In response to your editorial of April 7 “Tyranny of the unelected” in The Goan Everyday, we thank you for coercing us to take part in a debate on the future of Goa. We do plead guilty, openly and explicitly, unashamedly to defending our precious land from the profiteering and marauding real estate mafia, illegal miners, industrial corporations and five-star hotels in the name of the “people” and the “local”. Never have we been witnesses to such large-scale unwanted destruction and pillaging of people and land. Will you join with us in using your newspaper in campaigning in defense of the land and its people? To remain silent while our motherland destroyed is worse than cowardice.
We do feel a bit embarrassed and coy to be informed that “the 500-odd UNELECTED activists” are holding Goa to ransom. We would love to believe you, but relentless police atrocities, arrogance of politicians, growing inequalities and heartless destruction of Goa are a rude reminder of the reality. Everyday a hill is cut, trees felled, rivers polluted, tribals displaced, ponds, wetlands and paddy fields filled in, garbage and sewage strewn all over the land, illegal mining rife, etc, etc, etc, but there is nobody to ask questions, or to speak for the voiceless and oppressed.
In appealing to “democracy” and trying to find some solace and sympathy for your vested interests, you forget that the Constitution does not exclude the poor and downtrodden of their right to have their voice heard. Did The Goan contact the residents of Mangueshi for their take on the illegal matter? No! The “monster that threatens to devour” is already in existence in place, in the guise of the oligopoly of the media owned by mining interests that creates “the tyranny of the unelected.”
We agree with you that “participative democracy is about more than voting just once in five years.” It is the profit driven and near fascist corporations “that should never be allowed to trump due democratic process in terms of representation, law making and law enforcement.” In the global bourgeoisie democratic system, the NGOs have been given a rightful place in the process of decision making. When you advocate the emasculation of even this small concession, we hear alarm bells ringing for a fascist dictatorship in the making.
The Federation of the Rainbow Warriors challenge The Goan to prove their rumored allegations of “extortion”.
Rony Dias, President
Federation of Rainbow Warriors
You’ve asked us to prove allegations of extortion. We suggest you speak to Ravindra Velip.
- Editor
