Robert A Silverstein
My friend Kaka Iralu has written an article explaining the betrayal of the Naga cause for a separate sovereign nation in two ways. First, the small group of Nagas who went to Delhi and agreed to the establishment of a Naga state, Nagaland, betrayed all those before them who fought and died for a separate nation. And second, “some of our own so called nation leaders are building their economic futures right before our own eyes. They are all exploiting the very good name and history of Naga nationalism and are amassing wealth in the name of the Naga national cause. “As for corruption in Nagaland today, it is a disease that has contaminated almost every government employee....” He then describes what it would take, “To expose all these corruptions ….” But he closes his article by rejecting the effort to address corruption because, “... since I do not believe in this state of Nagaland, I will not waste my time going into further details [about dealing with corruption].”
It is this latter sentence that I want to address. I feel that it is an honor that some of the Nagas and their newpapers are allowing me to participate in this critical debate about the future of the Naga people. I am sitting in my apartment in New York, 9,000 miles from Nagaland, and am continuing the dialogue about the future of the Nagas, something I hope to continue in person when I return to Kohima on February 5, 2017, my fifth time there since May, 2015, and this time for five months.
But the debate is critical and cannot await my return. All caring Nagas are awaiting the details of the August 3, 2015 framework agreement with the GoI, which details may come out soon, or may never come out. And if they come out, they may not offer the Naga nationalist community the sovereign nation they want, or even the possibility of a greater Nagalim. I have taken the position (see my article in The Morung Express, April 4, 2016) that the GoI will never, can never, offer the Naga people a sovereign nation of their own.
Moreover, I also think that a greater Nagalim is out of the question as long as the Naga nationalists define Nagalim not as having all Nagas in the surrounding states move into Nagaland, but as the land the Nagas are on in these other states included with the Nagas on the land. And that does not even touch the subject of the perhaps one million Nagas residing in Myanmar.
That is my position. But the subject of this reply to Iralu's article is, as I stated above, his last sentence, rejecting his obligation to address the massive corruption in Nagaland because he does not recognize the state of Nagaland as legitimate.
It is my opinion that Iralu's position on corruption is a cop-out, that is, a rationalization not to address an issue that he, and all other Nagas, have a responsibility to address. Over lunch with Iralu last June at my hotel, the Hotel Vivor, in Kohima, Iralu said similar things to me about corruption, that is so entangled in the life of the Nagas that it would be (and I'm paraphrasing; I do not remember the exact words) impossible to eliminate it from Naga life. I then asked him, that if that were true, would not a sovereign Naga nation simply be a poor corrupt nation instead of a poor corrupt state? He agreed that it would. We left that topic without further discussion.
It is my position, stated in my earlier articles, that the nationalist movement is an easy excuse not to address corruption in the state. Moreover, the corruption is not a state problem, but a NAGA problem. If any of you know Manipur, you know that the NSCN-IM controls much of Manipur and is just as corrupt and dangerous there as it is in Nagaland. Both states are lawless, both controlled by the NSCN-IM, both squeezed for “taxes” by the organization, both threatened with violence if honest Nagas do not respond to its wishes. The rule of law does not run either state. The MLAs of both states are corrupt because, in part, they are terrified not to accept being part of the corruption of the NSCN. Like the honest cop being a threat to all corrupt cops, an honest MLA is a threat to other MLAs who have cravenly caved in to the threats and bribes of the NSCN. It is my opinion that Narendra Modi ran an honest government in Gujarat as chief minister, and is trying his best to run an honest national government now. But many of the states, and especially Nagaland and Manipur, two of the most corrupt and intimidated, cannot be controlled by the GoI.
I think that the answer to a prosperous and free Nagaland is for Nagas to have the courage and perseverance to root out corruption and lawless violence, corruption and violence by Nagas against Nagas.
I have been reading the major state papers in Nagaland for approximately 18 months now, and I've read dozens of articles condemning corruption among the Nagas, articles by church leaders, the governor of Nagaland (and Assam), opinion leaders like Iralu, and many others, including editorials in papers other than the three statewide ones. And I've concluded that the only thing that Nagas are capable of doing, or have the will to do, is to write articles condemning corruption. They are all talk and no action. And that is because talk is cheap --- and safe. The NSCN, the extortionist, the cowards who take the bribes in the assembly without risking the powers that be, are happy to let people vent in newspapers, as long as no one does anything.
To have an assembly with no opposition, to have a standing army controlled by a political group (the NSCN-IM), to have the general population passively go along with a society with no rule of law, but rule of threat and violence, is a pathetic joke. It puts Nagaland and Manipur almost in the same category as Somalia, a broken state. The only difference between having warlords killing each other in Somalia and the situation in Nagaland and Manipur, is in the latter two, you have one main “warlord” instead of many. But it is no less lawless.
The honest Nagas have to stop using the nationalist movement to take no action against the corruption and violence that are endemic in the states of Nagaland and Manipur. There is no escape from the lawless way the states are run, and the sooner you face up to your responsibility to your families and fellow Nagas, the sooner you can have a prosperous and free state.
You must take action, not just talk. Organize, collect money, support honest candidates, refuse to pay bribes, develop a backbone!! Elect honest prosecutors and send corrupt people, public officials and private businesses (like petrol adulterators), to prison. Make the state government release salaries to teachers, make government officials fix roads, and make contractors who fail to finish jobs pay the money back to the state. Get judges who will enforce the law. The legal system should be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Be as willing to fight and die for an honest and prosperous state as all of you talk about being willing to die for a separate nation that will never happen.
Stop the fantasy and deal with the day-to-day reality surrounding you. Wake up!! New York 12204, USA
