So, let’s play a game of Spot the Difference.
All those keeping track of news happening around the globe
will be aware that Lord John Sewel, a senior peer in the UK House of Lords, resigned
his peerage and quit the House some days ago after a video emerged of him
cavorting with two sex workers in his central London flat. The married father of four was
filmed necking champagne and vodka before using a £5 note to snort lines of
cocaine from a table and later from the breasts of a sex worker.
The very next morning after the video appeared, Sewel quit
his £84,500-a-year role as deputy speaker of the Lords and chairman of the
Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee. A few days later, after more lurid
details of his sex life emerged, he resigned from the upper house altogether
and released a statement apologising for the 'pain and embarrassment' he caused
his humiliated family and saying that he can ‘best serve the House by leaving
it'.
Soon after the video emerged, Prime Minister David Cameron
responded to reporters’ queries and demanded the 'full truth' about Sewel’s
lifestyle and said ‘further questions will be asked about whether it is
appropriate to have someone legislating and acting in the House of Lords if
they have genuinely behaved in this way’.
A string of politicians and leaders also called for the
immediate retirement of Lord Sewel as he had 'brought the House into some
disrepute'.
Well, these were the major activities and sequence of events
that happened in the UK
in a matter of a few days after the scandal broke.
Now, let’s turn to good old Nagaland. Remember the uproar
over the compromising photographs involving not one but a number of our
honourable legislators? I ask because it was just a little over a month ago or
so that the scandal dominated all our attention but the episode has all but
faded away with the legislators as well as the Naga public merrily getting on
with our lives like nothing ever happened.
Very unlike what happened in London , despite the evidence, none of our MLAs
ever acknowledged nor apologised to their humiliated families or the Naga
people whom they represent. Rather, they tried to brazen it out with a
ridiculous statement on social media about a ‘photo session’ after a party
get-together. Stepping down from the positions they were and are still holding
was never a matter of consideration, let alone quitting the Legislative
Assembly.
Secondly, we did not hear even a peep from the Chief
Minister nor the NPF party president. Apparently, unlike the UK Prime Minister,
they have no problem with people behaving in this way legislating for the Naga
people.
What about the other politicians, you may well ask. Well, all
are basically in the same boat so no one dare point fingers. Besides, there’s
no opposition now, so there you go. As for our other leaders, our famous hohos
and so on, they lost their voice long ago and nobody really expected them to
come out and demand explanations or resignations.
And then there’s the church. Our society as a whole has
become so morally bankrupt that even the church no longer has the courage to speak
up for what is right.
So that leaves us the public. We raved and ranted and cried
bloody murder, mostly online, but did nothing beyond that. We then allowed the
matter to die a natural death and have since moved on to other things to rant
about.
That’s the sad Naga story, isn’t it? And that’s why change
is so hard to come by.
The most disheartening and disappointing in this entire
episode is the role of the public, the youth, if I may be specific. We never
really expected the politicians to do the right thing on their own volition,
did we? We knew that if we wanted our leaders to be accountable for their
actions then we would have to demand it. Yet, no one had the guts to come out
of the virtual world and stand up for what they claimed they believed and
wanted.
At that point of time when the issue was raging on social
media, I had written a piece on some online behaviour which I found disturbing Intolerance on Social Media and
shared my view that simply arguing endlessly among ourselves and insulting one
another on social media will not bring about any change. I had said that if the youth want answers, they should come out and demand it
from the leaders in question, approach the party leaders and ask them what they
intend to do about it. Take action if you want your leaders to be held accountable
was what I advocated.
There were some who took umbrage to this as, according to
them, I was advocating violence. Big surprise as I didn’t know taking action had
come to mean violence. What I know and believe is that change can happen only
when we act and not merely yap.
One young man asked why the responsibility for change was
always falling on the youth. According to him, young people don’t have money
and are dependent on parents, uncles and aunties and other elders and therefore
are unable to do anything much except ‘sensitise’ through social networking
sites. I sincerely hope that this is an isolated view and not representative of
the Naga youth, because if it is, then our society is indeed doomed.
Voicing outrage and baying for change online is all very
well and certainly not a bad thing. In fact, social media has been a massive
boon in spreading awareness of various issues. But change will happen or not
happen depending on what we do with that awareness. If we are to simply confine
ourselves to the World Wide Web without ever initiating any action on the
ground then I don’t see much point in all the cries for change that goes on
online. Arab Spring did not happen with the Arab youth merely sitting on their
behinds and typing their discontent on their laptops and mobiles. They
certainly made great use of the internet & social media, but complemented that
with real action which led to the change they craved.
After all the hue and cry that went on loudly and
cantankerously for some weeks with some repeatedly screeching that they will
not rest till the guilty legislators answer for their unacceptable behaviour,
we are all now resting quietly even though no one has been held accountable.
And that’s how it always ends, doesn’t it? Shame
on us!