Zakato Chishi
Kohima
Quoting Justice Songkhupehung Serto from one of his speeches, “While the world is getting smaller in the palm of our hand, the Northeast is becoming more distanced with the rest of the world with the deplorable condition of our roads and other developments”, to this I realized how true it is especially when we look into the condition of our state. While time is becoming more precious, we waste sufficient time travelling through our pathetic road condition which is growing from bad to worse despite the hues and cries from all corners. We are no more as curious as we were to read the front page of our morning dailies, rather at this stage it irks us even to see the names of our so called respected leaders, not forgetting the news of their dramas and selfish games. On the other side the commoners are dying due to their selfishness and our leaders do not display even a slight sense of contrite. Even the percentage we offer to God as tithes is only ten percent, while the percentage siphoned off from the funds meant for development is exorbitantly much higher than God’s share. God forbid but I fear that God’s wrath is upon us and only for few righteous people we are hanging by a thread of His mercy. The famous lines which we often use “Poisa khailebi kaam to olop toh kuribo lage toh” is the status of our attitude and our present condition is the result of such an attitude. “Sop manu poisa olp olop khaishe aru etia toh eku bi nai hoishe.” Hon’bl Mr. Justice also mentioned that “development is in the attitude”. When we expressly or impliedly convey that our politicians, bureaucrats, village leaders and any responsible officer is bound to take some share than don’t be surprised when we face this kind of horrible situation. Their part is to take care of such responsibilities and they are paid for the same and as such they have no right to take even a penny out of the funds meant for the public. Today we are bowing down to our so called leaders not because of their uprightness; we are making way for them not out of the respect they deserve, but because they have money and they have the power to turn things in their favour.
Who among these people can rise above these crises and show a true leadership? Are our people short of good and honest leaders? No we are not, but the problem is those good and capable leaders do not have tons of money to feed our people during election and as for sure we the public will forget about the past and the present crises at the face of money; we will leave the topic of honesty and integrity under the table until we face similar situation after the election. This is the time to ponder on our past actions and take a whole new step if we want to see a better tomorrow. We need a batch of whole new generation leaders; we need young and honest leaders. If we allow money, promises for jobs and contract works to buy us during election, this is the result we will get and we can expect even worse, because the more money the corrupt leaders embezzle, the longer they will stay in power and destroy our land. Let us give chance to young leaders who are ready to bring a change; let us not underestimate them because they are young, for the hopes we put on our old leaders for such a long time did not work out. How long are we going to look up at the oversized storied buildings build by a mere assistants or clerks and nod in appreciation saying “etu manu toh bishi smart ase”, or idolize the likes of such people? How long are we going to keep mum when the job we deserved is swerved away from us because we do not have a good background? Our leaders need to listen to the indignation of the public before our condition get worse. How long are we going to say that it is a blessing from heaven when we get a backdoor appointment or a get a job out of bribery? How long are the churches going to pray for the longevity and prosperity of the corrupt leaders instead of praying for heaven send honest leaders? How long are the people and the church give a chief guest treatment to rich people inside the church while leaving God outside the door and showing desecration to holy places? We seriously need to stop for a while and do a total check at our attitude.
The problem also lies because we are timid to boldly stand for the truth and we are afraid to say it even when we know that our rights have been infringed. We allow certain class of people to continually make us suffer while we only murmur and gossip about it behind closed doors. It’s time to take it to the streets, to the woods, to villages and to the world. There are still a sign of hope because of certain good leaders who have been incessantly voicing for us despite of various discouragements. If we cannot stand at the front, at least let us support those good leaders instead of finding a way to find fault. To those good leaders who have been fighting for the right cause, kudos to you; continue to stand for us because it is for you that we still have hope, that our land will not remain the same like it is today.
