When the Hills Bear Witness
There is a stone in the Naga hills that no history can erase. It is not marked by any government. It is marked by blood. The blood of our fathers who died in jungles without a grave, of our mothers who buried their sons without a coffin, of our young patriots who chose frost and famine over subjugation.
Their blood does not sleep. Scripture says, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground” – Genesis 4:10. So cries the blood of the Naga martyrs today. Not for revenge. Not for position. But for truth. For accountability. For the nation they died to birth.
We have invoked their sacrifice in every speech, hoisted their legacy in every flag, and lit fires in their memory on every hilltop. But the most solemn question now stares at us: Have we honoured their sacrifice, or have we profaned it?
The Greater Betrayal: Looting the Nation in the Name of the National Cause
The enemy that now kills our nation does not come with a foreign rifle. It comes wearing our own shawl. It speaks our national language. It collects in the name of the national cause.
Those who loot the nation in the name of the national cause must be reined in. This is not a political suggestion. This is the greater responsibility of the nation.
For what is a nation if its own custodians turn into its collectors? When taxation becomes extortion, when representation becomes business, when the sacred cause is reduced to a private enterprise for enrichment, then the cause ceases to be national. It becomes criminal.
Law teaches us that power without accountability is tyranny. Logic teaches us that a movement that feeds on its own people cannot free its people. Factually, history is clear: no revolution has ever been defeated so completely by its external enemy as it has been destroyed by internal corruption.
The Virus and Its Victims
Corruption and greed are not mere moral failings. They are a virus. And a virus, if unchecked, kills the entire body.
This virus has done what decades of military operation could not do.
It has driven away more young Naga patriots than it has ever inspired. Our brightest sons and daughters, who would have given everything for the nation, now walk away in silent disgust. Not because they fear the enemy, but because they cannot stomach the hypocrisy within.
It has misled many in the ranks. Young cadres who joined with a Bible and a dream now find themselves used as instruments for personal aggrandizement. Their patriotism is exploited, their idealism is monetized.
It has divided our house. A house divided against itself cannot stand – Mark 3:25. Where there should be one Naga family, we have created many camps. Where there should be one national principle, we have created many franchises of greed. The division is no longer ideological. It is economical. It is about who controls what, who collects where, who loots how much.
The Biblical and Moral Reckoning
The Word of God is vehemently clear on this matter. “Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!” – Isaiah 5:8.
God does not bless a nation built on extortion. “Thou shalt not steal” – Exodus 20:15 – applies equally to an individual and to a national organization. “For the love of money is the root of all evil” – 1 Timothy 6:10. When love for the nation is replaced by love for money, the nation itself is sold.
What will we answer to our martyrs? They gave their today for our tomorrow. They died with nothing so that we could live with something. And what have we done with that something? Have we built a nation, or have we built bungalows? Have we secured the future, or have we secured our families?
To loot your own people is not politics. It is morally bankrupt. To live in luxury while the widow of a martyr begs for school fees is not nationalism. It is heartlessness.
The Imperative: To Cure Before the Body Dies
The blood of our martyrs demands that we take responsibility and cure this virus before it kills our nation entirely.
This is therefore an imploring, assertive, and serious call:
- Politically: We must restore the supremacy of principle over personality and profit. A national movement must be audited by its people. Transparency in collection, accountability in expenditure, and humility in leadership are not Indian impositions. They are Naga necessities.
- Socially: We, the Naga people, must find the moral courage to say – No more. To no longer justify corruption because it is done by our own. Wrong done by our own is still wrong. In fact, it is more damaging. Silence is no longer neutrality. Silence is complicity.
- Intellectually and Spiritually: We need introspection and retrospection. We must return to the original charter of our nationhood – which was never about money or power, but about identity, dignity, faith, and freedom. We must bring the movement back to the altar, for it was born in prayer, not in profit.
Let us be precise. We are not calling for the abandonment of the national cause. We are calling for its purification. We are not dishonouring the struggle. We are honouring it by demanding that it be worthy of the blood that was shed for it.
A Final Appeal
Let the fire on the hill in this image be our conscience. Let the monolith draped in our sacred shawl be our memory. Let the flag that still flies despite the mist and the storm be our hope.
But let us not be romantic only. Let us be responsible.
For if we fail to check this virus of corruption and greed today, history will not remember us as Nagas who failed to get a nation. History will remember us as Nagas who killed our own nation while invoking the name of our martyrs.
The martyrs have spoken through their blood. The nation must now act through its conscience.
Let us cure the virus. Let us save the nation.— Michael Meiphami Shaiza.
