Niketu Iralu
[dropcap]P[/dropcap]oliticians in the field of leadership of governance and economic development are the most criticised of all by society. It is so easy and so pointless because the truth is more than that. The politicians do not / cannot pay much attention to the criticisms because they either know those who criticise them or they simply pity them for not knowing the realities of running a society. Meanwhile our society is collapsing under its own weight because of our denial of common culpability and responsibility for the dysfunctional society we have produced together by the way all of us are thinking and living.Those who choose to lead are mandated by the public to give leadership that works for our society frantically struggling to grow. By virtue of the positions of power and influence given to them they are best placed to do what needs to be done. Our society’s prayer to them is for leadership that leads them not into temptation and disaster, but deliverance from suicidal short-sightedness, and ways of solving problems that only breed more problems. We are sinking under the unsolved, accumulating problems - who can deny?
“A life not examined is not worth living”. This observation by Socrates is perhaps so familiar to us that we think just knowing it is enough! Every society aspiring and struggling to rise discovers that to ignore this time-tested wisdom is to invite sure failure.
The Naga struggle for our aspirations came to be called “Underground” by its detractors. It has now become as “Over ground” as the State Government system after more than half a century of upheavals and contortions. This has produced a society that is undevelopable, and both our struggles UG and OG have become unworthy of respect, and impossible to continue. Therefore, today we realize the most urgent thing for us to do is to examine ourselves, our society, our struggle and our plans for development in order to restore ourselves to continue our journey.
No one will deny that the two most important efforts by our people - the Naga struggle UG and OG - have started to destroy themselves and the people for whom they were launched. What is the reason for this common destructiveness? Is not mental and spiritual bankruptcy the root problem? Will some of the youth organizations of the Churches or civil society take on to examine and reveal for us the reasons for this deadly bankruptcy to enable us to get things right again?
I am posing these questions and concerns without any self-righteous judgement or criticism of anyone or any group in particular. Only the most dishonest or blind will say a few alone in our society are to blame and the rest can throw stones at them.
Can it be denied that at election times too many Nagas become virtual leeches interested only in sucking and devouring? Elections are expected to produce “Government of the people, by the people and for the people”. But they have become a cursed and diseased process capable of producing sickness only. And yet when governments are formed, we expect sound development in all fields of life and everything will function to our satisfaction. Surely the time has come when we Nagas have to just stop and understand the consequences of what we in our different ways are doing to ourselves and to our society. Can the ship on which Nagas have set out on their voyage stay afloat if we can think only of painting our cabins when our fragile ship is sinking?
The crisis that threatens us is paralysing all areas of life. No one will dispute this. The Chinese word for CRISIS, we are told, is made up of two characters – Danger and Opportunity. Are we learning to identify the Opportunity in our crisis to build on it so that the Danger in it may not win and destroy us?
God came to the son of Adam and Eve and asked him “Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face showing such unhappiness?” (Genesis 4). He added “If you do what is right will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it”. At this time is not God putting this question to all of us, not just our leaders OG and UG? If we will take Him seriously and answer truthfully we will be surprised seeing our society starting to change. Life will become adventurous and creative instead of being dissatisfying, bitter and destructive.
What makes me angry, jealous, bitter, vengeful, regretful or sad at any time is my precious point of contact with God. These feelings are the surest signs that God and I are seeing each other and I am ignoring Him. He is asking me what He asked Cain, because I too am important to Him. He is giving me the same challenge and call of destiny. He requires me to act quickly to deal with what He is showing me. If I do so I start to change and become part of the cure instead of the disease. Remember “Why are you angry?” was the first question God put to the human race! It is the sign of His love for and faith in us.
We need to go beyond Who is right or Who is wrong and confront the question What is right for all concerned which includes all our people. At the level of who is right or who is wrong, we are always right and the others are wrong. It is futile and leads to paralysis of society. But what is right is a higher, honourable alternative. It brings about a breakthrough and takes all forward because it requires both sides to change.
The outcome of the decisions and actions by the leaders for good or ill, are on a far larger scale than the outcome from the decisions and actions of ordinary people. But if we the citizens will think and act selfishly and put the blame on the leaders only we are doomed to destroy ourselves.
No problems are being properly solved because we are not going far enough. The accumulated unsolved problems threaten to overwhelm and bury us. The real culprit is SELFISHNESS. This is undeniable. We Nagas understand what declaring Quit Notices to one another means. We must now be intelligent and daring enough to issue a “QUIT NOTICE TO SELFISHNESS TO ALL IN THE NAGA HOMELAND”. This is a DO-ABLE thing. We may not become saints, not likely to. But if all who are concerned for our people’s survival will take such a stand and fight all out within ourselves to simply confront selfishness honestly and refuse to allow it to cross a certain Red Line into our lives, we will be surprised by the rapid lowering of the pile of our stinking problems. Make no mistake; this is the new Naga OG and UG struggle.
(I am speaking on this subject as a real authority with PhD qualification! I say so because when I asked God what He had to say about me and listened, the first thing He said to me was “You are a very selfish man, full of jealousy and without love of anyone other than yourself....” I became so fascinated that I decided to be corrected daily and directed by Him from then on... ).
