About 28 months after the Naga Reconciliation process formally started, it must be acknowledged that factional violence and killings among the different Naga political groups have come to a virtual stop. However, in spite of the steady progress made, it is essential that the process needs to now move beyond the present status quo to a sustainable realization of genuine reconciliation. The representatives of the Naga political groups who are directly engaged in the Naga Reconciliation process must now step in to decisively and courageously take practical steps that will enable them towards fully realizing reconciliation. The representatives above all must realize that they carry with them the yearnings of the Naga people for reconciliation.
Today the time has once again dawned upon the Nagas to collectively discern and choose Hope and Reconciliation over Fear and Division. For Nagas, Hope is what will drive the revolution for transformation forward. For too long the sense of Hopelessness have weakened the spirit of the people, and allowed fear and suspicion to envelope the Naga skyline. Now is the time for Nagas to collectively choose Hope. It is by choosing Hope that the Nagas will win in the struggle between memory and forgetting. Through Hope Nagas must overcome the seeds of suspicion and division and empower the people to once again recover the spirit of living.
Nagas need to search deep within themselves and collectively decide and make Hope a living reality. The people need to honestly revisit the critical question of the common good, which embraces a dignified and peaceful future for all. In the process of reclaiming Hope, the Nagas will have to find a shared understanding of the common good, which assumes the determining position of the Naga future. It is hence essential for the representatives of the different Naga groups engaged in the Naga Reconciliation process in creating the space for the people to rediscover Hope. The common Naga person needs to be assured of Hope and to believe that the Naga Reconciliation process represents an opportunity to provide a new life for all people.
The present situation of the Nagas stands on soft and precarious ground. And it is by enabling Reconciliation that the Nagas can be strengthened in building a secure future. A starting point in this direction is for the Naga political groups to say Yes to Hope and to commit themselves to attaining Naga Reconciliation through their actions. Nagas for too long have continuously lived in the past and has reached a point of saturation. Hence the steps toward Hope must be an active, energetic, organized and imaginative process that is transformative and visionary. For the sake of all, the Naga political groups must choose Hope if the Nagas are to survive, flourish and realize their full potential as a dignified nation. The Naga leaders of today cannot escape the responsibility to enable Naga Reconciliation to become a living reality.
