A few years back, I listened to a speaker narrating an incident of his experience in Holland. He had gone to buy a bottle of milk. The milk booth had nobody around to guard it. He dispensed a bottle of milk, paid the money in a container and took the change. It was not an automatic machine.
He was surprised at the honesty of the local folk. He then tried to picturise a different scenario where people were not honest. If people cheated on the change, took extra milk or diluted the milk. They would need a supervisor to keep guard. The supervisor would need to be checked upon. The milk would need to be tested for its purity and water content and so would require milk inspectors. This would involve money to pay the salaries. The price of milk would go up in order to accommodate the additional expenditure.
Travelling in Chennai in an autorickshaw till a few months back was always an ordeal. The Rickshaw wallah would name an astronomical price and you had to haggle with them for the right price. They were very resistant to having meters in their autos. Recently the administration came down very powerfully and enforced meters. As a result autos had to go by the meter. People used the autos more often since they were now not scared of being fleeced. Earnings of the autos actually went up and for many it doubled. If only they had agreed to meters years back, they would have been much richer by now.
Electricity supply in Nagaland is very bad for many reasons. One reason is theft of electricity and tampering with meters. This causes huge losses to the Government and loss of revenue. A poor dept cannot afford to give good service. The result is load shedding. We then need to rely on invertors and generators. It also leads to loss in productivity of all. Everybody loses and we end up spending more money for alternate sources of electricity.
We do bad jobs on roads making money in the process but spend that money in added fuel costs and repairs to our vehicles since our roads take a toll on them. Nobody gains in the process.
We spend huge amounts in buying votes during elections and spend the same mon ey feeding our voters who camp around our houses in hordes demanding for their share of the pie. We make vulgar amounts of money from corrupt means, build fancy buildings and end up selling them later to pay off loans from money lenders who financed the election process.
We use NREGA money dishonestly and do not do all that it is allocated for. As a result our village roads and infrastructure remains poor. We block further release of funds by our dishonesty. Good utilization of funds brings more finances if we are found credible.
The NBCC clean election campaign was a good effort. It is a beginning. This must continue. It should not be conducted only before elections. Many more initiatives must be taken on a war footing before the next elections.
Can the church ask their members to observe
1. Punctuality day – One day where all members go to work on time and return at the appointed time.
2. Honesty day – One day where members of all churches are encouraged to sign no false papers, ask no commissions, pay no bribes and speak the truth.
3. Compassion day – One day where we treat all the foreigners, immigrants and non locals in our land with the respect that is due to another human being, created in the image of God.
4. Clean electricity campaign – Ask their members to correct their meters and stop stealing electricity for 1 month.
I am sure if the Ao and Sumi churches could mobilize around 30,000 people to clean Dimapur on a single day, they can definitely do this. If the Chief Minister could mobilize the whole of Kohima to clean the capital, it is possible to encourage his state to do this for one day and see what happens.
I believe that there are many more good people in this state who can think of scores of better ideas than what I have mentioned with my little limited mind. Can the church ask its members to voluntarily bring up ideas which they can try out corporately? Being honest alone can be scary and lonely. Support mechanisms must be developed from within the church.
They say it takes 3 generations to change a culture. Corruption and dishonesty were not really our culture. We adopted and refined it. Today they have become our foundation because of which our society crumbles. Once you build on dishonesty, you cannot change too much later since you will find one lie leads to another and the sum total of it all is too much to undo, too embarrassing and heavy a price to pay.
We have phenomenal land, plant and community resources. All these do not seem to work productively since we are a dishonest people. We are not underdeveloped because of the oppression of India or the neglect that we suffer. It is purely our culture of dishonesty that has led us to where we are now as the most backward state in India.
If we are to grow as a community and state, we as a people will need to take some concrete steps towards honesty in our society. It takes courage to be honest. The initial price may need to be paid. Eventually it pays better.
Most Naga Christians acknowledge that the Bible is the Word of God. Most however do not think it is a very practical book – just because they did not try it out. We live on the assumptions and second hand rumors of people around us who tell us that dishonesty pays. We are afraid of trying out honesty – just in case it does not work.
If we are honest, everybody will win. There are no losers. David says, I have not seen a Godly man being let down.
Can we give honesty a chance?
Dr Sedevi Angami
