Charles Chasie
I would like to thank Dr Tuisem Shishak for his “confession”. This is not the first time, he has shown courage of his convictions under difficult and painful circumstances.
No one has blamed Dr Shishak personally for whatever may have gone wrong. This is not to say that he is perfect. Human as we are, we all fall short of the ideal. What Dr Shishak has said is that he feels responsible for the acts of commission and omission of his people and that where he is concerned the proverbial bug stops with him. It is such attitudes that go to make the “conscience” of a community or society, and without which that community or society becomes dead! All powers to him.
It is at this level of confessing, one believes, several things begin to happen and powerful, if unseen, processes are launched – faithful obedience will bring them to fruition. At this level, we all get reduced to a level-playing field and realize we are all equal before God, healing becomes possible, and the road to the future becomes exciting and full of possibilities. The useless materials clogging our irrigation channels are slowly removed, allowing life-giving water to flow again and irrigate our lands that have slowly become dry and parched in the midst of monsoon! This is why we thank people like Dr Shishak.
The hurdles on the road to a proper future usually come from two sources – (i) Fear and distrust leading to manipulative and exploitative attitudes and actions. (ii) The hardening of hearts because of a tendency to sweep the past under the proverbial carpet, instead of healing it, and attempting to present a rosy facade. Sadly, but not surprisingly, everybody knows where the `dirt’ has gone and so the rosy façade does not work. Instead the carpet is usually pulled aside to not only expose the dirt to public view but the carpet itself is beaten clean in full view, polluting the atmosphere as well and choking those unfortunate enough to be near by. In the Naga context, this story seems to keep repeating itself ad nauseam. It took place under Angami leadership but keeps repeating itself over and over again. It has not led our people anywhere except to more killings of Nagas by Nagas.
Why has this happened? Is this not the time to pause and ask the kind of quality materials that have gone into Naga-nation building and cementing our people-hood? The biggest threats to Naga people-hood, today, are the internal quarrels and killings that threaten to tear asunder the very fabric of Naga People-hood. Why can’t the various factions stop fighting and killing each other for the sake of the Naga people, recognize each other’s worth and sacrifices, and sit across the table? If we go right into it, we may find that we are all, leaders and led, victims of our circumstances. From the time of those Naga leaders who signed the Memorandum to the Simon Commission till date, did any of the Naga leaders shouldered leadership responsibilities because they wanted to? They all felt, I am sure, that they had to. Whatever the reasons, the burden of history is never easy to carry. It is also carried best by those who have a sense of history, not just knowledge of it. The point is that such appreciation of difficulties faced by all leaders, and their own sense of heightened responsibility to their people ought to bring them together instead of dividing our people more and more by demanding loyalty to them and their factions.
These questions may be unpalatable to some because in Naga society we have this weird mentality that anyone who is not for them is against them! But I ask them because we have to ask whether we are going to wait for a Shishak every now and then to show courage of conviction so that the rest of us can applaud and take comfort, ease our consciences a little by telling (ourselves!) that there is still hope. If we do, we may only condemn our society and people to a situation that will beg for more such instances! Do any of us want that?
Taking this opportunity, I also wish to salute the efforts of the `Pukreilas’. They had shown great courage on several occasions in the past. One has not seen reports about them in the newspapers in recent times. But I am sure they continue with their neutral and courageous efforts.
