Dr. Visier Sanyü Meyasetsu
I have returned home from Australia after nearly 20 years. I have been away for a longtime and I may not fully understand the current situationin Nagaland.
Today some people will raise questions: What authority has ACAUT tointerfere in our political affairs? What is their legal status and what mandate do they have? These are legitimatequestions and we must listen to all the views but I also would like to quote Victor Hugo, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” The time hascome to riseup and fightagainst the evils of corruptionand extortion;the two biggest evils in our societytoday. This is where ACAUT will have the moralauthority to fight against the evils of our time. ACAUT will have only that authority and mandate, but if ACAUT becomes corrupt,you will lead our people down and people will hate you for that. We have allsuccumbed to our greed, power and status and that is why we have lost our moral authority to handle difficult crises. Now coming to the Framework Agreement, I am notqualified to talk about the peace accord. I am not a politician and not a member of any Naga Political Group. But I would like to share a few comments on this hot topic.
All the Naga Political Groups,the NGOs, the public and our society must contributetheir best wisdom so that thisAgreement can lead to a solution. As the group that has brought thisagreement,NSCN-IM must behonest, inclusive and follow the democratic process, inviting the different groups share their vision. This should be said for their own sake and for the sake of the Naga people. The people must be frank with IM and tell them where they have done right, tell them to behonest and change their wrong ways as General Atemboldly asked for at the 8th Naga People’s Consultative Meeting on 25 August 2015 in Dimapur,so that they can work together with others for a common future, with one voice for one nation.This is where our values and struggle are at stake. Gandhi once said to a group of British,“ I don’t like you Christians but I like your Christ, you are so unlike your Christ.’ Will anyone say the same thing about us Naga Christians?
I hadthe honour of meeting uncle Muivah and uncle Isak at the UnitedNations inGeneva some years ago. It was like meeting legends, theyare heroes. I was deeply impressed by their commitment and dedication for the Nagas but I cannot accepttheir doctrine of politics and revolution, which has justified the killings that we all know about. I am fully conscious that all the different national groups have done their own shares of killings of innocent Nagas. The only difference being that justification for killings was absent. I have a real problem with the killings of some close and dear friends and my villagers, which have damaged NSCN-IM’s position as much as it has deeply shocked and outraged us. I do not know how we Nagas are going to heal the terrible wounds we have inflicted on one another. As far as I am concern, healing these wounds is one of the tasks I am committed to.
One point I want to emphasize isabout integration. Make nomistake; there is no greater Nagaland orsmaller Nagaland but one Nagaland. We must make it clear that we will not take an inch of Assamese land, we will not take an inch of Meiteiland, not even a piece of stone, no blade of grass. But Naga ancestral land belongs to the Nagas and to no one else.We have the right to live together with our own laws and our own culture. We have the right to own our ancestral land.The solution has to be worked out through dialogue with our neighbours because it cannot be imposed on us by Delhi.
Another point I want to mention is the name of our country. Nagalim is given by one faction. In other tolegitimise the name, all the other groups must approve. If they cannot agree, we must go for a referendum. I am not against Nagalim butthe right democratic process must take place.Wecannot change the name of the country by force. Naga National Council chose Nagaland when there was only one national party.
History of many nations has shown us that the future can be shaped by a leadership who are flexible and open to grasping new opportunities when they emerge. History has also demonstrated that such opportunities can be lost due to a leadership locked in the thinking and hatreds of the past. The experience of Nationalist movements around the world should make us cautious about embracing the aim of a unified Naga state. Most such visionaries finish up doing more harm than good. The leadership of both ISIS and the Al Qaeda movements would appear willing to drag their followers into wars that lead to the total destruction of cities, communities and families. The “true believers” hold that this is all for their good, and the good of their New World Order, the caliphate as they call it! Such movements need not be religious. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, for example, brought death and destruction upon their people in the pursuit of a glorious vision.President Mugabe has done the same for the people of Zimbabwe, reducing many of his people to starvation with many more fleeing to neighboring countries. Yet still he promotes himself as the great liberator.How delusional can you be! Sounds just like Hitler and Stalin; blind and in denial to the very end!
‘Nationhood’ does not have to be all or nothing. There are many constitutional arrangements where high autonomy has allowed a nation to pursue many of its national goals, while remaining part of a larger sovereign state. Scotland in UK is one good example of a people who have a strong sense of National identity, and enjoy a large measure of political independence while remaining part of Britain.
Many difficult conflict situations have been solved by the goodwill and determination of the people. The human desire to live in peace is so great that given the right opportunities and leaders with vision, communities that have in the past fought and struggled have put aside their differences and worked out a peaceful way forward. With realism, the right attitude, and the growth of trust between leaders, seemingly impossible conflicts are worked out peacefully, such as the ending of apartheid in South Africa and the successful peace process in Northern Ireland.
A successful negotiation between the Nagas and the Indian Government should not be viewed as the end of the Naga journey toward nationhood, but as the beginning of a new, peaceful political and cultural process. A new Naga mind-set can assist this process. The Naga leadership in India and in Burma can pursue a goal of greater autonomy using peaceful means; although divided geo-politically, we can be united culturally and politically in the broader realities of civic life. This united Naga culture and mind-set will develop as Naga in India, in Burma, and in the Naga diaspora and work together to assist each other. In this changing world, we can all look beyond old colonial boundaries and draw strength from an emerging vision of Naga National identity that is rooted in our traditional homelands but has spread to encompass Nagas across the world.
Let me end here with a quote from Edmund Burke, “It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for the evil to triumph”
