Some of those who voted YES had this to say:
• Yes, depending on which strata of the Economic and Political status you are in. Truth is no more for all, but a privilege for a selected few. Only those powerful people seem to have the right to say whatever they want to say and then get away with it. Whereas on the other hand, the common people are hounded like dogs when they speak out the truth. So truth has now become exclusive only for a few. Truth is actually no more the truth.
• Yes.... Because if we start lying one word, it would led to another lie n so on.... so better speak the truth freely
• The reason is, as we all know honesty is the best policy.
• Yes, let all national workers irrespective of your conveniences, enough is enough. How long are you going to accumulate ill gotten wealth in the sacred name of freeing me and you? When ceasefire breaks up you will be faking of arrest by police and Indian army. Politicians will pocket developmental funds in collusion with corrupt bureaucrats. Where are the churches? Great revival is needed in your sect so that you can revive our people. Let the message of pastor Martin Neimoller be our inspiration to change our society from total decaying full with hate, zealously and killing among ourselves only to clap hands by our adversaries.
Some of those who voted NO had this to say:
• At this juncture in the current context neither spineless public nor larger than-life govt, nor mediocre civil societies, nor superficial church in the contemporary naga society have a the courage to speak the truth as what they all seem to have in common is they only have the heart to gingerly scratch the surface of the truth with great caution to make they don’t end up in the place where they don’t want to be. How I would like to see the naga intellectual community from younger generation play a pro-active role in the present messy state of affairs in the days to come by bringing a sea of change on every sphere of naga life. The govt on the one hand, invariably criticizes the public for being dependent, parasitic, and indolent and the public on the other hand, accuses govt of being corrupt, greedy and arrogant, while the civil society and the church whoever individually and collectively perceives and believes to be working and serving respectively in the best interest and welfare of the state and its people have found nobody else but themselves blameworthy as often as they are targeted by the naga intellectual community of being ambiguous, double standard, profit making or better sum up as subservient to the corridors of political power.
• No, the corruption level in this ‘holy Christian land’ has reached such a state that the unspoken mantra is ‘speak the truth and spoil your chances of gaining status and wealth.’
• No, I don’t! The scars in mind that my words will be left unheard and in pin. If I speak I may be questioned who I am! How long we have been speaking the truth and goes from the other ear. But I wont lose heart if given even a sec, I will definitely raise my voice. I am afraid to run away!
• Honesty is not the best policy. I lie to prevaricators and imposters. Ask me if i tell others the harsh truth. Yes i do. Do i feel safe? Not at all.
• Underground ppl will come next morning
• No, those who differ and dare to challenge, speak the truth are placed under a ‘microscope’ and branded as unreliable pariahs! Sometimes even paying with their lives!
• if we speak the truth about politics they start to target us in every thing we do
• i will if i have 5 or 6 personal bodyguards and two vehicle escorts with me. the worst part is that those who are availing this privileges are not speaking out the truth but using it to steal public money only.
• Difficult because corruption, bullet, dishonest, control us.
• I don't feel unsafe to speak my mind in public. Never been threatened anyway. Maybe its because i never spoke loud enough to face that kind of a situation, but i sure would like it if someone or people decide to threaten me for speaking the truth..
• No, if pulpits and law courts are really used for upholding truth, liberty and justice, then our society would still be full of fearless people ready to publicly stand and die for truth.
• No! I don’t feel safe because “Truth” is a word that has been erased from society. Also take an example of our churches. Even our pastors are scared to preach the WHOLE absolute TRUTH because if they preach about MERCY, FORGIVENESS or PARDON in the church, all the MERCILESS MONEY LENDERS, UNFORGIVING BIG SHOTS who play with weaker people’s sentiments, or sometimes EVEN THE WHOLE CHURCH gets offended by the TRUTH. Another example is if I speak out the TRUTH about the present state of UNREST, INEQUALITY, EXTORTION, UNAUTHORIZED TAXATIONS, DISUNITY, POLITICAL FLAWS, etc IN PUBLIC, “THEY” will come straight at me and silence me, FOREVER. If my opinion seems wrong to anyone of you who falls into the category of people who gets offended by the truth and is seeking ways to get back at those who speaks out the truth… (sms text missing)
• Whom shall we trust? When even the so called responsible authority itself is a fraud...things end there, everyone is mum, coz every rights and truth is being curtailed.
• No, most of the rich and powerful are corrupt so they’ll pounce on the person who speak the truth like a pack of hyenas hounding a little lamb who dare to cross their path.
