Church and clean election
- Part 3 -

Z K Pahru Pou *

Tangkhul Baptist Church in Imphal on 25 December 2013 :: Pix - Daniel Chabungbam

c. Responsibility of an individual Member

When a member or a leader of a particular community failed in his/her responsibility, the community/society becomes a fallen community/society. Seeking personal gain at the expense of the common good, greed and the use of illegal means of accumulating wealth and power take the society down to its lowest ebb. The narrative of Joshua Chapter 7 illustrates how such corrupt action incurs a brink situation for oneself and for the society as whole.

In defiance of a command from Joshua (Josh. 6:17–19), Achan took the booty from Jericho (specifically: "a beautiful mantle from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels") and hid the loot in his tent. He did not come forth on his own to confess. Rather, Joshua cast lots, beginning by tribes and working his way down to Achan himself. Confronted by this divine sleuthing, Achan finally confessed.

His admission of guilt did not, however, save him and the community from a drawn-out punishment of stoning and defeat. The specific sin was Achan's but the punishment was shared by whole community. The whole Israel, suffered a defeat at Ai directly after Achan's action. The corrupt action of a person is implicated to the entire community.

Reading in our context, the story yields significant theological insight: every member of the community must be totally obedient and responsible member, if we are to be victorious. Being people of God meant accepting certain obligations set by God. It meant adopting the divinely acceptable life style. It meant making each decision of life in the light of divine leadership, not in the light of personal gain and self-confidence. The sin of Achan is the bowing down to mammon (accumulation wealth). Seeking for personal gain through different means such as selling vote for money during election can have far reaching consequences upon whole society.

A Christian involvement in election should emerge from one's obedience to the will, spirit and power of God. It should be based on our commitment to promote God's justice, equality and peace in all spheres of the society.

6. Practical Suggestions/Steps for Clean Election.

To root out the corrupt practices of election is certainly not an easy task. We are in a situation 'where everybody knew but nobody obeyed' and 'everybody said but nobody did.' Hence we need a strong hand to cure the malaise of election malpractices which have been affecting our society for many years. We need to radically transform people first if we want to see a transformed society. Given below are some of the practical and viable suggestions for clean election.

a. Continuous awareness programme for clean election: Clean Election campaign should not be limited to election time alone. It should be a continuous process imparting through educational institutions, Churches, villages, clubs, civil society organisations and so on. The benefit of clean election should be properly made known to all citizens through conducting seminars, symposiums, colloquiums, conferences, and mass media. It is important to target young people as they are the ones who are the active participants in election.

b. Manual/Text Book on Clean Election: A manual/text book on Clean Election may be published and use in all the educational institutions and churches. The Book may incorporate benefits of clean election, effect of dirty politics, citizenship right and responsibility, and theological-biblical resources based on proper use of power, justice and love. Voices from church leaders, political leaders, activists, advocates, doctors, engineers, teachers, etc, may be incorporated in the Book.

c. Formation of Alliance: Christians alone cannot fight against the up-surging powers and principalities of the dominative state. We need both spiritual and human resources. The church can initiate to form an alliance with representatives from civil society bodies (from all ethnic groups) and Movements and with different Christian denominations, people of other faiths and political parties. This coalition can then form "Citizen Commission for Clean Election (CCCE)" to deal with all matters pertaining to Election process. CCCE can act like India Against Corruption (IAC) of Anna Hazare in mainland India or like Action Committee Against Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) in Nagaland.

d. Bridging Gap for Change: So often the Church considers the state's officials, bureaucrats and political leaders as belonging to different realm and tends to maintain distance from them. This has created a wall of division in our society resulting to an unhealthy relationship between the state and the church and lead to "We" versus "They" mentality. Many of the state's political leaders and bureaucrats in our state are Christians, our church members. We need to recognise this fact and work together with all members of civil society organisations and political leaders and parties to bring change in our society. Unless the Church build up good relationship and work together with the state, it will be difficult to bring change in our society.

e. Duration for Election Campaign: Huge expenditure is great concern during election the consequences of which is suffered by all citizens after the election. To reduce election expenses and to create awareness among the whole villagers about election manifestoes and vision of the candidates to work for society, limited days may be fixed for campaign for certain village/area for all candidates as all-at-once campaign. This common campaign programme can arrest the problem of setting up camps in villages and towns where use of alcohol, drugs, gambling and sexual immoralities is often associated with it.

Conclusion:

The Church may or may not directly involve in politics by contesting election but it can play a constructive role through the formation of CCCE. If the Church remains silent at this juncture, it would be tantamount to allowing evil forces to work freely. Martin Luther King Jr. once commented that "whoever accepts evil without protesting is in reality working with it." Our situation today demands us (believers) to speak out forcefully against rulers who misuse power. Delaying to speak the truth will make the truth irrelevant and become useless.

We must break the culture of silence. It is now or never. It will be too costly to leave the problem to next generation to solve. The Church must have the courage to speak like Esther who said: "I will go to the King, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish"- (Esther 4: 16).

It is against the law for Esther to come and stand before the King uninvited. But her deep concern for her people forced her to come to king and speak for justice. She saved her people from the evil ploy of Haman. Like Esther, the church must act as watchdog and speak out boldly against evil forces that are devouring the sheep and destroying the very fabric of our society (cf. Isaiah 56: 9,10).

Concluded..