When- the ideology on which the hope of the people and nation is ingrained is defeated, the belief and principle upon which the aspiration of the people is pursued is destroyed, the legacy from which the inspiration is drawn by generation to generations collapses, the very basis of nationhood comes to naught.
Chaos and anarchy, divisions and dis-unity, suspicion and hatred, corruption, sycophancy, immoralities etc becomes the order of the day. Justice becomes perverted and righteousness becomes a distant illusion. There seems to be no legitimate public authority or institutions on which the Nagas can rely.
The blameless, honest and true patriotic virtues the Naga forefathers were once proudly and popularly renowned for even during their isolated animistic, non-Christian society and which successively was transmitted to us appears to have been made redundant in our generation.
The advent of Christianity, modernity and education seems to have pulverised the entire ethos of the once moral, righteous, self-sufficient and prosperous traditional rural Naga world.
The strife in the present Naga society and the ongoing unresolved political unrest provides the mind and brain no conducive climate or fertile ground or for thoughts and beliefs to expound or new innovations to take place. Nagas are constricted between the forces and trying to wrestle itself away from the choke helplessly without any possible way out.
The Nagas wishing an utopian state of endless peace, happiness and contentment must first realise our foothold and our failure to create such blissful state of existence.
The apt admission by NBCC Reverend that the Church has failed the Nagas must be taken as serious reality chronically affecting the spiritual and moral health of every Nagas and not merely as another scapegoat to console our guilt tainted life and conscience.
There are many successful nation states in the world prospering in every aspects of life and surprisingly they maintain no standing national Army to defend its frontiers or homes because the citizen themselves are spiritually, morally and civilly conscientious and responsible for themselves and responsible to the state and the state vice-versa.
Where as in our today’s Nagas world, it appears that uniformed law people and armed people including the occupational Indian Army and Indian para-military happens to out-presence the Naga population which constitute only 0.16 % of total Indian population. Why does tiny state with scanty population require so much Guns and Army to maintain peace and stability? Or is it to create a unique Indian military state that co-exist side by side with Naga Armed Militias in the name of peace? How many parallel Governments do exist in Nagaland and on whom do they rule? Can Nagaland state still be claimed as a modern welfare state in true sense of the term or a failed state? Imagine the plight of small population having to borne the diktats of more than six-seven parallel Governments and authorities at the same time besides Churches and various NGOs, tribal bodies, civil societies etc which equally claim governing responsibilities over all or particular sections of the people. All of the people but hardy for the people.
To many, the State Government run by sixty publicly elected representatives seems to be the ideal and legitimate people’s authority, yet, the same state government becomes a self-seeking authority to aggrandise only the privileged ruling members siphoning the public exchequer with no or less sense of responsibility towards the subject.
The public franchise more or less is a fraud with money and muscle clearly dictating the process over and over again every five year or sometimes mid-term poll. The public office only becomes a post-box where letters of public grievances fills to the brim with no action taken or the letters hardly read. Every official business is conducted under hand in silence which is deafening.
The sixty elected members in reality becomes a representative of money manipulated bogus electorate tottering to the dictates of more powerful GOI, the Naga UGs and few powerful lobby groups like the apex tribal organisations and finally at the mercy of the shrewd and greedy bureaucracy.
Public welfare occupies the last of neglected priority which remains a mere unfulfilled slogan from the time of election to the next election and goes on and on like chasing the wind endlessly.
The pathetic infrastructures, roads and other poor civic amenities speaks volumes of the state of affairs. Caught in such whirlwind, where do the common Nagas stand today?
From the illiterate, least-literate to highly educated, Government jobs stands out as the only and the most covetous prize which every Nagas zealously pursues their whole life as if the whole purpose of life in Nagaland is to only acquire a government job so as to not work and eat like their elected representatives whose sole purpose is none but money and only money. Yet, justifiable it is! so why ask for quality and honest public leadership when you elect them only for money and government job which they provide you during election and during their time in elected office?
Also why denounce the Naga national workers, when you yourself do not want to commit or sacrifice for the cause but instead seek white collared jobs, government jobs and other comfortable means and ways of making a living, instead only the outcasts, illiterate or ill educated and desperados are sent to keep up the Naga struggle while you continue to live safe and comfortable in you homes? Why blame the divisions among NPGs when you only love yourself and do not tolerate even your close neighbour, friends and colleagues or other tribes or communities?
Don’t you see that it’s hilarious that NPGs are mostly (not all ) run by your own kit and kin who failed to make an impression in other public leaderships that they as a last resort go for national leaderships?
Need not even blame the Churches entirely, for the Church leaderships are manned mostly by School and college drop outs or academically weak and failing to make a dent in other competitive avenues that they finally go for theology and return to assume the Church stewardships. The Naga Churches in a way or the other condone public corruption for their open act of soliciting donations and grants to the church treasury from the rich and corrupt public officials and the dirty national workers.
