To be reasonable more often than not pays well. Just imagine the amount of stress, conflict or even violence that can be brought down if we only rely on good sense and sound judgment rather than our emotion when we are faced with a situation. Then perhaps we may not have to be so caught up with all the peace or reconciliation meetings and not to forget the heavy price that we pay through bloodshed and killings. Yes, if only reasonableness was our forte. It’s just that people are not willing to practice this virtue to a great extent. And the tragedy lies there because many of our situation or conflict, which can be handled with greater care and finesse, is often bungled up through our unreasonableness, haughtiness and lack of common sense. When a conflicting situation takes place or some misunderstanding occurs between peoples, chances are that each party will try and justify their position, make unreasonable demands, use harsh language, issue ultimatum and basically take a confrontationist position. And Nagas are very good at this—to issue hasty statements made to confront and challenge the other side. As a result the other side will also respond in like manner leading to a paper war and thereby closing all doors for reasoning, dialogue and resolution. Whether it is the armed underground groups, the political parties, tribal hohos, students, public etc, they will need to learn how to communicate in a more reasonable and civilized manner. If we can do this, perhaps there will be greater trust, understanding and harmony in our land.
Here we thought we should share a story with our readers that took place recently—one that epitomized the quality of being prudent and sensible by both the parties involved i.e. the GPRN/NSCN and the Nagaland media fraternity. Unfortunate as it was, one Deputy Kilonser of the GPRN/NSCN, in the heat of the moment, made some uncivilized and threatening remark to local media persons who were covering a meeting of the Ceasefire Supervisory Board at Chumukedima. Obviously the media fraternity was unhappy over such a shocking remark and out of concern decided to take up the matter. There were many ways that the media could have responded. If we go by the standard operating system as far as issuing press releases prevailing among the Nagas, it could have meant, a long list of unreasonable demands, harsh language, ridicule, threat and ultimatum…and “failure to comply…will be forced to take our own course of action”. However to the credit of the media fraternity, they rather communicated in such a way that was reasonable, fair, not excessive and more importantly one that appealed to the conscience of the other side—GPRN/NSCN. In fact no demand was placed or ultimatum served but only appealing to the good sense of the leaders. And in like fashion the response of the GPRN/NSCN was one of courtesy and respect for the media fraternity. In fact leaving their camp, they made it convenient for the media persons by coming down to Dimapur to address a press conference where they expressed regret. The doubts, the fear and the misunderstanding between the two sides were resolved without much ado. Perhaps others can also learn a lesson from this experience. If Nagas want to resolve the plethora of problems they are faced with, we need to revisit the importance of reasonableness otherwise we may never be able to settle our scores.
