couple of weeks for people power in Goa after several months of unremitting bad news. Just a few weeks ago, it looked as though the illegal plunder of our hills and coastal lands was going to continue unchecked, no matter what the cost to our environment and living fabric of society. We were forced to watch, mute and powerless, as age-old village rights were grotesquely perverted and hundreds of thousands of metres of community lands in Assagao were targeted for vast development. Just a few weeks ago, it appeared as though the land mafia and its capos in the legislature had managed to get a stranglehold in development in Goa via a brutal ordinance. But today, it all looks considerably different. Group ire and collective disgust has led various sections of society to rediscover their backbones, to raise voices in public, to stand up and be counted at this crucial time of transition in Goa. Individuals in our midst have demonstrated that they will protest the defilement of our democratic process, and fill the jails if necessary to make their point, and that point is that we must have the right to say enough is enough. We must have the power to say no, we must have the right to defend each hillock and coconut grove from the bulldozers, we cannot allow our democratic process to be so perverted that we become powerless. Goa is in sore need of so many things right now, we are at the mercy of a political class with dwarfish stature and crudely venal motivations. We need a sophisticated tourism plan for Goa to help shape the ongoing tourism tsunami in manner a that preserves what is special, but all we have is unplanned anarchy and widespread illegality all the way up and down our coastline. We need a modern infrastructure, we need a better road network, we need to tackle this maddening garbage problem once and for all, but we get nothing but inaction, irresponsibility, and meaningless platitudes. But first of all we need to know that our fundamental rights have not disappeared, that the democracy we have fought for is still intact. Because it is not difficult to gauge the public mood; we have no patience for Ingo Grill's Assagao fantasy and particularly cannot accept the way the permissions were granted. On the ordinance that has now been tabled until the beginning of next year, the decision of the people is equally unambiguous. It is no on both counts, these insults cannot be tolerated. It is now up to us to make sure the system works, that this decision is affirmed and accepted and executed by our elected representatives and by our political system. This is a crucial period in Goa's history. Our lands, our living heritage, our intricate culture, all are at great risk as never before, our homeland is under tremendous pressure. Demand for what we have, everything we have, has never been greater. We have to act to preserve and maintain even as we remain open to growth and development. If we don't, the Goa we recognize will be wiped out in a generation, the Goa our ancestors cherished and maintained for centuries will disappear. As a people, we have to pay close attention at all times, we have to be our own watchdogs. There are plenty of things we can accept, but every now and then, it's very important to fully exercise the power to say no. ----- VM is an old-time Goanetter, now resettled back in Goa Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]