Fifty Golden Years of Appeasement Politics in the State

Dr. HH MohrmenJanuary 3, 2022

The Year the State reaches its golden milestone should also be the year that we look back and forward and more importantly look inward on how the governance system in the state has fared since the state was first established. We are now at the beginning of the year and we have barely passed two days of the year 2022 which is also an important year in the history of the state. More importantly it is that moment in the history of the state, when we need to ask difficult and piercing question like how best have the different governments govern the state in the last fifty years of its existence?

This article is looking at some area of governance which even if government in the state has changed from time to time in the last fifty years, but this particular aspect of governance has remained so as it was since the state was first established. It is telling the truth as it is that the current MDA government is no different from the previous government as it continues with the politics of appeasement in every aspect of governance.

The Politics of Appeasement

The NPP-led MDA government not only continues with the politics of appeasement in everything that it has done from proposal of development activities to appointment of chairman, vice chairman and members of different committees and commissions. Similar procedure is also being followed in the implementation of schemes and setting up of development projects in the different parts of the state. Decision to implement a project was not made based on data and other scientific information or evidence. In fact, in some case not even a proper study or baseline survey was conducted to arrive as such an important decision. In many cases the announcement was made at the drop of the hat just to pacify the party’s constituent which was rub on the wrong side and was severely affected by the decision. The case in point is the shifting of the Jowai North Division to Shangpung and how the government without doing any study and in one fell swoop announced that it will construct a mini secretariat in the location. The idea is that the land which was earlier used to house the Jowai North Division will now be used for construction of a mini secretariat. No doubt this is being done to appease the brother-in-law duo who are going to be affected by the decision.

Community Health Services

The health minister has recently laid the foundation stone of a proposed Community Health Centre at Shangpung but the truth is there is already a CHC very close to Shangpung. Laskeiñ CHC is less than 20 km from Shangpung and there are few questions which the public need to ask with regards to this grand plan of the MDA government. Question number one is, isn’t it true that Laskeiñ CHC is less than five kilometers from Shangpung as the crow flies? Can the government effort to have two CHCs at places which are at a very close proximity to each other and that too in the same development block? There are block which has no CHC like the Saipung block in the East Jañtia hills which it is also the most neglected area and it urgently needs a CHC. The next important question that the public are asking is, do we have enough doctors (as per norms) to man all the existing PHCs and CHCs in the state? The question is, isn’t it true that the CHC at Shangpung was proposed just to pacify the NPP MLA from the area who was recently dropped by Chief Minister from the council of minister?

It may also be not out of place to mention that a similar announcement was made before the 2018 election that the government of the day has decided to upgrade the Ummulong and Nartiang PHCs to CHCs. But the question is, is there any changes in the mentioned PHCs? More so when the MLA from the area was reelected and continues as a minister in the current government too? Obviously, the politician takes advantage of the fact that public memory is very short and the people were simply taken for a ride.

Higher Education

The state government can claim that it has done something in the area of higher education by starting Community’s colleges, which of course need to be applauded. But what exactly are these community colleges? Communities’ colleges which the government recently provide financial supported to, were colleges which were initially established by the communities at their respective location and the government is simply providing funds to improve the function of these colleges. There were no innovations introduced by the education departments to improve the content in the courses provided in these colleges, it is simply a case of adopting the college lock, stock and barrel as the community has left it.

In spite of the fact that the government is aware of the statistic that educated youths who graduated from similar colleges remain largely unemployed due to absent of skill training, yet no new thinking was put to come up with idea of how these colleges could address this very serious problem that the state is facing now. The government would have been able to kill two birds with this one stone if it had put on its thinking cap and come up with innovative idea and work on the strength that it already has.  It should have also trained youths in this community colleges on traditional skills, like agriculture farming, livestock farming and others which would help the youth gainfully employed when they return back to their community.

The truth is that Community College were recognized just to enable the education minister to financially support the college in his village and another case in Jañtia hills is to placate the other NPP MLA who was drop from a cabinet minister rank.

The government has also announced that it will start its own engineering college this year and the MDA government deserve to be appreciated for achieving this milestone. But again, the question that begs the answer is, isn’t it true that the college will continue to provide training on traditional engineering trades which are already very popular? We already have qualified youths in trades like civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering in plenty are we going to repeat the same mistake. Can we expect the government to introduce in this in new engineering college courses like Artificial Intelligence, Robot Science, Data Science and other new engineering courses which are expected to be in great demand in the future?       

Political Appointees

How many of those members appointed to the different committees and commission in the state who are not members of the ruling parties in the MDA coalition government? All such appointment is not based on educational qualification, merit, trainings or experiences but solely on the basis of political affiliation of the members. It seems the appointment is meant to accommodate the party loyalist and provide them opportunity to enjoy government’s pays and perks. In fact, the appointment is being treated as reward provided by the incumbent government to the party cadres for being loyal to the party.  

It will be interesting finding if an RTI is filed to find out the numbers of these political appointees and how much did the government spend to provide pays and perks to these appointees. May be one should start from the question as to how many advisers does the current Chief Minister has and how much have the incumbent advisors being paid?

Sports Development and the National Games

Despite the fact that the state has produced footballers of national repute, internationally acclaimed martial arts artist, award-winning athletes, yet the sports infrastructure in the state left much to be desired. The MDA government may say that the previous government has not done much in the department of sport either, but the question is what has this government done to improve sports facilities in the last four years? Sadly, the government’s plan to host the National Games as part of the state’s golden jubilee celebration seems to be going for a toss, as the plan is still in a disarray.

As the government is gearing up to celebrate the golden jubilees of the state, the question that we need to ask is, is the current MDA government any better than the previous governments with regards to the politics of appeasement? There is no doubt that this government is not only of no different from the previous governments, and with regard to appeasing the MLAs and party cadres, it has out-performed all the government before it.