In the end the truth will always reveal itself, it is an inevitable fact/reality and it has today indeed. The article that appeared in the Australian newspaper ‘The Age’ titled, “Nagaland, where men are on strike until women go back to the kitchen” written by its journalist Amrit Dhilion is a wakeup call to all the conscious Nagas that we are living in a primitive and irrational society. This is an insult to the whole Naga community. People may think that every Naga is ignorant when in fact we are not.
Although the writer has misunderstood and exaggerated on the real intention of the movement but nevertheless it does reflect the ignorant primitive perspective of the so called leaders who think that their intellect could be comprehended in the international level.
The purpose for the opposition to 33% women reservation in the ULB election is only for the benefit of our society period. Were we to conduct the ULB election with the quota then we would have to start paying taxes on our properties which for the 33% women and 67% men who would get elected in the elections wouldn’t be much of a problem because they would have the means to pay it off but what about the rest of the general public. Can we justify this treachery by saying that women deserve 33% reservation while the rest of the people suffer miserably? So we appeal to those invested persons to stop being so stupid for humanity’s sake.
As for the ignorant statement given by the primitive minded leaders like, “Naga women works at home and in the fields. Men go to war. Men make decisions. That’s the Naga culture for centuries and we won’t allow anyone to destroy our culture.”, “in Naga society, a woman is not equal to a man. We give women all respect but they cannot make decisions….”, “women can only take kitchen decisions. We take the big one.” we can’t begin to comprehend what amount of wisdom compelled them to proudly utter those irrational words from their mouths but this doesn’t mean that the whole Naga men folk feel the same way, particularly not us, the young educated men.
In the issue of gender equality, how can anyone say that we Naga men do not respect our women’s rights. We do accept that women are equal to men but the question is, if the women think that they are equal to men then why just ask for 33% and why not 50%. We would be happy and proud if by no means of reservation/quota, capable women could influence the people with their rational ideologies and philosophies for the goodwill of the society and acquire be it all the seats in any form of election and really develop Nagaland and rid us from the menace of corruption.
But the greater issue today is not about gender equality, it is about our fight against the corrupted leaders with their dirty agendas and propagandas. Why don’t we first eradicate corruption from the grasp of our society and after the system has been replaced with a rational one, then proceed further. Because in this present situation as long as the system is irrational the perspective of the general people would be irrational and confusing which would only lead to emergence of more complex issues in the future and Nagaland would choke itself out and get tangled by it’s various policies.
We have been told in our society to respect our elders which we would always do but this does not necessarily mean that we have to follow them. Because the truth is that there is a giant leap of difference between the wisdom and knowledge of the older people and the young generations of Nagas today. The young generations live in a new world with broader perspective about the complex concepts of life whereas the older people though however experience they may have about the struggles of life but they still lack the knowledge and wisdom of the modern global world. It is high time we start accepting the truth and apply logic because luxury through development of the state for the present young generation is a lost cause but we do want to start working for our future generations so that they won’t blame and be disappointed with their elders, us, like we do today. It is only a simple logic to ensure the survival of the Naga race.
Thus when your father seeks out a candidate to sell the vote of the entire family, we appeal to the young people to let him sell his own but you being your own man/woman choose the right candidate you deem fit and break the cycle of electing corrupted leaders. As long as the older primitive minded leaders sit in the chairs, Nagaland has yet to witness doom in drastic gravity.
Let this be a lesson to the young people and educated and conscious adults that as long as fools with their money take the steering wheel, the destination will always be Chaotic.
Liberal Democratic Party of Nagaland (Media cell)
