A Goan Liberation Controversy
©Prax Maskaren, Bombay. 21st March 2003.
--- Prax Maskaren
My position... WHAT is yours? !!!!
1. We are Portuguese citizens & travel with Portuguese passports
2. The Indian action of 1961 in Goa, is physically impossible to reverse. Hence, we are NOT interested in HOT AIR.
3. The majority of the 4 million Goans are Catholic and are living outside Goa. Those who live in Goa, for whatever reason, will NOT support whoever wishes to change the status quo.
4. Goans will be crazy to want to see the bloodshed that befell Timor.
That is our position.
5. Never mind X's stated position (and you can copy this post to him), he still holds an Indian passport!
Dear Sir,
My position has been stated clearly all along so there is no need for you to pretend that you do not know it. I have always spoken clearly and unambiguously about my position, not caring to sweeten it or to pander to populism. In this, I follow my master, Christ Jesus who never feared to speak plainly and openly and publicly denounce the Pharisees and Sadducees of His time.
However, since you raise the issue, I will answer point by point:
We are Portuguese citizens & travel with Portuguese passports
I also qualify, under the present Portuguese law, as a Portuguese citizen. However, while I qualify as a Portuguese citizen and would be willing to accept a passport, I do not consider myself a Portuguese national, i.e., belonging to the Portuguese ethnic community, for I am a Goan, or more precisely, a Konkanian by ethnicity.
Moreover, I cannot afford the fees necessary to acquire a Portuguese passport nor abide by the rules the Portuguese impose for applying for one:
However, it is evident that only the monied get through, and this even if they are not even citizens and have forged papers... Keralites, Gujaratis, Punjabis, even Pakistanis (e.g., an Islamic terrorist, Maulana Mazhoor Azhar) get Portuguese passports approved by buying the Portuguese, while poor Goans get only contempt and are sent running from pillar to post.
2. Moreover, I, on principle, refuse to furnish Indian documents or recognize their legitimacy, when the Portuguese demand these as necessary to even consider an application. Why do I need papers from the Occupation? It is insane!
Therefore, as long as these conditions apply, it is not going to be feasible for me to apply to the Portuguese authorities for a Portuguese passport.
3. But, moreover, possessing a Portuguese passport (i.e., being acknowledged by Portugal as a citizen) has no real moral significance to my Goan identity:
b. Portugal has the moral obligation to make a preference for us Goans, but this is much more than just awarding us Portuguese passports, and even Portuguese passports are NOT materially relevant.
It should admit and acknowledge that the Soares-Chavan Treaty is a fraud, that the Goan Question is still open, that Portugal has a moral and legal duty towards the Goans under the relevant international laws and precedents, and even under the relevant UN Resolutions, institute an interim Government-in-Exile and provide us material aid and assistance, including that of its diplomacy in International fora; lastly, it should, under the auspices of the interim, provisional government of Goa, issue us Goan passports that also permit us, pending the final and satisfactory settlement of the Goan Question, right of residence in Portugal and its dependencies.
Portugal pretends that it issues us passports with parsimony because of fears expressed by its fellow European Community members, comparatively affluent states such as Great Britain, etc., that this is being misused as a route for immigration into the E.U. But neither Portugal nor we need Portugal to issue us Portuguese passports: We actually need merely Goan passports with the associated rights of residence ONLY in Portugal, and such a procedure will entirely avoid the obviously legitimate fears of the European Community.
It is a fact that, under the current procedure, there is a real incentive for Indians to misuse Portuguese laws to gain passports using forged supporting documents to pretend to be Goans and gain entry thereby into the European Union, where they then generally callously discard these Portuguese passports.
Therefore, by adopting a more honest and realistic procedure, of international and historical precedents, such as I have delineated above, this abuse will be avoided.
Would be Indian emigrants will not have incentive for a merely Goan passport, and there will be less abuse of the system. Moreover, by involving a Goan government, working throught the Goan infrastructure of the Communidades, Gaoncar Coords, etc., abuse by Indians will be reduced: Goans are not likely to permit their enemies to gain Goan passports, and we are acutely aware of who of us belong, and who do not!
