Former chief secretary says boundaries ‘limit excellence’

Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, OCTOBER 23

Former chief secretary of Nagaland, Alemtemshi Jamir, retired IAS officer, has asserted that the more the boundaries one builds the lesser would one excel. ‘Boundaries and limitations are man-made and that they were all in the mind,’ the retired bureaucrat said during a students’ event in Kohima.
He said there is confusion of democracy in our political boundaries–boundary between the traditional political democratic practices and the present day parliamentary democracy–where he pointed out that the state politics is basically limited and focused only on the Indo-Naga Issue.
Speaking on the topic ‘Excel beyond boundary’ as the resource person of the academic session at the ANCSU 17th Biennial general conference at IG Stadium in Kohima town, Jamir pointed out the limitation of political thinking on other issues like ideology and belief, freedom, human rights and development.
Touching on the issue of Eastern Nagaland, he said they have problems, citing a hundred year difference historically with other parts of Nagaland, noting that modern administration was introduced into Eastern Nagaland only in 1948 (post Independent India) while the other parts of Nagaland came into contact with the British in the early 1830s.
Also economically, he said the Eastern Nagaland is remote with poor infrastructure, poor connectivity, low literacy rate, low HDR and low production and productivity. While noting that 78.64% of main workers of Eastern Nagaland are cultivators, he said, though they also comprise 42.14% of the total cultivators of Nagaland, they produce only about 23% of the Agricultural produce of Nagaland.
Taking into considerations of all this factors, Jamir strongly asserted that present Nagaland State itself is still not a viable State after 52 years of Statehood. With a state budget of Rs. 12582.20 crore, total State Receipts of Rs. 12041.83 crore and State’s Own Revenue of only Rs. 665.06 crore, he said the state raise only 5.28 % of our Budget, while the rest comes from Government of India.
He also noted with concerned that while the expenditure on salary alone is Rs. 3858.07 crore, the state have no surplus production in anything and the state Capital formation is almost nil.
To top it all, he said the state have no industries, no labor and no services sector, and the only ray of hope–the recently evolved Development Model based on NSDZ has also been shot down. Therefore, he strongly maintained that ‘Neither remainder Nagaland or Frontier Nagaland will be viable!’ in this present condition of ours.
Alemtemshi jamir also said that said excellence ‘has been the desire of man since the beginning of history,’ and if anybody wants to excel the answer was in Christian theology. Also explaining some of the aspects of excellence, he said it is relative or in comparison to others, it is positive, it is related to goodness and is never related to bad or things that are evil.
Citing some prominent personalities from among the Naga people, he said the people can definitely excel since nobody is limiting us from developing our mountains like what the other mountain people in the other parts of the world have done, nobody is limiting us from stepping out into the World and also nobody is limiting us from becoming modern in knowledge, technology and outlook. In fact, he said, Christianity and the English language makes the people of the state the most modern people.
He challenged the youth to adapt to the Information society and utilise its ability to absorb the knowledge around them, adapt to the speed of the growth of technology, adapt to the process of Globalization and familiarize themselves with the ability to convergence with other people in a world that is becoming Interdependent.
Exhorting the students, Jamir said excellence is possibly only through knowing the self, wherein identity is very crucial to attaining excellence. He also pointed out that ‘we cannot excel unless we are clear about who we are or what we are and what we are capable of’, and added that reforming and restructuring of the self is very vital in the present day century, which also applies to student bodies, besides other political parties, NGOs, civil society, tribal organizations and pressure groups.
Quoting a Bible verse from 1 Cor 13:1, Alemtemshi said, ‘there can be no excellence without values or definition of what is right and what is wrong and without care or concern for the people and the world the pursuit of excellence will only become a ‘Rat Race’”.
He wished the college students of Nagaland to excel and live in an excellent Nagaland with God’s blessings upon them.