Kuolachalie Seyie
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he reignited debates over the Prohibition Act has heated up again because of the hated alcohol’s notorious track record as a powerful chemical, if misused, to seduce, enslave and destroy its users and ultimately destroy our families as well, is overwhelmingly fearful. Advanced, developed societies with more experience of coping with changes and resources available do manage to handle the issues of the problem with less controversy. But, for our young Naga society wrestling with the complicated challenges of growth is a more difficult task to deal with. Our concern is will the tremendously fast increasing tempo of the debate help our society wrestling to grow for good or bad?
Some of the allegations levelled against the Church’s considered position by some of the individual writers are unexpectedly wild and too sweeping. Accusing the Church that it is unreasonable, deeply proud, high handed, pharisaic, archaic, dogmatic, dictatorial, fanatical, preposterous, not be willing to accept its failures, blocking clean liquor, responsible for killing alcoholics with spurious drinks, indifferent to Govt.’s lack of funds, misleading, disturbingly unrestrained, lacking clarity of purpose and much more. Who knows, the Church and its members may be even worse before God. But the Church is fighting a battle it is compelled to fight to clarify its position on what it believes is important for our Naga society, as Christianity is aimed to fulfil the purpose of our creation. And to describe the battle position of the supporters of NLTP on alcohol which is based on their knowledge of the destructive consequences of the lethal chemical’s misuse as “dictatorial and fanatic” because religion remains one of the critics main arguments as if the Church becomes an issue is their confused thinking. The result is arbitrary misinterpretation in general of what Christianity is, and unfair accusation of the supporters of NLTP who are wrongly judged by a particular learned writer in print media as: “have a tendency to forget that ours is a secular nation, wherein religion is a matter of choice and religious laws are secondary to those laid by the constitution”.Those impatient with the Church for whatever reasons must know that the NBCC knows it is the Govt.’s responsibility to either review the NLTP or not, as it judges best. The NBCC also knows it cannot stop the Govt. from carrying out its decisions according to its considered conclusions. It is wrong to accuse the Church due to subjective reasons when it exercises its right of ‘Freedom of Thought and Expression’ and what it considers to be its responsibility to vigorously articulate its concerns, fears, convictions and vision for its members and for our Naga society. If the Church is condemned for doing so it is tantamount to suppression of its ‘Fundamental Rights’. The Govt. and society must recognize the haphazard passing of the Prohibition Act, thereby leaving major “LEGAL LOOPHOLES” in the crisis situation that prevailed at that time is entirely responsible for our present crises, therefore immediate rectification is needed instead of lifting the Act. If we can acknowledge these loopholes, we will resolve our common crisis with more mutual understanding and less recrimination. Looking at the heated discussion that has built up on the Act, the following points are given for reflection by the public.
(1) Ancient Wine is totally Different from Alcohol: The wise men of Israel were aware of the dangers of strong drinks. Their so called wine in the ancient world, according to the renowned Bible scholar William Barclay composed of only 6% alcohol. Whereas today’s alcoholic drinks are totally different – beer has up to a composition of 18% alcohol, brandy, vodka, rum and whisky has up to 58% alcohol, apart from its present dangerous adulterants. Why go for alcohol unless you wish to depart early from this world which needs your help? The Bible does not justify alcoholism as claimed by various writers in the present debate. My Bible says, not to look at the wine when it is red, Prov 23:31; it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder, Prov 23:32; and woe to those who are champions at mixing drinks. Isa 5:22.
(2) Legal Loopholes Must be Rectified at all Cost: In 1989, a few days before NLTP Act was enacted by the NLA, one of the most powerful ministers then who was also a lawyer said with derisive laughter, “We are burdened with all of our problems, the Church leaders are very selfish, instead of praying for us they would fast onto death, after all they would go to heaven after death”. Mocking the Church or Bible is not a new thing yesterday and today however, the Christians ever move forward stronger instead. Under these circumstances the Act was enacted without any commitment from the Govt, so the Act was left till date with some major Legal Loopholes, such an example to be mentioned here is that there is no different degree of punishment between the illegal import or export of only one bottle of alcohol or for a full truck load or more. The defined commercial quantity as laid dawn under the NDPS Act is not applicable in this Prohibition Act. The bootleggers know these Legal Lacunas and get away scot free even when they are arrested with huge quantities of illegal liquor. They are only afraid of their names being published in papers but that is normally not done. Punishment for commission of the offence under the Act is too light and lenient to be of any use at all. Even seizure of a large commercial quantity of illegal liquor is bailable and it becomes a matter of right for the bootleggers. There are certain exemptions for medical reasons. But without any “Restricted Liquor Stores” provided in Nagaland to take care of those exemptions, confuses the whole Act and thereby encouraged illegal sale of alcohol comes into existence to meet the need. The Act is not a total prohibition. Total prohibitions are the ones existing in the middle-eastern countries. Ours is a partial prohibition with a wide scope of exemptions irrespective of age and sex liable to be checked by qualified doctors.
