Goan Political Providence

By Mr. Plastino D'Costa

We definitely do have a right to vote, more so specially now, to stem the rot in our political system. But are we crossing the line of devoting too much time listening to politician’s trade accusations back and forth. Do we have to attend political meetings to decide our vote? Or have we crossed the line of depending only on politics as if our destiny depended on it.

Actually all sweet talkers become good politicians, this happens in developed countries or a country like ours. Be it Clinton’s, Bush’s, Blair’s or our Indian politicians, those who can harp too much on their achievements and mask their failures ultimately become good politicians. The difference in developed countries is that most voters have a long memory, they remember what their politicians have promised and politicians are forced to walk the talk. This actually limits what candidates can promise. In the case of Goa, most politicians accuse each other during election campaigns, they talk what they don’t mean and take advantage of the short memory our voters have. Therefore it becomes imperative for the Election Commission or any neutral agency to play a role after the elections are over, after all somebody has to take care of the short memory our voters have. A Commission which reminds voters continuously for the next 5 years promises made during election by our leaders should play a role in educating the masses, to make sure next time around they vote for the right person and not to get carried away by the hype created during campaigning before elections.

Democracy works best when most population is literate, and literacy should not mean only reading and writing a language without having the capacity to make one’s own individual opinion. Democracy also thrives best when there are good Checks and Balances and a good system in place. No denying the fact that India, including Goa is going in that direction, but today a smart, well-informed or honest vote has the same weightage of a dishonest, ignorant or greedy vote. So politicians have done their math quite well, they ignore the smart and well informed voter and appease the later.

Every Goan talks of money power being used during elections. One fails to understand why the flak is only on politicians, without any criticism on the voter who receives the money. After all in any corruption or bribe taking case the person receiving the bribe is guiltier. In this case the voter taking the bribe hardly gets any condemnation compared to the giver. All this could be reduced or put to an end with one stroke of legislation by expanding or doubling the area of the constituency. This will result in reducing the members from 40 to 20 to the Legislative Assembly, and more the voters the candidates will have it difficult to dole out goodies or money to win elections, instead they will have to deal with broader issues of the constituency than taking care of petty and personal needs of the voters.

Most politicians also get away winning the elections with the brand loyalty they have built with their voters who are programmed never to question their leaders. This brand loyalty has been systematically created over the years by politicians making the ignorant voters believe that the work done at Government cost is done with their personal money and effort. Goans seem to be happy to get a politician involved in even a mundane chore, which in other parts of India are taken care by an efficient system.

The Movers and Shakers of Goan society is only politicians, like it or not politicians consume so much of our newsprint, media, entertainment that they seem to be making news on Page 1 and also on Page 3 alike. Goans specially the Generation Next need role models outside the political landscape. Society benefits when we have role models in every sphere and there is all round development in every walk of life. The consequences of excessive media attention to politicians are that we are making them larger than life, slowly making our Generation Next thinking of making careers only in politics. Politicians do hold the highest office, and it is absolutely normal for Generation Next Goan to aspire towards that goal, but should be for the right reasons.

The only positive outcome from these elections is that some of the big brands taking their victory for granted have lost. This has now put pressure on the remaining brands which scraped through to get their act together and not to take their brand loyalty for granted. Now is the right time for Goans to set higher benchmarks for their leaders and demand more than just providing basic services which are taken for granted in most parts of the world.


When the Chief Minister has to take complaints calls directly of power failure, it does not speak very highly of a competent system in place. Let Goans press their leaders to move in the direction of putting in place a proper and efficient system, so we depend less on political providence to take Goa to the next level.

Above Article first appeared on Herald - Goa 0n 29th July 2007