Paul Pimomo
For Nagas like me living thousands of miles and oceans away from our homeland, not because we feel estranged from it and our people but because the circumstances of our lives made it necessary to leave and look elsewhere for our professional and personal evolution as human beings, the Naga Day statement you crafted reads inspired, and makes us proud to be Naga anywhere in the world. I see the Declaration as the twenty-first century version of the Naga Memorandum to the Simon Commission in 1929 that it is commemorating. They belong together. The same spirit, the same values, only broader in vision and better articulated in 2018.
The brief reports I've read on the Internet about the first Naga Day in Kohima show it was a real success. I really missed being there in person, and I'm left thinking to myself: So what now, what next? Nagas declared Independence Day without independence in 1947; Nagas in 2018, divided by state, national, and ideological boundaries, have now declared a Naga Day Without Borders. No doubt both sentiments speak admirably and loudly to the indomitable Naga spirit of freedom and community. We cannot fault ourselves for this; we must live with faith and in hope. But people cannot live on aspirations alone either.
Nagas are evolving as a people along a certain path, whether or not we realize, and it's clear at the present time that leadership among the Nagas comes in two forms: Individuals and organizations like FNR who are generating positive public energy and aspiration for inclusion and the common good of all; and groups and institutions which directly work against that goalon a daily operational basis, despite what they say and professto the contrary. Fact is, and we’re tired of hearing it, but the daily realities of life are in the hands of the second group of leaders who have turned public institutions and government into commercial party and family business. This has made life a constant struggle inthe villages and for the average hardworking families in our towns. It has led to frustration, anger, and hopelessness, even cynicism toward government and public life. The response to this situation from the two groups of leaders has been predictable but telling. The visionary group of leaders like FNR feels the need to come up with proportionately elevated forms of idealism to cool down the public's temper.We cannot of course fault these leaders for their labor of love. The Naga Day is wonderful in vision and for morale, for now. But there will come a time when the public will have no use for lofty aspirational statements and declarations from anywhere.
The response from the other group of leaders has been stunningly indifferent for too long. These people are some of the smartest among the Nagas, so they know what’s going on, and have become experts in working the corrupt system to their advantage on the excuse that it is the system not they who are personally responsible for what’s going on. But we know, and they know, that their position is only partly true. The system is corrupt, yes, but they are each responsible for what’s going on. Good thing is, some of them realize this, and in their best moments feel guilty about their role, and are ready to help clean the system if they could, since in any case they have already set their families on a secure foundation for generations to come.
The history of ailing democratic societies that recovered tells us that this is the kind of time and place for the public to come in. Nagas are a traditionally democratic society with a vibrant public but whose effectiveness has in recent times been rendered minimal by the powers-that-be. It is necessarily to regain the public’s effectiveness. The people led by the visionary leaders like FNR and others must create a peaceful but sustained movement for cleaning up the corrupt system. There will be stern opposition, but the movement should create an environment to gain the hearts and minds of the leaders from the other side who are willing to change and help start a more fair and just society.
In short, given the situation we are in at the present time, this first Naga Day 2018 is a defining moment, a crossroads, for the evolutionary direction of the Nagas as a people. Nagas will either survive, and thrive, which requires ACTION for change on the ground -- in government and civil service, Naga national politics, Church, and of hearts and minds. Or Nagas will go our individual ways, each on our own, with or without borders, and the sensitive among us will tell our children and grandchildren of the once brave and caring people they descended from. For starters, I for one am deeply grateful to the signatories of the Memorandum to the Simon Commission in 1929 and to FNR for the Naga Day Declaration in 2018.