(3) Blatantly Encouraging Minors to Drink: Instead of rectifying those “Legal Loopholes” or implementing the “State Prohibition Council“ and “Prohibition Committees“ as envisaged under the Act which were repeatedly requested by the Church and NGOs, in some of our traditional festivals organised by some of our political leaders, the young generation, including minor children, are blatantly encouraged to drink. Today alcohol is often served openly at the residences of many high officials even at early morning hours. Even some Church leaders defending alcoholism in the present debate certainly adds to our existing alcohol problems. On the other hand some public leaders seem to be more interested in liquor shop licence rather than solving the liquor problem of our Naga society. If you want anything for yourself, whoever you may be, whatever you do or say increases our “Naga Problem”.
(4) Licensed Alcohol or Opium for Sale? Alcohol, opium and marijuana have medicinal property; however we cannot treat lightly the question of making them available in our fragile Naga society for sale by license. Therefore the licensing should be for medical purpose only. The NBCC’s deep concern is that our society and its Govt. should be cautious on this matter and must not be interpreted to mean the Church is ignorant that the nation is secular or it is denigrating other religions as alleged by some of its critics.
(5) Licensing Cannot Stop Adulteration : The writers who are advocating for lifting of the NLTP Act seem to believe that licensing can stop adulteration of alcohol, its high price and provide clean alcohol to the alcoholics. We must first see what is happening in Nagaland before blindly believing in this theory. All petroleum retail outlets in Nagaland do have licences but almost all of them sell adulterated oil or the meters are manipulated. The Nagaland business community is not expected to behave differently just for alcohol business. Therefore the accusations of the Church blocking the availability of clean alcohol and thereby responsible for killing alcoholics with spurious drinks is unfair and farfetched.
(6) Students’ Better Performance after the Prohibition: It is clear that our students’ performance in matriculation and pre-university examinations was much better every time after the Prohibition Act. NBCC’s published survey and investigation revealed that after the Prohibition the incidence of alcoholism dropped down drastically, women folk became safer at home or outside and the rate of alcohol related accidents came down, although its impact was not satisfactory in many areas, however sends out a big message of strong condemnation of alcoholism for those who are ready to listen to the call of PROHIBITION.
(7) Hidden Realities behind Motivating the Renewed Debate: The constant claim of the Govt. losing crores of rupees in revenue due to Prohibition Act has gone on since the enactment of the Act. The Govt. has inherited the heavy burden of a thoughtlessly enacted NLTP Act on a crucially important issue on one hand and the financial chaos due to rampant corruptions on the other. The burden has been getting heavier over the years. The perception of the public in general is that it now wants to be rid of the hated burden without performing its bounding responsibilities as the representatives of its people. But the economy or the quality of governance will not improve in any case by just shedding the burden with the help of groups of people with vested interest in controlling the flow of alcohol into Nagaland. This raised the questions when will the searchlight be thrown by the Govt. on the enormous amount of money embezzled in the various Govt. Depts by our politicians, bureaucrats, contractors and suppliers inside Nagaland and outside that should have gone to developing Nagaland for everyone? The many crores said to be lost in revenues recoverable from alcohol if prohibition is lifted get all the attention in the present Naga society. But, the funds stolen by so many to satisfy their greed would exceed by much greater amount than that of the expected sale taxes recoverable from alcohol. These realities are part of the controversy related to alcohol’s impact on our society. It is not surprising that the raising of moral and spiritual issues by the NBCC at the heart of the controversy is categorized as pharisaical, dogmatic, archaic or worse and more by its critics.
(8) Delegate Policing Authority to Public as Envisaged in NLTP: We all know that evil consequences of alcoholism do not affect the drunken man alone. The lives of other innocent people are jeopardized by those whose minds and reactions have been impaired by long abuse of alcohol. Prohibiting the sale of liquor by law without practical follow up action as in our present case is not effective at all, if the enforcing agency prefers to play safe with the Legal Loopholes and there is no strong general public disposition to support the law. Only if there is a practical legal enactment based on people’s welfare, security and sentiment which is sincerely backed by the Govt. with commitment and integrity; can the implementation of the provisions of the Act be effective enough in dealing with the rampant violators. This, we know from what our Naga society has suffered thus far because of the exploitation of the Legal Loopholes by a few individuals who think only of “Dirty Profit” for themselves regardless of the consequences. Since, the Govt. cannot provide enough men power, therefore the Govt. is requested to rectify the Legal Loopholes at the earliest as well as implement the long awaited “State Prohibition Council“ as has been envisaged in Section 27 of the NLTP Act, 1989. The section provides for the constitution of “State Prohibition Council” and “Prohibition Committee” in the districts to supervise the enforcement of the NLTP Act. It is suggested that the State Govt. may immediately constitute the Council and Committees for each district and delegate necessary authorities to the duly constituted public committees in the districts to enforce the Act. It is further suggested that the State Prohibition Council may study the NLTP Act of 1989 in detail and suggest the various loopholes to be amended. This venture is worth sacrificing and is the reason of our support for the prohibition Act inspite of the aforesaid loopholes.
(9) NLTP Act Is Our Naga Property: NLTP Act is the property of everyone for our own uplift – morally, physically, economically, educationally, spiritually, politically and for our character development. So we all must give our very best to let the State Govt. rectify the Legal Lacunas and we on our part take the Prohibition Act in letter and in spirit as a Naga peoples’ movement against the destructive power of alcohol to redeem our society instead of staying at our present level of blaming and hating each other. In order to win this present debate on NLTP Act, let us not divide and tear ourselves apart from our big Naga happy family by anything of which we cannot be proud of today and tomorrow.
