Talk of Corruption with impunity in Nagaland has been on fashion outliving all other fashions in Nagaland. One is tempted to scale corruption with conscience and wonders if consciences have deserted Nagaland for Christ. It will be fallacy to put square blame on power holders but every soul is party to corruption either by indulgence or choosing to remain silent. Of late there has been consensus among Naga intellectuals that Corrupt electioneering practices is the prime reason for ad infinitum of corruption where electorate and the candidates are equally responsible and there is an urgent need to break this chain if development and progress in Nagaland is to be chucked to life from cold storage. Western missionaries transformed Nagas from savagery life and beliefs, New Delhi showered money and introduced Nagas to evil of easy money; phenomenal changes good or bad have been brought to Nagas from outside. Hence, Nagas are still under illusion that end to corruptions will rain from above or bring in by others in a tsunami way; forgetting that it is inside every individual within the parameter of God’s given “one’s own free will”.
Church should strongly stand against corruption and clean election after all; what ails society impact church and its congregation directly and vice versa. Christianity is a way of life therefore, holistic and Church cannot shirk its responsibilities as bible say “Faith without Works Is Dead”. Critics may have reservations, but if Churches can organize health camps to cure physically sick, organize seminars and workshops on ill effects of tobacco and alcohol on health, family and society; why not on clean election and corruptions two biggest evils that is stealthily invading and challenging our faith! Will many Naga Church leaders whose caliber are no less than Martin Luther King, Archbishop Desmond Tutu will stand up and bring about social changes in Nagaland.
Thanks to IT revolution that has touch our part of the world, the recent surge in awareness though social media about evils that ails our society should not be easily waved off by secular and spiritual leaders. Times have changed; voices will grow louder and will slowly converge into volcano in waiting for eruption that no force can contain once erupted. Therefore, church has to rise above the occasion and tell its congregation that contributions from the loot of poor man’s share, bootlegging, extortion etc is unacceptable; church income will increase manifold if every member gets his own due share and donate rather than few corrupt donating large amounts, a simple economic logic that will usher far reaching social change. Likewise, the political leaders’ and bureaucrats needs to seriously look into the welfare and development of its people than for one’s own greed, after all what pride does one have becoming rich out of poor man’s meal and leave no footprints of leadership rather than live with soiled conscience. Equally, the public should use their God given wisdom to scale our leaders based on performance and honesty to represent us and not based on monetary value after all you and I as an individual together have the key to unlock the change that we desire.
The recent web survey in ACAUT Nagaland Facebook group on the question, “Should NBCC clean election campaign include candidates and voters to take oath not to buy and sell votes in the presence of Church leaders, Congregation and electorate?”. The poll was fairly participated by cross denomination, qualification, age, gender, income and tribe.
Out of 100% who participated in the poll overwhelming 86% says YES while 14% says NO. The poll shows that majority of cross section of the Naga society wants change and sees church as one of the main force that can turn the table on the issue of Clean Election. Secondly, it clearly calls for the Church to swing in to “Action” over a slogan of “Do’s and Don’ts”.
It is not an overestimation that almost every Naga is directly part of Church and it is deeply rooted having moral authority over its members better than Government machinery or any NGOs. Therefore, if the Apex Church associations can form an Inter-denominational Committee for Clean Election Campaign-2018 and act upon on;
a). Inviting all intending candidates from District to District headquarters, hold public service and take pledge not to purchase votes. b). Request all the local churches to take pledge on congregation not to sell votes.
Many movements, NGOs, village and range are on board for clean election and electorate are ready for change. Time is ripe! The declaration by Langpangkong range and Diezephe village for Clean election is path breaking that deserves applaud, while throwing up challenges to mass based NGOs especially Student bodies, Mothers Association and Tribal Bodies to emulate this paradigm shift in approach to Clean Election. All these effort from various corners desperately needs an action oriented push from the church because of its position and authority to achieve a victory called Clean Election in Nagaland, healing Nagas from one of the main root cause of corruption that ails our society affecting individual spiritually. The desired change that every Naga is yearning for is neither unreachable nor unachievable if there is a collective approach with church leading from the front.
Dr. Khekugha Muru Former Research Associate Centre de Sciences Humaines French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
