Moa Jamir
A prophet is honoured everywhere, save his own hometown. The well-known biblical adage strikes the mind as one reads the news report of the Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang receiving a global leadership award for ‘Lifetime Achievement in Transformation’ at an event in Bali, Indonesia on April 23.
The Nagaland Chief Minister was selected by a panel of renowned professionals from all parts of the world and the awardees were selected in various categories based on their leadership qualities and contributions to their fields in the last three years or so, the news report illuminated quoting the Chief Minister’s Office press release.
Where is the transformation? A cynic might ask. Are the locals too caught up with their daily struggle over bad roads, corruption and other wearies of life that they failed to objectively recognize the ‘transformation’ that has been taking place in the State in recent times?
Maybe the sagacity of the panel’s selection gets diluted during the course of our mundane existence. For, apart from withering an ‘internal political storm,’ one cannot recall any ‘transformation’ worth writing about at home.
When the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 had selected United States President Barrack Obama, the Committee said the Prize had not just been used to honor specific achievements, but also to give “momentum to a set of causes.” The Prize could thus represent "a call to action" to all of us, the Committee said, reflecting on the possible weighing of “his ideals against what he really does.”
As we bask in the global recognition that the Chief Minister has garnered, therefore, it is not a time for questioning the rationality of the award but wholeheartedly supporting the government initiative in bringing about transformation in the state.
As stated, an award is recognition as well as a responsibility to give momentum for a set of causes and also a call for action—will the Chief Minister earnestly start such ventures? One looks forward in anticipation that a ‘lifetime achievement award’ is not simply an end to itself, but a means to an end.
For starters, the potholes we lovingly describe as road need immediate ‘transformation’; the common people need life jackets to come out of the whirlpool of corruption; students needs textbooks and workers need unpaid salaries; transparency and accountability need to transform governance; and basic services in all sectors need to improve.
Most importantly, can the Chief Minister cure us of our cynicism and restore our faith in politicians as a true global ‘transformer? Can he bestow us with such commitments and transform our lives for the better, with the moral boosting recognition and responsibility conferred by his lifetime award?
Only time will tell, but as mere mortals, we ‘wishfully’ stand and wait.
For any comment, drop a line to moajamir@live.com
