It is quite an interesting coincidence that as the world sings to the tune of the old adage of ringing out the old and ringing in the new with the coming New Year, Manipur will be virtually ringing out its old government and ringing in a new one. That is, presuming the people are ready or desirous of doing so. For it is not at all impossible, and at this moment quite likely, that the old will return as it is, perhaps with some minor changes here and there. As for instance, it is quite likely many of those sitting in the Opposition benches would seek to return to the Assembly on Congress ticket in the belief and hope that the Congress would still be party to head the next government. But as they say, it is impossible to predict the exact outcomes of any free election, and indeed even the most scientific and organised pre-election opinion polls and exit polls have been known to fail miserably in judging the electorate’s mind – any electorate’s mind.
This is not to say the old cannot become renewed. Everything about life is about this ability to renew and rejuvenate. The old gets replaced by the new sometimes literally, but at other times metaphorically. The old also can reinvent to become new all over again, and this theme is the script behind the romance of so many of the most successful enterprises in life. Steve Jobs’ Apple Computers is the one most fresh in mind to have done this, not once but several times under the charismatic leadership of one of the most amazing technological and marketing genius of all times. However, be it the old team or a new set, what is important is, the state must choose a government with promises a new agenda and a new beginning; a government which is new but at the same time able to pick up from where the old one left.
While we hope a sense of the new is ushered in with the coming year and the imminent change of guards in the government, we also must underscore the importance in a change of attitude of the people in general. After all there is much to be had from the universally acknowledged thumb rule that people get the government they deserve. The Manipur electorate must be able to sit down, reflect and make an assessment of the past, and then project into the future to decide what would be best for them. What has been said about the need for the ability to renew and reinvent by politics and politicians, should equally apply to them. They must live up to the reality and expectations of the time and measure their decisions accordingly. They must keep in mind that the world is always in constantly state of flux and that no two moments are the same. The paradoxical logic of the impossibility of entering the same river more than once is the perfect metaphor to describe this situation. In other words, the river is there as the same river but because it is always changing, every time somebody enters it, it is also a different river. Anybody who is unable to acknowledge this profound truth, will be doomed a redundant future and finally reduced to insignificance.
Sadly, at this moment, the fixation of almost all sections of the society seems to lean towards either a revivalist or revisionist view of the past and history. This can never be in the interest of anybody ultimately. What is called for is the resilience to accommodate the demands of the time. Even as we enter the New Year 2012, let it be the collective pledge of the people of this state to be ready to change and accommodate present challenges instead of always looking to the past for salvation and succour. Let them together pledge to face the brave new world of the future rather than live in the false belief of a return of past glory. At this moment, Manipur desperately needs a reinvention of itself for it is now faced with myriad new challenges brought about by myriad new consciousness which have spawned with time. Once upon a time, these consciousnesses, as for instance those which are causing the explosion of ethnic nations, were not there. Today inevitably as per the demands of the times, they have come to stay and there is no point in wishing they do not or should not exist. The progressive way forward is to acknowledge this new reality and then strive to evolve a new outlook that accommodated and put to rest the causes for all the frictions threatening to tear the society apart. It is with this outlook, we appeal to the electorate of the state to vote in January, so as to ring in a new Manipur.