The Portuguese connection is history: The Portuguese have cut themselves off and cast us adrift. We can keep on wasting our time in a vain and foolish nostalgia, or get on with our lives. And we have our own pressing problems to deal with, with which Portugal will not bother itself with or come to our assistance.
From now on, we live our own lives and let the Portuguese fight their own battles: Let Portugal fight to retain Goa's Portuguese character; we have no need to do so. It is not Goa's Portuguese history to which we look to and which must command our energies and talents but her future, if she has any. It is for us, the Goans, to ensure that Goa does have a future. Right now, that is iffy, what with the Indians having gone far ahead in accomplishing the objectives of their program of colonization and assimilation - thanks to, in a large part, to the active aid and collaboration of Goan quislings!
We have a large and politically influential naturalized Goan community in Portugal, which has even contributed politicians to the Portuguese governments. It is time for them to get off their comfortable and cozy seats and start using their influence for something concrete to benefit all Goans irrespective of their present passport holding and in fulfilment of Portugal's moral and legal obligations towards us. As it is, they have done precious little for their 'beloved' fatherland.
The Indian action of 1961 in Goa, is physically impossible to reverse. Hence, we are NOT interested in HOT AIR.
What is impossible for the timid, pessimists and cowards, is possible for the brave, courageous and committed. History is history because it is made, not by people who wring their hands and say that changing things is impossible, but by people who believed that even outnumbered and disdained by the social mainstream, they persevered and, by their sheer commitment, overwhelmed the larger numbers, who followed them like dumb sheep.
It is NOT true that the present situation is irreversible. The frog can sit in his well and say that the world is so much and only so much. But the world is not made by such like but by the brave, by those who venture out and take risks, who challenge the status quo and unjust systems, demolish them and build new ones in their stead.
When a people become apathetic, they are a pushover for those who are more active.
It is bad enought to be yellow, to be a knave, to say, "Oh! It is helpless! Let us resign ourselves to our fate and be good slaves" and it is quite another thing to actually root for the enemy. That is what you do. You may like this frank statement, or you may lump it: I am beyond caring!
I do not deal with hot air. I went to the Pakistanis in 1998 when I was in Saudi, and they sent me on to Pakistan. I was actually a guest of the ISI for about eight to ten days, staying in Karachi and Islamabad. The reason my mission fell through is because no Goan was willing to join me. My only recruit was a Mangalorean Konkani Christian, who, however, does not strictly qualify. However, I consider that the Mangaloreans are merely the oldest expatriate Goan community. The Pak offer stands open, as they reassure me. However, I would much prefer to be provided military and logistic, etc., training and arms, etc., officially by Portugal and also by members of the Lusophone community - Brazil, Cabo Verde, Timor, etc.
The majority of the 4 million Goans are Catholic and are living outside Goa. Those who live in Goa, for whatever reason, will NOT support whoever wishes to change the status quo.
The vast majority of the Goans are not Catholics anymore, but, like you, belong to the Antichurch and its New Religion of Spiritual Fornication and Adultery. This pseudo-Catholicism would not pass muster before Goencho Saib (São Francisco Xavier), Fr. Juze Nayak-Vaz or Fr. Agnelo Gustavo de Souza.
Also, there is a cause-and-effect relationship between the Antichurch and the Occupation: The Antichurch collaborated and sympathized with Nehru; its counsel was sought, and it assured him of its support. As our moral teacher, it did not wake us up to the evils being perpetrated; it did not take a stand, leave alone a strong stand. Valerian Gracias, the antibishop of Bombay, was complicit; the Spanish Consul learnt of India's invasion plans from him by plying him with wine and making him drunk, and passed on this news to Portugal, which Indian intelligence intercepted. There was a news report in the Indian Express in 1961-62 about this incident.
