Augustine Bruno
Many of us dream of FREE NAGALIM every moment. A dream, nobody can stop us from dreaming. A dream, we would like it to become a reality. A dream, we will have a tough time to wake it up. FREE NAGALIM is our dream, but what is stopping us to achieve the dream? Why are we not able to wake up our dream? What went wrong? What could be the major problem? Is it due to INDIVIDUAL, ORGANIZATION or SOCIETY problem? Can we fix it? If we can, how do we fix it? How long will it take for us to fix it? Wish we know the answer.
The Present Reality(major), An Observation: Majority of the individuals are driven towards self accomplishment; high division is clearly seen among educated intellectuals based on community, region, village; division among common people is seen based on community, region, village and at the same time, they listen to what few selected individuals commands, be it right or wrong; more knowledge of modern history, other histories, but less/no knowledge of our own history; less transparency & communication among individuals/organizations/societies; faction killings everywhere; organizations splitting everywhere; and raping happening: this was never heard off in Naga Society!
Questions: Whom do we blame? Will it be right for us to blame on single entity?
Few Observations: The opinions below could be a right or wrong observation but it is worth reflecting. An opinion shared by a highly educated Indian to me (Nov. 04, 2011): Why do the Nagas need independent? You should be happy to be part of Indian Union. The rich, the educated are happy to be part of India and they don’t want to talk about the freedom struggle anymore, it is only the poor and the uneducated Nagas who are blindly following the freedom struggle!
Bharat Karnad, Research Professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi: A quick quiz-what’s common about India’s northeast, Kashmir, and Afghanistan? It’s money. The Indian government’s attitude to any insurgency-infected state and, indeed, its solution to ending rebellion and bring distant communities within the Indian fold, is essentially to tempt the ‘freedom fighters’ into getting hooked on easy money.
It is a successful strategy. For the guerillas, it is better by far to forego traipsing around in the jungle, hunted like vermin by security forces and no knowing when a bullet gets you. Moreover, after a few years living as outlaws, when the romance has worn off, and the fatigue of living meagrely off the land, of being always on the run, sets in, the insurrectionists give up the ghost, make peace with the Indian state, decide to enter the political process, parley their hard-earned reputation as underground leaders into votes, get elected as chief minister, and lo and behold, discover they never had it so good — the state treasury at their disposal to use it for the good of the people or, if they are so inclined, to siphon off the monies into personal accounts. This is preferable to running extortion rackets — the norm of the northeastern insurgent groups. [Extract from the article ‘Buying out of trouble’: Published in 'New Indian Express' & Security Watch, Oct 7, 2011].
Relearning: The problems seem too many for us to solve in a single given period. How do we solve it? Is it better for us (as individual, organization, society) to solve the problems by going back to square one and to develop a more desirable future solution? Is it better for us to remain in the present situation and develop new strategies for desirable future solution?
Inviting educated intellectuals, common people to gather for our common dream brainstorming session will not be the easiest task to do it but if given a chance (be it individual, organization, society) to take part in the dream session positively, the result could be a better and solid guide to achieve our common dream.
Nevertheless, one of the worst forces that can stop us from achieving our common dream could be:
Negativity: The level of negativity among us is becoming very high when we talk about our dream, NAGALIM. Negativity is the worst force that can sneak into an individual, organization and society. The more we look at the negative result than the positive result, the more we are discouraging ourselves from carrying out our tasks. Collective negativity is very dangerous as it can discourage people from bringing out certain good changes. For a change, is it possible for us to see more on the positive result?
We are, most of the time skeptical when we think, talk or observe the happenings about our common dream but at the same time, the interesting factor is: We consider NAGALIM as our common dream!
Repositioning: To achieve our common dream, we must reposition ourselves and rethink ways of carrying out each task. One of the opportunities we can explore to avoid confusion about our future political goal, disintegration and misunderstanding among us is to have a positive collective dream: which is the need of the hour. Having a positive collective dream can also be a motivating and grounding forces for us to achieve our dream. It is time for us to contribute ideas, thoughts and actions for better result towards a positive collective dream.
(The article/opinion is not directed or intended to hurt any individuals/organizations/societies)
