The search for just peace is about new life; it is about creativity and originality … Peace is not a single vision; it is a way of life
The need to evolve realistic and reflective praxis to transform situations of violence, underdevelopment and injustice is an imperative need as peoples’ struggles and destinies are interrelated. However, any initiative will turn void if the histories and stories of the people are not fully taken into consideration. Part of transformative change is recognizing the truth and learning to listen to the aspirations and desired collective will of the people.
Perceptions, attitudes and behavior in addressing questions of justice and peace, and the struggle for regaining their humanity have invariably been shaped by a people’s capacity to be self-determining. In this process it is essential to confront that history that has caused the wounds and to address the deeper root causes of conflicts that are responsible for so much of today’s crisis. We can no longer follow a paradigm that only seeks to find solutions to symptoms. Hence, Peace must be built from within the culture and from within the innate structures of the people.
It is the dynamism of a people’s capacity to be self-determining that enables and empowers them to balance the diverse aspects of their beings, and to achieve peaceful co-existence based on mutual respect and understanding. The search for just peace is about new life; it is about creativity and originality that brings to public expression the yearnings and aspirations that have been denied and suppressed for so long. It must begin by enabling a collective and hopeful imagination a space of its own. In reality, there is no road that leads to peace, for Peace itself is the road.
Nagas need to make that road by walking together with the will to engage and transform all forms of injustices that destroy human dignity. Thus, it involves empowering people to regain their humanity and ownership to be self-determining entities. Peace, therefore, necessitates the transformation of all unjust systems to ensure that the injustices are not committed again. Peace is not a single vision; it is a way of life.
Nagas need to encourage the evolution of a natural praxis based on the idea that the freedom of one is the freedom of the other; because when one is unfree, no one can claim to be free.