The Antichurch is big on issues: It has the time, energy and resources to fight for Indian fisherfolk and for Indian forest-dwellers, but the Biblical injunction that Charity begins at home escapes them. Therefore, they have nothing for us, except their complicity in the crime against us and our country. (I am not impressed with their role in the Konkan Railways and Jindal MetaStrips issues.)
Patrão, the last I knew, only God was/is Omniscient. And therefore the claim that resident Goans will NOT support the resistance is merely an exercise in stupidity : You attempt at omniscience naturally fails.
Moreover, there are even Goans resident in Goa who hold my attitude, and I have been in contact with them. We may be a minority, but that does not mean that you can deny our existence, not that what you or anyone else have to say on the matter of our existence can have any logical significance to us.
You take umbrage at my calling you a collaborationist. Yet, you are certainly not a patriot, despite the protests and unhappiness you express about the current situation. This is because you, as demonstrated in the above letter, express views that can only be classified as Collaborationist.
(The situation is exactly similar to the situation pertaining to the Catholic faith. You and a great many others, and some of them much more acutely than you, take issue with their sect, the Antichurch or Roman Modernism of the antipope John-Paul II. However, all this is merely a joke, for this sect is precisely about these aberrations, and the true Catholics are exclusively those who are called Sedevacantists and Conclavists, etc. The rest are merely wasting their own time in vain endeavours! Thus, Catholicism is not represented by the 'dissenters' or collaborationists with the Modernists but by those who hold uncompromisingly to the unchangeable Catholic Orthodoxy.)
A Collaborationist is one who wishes to submit to and treat an Occupation as being the legitimate authority, even if he merely justifies himself on the specious ground that it is not possible to vacate (the Occupation), and expresses such a belief in the public forum so that he disheartens the patriots, discourages those who would rally to the cause and aids the enemy in his endeavour to entrench and legitimize himself.
If you wish to prove yourself a patriot, then you must necessarily work openly as one, and necessarily co-ordinate with the other patriots: We have only one country, and our cause is one, so that, we must overcome personal differences, even learn to be tolerant of each other, within limits. But, first of all, you must publicly admit that your present position is wrong and in fact Collaborationist, and you must join us in our endeavour to educate our fellow citizens in acknowledging the facts, awakening patriotism and gaining them to the cause.
A lot of Goans delude themselves with the idea that they are oh! so clever!, verily God's gift to mankind, and the last word in wisdom. That is the main reason why so many Goans are, at least passive collaborationists - they think that they are being smart and practical and clever, when in fact they are just being petty and stupid and self-deluded dupes and exhibiting gross immaturity. But if you wish to be a patriot, Sophistry is the disease that you will need to overcome.
Today, it is a fact known to the discerning Goan that the GoanCauses and Panindia lists, that Dom Francisco Monteiro (who seems to be the most senior patriot living today), Senhor Agnelo Gomes, Senhor "Bernardo Colaco" aka "Xacuti Vindalho" (nome de guerre), as also Senhor Ivor Samora, Senhor "Khodegant Goenkar," Senhor Camillo de Sa and possibly, to an extent, A. Veronica Fernandes of Kuwait, besides myself, Prax Maskaren, are openly for Goa, while the Goacom and associated lists under the auspices of the Indo-Brazilian Frederick Noronha and Company, Gaspar Almeida, Dr. Jose Colaco and his TGF (The Goan Forum) and Goa-Goan list, Constantino's SuperGoa.com, the United Goan Party, the Goa Su-Raj Party under Floriano Lobo, etc., are collaborationists, if not outright traitors. I do not even consider the formally anti-Goan Maharasthrawadi Gomantak Party, dedicated to the absorption of Goa into the Hindu Maharashtrian colonies - a project that is largely accomplished on the ground.
There are very many and talented Goans out in the world: How many of them rally to our cause? I have recently visited the Vivagoa.com site, and I grieve at the waste of talent that people like this and the SuperGoa.com sites, etc., represent: Instead of using their talents for the benefit of their country, they merely indulge in a false and vain nostalgia!
