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The Yongkongangshi Longchar monument at Sungratsu village in Mokokchung district.[/caption]
Mokokchung, November 6 : In honour of late Yongkongangshi Longchar, a leader of the Naga political movement, a monument that was built in his name was inaugurated at his native village Sungratsu, under Mokokchung district, on November 6.
Longchar, known as Yongkong by his associates, was the first graduate from Sungratsu village. He sounded a clarion for Naga sovereignty. He was appointed the first “kilonser” (‘minister’) during the formation of Federal Government of Nagaland in 1956. He served the Naga cause for 51 long years till he breathed his last on April 24, 2006 at Camden University Hospital in London at the age of 83.
The guest of honor of the day’s commemoration was Rev. Dr. Wati Aier, the convenor of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR). Delivering his speech, Rev. Dr. Aier said that a ‘constructionist approach’ to a common Naga nationalism was the need of the hour.
He expressed regret that the current generation of Naga people had lost their vision and now ‘really needs to analyze in depth the definition of Naga independence.' They must strive to work for a common future in unity; a society that lives in ‘past glory’ cannot achieve their goal, he said.
Dr. Aier also said that everything in this post-modern age relate to a search for one's identity. But for the Naga people, he said, there was no identity recognised under the Indian constitution but merely a belonging to a category of Scheduled Tribe.
The speaker gave a call to the gathering –comprising various Ao tribal leaders, student leaders and public –to lead the Naga people ‘from the front instead of crawling back in the shadows and thereby becoming more or less becoming an agent of fragmentation for the ideology of pan-Naga unity.’ He also took the opportunity to ask the gathering what the "agenda" of the Ao people was. The "agenda of Aos should be written by Aos alone" without the influence of external forces, he said.
It may be mentioned that Yongkongangshi Longchar, along with the late Khodao Yanthan, Kaito and Mowu Gwisan landed in London on September 10, 1962 and met with A Z Phizo who had already reached London to take the Naga Independence issue to the UNO.
As per the records, Yongkong refused to return saying that “he was sent by the Naga people on a mission and that he would not return without the mission being accomplished, dead or alive.”
It is also recorded that he insisted that his mortal remains should not be brought home “so long as Nagaland remain under the dominion of the invaders.”
He also started the Naga Vigils Human Right Group in 1992, with their headquarters at London. This group gives lectures on political rights at university campus and colleges.
The formal consecration ceremony of the Yongkongangshi Longchar monument was attended by a host of former Naga nationalists, scholars, student leaders and well-wishers.