It will come as no surprise that there is an exodus of young aspiring professionals away from the state. In a way it is good, for if and when they return, they will bring back new skills and outlooks. However, there is also a fairly good chance that a majority of them will not return, for at this moment, job prospects for them are virtually nil in the state. Nor is there a climate for them to want to return and build enterprises from scratch. It is in this sense a very critical period for the state. Push matters a little farther and things can reach a point of no return, where the best talent leave permanently to find their fortunes elsewhere. If however it does not allow situation to drift beyond the critical point, who knows, in the years ahead, it may be time for a new renaissance, when the prodigals begin heading home. At this moment though, the picture is rather grim. As for instance, few jobs outside those offered by the government are worth today`™s wage standards, and the government job sector is super-saturated. A selection test for a few dozen state civil servants, or lecturers, once or twice a decade, cannot come as any consolation to the ever growing number of job seekers. There are no signs that the situation can improve in the near future either. The government neither has the resource to create more direct jobs, nor the will or imagination to foster the growth of employment outside itself. All it can do, and has been doing, is to blame the bad law and order situation for its failures. Nobody can deny this is a factor, but it is precisely its duty to ensure the rule of law exists, and it can best begin by practising what it preaches.
The rule of law is another story, but the immediate challenge is about creating jobs and since the capacity of the government to employ has a definite ceiling, it will have to look at the private sector. For this sector is multidimensional with practically the sky as the ceiling. It can in fact accommodate all, provided the atmosphere is right. An article by journalist Michael Hasting some years ago, in a popular American weekly comparing the resurgence power of Vietnam and Iraq, is interesting. Hasting who was for a long time assigned the Iraq beat, visited Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City) for the story. Decades after the war, Vietnam is bouncing back. Its economy is buoyant, everybody is raring to go and win his share from it, and in the process contribute his share too. By contrast, he is however not hopeful Iraq can emulate the same feat in the decades ahead. Individual entrepreneurship was always very strong in Vietnam, unlike Iraq which was for too long hooked to easy petrodollars. Vietnam`™s economy was built around the enterprising spirit of its people, as well as the skill and discipline of its labour force. By contrast, Iraqis in general have come to be addicted to subsidies, so that in times of crisis, such as wars and their aftermaths, while Iraq had nowhere else to look for resurgence, Vietnam could draw strength from within and pick itself up much sooner. Moreover, unlike Iraq which is dominated by a revenge culture, Vietnam was much more practical and outward looking. Even in the midst of the bitter war against America, it was never bitter toward Americans, so much so that Ho Chi Minh was supposed to have written a letter during the war to the American President, Lyndon Johnson, that Americans would be welcomed back as friends after the war. And Americans are now indeed rushing back to Vietnam, not to make war but as tourists and businessmen.
The uneasy thought is, Manipur seems to be much closer to Iraq than Vietnam. It is possessed by a culture of revenge and bitterness. It is also almost completely dependent on government subsidies. Private entrepreneurship has been dwarfed, and at best it is about dishonest government contract works or else has not risen above retail trade, which promise money perhaps, but no creative contribution to the economy, capable of generating jobs. Its government schools and colleges are still in the pit, though in recent years there have been some improvement, and therefore are still incapable of producing quality skills or knowledge. Parents who can afford the cost send their children to private schools now-a-days, but have little option than to send them away from the state for higher studies. These children may not feel inclined to return when they come of age, and they are not at all to blame. Shouldn`™t a rethinking process begin? Shouldn`™t the government be thinking of evolving policies to nurture back to health the general entrepreneurial spirit before it becomes too late for the state?