Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 Say “1.There is time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2. A time to be born and a time to die, 3. A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6. A time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7. A time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to hate, 8. A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” (NIV Bible)
There is time for every individual in every group/party/organization to explode certain pressured elementshidden within the body, when it crosses limitation. Perhaps, which is why the scripture says “there is time for everything”. The predominant Nagas are still unknown to what takes place in every Nagaland Legislative Assembly meeting. As a result, they are in tears silently every day for experiencing political discrimination. In the unconscious act of every human being, many are swept away by the conscious vision. At the verge of coining achievement in new leadership of T.R.Zeliang, transgression emerges in uncertainty. It is neither failure nor mistake but drunkenness in pride of one’s own power. Such phenomenon makes ramifications to revelingtruth at certain point of time.
The culture of politics inevitably embeds the sets of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments which produce order and meaning in the process of politics providing rules for member of legislative assembly (International Encyclopedia. 2008),that keeps every political member dumb from revealing truth within the majority corrupted members. Similarly, the current Naga People Front (NPF) political party must have suppressed any white sheep from becoming the messenger of the citizens from his/her constituency. The fundamental value of common people, spirit of democratic politics and the inclusiveness of every voice that emerges from every distance of urban and rural areas are hybrid into white wash politics that fools the grassroots within and outside the Assembly.
The current NPF political leadership must have escalated way beyond concealing injustice for own members. The process of socialization and politicization within and outside the Assembly went wrong; therefore, someone like an unknown member of legislative Assembly reveals the truth “Every time in the Assembly, we were not allowed to ask any questions to know something of the developmental works of certain departments in the State”. Continue “I, as a representative of my constituency, should be given an opportunity to ask questions to know the process of any developmental activities taking place in my Constituency. But if I do ask any questions in the Assembly, then I will be treated as indulging in anti-party activities” (Morung express. 2016). If such exposure is true then, the imaginations of everyday political meeting within the party members are always subjugating the minority voice, which is why every Assembly meeting lasts maximum for 15 minutes. On the other hand, the entire citizens of the State were curious of the 15minutes Nagaland Legislative Assembly meeting held on 12th July, 2016, that went viral on social media and newspapers like morungexpress, imphaltimes, theshillongtimes, oneindia, news google, and business standard news. Many anticipated that it would enter the Guinness world record as the shortest Assembly meeting in the world. Meanwhile, the current ruling political party – NPF perceived it as the greatest achievement in the history of any political party, perhaps in the entire globe, moreover, discerned as the only unopposed political party in the history of the state.
The question is whether this revelation will affect the upcoming general election in the State? There is speculative anticipation that, collection of minor issues that may result into major issue at the end may appear as deadlock for the current NPF from winning the upcoming election. The brave initiative of the unknown man who revealed the internal discrimination of the NPF government in a democratic State brings party mediocrity.
The situation explicitly explicates the emergence of numerous opposition parties for the current unopposed party. There is no worstbigger image of the NPF than the publicly revealed of hidden discriminating politics.However, if the revelation is untrue, the party needs bigger and stronger evidences to convince the people to earn the trust. Subsequently, one important hesitation is that whether the Nagas would learn the wrong voting to right voting or would continue the same culture of voting in the coming election.
Opportunity comes and goes; however, people who often missed it never see another opportunity again. Similarly, the whitewashing politics of the current NPF is revocable by the Naga citizens based on the poor performances, suppression of voice and discrimination of rights in the Assembly. Perhaps, Nagas must learn something from the man who revealed the discriminative politics of the Assembly and may follow to realize the scripture 3. “A time to kill and a time to heal a time to tear down and a time to build”; it is the ongoing moment for the Nagas to kill the corruption and heal the painful wounds of the innocent the citizens who are becoming poorer.Time has begun to tear down the current political party and leadership and make it as time to build the broken and visionless society.
However, if the Nagas missed it today, they would remain regretful for the next five years. It may be the opportunity which says “God is asking us to fix broken politics instead of complaining about it”. (Howell. 2016).If anyone misses this opportunity, you either regret upon the regret or regret not to regret again. Additional significance to fragment the current political party is to rationalize like what Howell says “the main culprit behind our broken government isn’t the political leaders, it’s the public to whom the members respond.”
If the Naga political party depends on the public more than the political leaders then, every good and politics in the state is the choice of the common people.
LemwangChuhwanglim Researcher & Activist
