“A leader knows the way, goes the way and shows the way,” says John C. Maxwell.
T. Tiayanger Pongen (Longsa Village)
General Secretary,
People’s College Students’ Union
Mokokchung : Nagaland.
Well, there are sundry roles of a leader that includes fulfilling the needs and building society and being a role model to the upcoming youths to bring about necessary changes. Therefore, leadership, according to me is having empathy and understanding one’s people and rendering service to them. It is truly about serving the people and not being served by the people. It is about instilling confidence and inspiration in the ones around us and creating an environment that is favoured by the people. It is also up to a leader to organize the talents around him.
Let us take a moment to look into our Naga society. To this date, we are all aware of the presence of “ism” in almost all the organizations that are concerned with the Naga political trending issues. Looking back on how all this started it should be remembered that such wrongdoings started from the most basic level. Taking the example of the students’ union elections, for instance, voting for leadership roles is done according to a student’s preference towards his tribal people or friends without actually evaluating whether that person has the quality of true leadership and whether he is someone who can truly lead the people. This instance throws light on the practice of tribalism even at the grassroots level. From these small practices in the educational institutions, people grow prone to implementing such practices even at higher-level elections.
One should always remember that only a good leader can make the nation prosper. Every country requires a good leader with adept abilities for the nation to develop. A society is prone to facing many consequences of electing a leader without evaluating the elected person’s abilities. The wrong leader leads the society in a bad direction, thus failing to satisfy the needs of the society, which is mostly characterized by a lack of selflessness as they use their power for their self-satisfaction only.
We are all aware of the presence of corruption in our society during political elections. The people are influenced by the power of money and are also mostly convinced to support the corrupted leaders through the supply of alcohol which ignites the evil practices. Swayed by all these provocations, the electorates find it easier to select the person that fills their pocket rather than having the intention of selecting the right and deserving candidate. All these corruptions among the people are the major reason why our society is not forwarding into a truly democratic and developed society. As long as corruption persists among us, the future of our society is in terrible hands and our nation may never prosper like other developed nations.
So it is my urge to all the youths of today, to not allow yourself to cloud your thoughts in decision making for the greed of money during the general election. A leader is a focal individual in any society and it is up to you to bring about the best deserving person to lead the society. As a leader myself, it is my deepest wish for all the leaders that you may all look towards the prosperity of your people, protect them from downfall, and be selfless enough to put society’s needs before your own. Strengthen your morals and will and strive to bring out talented people to the pedestal in place of the many corrupted leaders that we see today.