Legislator urges ‘remake divided Nagas society into one family’

Our Correspondent
Longpa, January 15

Parliamentary Secretary for Geology and Mining Dr Imtiwapang Aier on Friday said that the Naga society has been ‘fragmenting into pieces because of lack of unity’ among the Naga family and, thereby, has called upon the people to ‘dust ourselves off and begin again to remake Nagas into one family.’
Addressing the second day of the 68th Asetkong Mungdang (Asetkong citizens’ conference) at Longpa village under Mokokchung district as the chief guest, Dr Imtiwapang Aier said that the impact of division has created an atmosphere where ‘bad’ practices, corruption and, most importantly, poor governance now dominate the society, eroding the legacy of the Naga forefathers.
The politician lamented that instead of ‘bridging the gap between the past and the present,’ rift among the Naga communities prevail and the anomaly has become dangerous for the younger generation. In this connection, he appealed the people of the range to ‘correct the mistakes and reshape the future.’
“The division within the Naga society might be the result of failure in societal governance, where organization/NGOs have been mushrooming with different ideologies. Naga society has now become a divided society,” Dr. Aier said.
Saying that before her independence, India had more than 500 princely states which were merged into one ‘knowing the consequence of a divided house,’ Dr Aier maintained that the Naga communities were now in a stage of transition ‘with no proper direction, where we have to start taking responsibility by contributing to be positive and to erase the negativity.’
“If we cannot bring change today don’t expect to bring change tomorrow by our children. Our children will judge us whether we have built or destroyed our society and will never forgive for our act,” Dr. Aier asserted.
Stating that a good governance is a global issue and hard to implement hundred percent effectively, Aier also challenged the citizen of Asetkong range to fight for the people and to bring good governance and show an exemplary life to the rest of the Nagas leaving aside clans, range and tribes issues.
Also the main speaker Rev. Dr. Mar Pongener, Dean of Clark Theological College, Aolichen spoke on the Conference theme “Shilangdi.” He maintained that ‘shilangdi / return back’ should be compare with the past and present to look for a better the future.