Outsize Violence and Politics
- Thinking outside the box -

Amar Yumnam *

The Greek Tragedy playwright of the fifth century BC, Sophocles, saw life as nothing more than breath and shadow. He definitely was not writing of Greek of his times, but Manipur of today. The Greek of those days did not by any stretch of imagination did not face the kind of situation Manipur faces today.

Manipur Today:

In Manipur today, people are so much caught in thought about violence happening all amidst them. But unfortunately this violence connotes only in terms of death of relatives, common men and all a close member of this small society of ours. In other words, all the people are always caught in a whirlpool of thinking about death only. Death is by no means a development inducing preoccupation; at best, it only pulls one's psyche down and demeans living in that social context.

Indeed, living in Manipur is so livid and nervous-wrecking today so much so that all those who can plan, think and work on leaving the State either for themselves or their offspring are already acting on these. But these can never be sustainable situation and sustainable solutions.

The time has not only come but as well running out for us to individually and collectively exercise our consciousness and conscientiousness on ways to take the State out of this predicament.

In this all of us need to sacrifice a little bit of self-interest (for it would be criminal and unrealistic to ask for absolute sacrifice), think a bit more of the longer term (for we inevitably need think about the condition in which we are leaving our children to survive) and long for a more peaceful death (a natural death at that so that we do not turn in our own graves).

Search for Redress:

To begin with, we need to be very clear on the nature of violence of death marking the land. This, with the scale and cascade characterizing it, can never be a purely law and order problem. The nature of the problem has already taken on a very political nature. If we all agree on this perspective, the search for the remedy would be more feasible. Naturally the solution has to be found in the political realm.

A political solution to a problem unavoidably requires a political determination to resolve the crisis. But the issue is from where the determination for political solution should originate. Without mincing words, we must say that it must originate from and act upon by the politicians.

Here one may ask as to which type of politicians. Well, the system we are following today being a representative form of government, the political determination should begin and convert into actions by the elected representatives of the land. Of the group of elected representatives, the responsibility of those in the government is doubly higher.

The Problem:

But the moment we start expecting something from the politicians, we run into an intractable problem. The Nobel Prize winning Economist Stigler says once in office all the politicians respond to the incentives provided by the spoil and bootleggers of all types are there to help them in their accomplishment.

But we have a kind of a sink wherein we cannot excuse ourselves by claiming to be a Stiglerian. While in developed societies like in the United States of America, where the society has acquired a momentum and evolutionary dynamics of its own, to be a Stiglerian certainly gives mental peace. But in Manipur we are not in a position to remain relaxed like a Stiglerian; we have to be rather like Ralph Nader.

Ralph Nader says we are in a mess because all the wrong people get elected. But it is of no fault of those elected that they are elected at all. It is the very people whose votes have brought them to the office. It is exactly at this point that we the people of Manipur should critically and unfailingly at that start rethinking ourselves.

We have to start sacrificing a bit of our own self interest so that our elected representatives do so, think a little more of the long term when our children would be surviving so that our politicians follow suit, and create an atmosphere for a natural end to all our lives so that our government appreciates the general desire.

Well, in the end, a little bit of an initiative from the contemporary elected politicians, before we expect the whole populace to change, would go a long way in taking the land out of the present mess. In any case, the situation we now face is definitely not a pure law and order; it goes much beyond that.