It is very positive to note that Nagas in general and our political class in particular are passionate about God, politics and exhorting one another (in the name of God, development and political vision). In fact our politicians are always in the public eye and constantly engaged in different forum given their importance in our society. Whether it is during election campaigning or even in other occasions, our political class, they are very fond of using whatever platform they get, to give sermon on Godly things and try and justify their political actions. Some of them have even used the pulpit of the Church to propagate their political beliefs. Sometimes one is made to wonder as to whether these politicians actually consider the public as easy to fool with their tall claims of spirituality and political ethics. It is true that a majority of people are quite gullible by the charm the so called politicians or VIPs display or the fantasy they build around them. Actually there is nothing wrong if our politicians speak about all these things because exhortation is always beneficial for educating and inspiring one another. And since our public leaders are meant to reach out to as many people (whether for electoral gains or not), they should be valued as brand Ambassadors or even as missionaries for making Nagaland a better place. And they seem to be doing a good job wherever they go with their passion for enlightening the public mind with Christian message, inspirational stories of their foreign tours, socially relevant topics of welfare, equality, justice and political sermon on peace and development. We only wish that they will continue to be ambassadors for a better Nagaland once they get elected to public office.
However we need to also ask this question—whether we the people, are also motivated to reform and change from within. Or is it that those who give such talk or sermon, they do not inspire the confidence and trust of the people—otherwise surely our society should have improved at least to some extent. How many of our leaders can really call themselves as role-models for others to emulate? We have many many leaders no doubt but how about leaders who lead and live by example or are looked upon as role-models. Perhaps it is pertinent to take note here that today’s leaders, they operate and function in a world driven by media power and huge amount of publicity. The gullible public gets awestruck seeing their leader in fine print and assumes that the person must be immensely popular. And when in person they see and hear the leader speak in some public gathering, they are even more persuaded with all the positive stuff and tall claims made. So we may have many popular leaders among us but how able and capable they are remains a moot point. We need leaders who are worthy of not just their words but their action must reflect all that they preach. This is the problem we face in our Naga society where we have so much of sermon and exhortation but very few who can deliver through exemplary work. Ours is a society in crying need of better leadership. On Saturday (February 23, 2013) we get an opportunity to once again elect the leaders we want for ourselves. Will we elect leaders who will serve us or those who will dominate over us? As James Madison once said, we need to elect people “who possess most wisdom to discern and most virtue to pursue the common goal of society”. If we can vote for such as these, perhaps, there is hope. But the question is do we have leaders like these in our midst?
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