Fr. George Rino
I am not writing this article intending to wage a war against those who stand firm on the prohibition of alcohol in the state but to make a few clarifications on some of the arguments brought out by honorable pastor Tepu Khieya as a rebut to my article, ‘The Church and Prohibition’ dated 1st August 2014. I had stated clearly in my article that the opinion aired there in the article is my personal view and not of the Church. So attacking the entire Catholic Church and making blanket statement, ‘the Catholic Church’s liberal theology’ with a warning of a sort is unjustifiable and unfair. I stand by my opinion and further place a few more arguments for my obstinate stand against prohibition.
Example of Prohibition failure in the USA: To my knowledge, United States of America, one of the best law-enforcing countries in the world had declared total prohibition on alcohol brewing, sale and export. It lasted nearly 14 years from 1919 to 1933, by which they recognized the mistake and the difficulty of enforcing, and promptly repealed it by the first and only constitutional amendment. In our case, where the law enforcing authority is inexplicably weak on many counts, my question is, ‘who will bell the cat’ if the prohibition is still upheld. Are we not making another mockery of ourselves? “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it” says George Santayana.
‘Tamasa’/hypocrisy of Raiding liquor shops: The excise department has reiterated the need to uphold liquor prohibition Act in the state. But I have observed that the raided bottles displaced are of cheap quality. However I have also observed that better quality liquor is also on sale in the outlets, disguised as the mineral water shops. Besides, the salesmen in these outlets are mostly non-locals and yet they have no much worry even if taken to the jail because they won’t be in it for long, for there are people to bail them out in a day or two. Besides, when the raid is on invariably the shutters of those shops will be down and will be opened just after raiders have left the place with a glee in their face. Recently there was a gathering of people in our commercial city of Dimapur, near City Tower Junction, reaffirming and seeking support for upholding the prohibition. As the crowd dispersed, usual shops started to open their shutters to sell out the water bottles wrapped in black plastic bags. Shall we call it ‘tamasa’? Hypocrisy?
Human being created in Freedom: There are different types of addictions in our society, viz., money making, corruption, greed, insincerity, bribery, etc, They are all equally or even more harmful than that of addiction to alcohol. Hardly anyone is exempted from some of these, even among those church leaders who hold high their heads speaking for Prohibition. It seems to me that we are hammering too much on Prohibition, neglecting the plank in our own eyes. The slogans against alcoholism are so strong that sometimes I wonder even if Jesus were to come to Nagaland to change the water into wine, our church leaders might strongly oppose his coming too.
I read from the local dailies the mighty pressure that the church leaders are putting on the government. God created human being in freedom with intelligence and the will power and not as robots. We need to remember that if God has created human persons in freedom, then he has to use it responsibly and diligently. I would add that if the menace of drinking is widely spread then, you and me are to be blame for it.
While many have supported the status of the state as ‘dry state’ and for prohibition no one has given any valid alternatives to solve this menace from the society than putting the pressure on the government to continue the Prohibition Act. The government has miserably failed to control the inflow of spurious liquid to our state.
Failure of Prohibition enforcing Personnel: The excise department is accused by the ACAUT for taking away ‘the spoil of the war’ (the raided goods). To admit the truth is very humiliating and painful but the fact is, the excise department and police personnel have failed in their responsibility miserably. I think most of our people will agree that those who drink cannot enforce prohibition effectively. Mr. Chiong has pointed that most of our cops do drink. They collect the money to allow the liquor carriers to go through the check gates without troubles. What appear in the local dailies about the great catch by the excise department appears to me as stage managed show. So the question again pops up, “Who will bell the cat - on Prohibition?” I hope it is not the job of the Reverend Pastors and Church Leaders to sit at check gates to check the vehicles? Or are we to raise an ‘Alcohol-free-church’s battalion’ to be at the check gates to carry out our command. My worry is, will the sellers say to themselves with a sarcastic smile on their face, “Barking dogs seldom bite”? In the process the plight and suffering of the common people will continue to be the same.
Educate Hazards of Alcoholism: There are different medicines used by the medical personnel to treat alcoholics, such as Disulfiram, Naltrexone injection, Campral, Revia or Antabuse, etc but medication alone does not work. The alcohol patients need to be motivated to get cured of the alcoholic sickness with a lot of support systems.
Besides, we are not living in an island. Our small and dependant state is fully surrounded by states where there is no liquor prohibition.
Many of our youngsters are studying and working outside Nagaland where liquor is easily available. Once they are out of this cage ‘Prohibition zone’, many of them indulge badly into drinking alcohols. It is because here at home, we have just projected alcohol as the worst evil and blindfolded them but not nurture in them a strong conviction to choose to avoid alcohol. Liberating people from within is the need of the hour and not prohibiting. Lift the ban but come out with certain programmes to create Awareness, Psycho-educate and build Support Groups from the families of those suffering with this sickness. Another thing that the church need to do at this moment is to avoid branding the alcoholics as sinners but encourage them to sick experts for help. Since alcoholism is considered as the biggest sin, the alcoholics feel awkward to seek help too.
The writer is from Counseling (Psychology)
background who does not sip a sip