The bureaucracy that drives the Government are the most learned and enlightened section of people, the elites who monopolises and manipulates the seats of powers and various intricacies within the corridors of power which can never be made transparent to the people, the people are thus naturally kept aloof from the corrupt labyrinthine as a way of bureaucratic privilege and thus thrive at the expense of public exchequer and the ignorant but collaborating and ever complying political bosses.
The apex Naga tribal bodies, students, youth etc cannot but become pro-government for the slice of Judas treasury. And the national workers spare no efforts to make themselves richer every day without bothering to introspect the vacillating mass support thus jeopardising the inherent historical and political legacy of the Nagas nurtured by the sacrificial lives, blood and resources of our pioneers who gave everything of theirs for our today. Now what ours of today are we sacrificing for the Nagas of tomorrow?
Every day we hear every leader talk of Naga unity but every day we see the birth of new breakaway organisations, NNC/FGN now have at the least five-six NNC/FGN, four NSCNs, NNG, SRF etc and the apex Naga Hoho is on the verge of getting itself dismantled into various regional and exclusive narrow tribal based cliques such as the UNC, Tenyimi Union, ENPO, NTC, CNTC etc all in quest of self-fulfilment at the expense of Naga unity, it happens because the voting matters and majority votes lobbied by certain divisive groups always rules the roost. Division is thus perpetuated equally at every level both over ground or underground.
The blame game goes on and on with every concerned sticking to one’s own right but seldom admits that own-self is responsible for the mess.
Few intellectual expositions to steer the Nagas towards the right direction is lost in the “crowd of commotion” and becomes often a lone voice in the wilderness of materialism, unethical and unjust socio-politico-eco and religious quagmire in the daily quest of the Nagas at large today.
The often misunderstood ACAUT’s “one government one tax” and anti-corruption movement, the NBCC backed NLTP Act and clean election campaign are the few notable genuine pursuits genuinely failing due to overall indifference of the Nagas in practice.
To many it may sound theocratic or religiously extreme, but if the Nagas makes an in-depth examination of ourselves and the consequences of mangled society we tolerate and adjusts ourselves to though uncomfortably. The answer i believe lies in each one of us and our nominal Christian way of life.
Our failure to faithfully adhere to the covenant “Nagaland for Christ” is the root of all our sufferings. The covenant is not only meant for the Naga national workers and the NBCC or other churches but for each Naga to live up to it. The land and the people will remain accursed until we fulfil our part of the bargain of the covenant. Our everyday life must reflect the spirit of covenant. whereas the major bulk of the Nagas have chosen to live a life equally or worse than idol worshippers.
From Church, Public Office, National Workers, Civil bodies to a mere commoner, material prosperity, pleasures and comforts, privileges and opportunities, physical and mortal well beings has become the priorities of life and the means to achieve these goals are sought after with every conceivable immoral and illegal tools that comes handy.
We question the illegalities and immoralities only when we are deprived of or find ourselves compromised by the very unethical practices which we practice every day. Hardly do we question ourselves. Also the neutrality of our moral institutions and spiritual abodes like the churches, the nexus of the rich-politician-mafias-police-NPGs silencing thus the voice of the oppressed etc has become so gross that the Nagas are getting ourselves choked to death and poverty of spirituality, righteousness and justness has become so glaring.
When a nation and the people embracing Christianity religiously without spirituality and promotes and practices every vice contrary to the teachings of Christ to whom we dedicates our land, the predicament we are placed at is no alien but the creation of our own choice of living.
Nation building and national deliverance applies not only to political freedom from the occupation of India and Myanmar but cleansing ourselves from the very bondage of sins that binds us and to rededicate ourselves to the solemn covenant “Nagaland for Christ” for which and only through which can we attain our cherished destiny as “free people and nation” once again.
India and Myanmar comparatively the massive, strong and rich opponents wielding high prominence in global and regional politics can only be defeated through Christ and Christ alone.
With the present trend of immoralities in almost every aspects of life be it public leadership, public office, national struggle for independence or individual life, decay is setting in progressively and besides the destruction of bodies/institution that preserves ourselves as Nagas, the deathless ideology and indestructible principle-the sovereign, independent aspiration is critically on the verge of virtual destruction unless we realise and salvage ourselves from the impending total doom.
The ideology once defeated will be beyond redemption, therefore before the Nagas are completely routed of this cherished ideology and gets consigned to perennial slavery, may we ask ourselves what roles can each of us play in restoring sanctity in the land and rekindle the hope of our people so that a day may dawn when each of us may truly bask in the glory and providence of “Nagaland for Christ”. With bodies and institutions divided and destroyed, the national ideology now has become the target of the enemy...
Isak Sumi
.JPG)
