Finding the missing peace

I uphold five international personalities in our history as my personal heroes. They are Jesus of Nazareth, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela.

Only one local personality makes the same grade to my mind – the late Dr Tan Chee Khoon, our foremost opposition leader of the independence generation who was truly a towering personality.

Why these people? To me, they always spoke the truth in love, full of grace and hope. Except for the one still living person, all of them did it consistently until their time of passing. This piece is dedicated to such heroic deeds of commission rather then mere empty words of speech full of omissions without actions.

This article is also dedicated to Ahmad Fuzi Abdul Razak, the secretary-general of the foreign affairs ministry and his team of ambassadors and foreign service officers who serve this nation so well, under very challenging times and circumstances.

They too try to speak the diplomatic truth and pursue the high principles we stand for as a nation. Never an easy assignment, but they have done very well collectively. This is dedicated to every single one of them.

I wish to highlight their latest triumph and dedicate this piece to their unrelenting pursuit of the principles we stand for, often against all odds.

I applaud them for the recently concluded search for the missing peace (pun intended) in the Palestinian statehood puzzle. The PM\’s thesis of the need for united global action by civil society organisations is absolutely on target to get the real hearing on the Palestinian issue.

As with the Seattle Round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks and the protest against the Iraq war and the so-called war on terror, it was civil society organisations and individuals who mobilised some real action, especially to register their protests.

The battle cry of \’war on terror\’ is not a real option for those who seek to find the missing peace in the puzzle and strife of life. The recent dialogue is a very good start.

The way of love

Christians believe that the way of love, peace and joy is always through self-control and forgiveness. Among the last words of Jesus on the cross was, \”Father, forgive them for they know not what they doeth.\” In fact, all my five other heroes also practised this edict by commission and not omission. Forgiveness is an action verb. Only with love through forgiveness can peace on terror be established.

Malaysia, through the foreign affairs ministry past and present has tried hard to take, keep and sustain a principled position on many core issues over the years. Whether it was against the White Regime in South Africa, or on the Antarctica, or ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzogovinia, Malaysia – although a small country – has spoken loudly, and the world has often agreed with us.

Such a principled position always transcends emotions and is often based on reasoned logic. It is not that our nation has not the emotions or feelings of compassion, as seen in the outpouring for the tsunami victims, but rather that foreign policy cannot be driven entirely by emotion.

It is convictions that drive principled positions on issues. Some parties do not appreciate such truths. The invitation to selected Israelis in our midst was a case in point.

Therefore, whether it was the salt march of Gandhi, or the Mother Teresa\’s Little Sisters of the Poor or Nelson Mandela\’s ( photo ) 27 years in jail or even Martin Luther King Jr\’s \’Letter from Birmingham\’, they all took very principled positions on issues, even to the point of death for what they believed. It was a reasoned act of commission for each of them for the truths in which they believed.

It involved speaking their truth with body, mind, spirit, soul and strength. Spoken truth alone is not enough. Truth has to be acted out in time and space. Acting on such truth communicates feelings and convictions with love, grace, and hope. Hopefully, the message is received by those intended for and finally it is received with understanding and full appreciation. Then there can be peace.

Such caring confrontation or care-frontation leads to acts of commission which engender peace, love, joy and forgiveness. Slowly others appreciate your view point and over time a movement begins for action in this preferred direction. They all now move to do what is right, in the right way and for the right reasons. Such a dialogue is both the journey and the destination.

Therefore I want to congratulate both the prime minister and the government on the excellent initiative (or commission) to begin the dialogue with selected Israelis in our journey to find the missing piece on this issue.

With the support of the Organisation of Islamic Conference and Non-Aligned Movement countries, we should be able to mobilise two-thirds of the world in the right direction. Well done Wisma Putra and God Bless Malaysia.