Al Ngullie
DIMAPUR, MAY 14
WHEN the subcontinent’s tertiary market began receiving an unprecedented impetus from the economic phenomenon called ‘Globalization’ in the ‘90s, India’s takings turned out to be one of Asia’s biggest. Globalization injected new energy into the country’s tertiary sector, gradually finding its way into the secondary services, particularly agriculture and private-public services, before foreign brands began walking in with their branded happiness.
From transforming Bangalore into an Asian IT powerhouse, to finding foreign markets for Assam’s indigenous tea brands, the economic boom turned out to be the subcontinent’s most memorable decade since the White Revolution in Punjab. In it all, Nagaland would remain one of the few states that got left out in the rain.
“I think as you know, the market starting from the ‘90s, the economy was booming all over the world; the economy was going very well. Even the first generation Naga businessmen really picked during the initial stages in the ‘90s but (while others were prospering) we were busy shooting each other,” explains Thungbemo Murry, one of the earliest Naga businessmen to introduce premium motor accessories in Dimapur. “Due to that maybe the new Naga generation did not find the courage to set up business again.”
The well-known businessmen, also the chief of the Business Association of Nagaland (BAN), was referring to the lack of infrastructure, political instability, and the general collapse that Nagaland had been representing for decades.
As a part of series chronicling the challenges faced by Naga persons in building their businesses, Eastern Mirror features entrepreneur Thungbemo Murry, proprietor of Bridgestone Tyres in the city. Besides being a businessman, he is also an activist engaged in highlighting the rights of local businessmen, and their place in the larger economic framework of Nagaland.
Murry says that business for Nagas is “tough” at this juncture, more so for the fact that non-Naga business establishments had long consolidated their hold on the state’s economy. The fact that extortion and so-called “tax” from the “freedom fighters” continue to exist without the least of intervention from the State, the maladies of locals who wish to start their own business remains a sad prospect.
“Naga entrepreneurs have experienced bitterness for a long time. The Marwari control ministers and the government now. Young Nagas are coming into the business but today the extortion and taxation is discouraging them. Till today it is going on – and the non-locals are taking advantage of it,” the leader of BAN laments.
He explains that the Nagas lost out on the economic boom that globalization brought a decade ago for both internal and external reasons. The external reasons, he implied, were the extortion, weak infrastructure and “discouragement” Naga businessmen had about starting businesses in a conflict-ridden state such as Nagaland. About five underground organizations operate in the state.
“So we have lost big time; if we had taken advantage of the economic boom we could have been benefitted. Till today extortion and taxation is going on. These undergrounds should engage in activities that benefit the Naga society. Why don’t they declare tax-free zones? Non-locals are taking advantage,” Murry, who runs the Bridgestone’s premium flagship product, says.
In his assessment, even the profit margins were good for him in the initial days, thanks to his niche (technology) being a small one then. He launched the business in 1991, one of the first premium brands to test the local market. Then, the competition began heating up as more brands began entering the market in Nagaland. It became a question of survival.
However, his frustration is not with the competition or profit margins – his anger is that the first-generation Naga businessmen have had to struggle to survive in their own land, while the non-local business cartels control even the democratically-mandated government and ministers. The state is currently ruled by the NPF-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland coalition.
“When we are doing business in our own land, we just don’t want to survive – we don’t just want to survive, we want to prosper,” he says. Extortion, non-Naga business cartels that control the ministers, and the general infrastructural and security lapses are controlling the economy, the father of a boy and twin daughters, explained.
The remedies, he says, is for the state and its people to invest in human resources by taking ‘a long time’ to study the assets and potential, and begin investing in the thrust areas. “In terms of infrastructure, human resources, in terms of society, and our mindset we still have a long way to go; everything has bypassed us. Assam is prospering so well that when the Look East Policy starts implementing markets and policies, they (Assam) will be well-prepared,” Murry, a native of Okotso village in Wokha district, says.
“In fact they are all busy promoting even their roadside ‘thabas’, their hospitality sector, their indigenous culture along their highways, their good roads and tourism potential, he explains as a basic instance.
He brushed aside stunts such as the Hornbill Festival by calling it merely “just for the government.” He suggested that the state start investing in manpower – skilled manpower. When the Asian markets start opening, he says, and industries come up, other states will be ready with manpower. “For Nagaland, we will still be looking for laborers.”
The entrepreneur has been in the business for more than 20 years now. But the road for the tyre dealer has been a long stretch of potholes. “It has been a struggle, and still struggling,” he admits. There are serious issues the state needs to seriously start considering if the condition of the local economy is to change, he implies.
Murry is convinced that the state needs to seriously study human resources, and invest time in planning if the people are to build a strong, vibrant local economy when major development reforms such as the Look east policy begins to roll. “The government can do very little. It is for the people to start realizing… we just don’t want to survive. When doing business in our own homeland, we want to prosper,” he reiterated.
