Editor,
According to Google, corruption can be a form of criminal activity or dishonesty. It can include activities like bribery or embezzlement. Corruption erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and the environmental crisis.
As a child, I used to be influenced by the rich people of Itanagar area. Their lifestyles, the clothes they wore, the cars they could afford, their houses – because my small mind had already captured the idea that money gives you power. When they would walk by in shops, people would recognise them and greet them with respect. I’d convey the story to all my friends at school and they would wish to become rich themselves.
As I grew older, an incident occurred with me near the shoeshine area in Bank Tinali. There was a rich man, who was making a boot shiner shine his shoes, and he was scolding him and kicking him. Since I was a little boy, I didn’t know what to do during situations like these, so I didn’t do anything. He was yelling at the poor guy for not doing his job nicely.
The boot shiner was close to tearing up. He didn’t even pay the boot shiner and left in a hurry. I wanted the boot shiner to stitch my football shoes, but I just went back home.
Another day, I was in a bakery at around 6 pm and a rich guy entered the shop with sunglasses, at night. He asked the shopkeeper for donation, his monthly collection’s share, and the shopkeeper couldn’t do much, so he called the manager. The manager gave the money to the man, and he went on his way. I was there for bread, so I bought it and left.
On the way home, I was so saddened. The rich person whom I thought was respected when I was a kid was taking the hard-earned money from the non-tribal merchant. The respect they showed was because they had to pay him. How innocent was I then.
Years ago, a friend of mine, who was murdered (and we still don’t know who the killer was), I heard that a guy had died on the road near the Chandrangar VCS school and his dead body was buried just beside the road he died on. Even my own uncle died from an accident after his bike crashed into a truck at the Bage Tinali junction. The driver of the truck is yet to be found.
The adult students sell their votes to whoever gives them the most money. So what’s the value of right to speech and expression? The honest candidate would obviously lose. Then the students who had voted for the candidate who later becomes and MLA, criticise the roads that have puddles and holes in them. Due to their dishonesty, the whole suffer for decades because the MLAs have the power now, and the contractors would also want their share for favouring their candidate. What a wonderful world.
Caorlum Toko