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CONVENTION OF THE GOAN DIASPORA FROM GOA INTO THE WORLD
Lisbon, Portugal June 15-17, 2007 Details at:
http://www.goacom.org/casa-de-goa/noticias.html
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GETTING TO THE ROOTS.
Averthanus L. D'Souza
Corruption in the political establishment, as well as in the bureaucracy,
has become a matter of urgency and appears to be the overriding concern of
the citizens at the present time. Many political "leaders" and even Civil
Servants appear to have thrown up their hands in despair, and are advising
citizens to accept the situation as inevitable. Whenever they are told about
illegal actions taken by either Ministers or by Bureaucrats, they respond by
saying that there is not much that can be done about it.
This spirit of despair seems to have become so pervasive that there is a
possibility that honest citizens will soon catch the negative spirit and
come to accept the situation as irreversible. This, however, will spell the
doom of democratic government and, more important, it will mean the end of
freedom, to protect which, all governments are constituted. What then is the
solution to this seemingly insoluble problem?
CHANGE THE SYSTEM.
As of now, the citizens are identifying individual politicians and/or
bureaucrats who have acquired notoriety for corruption. They are asking for
their removal from their present positions; but this will only transfer the
problem to other areas. It will not eliminate the corruption which has
become so all-pervasive.
We need to dig deeper to see how a system allows corruption to flourish and
thrive. There are some types of fish which can survive only in fresh water;
and there are other kinds of fish that thrive only in saline water. It is
the quality of water that enables them to live and proliferate. There are,
yet, other monsters, like our breed of politicians who thrive only in the
swamps of secrecy and darkness. They can only be flushed out if the
political swamps are cleaned out.
The time has come for concerned citizens not only to point the finger at
corrupt individuals, but to also attack the system which makes it possible
for the corrupt to survive. Like the menace of the mosquito, we need to
deprive these human mosquitoes of their breeding grounds. How can this be
done?
TRANSPARENCY IN OPERATIONS.
It has become quite obvious that corrupt politicians have become adept at
manipulating the system to their own advantage. The recent fiasco of the
approval of a Regional Plan for Goa for 2011, showed clearly that the
Minister for Town and Country Planning had his own personal plans for
amassing personal wealth and power by so manipulating the entire system,
that it appeared to be legal.
Creating a façade of legality in order to get a highly destructive Regional
Plan approved is not a mean achievement for an adroit politician. It was
only the united and emphatic opposition of the citizens which exposed this
fraud for what it really was. One of the slogans which is most commonly used
by politicians to promote questionable projects is that they will provide
employment to the youth - as if creating employment opportunities is the
be-all and end- all of development in Goa. Citizens should be particularly
suspicious of such wild promises made by unscrupulous politicians. Whether
it is Infotech Parks, Special Economic Zones or Skybus and Monorail
projects, we know that any jobs that are created will not be for Goan youth.
The fraud perpetrated by Manohar Parrikar under the guise of a
"pre-employment training" scheme for youth is still fresh in our minds.
Aspirants were promised jobs which simply did not exist - and could not
exist.
RIGHT TO INFORMATION.
One of the instruments which has become available to the ordinary citizen
is the Right To Information Act. This is a legal recognition of the right of
the citizen to know how a decision has been arrived at. By using the RTI
Act, citizens can assess the process which resulted in the particular
decision being made. A citizen can find out whether the decision was made
after taking into account all the circumstances; whether the decision was
arbitrary; whether it was manipulated by special interests and so forth. By
using this instrument, citizens will be able to keep the politicians and
their bureaucratic subordinates in check. Many scandals have been exposed by
voluntary organizations which have had recourse to the Right To Information
Act. Of course, the system will resist the pressures, because it has become
accustomed to function in an arbitrary and casual manner. Only time, and
constant pressure will help to change the mind-set which has so far worked
against the interest of the common man.
TELL US HOW - NOT WHAT.
Candidates are accustomed to make impressive promises for the betterment
("development") of Goa. They never, (repeat never) tell us HOW they are
going to achieve these promises. It is time that citizens grill these
politicians on HOW they are going to achieve the objectives which they
promise. One politician is reported to have told his constituents that he
would provide 40,000 "government" jobs to the youth of his constituency if
he were elected. No one questioned him about whether the "government" could
absorb 40.000 untrained youth into the administration, and whether the State
could financially support such a huge workforce.
ACCOUNTABILITY.
Accountability is the other side of Transparency. Citizens, at all levels -
Panchayats, Gram Sabhas, Municipal Councils and Government, must DEMAND
accountability from their elected representatives. Our crooked and
unscrupulous politicians have given an unacceptable twist to the meaning of
accountability. As Manohar Parrikar once stated, he was elected by "the
people" for a term of five years, therefore he was free to do whatever he
liked during his tenure. If, after the five-year term, the people did not
approve of what he did, they were free not to elect him again for another
term. This is a sheer distortion of the concept of "accountability" By this
interpretation, an elected representative is free to plunder and pillage Goa
during his tenure, and no action should be taken against him during that
period. It reduces the concept of accountability to merely casting a vote
once in five years. In actual fact, an elected representative should be
"continually" accountable for his performance during the entire tenure of
his service as an elected representative. It is the duty of the citizens to
keep a very close watch on his every action, and to reprimand him if his
behaviour fails to conform with his election promises.
OVER THE LONG HAUL.
A systemic change takes a long time, and requires persistence and patience.
We can only change the existing system if we, as citizens, exercise our
rights in an enlightened manner and without fear. Our present breed of
politicians (some of them, at least) are not averse to use the threat of
force in order to silence opposition to their actions. They are even capable
of actually using force against their outspoken critics. It is up to the
Civil Action groups, like the Goa Bachao Abhiyan, Jagrut Goem, the Goan
Civic and Consumer Action Groups (GOACAN) and Utt Goenkara to exert pressure
on individual politicians as well as on the entire administrative system to
ensure that the political and bureaucratic machine works in favour of the
citizens - not in favour of those who operate the system.
Averthanus L. D'Souza,
D-13, La Marvel Colony,
Dona Paula, Goa 403 004.
Tel: 2453628
