Goan Split Personality

A split personality is ‘A relatively rare dissociated personality disorder in which the usual integrity of the personality breaks down and two or more independent personalities emerge’: A person that puts up a double face, or an individual who never walks the talk. 

Goa had its fair share of split personalities at work in the recently concluded elections, whose intentions to join the political process was never to win the elections, but to swing results in favour of the highest bidder. Goans should be grateful that the corruption issue dominated the elections, therefore double talk by these personalities scarcely mattered and Goans more or less got a result they aimed for. Losers now lamenting that split vote did them in, know very well that they have been beaten at their own game.

Does vote splitting exist? More importantly, does money change hands in such arrangements? Do corrupt politicians with deep pockets pay weak opponents to split rivals’ votes? Did vote split prevent a complete rout of corrupt elements who somehow manage to win some seats? It is time the Election Commission works beyond their scope and formulates a fair assessment report to Goans.

Contestants fight elections for a variety of reasons, some want to do genuine good to the society, while some get fascinated to the huge publicity that comes along with elections in Goa. Many contest because of their affiliation to relevant and sometimes irrelevant political parties and quite a few are habitual contestants who never want to retire. However, there exists a small percentage that contests to fix the outcome of the election not necessarily to their benefit. They come out of hibernation mode whenever elections are announced. Actually it turns out to be a win-win situation to all parties involved. Imagine a job that needs you to work for just two months canvassing without the pressure to win? Furthermore, you get paid to abuse your boss or the sponsor on a public platform. When you lose you actually get to blame the voters and make them feel guilty for not wanting a change in the society. In other words eat the cake and have it too. Are Goans expected to be so naive that they should be subject to such type of mental manipulation every election?  

Recently three Pakistani cricketers were sentenced to jail for spot fixing - which if correlated, is like fixing a single vote. Extrapolate this on a split personality who manages to split around a thousand votes, should it not invite punishment multiplied by a thousand. Both offences take the paying public for a jolly good ride. However, cricket is just a game, elections are not.

The best way to bring an end to this Split voting business is to put a money trail on all candidates so as to deter the Generation Next Goans. More importantly we might have to change the system from plurality to Run-off voting where the top two winners contest again to find out the actual winner.

Splitting votes can be condoned to a certain extent if it is done to defeat a bigger corrupt evil, but is unpardonable if made into a business for financial consideration. We want the Generation Next Goans to enter politics for the right reasons that will earn them the trust of the people, and not some double faced actor’s stage managing the election process, by exploiting loopholes in the system and making a mockery of the democratic procedures. 

Above Article appeared on Herald Goa on March 26, 2012