Overpowering Corruption

The need to intensify the fight against corruption is imperative. It can no longer be delayed, because the scourge of corruption continues to eat away the core of what constitutes human dignity. The recent call made by the Nagaland Governor and the Chief Minister to the Naga people to wipe out corruption from the society is appreciated. Such a call must be made from the highest office, and they must back it up by demonstrating their political will by taking practical steps on the ground. Corruption after all is a social, political and moral disease and therefore it requires not just the people, but effective transformative steps to fight it.
While public servants must positively respond to the higher calling for transparency and accountability in the fight  against corruption, it is also true to say what when the structures of the state itself is violent and corrupt, it increases the danger of greater vulnerability to corruption. And when the structures are inherently corrupt, the people themselves are inclined towards corrupt practices to meet the demands of survival. Both the Governor and the Chief Minister has stressed on the imperative role of the civil society to fight corruption. But what if the civil society itself is corrupted?
In June 2009, the Nagaland Christian Forum in their Clean Election Campaign described corruption in Nagaland as a culture. This implies that a substantial number of the Naga population is indulging in practices that are otherwise dishonest; and deemed corrupt. Is this the answer to the Governor’s lament on the complete lack of intense public outcry against corruption and the absence of a strong public forum to oppose corruption? Perhaps the Chief Minister has contextualized the dynamics of the increasing crisis when he pointed out that corruption has become more and more visible in Nagaland. He further expressed the degenerating moral values in Naga society and that Nagas can no longer claim to be honest and truthful.
Corruption in Naga society is a reality. It’s a social disease in which every individual must take responsibility for. Today the chronic state of corruption in the Naga context is negating the rich Naga heritage, imprisoning the present and destroying the future. Because corruption in the Naga context has assumed a collective and societal demeanor, even initiating a public discourse around corruption becomes problematic, even though there is a general acknowledgement that corruption is enveloping the Nagas. In the fight against corruption, it is essential to empower an individual, a community, a society to earn their livelihood through honest and fair means. In other words the people must be at the heart of the fight against corruption. It demands the call for personal and collective transformation of the Naga society.