Witoubou Newmai
Nothing is more telling than the observation that the everyday ‘colloquy’ of our Naga society has not returned values to the society. Rather, the ‘taking-away’ is getting more prominence by the day.
One may consider this write-up as another monotonous exercise in the face of floods of requests to change the mood, and criticized for being over-indulgent on this ‘monotony’. So, a piece such as this is no more than a mere soliloquy to those people. But consider it also that a dirge tells realities more than a happy song. Perhaps, the whole idea behind the exercise of this ‘monotony’ is nothing but self-examinations. Averting realities may deliver us temporary placebos, but that will not mean to say problems have gone.
We have started off this ‘monotony’ by complaining about our society which has been mired in intractable problems, mostly which are structured around emotions, immediate circumstances or short-term interests with accompanying horrors.
As another day experiences another problem in the Naga society, this editorial would like to ask our society to engage in the collective ‘colloquy’ in order to face challenges in line with our great values.
As long as we remain true to our great values, we have not lost anything yet. Such exercise is, perhaps, one of the greatest and one of the most important actions. Such actions are also the entire corpus of what we are and who we are. But if we refuse to accept this asking, then don’t expect that all the so-called temporary achievements can compensate for that lack.
By remaining true to our great values, we are not merely providing hope, but also extending the prospect of bigger hope. It is so because what we act now will witness corresponding consequences.
It is also to remind that Nagas have their overarching issue. The value of this important issue is more felt when the Naga values are valued high. Seeing triteness on the overarching Naga issue would mean we are being shallow.
This piece then would like to remind the obvious that each Naga man, Naga woman or Naga child has a degree of allegiance and loyalty or emotional attachment to his or her village, their same dialect or language speaking community and their mountains and rivers, as every human being does. But, at the same time, the sense of Naga family-ness or the overarching Naga issue can be enriched further without eliminating those "village or regional loyalties and allegiances" by also remaining true to the great Naga values.
We may also want to remind ourselves that, as a society that ignores its values is 'formless', that society cannot turn into substance. 'Formless' because malign forces have disfigured the form. This is so because the binary of ‘evil and good’ has been the story of human society throughout. In other words, the problems of a society ‘are as many or as little as’ society allows.
So, what should we allow is in the bounds of our capacity and limit.
