1979: When Will Our 1979 Arrive? By Amar Yumnam Christian Caryl has just written a book titled ‘Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century’. Caryl is a former correspondent of Newsweek and now a contributing editor of the periodical Foreign Policy. The year 1979 is absolutely significant for what happens around the world today. First, Deng Xiaoping ushered China into a series of reforms allowing private initiatives to be rewarding in a way path-breaking the Mao tradition in policy making. Second, the nervous Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and well ultimately leading to a disastrous result. Third, Pope John Paul II made the historic visit to Poland, signally the rise to significance of religion in a communist country. Fourth, the era of privatisation was set into a global model with Margaret Thatcher coming to power by defeating the Labour Party government. Fifth, the Shah of Iran was overthrown by the religious-oriented Ayatollah Khomeini regime. As Caryl writes in his new book: “It was in 1979 that the twin forces of markets and religion, discounted for so long, came back with a vengeance.” One can have differences here and there with the arguments of Caryl, but we must agree at least on this that “[t]he forces unleashed in 1979 marked the beginning of the end of the great socialist utopias that had dominated so much of the 20th century,” and “[t]he political experiments of 1979 continue to define our world.” For the world there have been 1968 when the youths and students were in revolt all over the world and there have been 1979 marking what Shakespeare would say “future events cast their shadows beforehand”, or, in other words, the present century has sawn seeds in 1979. But the question remains as to what about Manipur, our beloved land? Both the events have not had the impact and coverage in our land. We can still continue to ask as to when our 1979 would arrive. Manipur right now has the congenial atmosphere and the appropriate political leadership to harness 1979 for us. In fact, 2013 or 2014 are the best opportune years for Manipur to experience her 1979. Right now Manipur has in Ibobi a new and transformed political leader. He has come out of the absolute shadows of the central leadership as someone who can manoeuvre his way out. He has also recovered from the image of someone under the control and clutches of the non-state actors and agencies. He has now slowly but effectively carved an image which is authentic and local. This is a very powerful and appropriate foundation for social transformation. But given the contextual reality of Manipur within the federal structure and varied heterogeneity in terms of ethnicity, geography and political-economic forces, Ibobi alone cannot go far in performing the needed functions and achieving the imperative objectives. Here we may briefly recall what Joseph Schumpeter emphasised in his celebrated growth theory the significance of “creative destruction”. We may also recall the fact that the Industrial Revolution in England was a result of an atmosphere of productively interdependent culture and institutions emerging in tune with the needs of the time. This is also true for the massive economic performance of China today. Coming to recent times, we may also look at the institutional characteristics that have differentiated the successful economies from the failing economies. In all these analyses the role, quality and governance of human capital have been highlighted by the scholars around the globe. So we may ask as to what is happening in this sector in Manipur. The opportunity being thrown up by the new Ibobi to the economy of Manipur can be fruitful only if accompanied by the appropriate and effective interventions in the human capital sector. In this sector, without mincing words, we can say that the tertiary level education sector is most wanting today in so far as governance of it for orienting towards serving the developmental needs are concerned. Governance at this level is now most saliently marked not by the creative destruction of Schumpeter but by the destruction of everything to suit personal and familial objectives. I call this as “husbandry and parenting” overriding every other function of governance of tertiary education. The persons manning governance at this level are in harmonic functioning with the negative and opportunist individuals. This latter group are the most effective tools for achieving the non-Schumpeterian destruction of everything in place but giving an impression of construction. In human capital and governance of human capital, the most important things are the character, orientation, and focus and not the physical construction as such; this is what has been shown by the global development history. But the scenario in Manipur today has none of the globally established features. Of course, very unfortunately, it has all the negative characters to miss the train of development. In fine, in the new Ibobi, we have a person to fully exploit for long term transformation of the land and society. But the most needed social sector complement to him is not being provided by what is prevailing in the tertiary level of human capital formation, application and governance. If we miss this or the next year, our 1979 may not come again in the next half a century. When asked as to what he would like to ask the intending students for admission, STEVEN PINKER, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, has given the following answer: “Psychologists love to tell a joke about an influential school in 20th-century psychology. Let’s see if you can figure it out. Which of the following makes sense as a joke? a. What do behaviourists say after they make love? “It was good for you; how was it for me?” b. What do behaviourists say after they make love? “It was good for me; how was it for you?” c. What do Freudians say after they make love? “It was good for you; how was it for me?” d. What do Freudians say after they make love? “It was good for me; how was it for you?” We may prepare ourselves about the questions and the answers we would like to provide when the present historical opportunity is gone. (Amar Yumnam is the Director of Center for Manipur Studies and Prof. of Department of Economics, Manipur University)
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 19:19:01 +0000
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