We are a peole who are socially and culturally much more advanced than such unsophisticated peoples as the Timorese, etc., but despite this, and unlike these people who have fought tenaciously and unswervingly for their rights, at great sacrifice, we are distracted and dissipate our considerable energies in all the wrong things, instead of striving for a positive contribution to our country. And, for the moment, the only real contribution that can be made is to organize the effort at vacating the Occupation and restoring the Status Quo Ante prior to the application of the Right of Self-Determination after a reasonable transitional period.
Goans will be crazy to want to see the bloodshed that befell Timor.
There is the much greater - and permanent - craziness of doing nothing and being literally obliterated, or the lesser and temporary painful craziness of fighting and suffering for independence. The real crazies are those who are yellow, knaves and traitors, who are worshippers, nay idolators of a false, treasonable peace, who try to talk patriots out of doing the right thing, instead of encouraging and aiding them.
The tragedy of Timor is an exception: there was no need for it to happen, and there is no need for it to be repeated in Goa, if we are careful, cautious and prudent in conducting our war, and force the war into the full Indian theater — an objective that we are supremely capable of. Moreover, India is corrupt to its very core, and the accumulating discontent from within and its occupied territories will act to overthrow it all with a great crash.
Some people may think that by being smart and subtle, or by recoursing to "Gandhianism", they could persuade the Invaders to pack up and get lost. This is only a delusion, and nothing can be further from the truth. The Truth is that we are being actively and progressively encroached and eroded, and that the Invader has successfully accomplished most of his objectives - by your own estimation, we are now largely an expatriate nation and our country largely colonized. The situation is far more dire in the north - Dadra & Nagar-Avelim, Damão, Diu. This is the sure recipe for our destruction, for without a homeland, we cannot survive long. The only means of redeeming ourselves and securing our 'salvation' as a nation, is to recourse to arms to vacate the intruders.
And in this, we must not expect to make our omelette without breaking some eggs!
Never mind X's stated position (and you can copy this post to him), he still holds an Indian passport!
Patrão, I am not your postman: Please post your own letters. I do not ask you to fight my battles, and I will not fight yours.
I too hold an Indian passport. Necessarily, under the circumstance, though both of us (me and X, as far as I know him) would love to have it otherways. And, to be precise and frank, I would much prefer to hold a Goan passport than either a Portuguese or Indian one. There is no reason for anyone to put up their noses into the air and look down upon other Goans who have not been able to acquire Portuguese passports.
And, from the Goan viewpoint, there is no real difference between either passports. Both India and Portugal are, as institutions, hostile to us. The Portuguese sold us down the river in 1975: The Chavan-Soares Treaty, and it is a fool who expects (this) Freemasonic and anti-Catholic Portuguese dispensation to be friendly towards us or to our interests. (The Salazaristas were a different matter, for all their defects). They only toy with us, playing games with our sentiments, for their amusement and entertainment.
This may be a bitter fact for Goans to accept and to digest, but it is true.
It is for this reason that Portugal toys with us, instead of aiding us in our quest for Portuguese passports, or at least, transit documents, and also why, despite being fully aware of the utter and shameless hypocrisy of the 'treaty' has not reversed or repudiated it.
In sum, whether the great silent majority support me or not, whether the pacifists and 'pragmatic collaborationists' like it or not, I will one day organize a fighting force to take on India. I leave the probability of success or failure to the banias to calculate, for I calculate with the heart. In sum, I am not asking for a vote among Goans whether they will support me or not - I will force this war upon my people, and leave them to take it from there or to openly support the invaders.
In reply to your short letter, I have drawn up this long tract in the public forum. This is because I make all my labours labour for the Cause of Goan Liberation, to educate, in so far as it is possible (I cannot force this down someone's throat!) my fellow Goans and to gain their accession to the Cause.
May our Lord grant us His favours and may our Lady, Mae de Deus, Santa Catarina, Goencho Saib, Padre Juze Vaz and Padre Agnelo de Souza intercede with our Lord and God for us, that we may all wake up from our stupor and rally to the cause of our beloved Goa. In Christ our Lord,
Prax Maskaren, O Patriota
References: