In order to move forward, we need to genuinely address the legacy of conflict which will create space for healing to begin. In the Naga context, the majority of adults carry scars because of the protracted political nature of injustice and cold peace. However, many are conscious only of their own scars while remaining indifferent to the scars of their fellow women and men.
These conditions perpetuate isolation and trauma. Communication systems have collapsed, social institutions have been weakened, and people’s relationships with each other are damaged leading to suspicion, distrust, rumors, confusion, and ultimately division. The high degree of emotional and psychological trauma and disorder makes the entire society more volatile and vulnerable to violence.
Government institutions and various administrations are corrupt and unresponsive to people’s basic needs. Social and economic policies are non-existent and institutions now regulate the lives of ordinary Naga citizens in an exploitative way by creating a relationship of dependency. In doing so, people have become passive and immune to structural violence. These same institutions control sources of employment and exploit basic human needs that deny a person to enjoy the right to life. Not surprisingly, like most situations of protracted conflict, the most basic essentials and human needs have become the most expensive, violating all norms of human understanding and natural rights. More self-destructive behaviors have increased as people resort to anger, hatred and violence against themselves and towards each other.
Generally during times of uncertainty and exploitation, people look towards their own kin for safety. Yet, at the same time this makes room for the powers that be to perpetuate social instability and insecurity by promoting feelings of ‘isms.’ This has allowed the practice and institutionalization of electoral politics based on money, power and patronage, whereby people begin to vote for individuals that are designed to guarantee jobs, favors and business contracts. In effect, democracy is non-existent, while militarization expands during which both direct violence and indirect violence lay the basis of control and power.
The legacy and scars of protracted conflict must be addressed and abated in a meaningful and just manner, especially armed conflict. A people cannot move forward unless they have sufficiently addressed these issues. While recognizing that we are victims of injustice, we cannot also ignore the fact that none of us are innocent. Who is innocent? In the course of protracted status quo, we have come to assume both roles. Therefore, any healing process must transcend both victim and victor mentality.
The challenges are daunting and very complicated. Natacha Meden in From Resistance to Nation Building: The Changing Role of Civil Society in East Timor highlights this arduous, yet necessary task. Meden points out, “Although the roots of the East Timor conflict were those of a foreign occupation … years of occupation have led people to find their own survival method and it is not always clear who was working for whom, or who was working both sides …. The East Timorese society has been experiencing on and off a series of tensions inherent to its fabric, such as the generation divide along language lines or the return of the diaspora. Whereas the older generation–elite and diaspora for the most part–speak Portuguese, the ‘language of the Resistance,’ the younger generation that grew up under Indonesian occupation speaks Indonesian.”
Healing the scars of conflict is core to the process of nation building. While it is fundamental for the State to publicly acknowledge and apologize for the violations committed, it is equally important for the Naga movement to do the same. In order to move forward, all wrongs committed by Naga people against the Naga people in the name of the Naga people must be addressed in a relevant and sincere way. This will be significant step in the long process to address political hurts within the Naga socio-political fiber.
Similarly, economic injustice must be addressed. Those who have wrongfully profited from the conflict through acts of corruption must be held accountable. This includes addressing the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’ in a manner that facilitates the growth of an equity based society. This process of healing and reconciliation needs to be rooted in the Naga self-determining praxis that emerges from the people with survivors’ justice as its standpoint which would liberate the oppressed, and also the oppressors.
