Matamgi Manipur

This editorial was originally published by the Morung Express on 5 April 2012 Many activists and intellectuals in Manipur both from the hills and the valley have expressed lethargic views when asked their suggestions and advice for the new government of Manipur at the backdrop of the long time turmoil experienced by the state. In a whirlwind interview conducted by Newmai News Network today, scholars, senior journalists and activists in the state did not have much to comment seeing the ground realities of Manipur. President of All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) A Mobi expressed that unless there is a radical change of the entire system nothing positive can be expected. "To change the entire system it is next to impossible," lamented A Mobi while noted activist-scholar Dr Dhanabir Laishram sarcastically quipped that to answer this question he has to rewind himself to the 1950s and demand the basic needs like safe drinking water, roads and electricity. "We ...

Aaron Keishing, Sub-Editor, The Aja Press, wrote this article for  Morung Express on 30 Mar 2012   A state integrity cannot be ensured by exclusion policy or weakening of a section of people in economic growth. A state territory cannot be protected by political slogans or breaking our heads on the streets, but by ensuring economic equality among different communities living in that territory. Peaceful co-existence and economic inequality are diametrically opposed to each other. Latter needs to be eradicated to achieve the former. The question of peaceful co-existence cannot come unless our hearts genuinely accept economic equality and our actions follow it. By merely saying peaceful co-existence or economic development of the poorer section of our people without action can never ensure a territorial integrity. The phrases “territorial integrity or peaceful co-existence” itself constitutes a threat to integrity or peaceful co-existence when the shouter himself act ag...

N. Rongkame Morung Express July 18 2011 The citizen’s aspiration for basic human freedom and dignity is often overlooked and meticulously manipulated by the people in power, the Government in the name of sovereignty or territorial safeguard of nation or state. The citizen’s aspiration to define its destiny to realize and restore their dignity is often miscalculated and underestimated by the people in power and loosely considered as secession and forces are used to suppress the people. This often undermines an individual’s freedom to live with dignity as a free world citizen. The nation state is composed of a group of individuals in form of tribe, race or ethnicity. Nation or state cannot exist in vacuum without the composition of group of individuals put together. Therefore, individuals are prior to a nation or state.