PART I: WOKHA INTERACTIVE SESSION 28TH AUGUST 2021
An Interactive session was held on the 28th of August 2021 at Tourist Lodge Wokha with like minded intellectuals and future Leaders of Wokha Town. Mr. Aben and his group of friends coordinated the whole session and warmly welcomed the 20 member strong delegation from Dimapur led by the President RPP Mr. Joel Naga.
The session started off with a Prayer and introduction of all the attendees present. Joel Naga briefed the friends at Wokha about the concepts and manifestos of the RPP, and he also emphasised strongly on the opinion that in order to bring about a change in the system, we need to get into the system itself. He encouraged the present upcoming generation of educated Naga youths to start making sacrifices and involve themselves to bring about Social revolution, wiping away corruption, standing against unclean elections and to bring back the true Christian values and ethics that our fore-fathers practised as Christians.
Mr. Vitho Zao, Treasurer of the RPP shared and testified his past experiences of the numerous times he overcame greed and temptations in order to stand for the Truth against corrupted Governmental practices. He said “if greed had its way, I would’ve been a Millionaire as well as a Minister in the cabinet by now”. He emphasised that the present governmental system of governance is filled with corruption and greed for money and position and therefore someone needs to initiate; which is where the RPP comes in to sow a seed of change for the future prosperity of the Nagas. He further encouraged everyone present to shun away from selling one’s vote because only then can we have control of the future. He cited an example of the Aam Aadmi Party and their dedicated system of bringing about true development for their people, likewise their model of good governance is required even in Nagaland for which the RPP is comparable.
President of the Rising Youth, Zhokhoi also spoke on the much needed changes in our system and the frustrations that the citizens of Nagaland are experiencing currently. He strongly encouraged the members to exercise their right to choose and right to vote, when the RPP is giving them an opportunity. He gave a simple comparison of Jorhat with a population of about 12Lakhs versus the whole state of Nagaland with about 22lakhs in population, where Jorhat is efficiently managed by just one MLA but Nagaland with 60 MLAs is in turmoil.
Mr. Hukavi of the Working Group in his address cited that in order to stop the system of corruption and bad governance, we ourselves should start being active to actually be the practical change. We need to shoulder our responsibility and which is why the essence of the RPP is to provide an equal platform irrespective of gender, age, tribe, village etc. It needs to be from an individual perspective. He concluded his talk with the need for new intellectuals with new visions, initiative and ideas which is why the present generation needs to be an active part to bring a change.
Mr. Amai Chingkhu General Secretary of the RPP in his encouraging speech invited the members as well as the people of Nagaland to stand together and be the grass root change. The RPP was not formed against any Political Parties or political Leaders, is not and will never be, but the RPP is only against the present system of corruption and bad governance. He questioned as to who will bring change in such a system if we continue to sleep over it. The people needs to wake up and start playing their part to install the new Nagaland concept.
Ms. Abeny Vice-president of the RPP gratified everyone present to feel ‘Chosen’, because it was only God’s plan to bring them together today under one roof. She chose to be in politics because of the conviction from God to stand for the future generation of Nagas especially for the Women and Youth empowerment. She hopes to see in the future that prejudices and stereotyping of women in social and traditional platforms needs to be changed. The right to vote is our birth right and therefore the people must understand that we should refrain from selling our birth right because doing so is comparable to sinning.
Joel Naga gave the time to the well wishers and friends from Wokha during the session and encouraged them to open their hearts and minds about any matter, acknowledging the fact that any opinion and input from all the intellectuals is very much required.
Mr. Aben RPP Active member in his opening speech warmly welcomed the team from Dimapur and emphasised the team not to be discouraged on the lower than expected turnout for the session, owing to unexpected obligations as well as lack of transportation. He also asked the team to continue to have faith in the people present because the intellectuals present were full of potential to be spreaders of the good message as well as to be future leaders. The Wokha team in their discussions during the session encouraged the leaders of the RPP to imbibe God and Christian principles in everything that the RPP undertakes. They opined that every political leader must be grounded and led by the fear and respect for God and also educating the masses is very important to bring awareness because in the current political scenario, the leaders make sure that the people in the small towns and villages remain poor so as to woo them with money during elections.
The interactive session ended with a mass prayer for each other and for the future of the Nagas.