• no.. i dont want to die young ..or i dont want to live my life alone/shun by society.
• nope, our speech and writing is subjected to threat and intimidation by various NGO, Village Councils, Tribal Hohos, the so called nationalists and even by the Government for apology saying they will take action for which they will not be held responsible... who will want to speak out the truth when death warranty comes with our speech and writing
• The speakers are not safe later.
• Gonda raj rules now and their spies are everywhere.
• NO!! who is not scared in this present scenario?? the environment is such that your voice, the truth you speak will be suppressed from all angles. We cannot blame the public/individual for being scared of speaking the truth because the situation is such that you will get nobody's support to what you have spoken even if it is the truth. Everybody is onto saving his or her own SKIN!!. Here i don't only meant revealing of big scams/wrong doings but even small everyday wrongdoings. Sometimes the prize of being trying to act like Jesus is TOO HIGH!!
• No, but I never hold back from telling the truth but it does hurt others and in some cases it becomes scary too with all the threatening! Nagaland is surely not a safe place for people who dare to speak the truth!
• No, our society is full of wolves in sheep’s skin, who ‘bravely’ lie to benefit something but trembles when its time to tell the TRUTH for fear of angering the high and mighty.
• No, only those armed with divine revelations and interventions can stand up and speak the truth and nothing but the truth in this holier than thou, morally, spiritually corrupt society.
• In a nutshell, media polls and social networking sites gives the perfect opportunity to people to air their views and vent anger on ‘black is black, white is white issues.’
• NO…Naga public is not that strong that we can speak out freely, they never get others points until that happens to oneself, as we people are not united…its like a saying that I have changed abit…’united we stand, divided we run.’
• No, Nagas are hyper sensitive and very unreasonable type of people. We are still very close to animal, I mean jungle rule, might is right.
• No, cause these days every public have a support from our so called national worker (bitor manu) even in government dept, society, church, etc if we speak truth, we are look as a threat to them.
• ‘Truth in public’? Come on…we cant even speak the truth in our own homes…its sad coz we have become habituated to lies and cover up words and all nice and sweet sounding words. If we do atleast 5% of what we say and preach, then things may be a little different but so sad…we are all liars. Suspicion has taken its roots deep in our system and now we cant even trust our own so called loved and dear ones…speaking the truth in public is beyond reach at the moment. We have even turned the bible truth into lies by our living. So if someone says he speaks the truth in public or in private, I cant really take it unless he live by his/her words. So unless every individual and our homes are free from all these lies, nobody can speak boldly in public. The fear I believe is not outside but its within the person.
Some of those who voted OTHERS had this to say:
• We are far from truth telling; we need open space to discuss and dialogue, share opinions both good and bad without fear. Until that happens we will allow dishonesty to flourish and truth will be prosecuted.
• These days speaking truth is also a sin. some person are so irresponsible that they even force others not to reveal the truth. and above all these days people trust those who don't speak the truth the most.
• simple.. because nobody wants to hear the truth. we are jus satisfied with all the lies and hypocrisies that surrounds our society and our lives. we have learnt to live with it. its that we are scared to speak the truth. in fact people do speak up but the question is do anyone care??? no, nobody cares. we are just like what T.S. Eliot describes in his poem "The Hollow Men" "this is how the world ends......... not with a bang but with a whimper......."
• Its very very ironic because among the Nagas there is a strong feeling that the truth is always on their side. This subjective feeling cannot be challenged through reason and this is why the idea of truth is very difficult and many a conflict has been fought over this. The concept of objective truth does not have any place or reason, rather it is subjective truth that rules the Naga society. No wonder it is very difficult to even reconcile or even come to a consensus because truth is interpreted subjectively.
• Seems like most of the people are afraid of speaking the truth about the terror tactics of those standing behind the big secular banner whose aims are to systematically suppress and undermine the growth of our faith, value, civilization and Christian culture with all their coordinated lies and corruptions which are contesting every forward movement of striving naga Christians, their way of life and progress and ultimately either really undermine us or drive us out of our own homes, which is becoming visible (through not possible) by all their exposed tactics and lies to distort our mind and faith. When they try to drive us out we need not run.
• As long as we, as Truth loving people are united and fight for it sacrificing our own selfish ambitions and motives for the greater cause and good of the people Nagaland will truly be a land of Peace. As the Bible rightly said "and the Truth will set you Free".
