Mazie Nakhro
In the last decade, the people of China wanted development more than anything else. No wonder, today they have a disproportionate number of politicians from engineering backgrounds. In Africa, the military is the favored route into public life. This is understandable since ethnic clashes have remained to be a huge concern there. In the West, people are faced with increasing legal battles at every level and corner. And so, they're seeing a growing number of lawyers-turned-politicians.
In the case of Nagas, what are our biggest problems and thus our greatest needs? And what kind of leaders do we need to help us address them?
Perhaps disunity is a number one problem for us. To solve this, we often appeal to our common Naga-ness or insist on coming under a common political ideology. The question is, Will this work? In my view, only God alone is strong enough to bring us together. We need to use our common faith in God to unite us as does Communism for China, Islam for Muslim countries, and Hinduism for most of India.
Another problem many are disgusted with is the authoritarianism and the tyranny of our underground groups. Today we're very afraid of them because speaking anything negatively about them could spell death. Not surprisingly, our people are waiting for the emergence of courageous leaders-people who will fear no man but God alone.
All of us want more, if not complete, political autonomy from India. We speak of our rights, but we're afraid to self-assert them. We speak of negotiation, but we give India the power to control the agenda. The other side seems to know more about us than we know about them. And they don't seem to be under the same kind of institutional pressures and time constraints we feel we're under. Where is our negotiating power when our freedom is mostly restricted to existence within the confines of our designated camps? How can we speak with authority when our survival seems to depend on rations from India or forced taxation from our own people? Can we not find any outside body to apply pressure on the Government of India? Don't we have anything at all to bring to the table, say, something which India could benefit from, and which we could use to leverage our negotiating position? These hard questions are not out of malice, but for mutual concerns.
For those who have lost all hope in our Naga movement, they see development as our best alternative solution. This is especially true of our state politicians. For all they do is this: always defer to India's dictates and depend only on Delhi for funds. Can't they do better than this? Surely, we Nagas have the human potential and the natural resources to become an envy of the world. So, what sort of leaders do we need? And how do we go about selecting them?
In the Book of Deuteronomy, God gives us some very specific qualifications required of a ruler: First, he should be a member of the community. Second, he should have God's stamp of approval. Third, he should not run after power, wealth, or women. Fourth, he should depend on the laws of God and be guided by them so he may rule well. As Christians who are proud to call Nagaland a Christian State, it only makes sense that we apply Biblical guidelines.
Having been driven by these concerns, I went to Eastern Nagaland about two years ago and met with a gentleman. Sometime later I encouraged him to consider getting into state politics. I offered to give him my full support and said, if possible, I'd very much like to see him serve as our Chief Minister. He's a man who has been serving others as serving God himself. And much more than that, he's exceptionally bright-he understands the needs and challenges of the modern times.
Then four months ago, I heard that someone from my Western Angami constituency might be contesting in the election. I know him as a God-fearing leader who has much to give to our society, like many other great potential candidates amongst us. Anyway, whoever we vote for, my prayer is that we'd elect servant-leaders who will truly serve our people.
Very soon we'll have another opportunity to choose our leaders. This time around, let's carefully make decisions which we won't regret later. Let's watch out for those so-called "public servants" who are basically driven by self-interests. It's high time that we are wary of opportunistic political parties that are ever ready to sacrifice principles in exchange for positions. And let's not allow any government to sit on our head-crushing our aspirations, suppressing our voices, and keeping us stuck.
When we follow God's way of running the government, our institution can become an instrument of eradicating corruption and all other social evils. According to the prophet Isaiah, God has given us his Son and "the government will be on his shoulders," that is, the government will be based on and supported by his righteousness. In other words, a righteous government is possible through God's Son.
A government which has Jesus as the Ruler will be characterized by justice. For example, the Bible speaks of Melchizedek (who serves as a figure of Jesus), as first of all King of righteousness, and then King of peace. Likewise, when Jesus rules, peace will follow justice. He wants government to be an agent of justice and punish the wrongdoers. This is how he brings order so as to ensure security and peace in society.
A Christ-centered government will not exploit the weak or the powerless. Its leaders will have the priority of their Lord. They will live in proximity to the poor as their Master did. They will not neglect to meet the needs of "the least of these." Rather they will serve the poor and the oppressed as though serving the Lord because he identifies with them and often sacramentally appears as them.
As for those who have no God to fear and no moral absolutes to follow, they believe in a worldview called "the survival of the fittest." For them, the end justifies the means. Naturally, they may not feel guilty about exploiting others. But those who really believe in God, they see everyone-male and female, rich and poor, Christian and non-Christian-as possessing exactly the same intrinsic value or worth because each person is made in the image of God, imago dei, and has the breath of God in his or her being. For these reasons, they respect every human being, including the unborn and the disadvantaged, as having the right to live in dignity and to receive fairness of treatment.
Someday when the rule of our Lord Jesus is received on earth, people will have decent houses and rewarding jobs, children will not die in infancy, old people will live out their lives in health. And there will be no more need for war because peace will come at last. Although this is a prophecy primarily about a future time, it also has a certain applicational intent for us now. That's why Jesus came to earth; and he spoke of good news to the poor, healing for the broken-hearted, freedom for prisoners, and the returning of sold property to the original owners. And he told us to pray, "Our Father in heaven...may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
So my wish for our people in 2013 is this: that we will choose God-fearing leaders who will lead us toward a more just society and a more prosperous future. And as they look up to God as their 'North-Star,' he can also use them to safely steer our 'national-ship' in this long, winding, and life-losing voyage of ours toward our own "Promised land."
