Newmai News Network
Dimapur | October 23
Appealing for unity, the Naga Public Organisation (NPO) from Myanmar, Rengma Naga Peoples’ Council (RNPC) from Assam, United Naga Council (UNC) from Manipur and Arunachal Naga TCL Hoho said that the choice before the Nagas is to talk to each other and find a common ground to lend support to a position that realistically constitutes “our non-negotiable position for an inclusive, honorable and acceptable solution based on the unique history and situation of the Nagas.”
A joint press statement issued on Friday signed by Rev Isaac Jojo, the secretary general of NPO (Myanmar), Solomon Rengma, the president of RNPC (Assam), L Wanglet Lowangcha, the co-ordinator of Arunachal Naga TCL Hoho and S Kho John, the president of UNC (Manipur) stated the Nagas as an entity, are like one body with many parts and each part is equally important for the well-being of all other parts. “If one part suffers, the whole body will be affected. Hence, piecemeal political solutions in the guise of securing constitutional rights without securing a common political future will not heal the land and our people,” it added.
The four Naga organizations said that, currently, the Nagas seem to be living in ‘caged societies’ planted and nurtured by the ideological, organizational and politico-administrative territorial divides aggravated by the tendency to nurture an overriding loyalty to one’s own ethnic and tribal communities. Despite the tall proclamation that the Nagas are a separate entity, a nation that merits to be left to itself as a sovereign nation- state, “we have not been able to transcend these boundaries and the associated world views engendered by a desire to protect the interest of our respective ethnic/tribal groups,” the organizations said.
This penchant for nurturing an overriding loyalty to our respective tribes/ethnic groups based on administrative units, different “Naga political groups” and organizations has led to the iron caging of the Naga society, it said while adding that ‘hawkish elements’ have weaponized and exploited the centrifugal forces at work as instruments to relegate the Nagas to mere prisoners setting them up against each other as mutual enemies/strangers with an unpredictable and distrustful dilemma.
Further, the organisations said that the dilemma faced by the Nagas, as prisoners of their own making, is that each party, tribe and organization is tempted to think that it is better off working against each other rather than working together against the adverse circumstances.
“But in doing so, each of the Naga groups ends up worst off than they would have been if only they had cooperated with each other and not defect to work against each other,” it added.
“The failures of the past agreements and accords also corroborate the truths of these dilemmas that led groups to zealously guard their own group’s so called rational self-interests and choices which indeed have turned out to be the most irrational acts leading the Naga society into the present-day crises. The Nagas cannot afford to forget the past blunders and repeat it again,” the joint statement read.
The four organizations put across that unity is unmistakably the earnest desire of every Naga soul. “However, unfortunately we have hypocritically taken ‘unity’ as synonymous with ‘uniformity’. While unity accepts differences necessitating the need for democratic dialogue, open-mindedness and mutual respects to work towards the recognition of common goal and the greater good of all as the fundamental basis for unity; uniformity involves an imposition of one’s will and preferences on others without space for negotiation and compromise,” they added.
The organizations affirmed that it stood firmly on the foundation of Naga political movement and historical rights, while asserting its belief that “Nagas are ‘one’ and the only way forward is to settle our differences through dialogue within the Naga family and to be unified in common purpose by agreeing to converge at a non-negotiable position for recognition of the identity of the Nagas as embodied in the Flag, Constitution and our allegiance to the Naga ancestral homeland.”
“With utmost sincerity, we appeal to the 14 tribes of Nagaland to consider all Nagas irrespective of boundaries as ‘equal stakeholders’ as they have sacrificed so much for the common Naga cause,” the statement read.
Any solution that confines itself exclusively to the present state of Nagaland would have far reaching ramifications in the future, it said.
“The October 15, 2020 Consultative Meeting convened by the Chief Minister of Nagaland on Naga Political Issue cannot be considered as an inclusive exercise of taking collective opinion since Naga Hoho was denied the opportunity to present the expressed views and opinions of the Naga people across the borders,” the organizations claimed.
Terming the Nagas’ struggle for freedom as a “collective birthright that is binding on all of us,” it opined that the struggle should be revered as sacrosanct, bigger and above all the Naga organizations and their leaders.
“We strongly believe in unity for an inclusive and honorable Naga political solution and in this journey of common hope, the Naga Hoho will sincerely continue to act as a facilitator to work towards finding a common ground for all the stakeholders,” it added.
On behalf of the Nagas from different regions and states, the organizations made a fervent appeal to the tribes in the present state of Nagaland to “re-affiliate under the umbrella of Naga Hoho and strengthen its platform in the best interest of Naga people as a whole.”
“All Naga tribes and their frontal organizations irrespective of their sizes and borders have contributed immeasurably and we believe that they are all equal partners in our common quest for the Nagas right to self-determination,” it added.
