James Michael Lyngdoh, the Ex-Election Commissioner and the executive member of ' IRI ' [India Rejuvenation Initiative], solely formed to combat corruption at high levels of governance at all India level, has proposed, in their recent 'CLARION CALL TO END CORRUPTION' (The Hindustan Times- Pg 8- Feb 22, 2008), that Electoral Reforms must see to it that 'Parliamentarians' and 'State Legislators' get elected by 50% of the total votes polled in a Constituency. This would certainly bring any semblence of order in our 'New Age Vote-Bank based Politics'
Likewise Sadguru Vamanrao Pai - A Goan, residing in Mumbai, who has been giving a series of lectures to Goan students et al at Kala Academy, etc. has, in a one to one session with us, as well as through news reports (Navprabha dtd. 14/2/08), voiced his apprehensions over the present electoral system stating that:- "It is the political party that matters, not the candidate. Election is the root cause of all corruption. There is an urgent need for electoral reforms because all illegalities are committed to win the elections. People should choose the right political party rather than the individual (candidate). As per the constitution of India, party which gets majority of seats is invited to form the government. In the present situation, no party will get absolute majority and therefore coalition governments are the order of the day. Therefore, the electoral reforms must see that the government is formed by the party that wins the majority of seats and no other. This is the only way to bring corruption under control. COMMENTS: This brings us to Goa's last Assembly Elections, 2007. In one of our pre-election Party presentations to the citizens of the Aldona Constituency, mostly prominent citizens, we advised them to refrain from voting for Party candidate/s, but to vote for the PARTY instead, its ideology, its written down programmes, its policies, its set procedures to be followed before and after elections and its un-renegeable commitments for GOA. We told them that it did not matter who the candidate of the Party was. We told them that our Party does not recognize 'winnability' as the characteristics to offer its tickets but solid commitments from the persons seeking tickets, based on their life-style and general acceptance of their conduct (private or public) by the people as also their professed commitment to the Party's 'Constitution' , its 'Road Map for Goa' and generally the ideology and its raison d'etre. However, we were unprepared for a host of protestations. Almost everyone voiced their disagreement to our line of thinking and said that they would not be interested in the Party as such but would vote for the candidate, if she/he was 'good'. Now, how could we tell them that every person considers himself/herself 'a good person' irrespective of whether others perceive him/her to be bad? That even a very good person will have a 'price' to his conduct after elections, especially in the absence of written down guarantees that certain things are not done and will not be done?. How could we tell them that what we are experiencing in Goa's politics today is exactly due to this manner of thinking??? The question that arises is 'how do we expect Goa's politics to change for the better if the people are adamant not to change the way they think?? Per se, the general attitude of the Goan voters seem to be to help a person get elected, only to admire his/her capability and capacity to amass incredible wealth for himself/herself at their own cost in the shortest period of time. If this is not utter 'selflessness' on the part of the voters where it ought to have been the other way round, i.e. selfishness to protect the money's worth of the bleeding taxes they pay, we shall never know what it really is. Goans seem not to realise that when it comes to 'politics' charity must start at home. A second incident that took place was at the meeting we had with the UGDP to discuss electoral alliance for the up-coming Elections-200. Atanasio Monserrate was the bone of contention. At the outset, we told them (UGDP) that we will proceed with the talks only if they had no plans for Atanasio Monserrate re-joining the Party. They said they had no plans on the anvil and that we could take it or leave it. But one of their lady members scoffed at- what she prefered to called - 'your high-moral-pedestal'. She said that politics meant winning elections; that Politics and Morals were two different entities which should not and cannot mix. Our response was: "You tell us how many elections your party has fought for far; how many candidates got elected and how many remained with the Party". And as a note of caution, we told her that "if at all Goa was sinking today, it was because its Politics was diametrically opposed to the moral values which must be the guiding force of any 'good-effective-governance'"." Our business" we told her "is to get Politics and Moral Values as close together as possible, knowing that it will be nigh impossible to get them to merge due to lead person's latent ambitions and vested interests" . On that note the talks continued and the said alliance was established. However, the young alliance was called-off by us the day the UGDP took in Atanasio Monserrate. He did get elected on the UGDP ticket, but the people of Taleigao never voted for the UGDP. They voted for Babush . And this victory of the people of Taleigao has gone on to re-write the political history of Goa in a manner that we are all aware of. floriano goasuraj ----------------------------------------------------------------- GOA needs a 'REVOLUTION' if it is to see better days. Goasuraj is that revolution. Support it. email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: www.goasu-raj.org
