Cleanse Society, Overthrow the Corrupt
By Mr. Plastino D’Costa
If at all one day India becomes free of corruption, than history might judge
the events that took place in the year 2011 effectively marked the beginning of
the end of the India corruption story. The year saw a simple man Anna Hazare
turning the corruption struggle on its head and force Indian law makers to work
overtime into drafting the anti-corruption bill. Although the bill is yet to
see the light of the day, at least there is some ray of light at the end of the
tunnel. 2011 also saw high profile politicians and corporate CEO’s jailed due
to their involvement in different types of scams.
All the above in jail deserved no sympathy, but for a moment if one takes time
to reflect on the family reunion of former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M.
Karunanidhi with his daughter Kanimozhi at the Tihar jail, one will have to
agree that it was an emotional nightmare for all involved parties. Imagine an
87 year old father, wheel-chair bound, forced to make a trip to jail to meet
his educated poet and journalist daughter. According to media reports the duo
cried seeing each other. This whole episode only demonstrates how the moral
fabric of our society has broken down.
How does a father entice his young daughter into accepting that first bribe?
What is the purpose of the daughter’s education, poetic wisdom at that, if she
was unable to decide between right and wrong? Does it make sense in having
fancy educational degrees that parents plan for their children, if ultimately
they teach kids to steal from the masses? Karunanidhi/ Kanimozhi are not the
last father/daughter combination we will hear embroiled in corrupt deeds. In
fact they might have motivated manipulative fathers into taking advantage of
their daughters.
There are two ways people create wealth for themselves, the straight or the
crooked method. In this imperfect world there will always be a certain
percentage of people in every society that will use the crooked method to
create wealth. The law usually will catch up with them, but before that, these
crooked people get discarded from society. Surprisingly this logic does not
work in the Goan society? The more you amass wealth through crooked means, the
more your social circle expands exponentially.
Call it ignorance of the people, deception by the corrupt, or crooks staying
ahead of the law, Goan perception towards the corrupt needs to transform. For
example the recent politician’s wealth published by media, as part of their
campaign to educate voters on how politicians amass wealth, when in power,
hardly makes any impact on the voting choice of the population. It actually
increases the social status of the politician in question with undue publicity,
thereby serving the purpose of motivating other wily Goans into joining the
bandwagon of politics.
But all is not lost we still have a chance to demonstrate that we are ready to
eliminate corruption in our society provided we take the hint. Politicians
might be under the impression that Goa’s music icon Remo Fernandes was chosen
by the Election Commission as the ‘Election Icon’ to attract Generation Next
voters to vote. That might be true, but by choosing Remo the Election
Commission has tried to send a strong message to voters that they fully endorse
what Remo has been advocating all this while on corrupt politicians. The choice
of Remo is a wakeup call to the Goan society to come out of the rut. It is now
for us to take the Elections Commission’s hint and elect honest leaders. We owe
it to the Generation Next Goans.
The year 2011 gave the people of Tamil Nadu a chance to prove that their
society was not corrupt, and prove they did, by throwing the corrupt
Karunanidhi’s DMK party out of power with huge margin. Goa gets its chance in
less than a week.
Above Article appeared on Herald, Goa on 26th February 2012
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protect Goa's natural beauty
Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve
Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
