'Political Shakers & Movers'
This write-up is prompted by the Star Letter - Herald [26/May/2008] -
'Reader Speak' - captioned 'Government for the People' by Jose Maria
Miranda.
The general refrain we hear today with respect to Goan politics is that " we
must elect good people " This is expressed through the letters to the
editors , in the editorial articles, in sermons and religious briefings,
people we talk to, etc. One thing is sure, politically what is what and
who does what has captured the imaginations of the people of late. People
who are touched by Goa and who have realized that this veritable golden
goose is being torn apart by forces to satisfy their insurmountable greed,
have come to terms with the understanding of our politicians who have become
like our household fixtures, difficult to get rid-of, for sentimental
reasons. And we pass our judgments on them which would not be entirely fair.
We have called them the 40 thieves, comparing them to the story-book 'Ali
Baba and his ruthless gang, who went about pillaging and plundering and
coming back home with the loot to the chant of 'OPEN SESAME'. In Goa, the
chant, by and large, has been: 'Open Thy doors Oh 'Public Treasury'. And
we have called our politicians all sorts of names. But when the opportunity
comes along every election time to cleanse Goa's dirty politics by
rejecting these so called dirty politicians and/or to teach them, as well
as the parties that field them, a good lesson, we have been found
wanting, and miserably so, at that.
I say that there is no such thing as 'good, bad or ugly' politician and
there is no such thing as a 'political carrier', because politicians are
not made. They are born. There are 'doers' who aspire to do good for the
sake of doing good so that every one benefits out of that action, including
the doers themselves, and, there are 'shakers & movers who will want to
do good, if only they and theirs will benefit and the rest be damned.
Most of the politicians, who have touched us for long or even brushed us
briefly through their short stints, are and have been good, respectable
persons. If they were not, we would have been throwing rotten eggs at them
at every opportunity we got. I don't see Pratapsing Rane, who is a
Harvard graduate, as a bad person. If that was true then he would not be
the Chief Minister of Goa 7 times over with a distinguished political
career. Rane Jr. cannot be a bad person. After all has he not been elected
with a thumping and enviable win. The same holds good for Dayanand Narvekar,
Babush Monserrate, Mickey Pacheco Manohar Parrikar, Sardinha, Luizinho
Faleiro, Jose Philip, Philip Neri, Babu Azgaonkar, Churchill brothers et
al. Either one of these two things has happened.
(1) They were propelled into politics because of their ability to lead, Or,
(2) They happened to get a 'winning lottery'.
In either case, unfortunately for us, they are elected by a dead flock,
meaning, the flock that has no idea where to go and where they are being led
to. If this is true, that we are dead and insensitive, then we do not have
the moral right to be sore at them, do we? Dead people or rather 'zombies'
(the living dead) do not complain, for they have forfeited their right to
complain by being dead, either dead dead or living dead. But then we have a
marvelous thing called the 'democracy' where only 49 per cent of the flock
is allowed to be stone dead with the remaining 51 per cent taking on a role
of being the not caring, not knowing, zombies. And the shakers & movers
that we choose to elect see to it that they are left all to themselves to
have the field day of leading no one but themselves towards the 'McKenna's
Gold' for the simple reason that the 51 per cent zombies drag-pushes the
49 per cent dead-load over the precipice, to get themselves caught in the
sucking motion to be dragged over by the sheer momentum of the action,
leaving no one but the shakers and movers to do whatever they want to do.
During the election time, we first demand our price from them which they are
more than willing to part with. Then we elect them, bless them, garland
them, felicitate them, rejoice and make merry with them. After having gone
through all these uncalled for antics, we suddenly get up from our deep
sleep, raving and ranting, also to have the gall of calling them 'corrupt',
'selfish-seeking monsters' etc, that they do this and they do that. If
this has been happening consistently, which unfortunately has been, then
there must be something wrong at the core of the whole business of politics.
And why this is happening cannot be easily explained unless this is put in a
singular person.
On the one side, let us say that 'I' Floriano Lobo consider myself a very
good person, like every one else does. (I am yet to know of a person who
considers himself a bad person. Even the worst criminal will defend his
actions till the time he finds himself at the noose end of the rope and
hanging). And being a good person that I consider myself to be, the society
at large having been sold on this fact, if I stood for public office
elections and got elected, I would be doing a great dis-service to that
society. Any one would say that I am talking utter rubbish. No sir, I am
talking perfect sense. For one thing, I could have been cultivating the
thinking pattern in the society at large that I am a very good person. I
have been a regular at the Sunday Services if I am a Christian, practically
living in a temple and never letting go of the clanging bell if I am a
Hindu, etc. I have been in the thick of all agitations, vociferously and
thunderously voicing pro-people sentiments. I have been in the thick of all
dharnas and protests, holding the largest of the placards and occupying
front positions so that my picture is captured on anything and everything
that goes click click. I have been filing in and out of High Courts with
'Public Interest Litigations (PIL) .... and lot more other things. And
naturally, slow and steady, I have been cunningly mis-leading the society
that I would make a perfect 'politician with a difference'. And my joining
hands with one or the other political parties would be heralded and
felicitated as being a master move. The saga of a 'good person' has ended
just there.... on the threshold of his political entry.
On the other hand let us say that I am genuine at being good, doing all
those things mentioned above because I wanted to and because I just wouldn't
be able to sleep, otherwise. And suppose I did not nurse the obnoxious
understanding that politics is dirty, that I must have nothing to do with
politics, that politics is for politicians, that politics cannot be and must
not be allowed to be dirty because it affects my entire life. And for this
reason, people could be pushing me into the political arena, towards one
established political party or the other. It would be the people's choice
which I would accept but only to an extent. I wouldn't be pushed or shoved
into the traffic-line that goes nowhere else but ultimately ends into the
pocket. I would want to belong to a system that takes Goa to a better and
more defined destination. If I did not find such a system existing that I
could embrace unhesitatingly, I would be a catalyst in devising such a
system di novo and ensure that it would not and could not be compromised and
undermined at a convenient future date.
Coming back to reality, I have known good many people who have waited and
waited to get a chance to be assimilated into a political system which goes
nowhere. Why? Because that political system is big, it has a name, it has
been around for decades, it has generated world-recognized leaders etc.
There are known persons who have had the gall to believe that their entry
into the mega political system will have the system turned around. One such
person is 'George Menezes' of Mumbai, the famous write, who has openly
acknowledged the fact that he thought that by joining forces with the BJP,
he could change the way it thinks but found out the bitter truth in a
shortest possible time. I have been, since the year 2000, prompting
persons in Goa who have what it takes to lead Goa out of the morass that it
finds itself in, today, and increasingly getting mired into the worst of
its own making at every succeeding day, to join forces with a clean and
self-sacrificing, indigenous, Goa Centric system of governance. But sadly,
there have been not many takers. Why? Because the system that I belong to
does not believe in propping-up ladders to cater to the climbing political
careers, the worst of which is "NO SECOND TERM". People are interested in
political careers for themselves and also to pass these on to their
children as a family business..
Therefore, and not to find faults with the sentiments portrayed by Jose
Maria Miranda, I am quite pessimistic about Goa finding a lasting solution
in the near future to arrest the downward slide that has been initiated for
Goa since 1961, and which has presently attained the maximum possible speed
where Goa's very identity seems to be at stake, unless those supposedly
'good persons' who are interested in Goa's future rather than their own,
come forward to belong to a system of governance which is fully written
down, Goa-Centric first before being charitable to the whole world,
self-sacrificing and a system that scouts for new generation leadership
and seeks to promote it. And this option must not only be open to Goans in
Goa but to Goans world-wide to participate and to prosper in the preserved
goodness of the bountiful GOA of their dreams.
Floriano Lobo
383A, Pirazona,
Moira Bardez Goa.
Ph: (M) 9890470896 Res: (0832) 2470223
