We have arrived to the future: Lipokmar Tzüdir
Morung Express News
Mokokchung | August 2
A scintillating speech delivered by a young Naga professional today at the Ao Naga festival of Tsüngremmong in Mokokchung today had thousands lending their ears and setting him apart from the pack as he shared the podium with a host of politicians and elders.
Lipokmar Tzüdir, Director, NEZCC Dimapur addressed the mammoth gathering at Imkongmeren Sports Complex Mokokchung today during the celebration of Tsüngremmong festival organized by the apex Ao Senden. He admitted that he was speaking as a young Naga and that his words reflected not the policies or opinion of the organization he represented but his speech reflected the views of many a young Naga of his generation today.
He emphasized on the importance of traditional values and its preservation and also called upon the elders to not fail the “younger ones.” He stated that the “enemy” of the Nagas today is nothing else but a “creation of our own.” Saying “we have become our own enemy,” Tzüdir lamented that “the enemy is within” and that “our conscience has stopped speaking to us.”
Calling upon the people to get back to their roots, Tzüdir said that developments and modernity, if it is not founded in the values of traditions, will collapse. “And we’re marching in that direction at the moment. Without the values of traditions enshrined within and in our external expositions, it will collapse one day.” He added that there would be chaos if Nagas forfeited their traditional values. “We talk about developments and our visions on how we would want our children to inherit the future. All of us gathered here today are all partakers in receiving and moulding this future that we talk about to pass on to the generation that will come to us. But if we ourselves do not realize the values of traditions, then we have already failed the future. The future has started,” he asserted.
He also called upon the senior citizens to stop saying “tomorrow is your future” to the younger ones, or they would be failing them already. “We have arrived to the future. Our philosophy and ideologies have to change. We have to now embrace the younger ones and embrace the future as it has arrived,” he added.
Citing that one person can change the content or course of history, Tzüdir cited historical personalities who changed the course of direction of their nations and concluded that those persons were guided by values of civility and traditions. He also called upon the people to revisit their traditional values, embrace it and carve out a new direction.
Saying that Tsüngremmong is a festival related to agriculture, and Naga customs, practices and traditions being “enshrined in our way of life, that is agriculture,” Tzüdir feared Naga festivals like Tsüngremmong would be reduced to mere commemorations “if agricultural activities would stop.”
“We have abandoned agriculture to great extent. There is mass exodus from the villages to the towns, but the towns have already reached the saturation point,” he pointed out. He called upon the “functionaries of the state government” to create opportunities for young Nagas to dwell on the rich resources they have inherited so that Naga culture, customs and traditions would sustain any test of time. “But if not, the concrete infrastructures that we see will collapse within our own eyes,” he warned.
