Morung Express News
Kigwema | October 23
Under the directive of the Angami Baptist Church Council (ABCC) on the Clean Election Campaign, the Kigwema Baptist Church, Kigwema held a discussion on Clean Election on October 22 at the Church premise with Advocate Kezhokhoto Savi as the resource person.
“An election that goes wrong fractures the church and the community,” said Savi while outlining the dire need of Clean Election in Naga society, and thus the Church is the right platform to start spreading the wind of change for cleaner elections.
While candidates are often blamed, the voters are also equally to be blamed and further many wrongful acts are committed even by church leaders during elections. With the increasing disappearance of Naga values, Savi advocated for more emphasis on values, pointing out that because of the absence of values the act of giving back to society has disappeared.
“Today we expect everything to be done by the government or the leaders. Think of what you can contribute to society and not what society can do for you,” said Savi who suggested some mechanisms for promoting clean elections in the village level such as- a common platform for candidates to share their visions for their constituency and where the public can also express their views, questions and aspirations; inter-denominational discussions and awareness on clean election; Village council needs to initiate ways to curb unlawful election process.
“Any good thing, any ideal cannot be built overnight. Do not take politics for your survival. It is for building a nation and a society. Let us start rebuilding our society together,” concluded Savi.
Meanwhile, journalist Alice Yhoshü, who spoke as a panelist viewed that individual reformation is the essence of Clean Election, and that clean election needs to be a continuous conversation, a kitchen conversation and a dining conversation.
While laying stress on the responsibility of the Church to convince and share the awareness of clean election, Dr. Akho Yhokha, an elder from Kigwema village also emphasized on the importance on a public platform in the village.
