Dr. Asangba Tzüdir
In yet another conspicuous exhibition of the sovereign hand of the state government by ‘privileging’ itself the ‘right’ to decide life and death, two precious lives were shut down. It took two lives for the government to declare the ULB election as ‘Null and Void’ which could have been done without the loss of the two lives. In addition to the chaos, pain and suffering, how many more lives will it take for the government to listen to the voice of the people and fulfill their demands? At the end, the government decided to embrace power over life, and rather than the lost lives, damage and loss of government properties were counted. This is just one highlight of the present ‘opposition-less’ government.
The opposition-less government in the state can be taken as an opportunity for the people to play the active role as opposition. Comparatively, glimpses of such opposition were seen through the emerging voices of the people but there seems to be too many voices at the moment. This has happened because our ‘voices’ are too divided as exemplified by the ongoing impasse. The shifts in ‘demands’ besides being divergently amorphous needs to be concretized through a process of dialogue among the people. We often unknowingly stand on unclear and uncertain grounds without meriting the issues at hand which is one reason why our struggle for a qualified living cannot expedite the desired momentum. The voices of the people need to honestly share a collectivity in forming a strong opposition. There is a lot of learning, unlearning and relearning to do in addressing the elements that constitutes a ‘peoples.’
The so many unsettled issues including the more pressing concerns related to Article 371 A, 33% women reservation and the ULB elections does not have any meeting point. A meeting point cannot be mapped out until the issues are properly addressed. What is now needed is clear guiding framework of principles and values that can help break the bottlenecks and bring the masses together towards generating the collective ‘will’ of the people.
At the premise, we have a patriarchal system that refuses to listen to the voices and aspirations of women; while on the other hand, there is emergence of women patriarchs. The challenge therefore is to trace the real voice of the voiceless while delving into issues of misrepresentation. We have our traditional customary laws but it is not in tune with the changing times and has failed to deliver justice so also placing value system in context. We only call for peace and unity within the issue without focusing on the larger parameters of peace and unity. We have too many unsettled and underscored issues that are in need of a meeting point yet the point of references to generate a process have not been ‘disturbed’ and thereby the differences continues.
Our society is still learning the hard way and bearing the brunt while trying to settle the differences and the pursuit of what can be considered as the collective ‘Naga will’ will stay elusive so long as Nagas refuse to learn to speak the truth about ourselves and its associated predicaments.
(Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
