Monitoring the monitors

This is not a new debate, but one which never ceases to be relevant. What happens when the vanguards of democracy begins reducing democracy to a private party? There has been for instance so much talk about judicial activism with the judiciary proactively intervening in an effort to straighten out the executive in matters of corruption. But what if the judiciary itself is not free of corruption (and there would be millions who would vouch this is actually the case on numerous occasions)? What if in a hypothetical situation the stomach begins to digest itself, what then would be the strategy to tackle the problem? There is a Meitei adage which expresses the same dread: “What happens if the fence you erect to keep away the cattle begins eating up the vegetables in your garden?” We suppose the disease can then only be termed as terminal. Without going into hyperboles, suffices it to say that this disturbing question has never ceased to be irrelevant? In places like Manipur, it has often acquired threatening proportions. Exactly how are monitors to be monitored against committing the same offences they are supposed to monitor? How do you ensure that the thief catchers do not turn thieves, and crime fighters do not turn criminals?

This need not happen, but since it can happen, it is imperative that smaller and more specific safety measures are built into the larger check and balance mechanism of any democratic polity. We refer to democracy not only because we follow such a system, but also because it is the only system that theoretically encourages checks and balances into its functioning. No dictatorship or monarchy would tolerate such challenges to the ruler’s absolute whims of power. The matter comes to mind in the light of the Manipur government’s abject inability to control what it knows and everybody else know are eroding the society. The most obvious example is official corruption but this is not all there is. On so many other issues too, the failure of the monitors have put so many projects in ruins. For a long time, electricity department’s leakages and incompetence were more than evident in the acute power shortage for domestic as well as industrial uses. Thankfully and miraculously, with the introduction of a new management and the arrival of the pre-paid technology, things have improved beyond what was once thought was possible. There are so many other departments which can do with similar miracles. The municipal water supply system is one such. That a state which falls in the geographical belt which receives the most rainfall in the world should suffer from shortage of potable water in itself should have been damning. But again the question is, who are the monitors who should be ensuring all is well? More pertinently, what happens when those meant to detect thieves, begin to get rich by entering into unwritten contracts with their quarries to share the loots?

Perhaps what is essential is to make the checking mechanisms a cycle too, so that the hunter and hunted can easily and legally change places, with nobody absolutely at the apex of the checking hierarchy. This will ensure that the hunter is not given to impunity encouraged by immunity from persecution. There is a lesson to be learnt in this from the way the most successful democracy today – America has tackled the issue. The American constitution, it is often said is built around a principle contained in the words of one of its founding fathers, James Madison: “If men were angels, there would be no need for governments.” Hence, since men are not angels, the calls is for always holding a healthy suspicion of power accumulating in any single hand or institution. To this we may add, always suspect money accumulating in any single hand or institution. A suspicion not born out of malice but out of a will to ensure democracy’s instruments are not hijacked for vested ends. In short, a suspicion to ensure that power and money are always accountable. In governance terms, this suspicion must translate into a comprehensive check and balance mechanism. The judiciary, executive, legislature and all other organs of democratic governance must be open to constitutionally sanctioned and easy to approach, mutual as well as public scrutiny. In the nightmarish event of the stomach beginning to digest itself, rather than solely depending on external medicines, the body must be enabled to heal itself.