Delivered by: Promise Edem Nukunu
Ag. Secretary-General
PeaceAids International
Venue: Global Theological Seminary.
Date: June 10, 2016.
Ladies and gentlemen, the media and all here present.
Thank you for such an honor. Am humble by the gesture extended to me to be the speaker for this program.
The concept of peace is as old as creation yet human being turn to abuse it.
We must know that peace is a process and cannot be achieve in a single day event. It’s a continuous effort to live in harmony with fellow men & or animals including the environment, taking into consideration individual differences.
All human beings are created equal but for different purposes. The natural right of all people; thus the basic right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness’’- as asserted by Thomas Jefferson. We are equal but of different origins or tribes. That is what makes every country and state unique and hence exhibition of cultural dynamism.While we are all of different identities, and in essence, others recognized this but some still dwell in psychological dungeon and paralyze in their thinking operating on the basis of ethnicity, religion and other related means to cooperate with others.
The concept of peace is built on this four pillars and has to be taken holistically;
1. Stability and freedom of expression
2. Inclusive development(people centered and not keeping them in the dark)
3. Rule of law and respect for human right.
4. Existence of strong and credible institution(systems)
No country can develop in the long term without peace and stability, nor can you remain stable without inclusive development which lift up the people and you look after their welfare but it has to be base on rule of law and respect for human. Thomas Hobbes asserted, in the absence of social control, man will live in the state of nature, governed by his reason in the service of his passion. No nation/individual can develop without respect and integrity
Today we may have been confronted with all sort of violence. On the average, every now and then, there is no single day, without a report of violence, war or assassination.
Human beings are being treated in what can be term as cruel by a fellow man. People are being jailed without perhaps no identifiable reason/cause. Family are depressed and no means to live on.Your family may have been a victim of an injustice system/situation. Giving him/her no room to explain him/her self.
Who is there to speak for him/her? The answer perhaps, is no one.
So i titled by message ‘’WHEN IT HURT SO BAD THE REASON TO STAND FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE’’
All the indications of suffering and unfair treatment shows that every single person should and is involve in the peace agenda.
Your relative or fellow man somewhere is suffering because, you and I are silent. We are silent not because we do not have the resources but it’s because we do not want to speak .
I say to you today all you hear present“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If the elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
You can't stop talking and act until the wrong is corrected. In the words of Albert Einstein.‘'The world is bad not because the bad people rule but it's because the good people are seated unconcern'' and that apply to us here today to.
We all need to take the right decision, we must know our responsibilities (our role to play) and Allah/God also know his role to play. We should always pray for the safety, peace, love and brotherhood and sisterhood for people all over the world. It’s unfortunate, we can't have an independence day for the entire world. When we do this we will achieve a world devoid of hatred, violence, greed and war. A world where we can join hands together and accept one another, regardless of our skin color, ethnic divisions, religion or nationality. If we don't unite as a human race, then we have condemned the future generation of children a dark and very grim future.
Ghana, our country in a relatively short space of time, has a reputation as something of a democratic role-model in Africa, organizing six credible elections and two peaceful transitions of power. Yet, despite this glowing international reputation, we Ghanaians know that each election has generated a worrying level of violence and uncertainty. In this forum, I you will get the benefit of democracy, the challenges of organizing peaceful and credible elections and what we can do as peace agent.
After the end of the Cold War, I thought man had understood and accepted that democracy is, to quote Winston Churchill, “the worst form of government, except for all the others.” I am afraid those hopeful and exciting days are behind us: today, one hears more and more politicians and pundits, as well as ordinary people, speak about the shortcomings of democracy, and the need for more authoritative leadership. The problem is that authoritative leadership can be a slippery slope towards authoritarian leadership
Elections are at the heart of people. It’s a legitimate means to make peaceful transition of power and to allow the rule of law and the principle of expression of opinions justifying what the people want. However, taking inspiration from the Aesop’s fable of the oak and the reed as narrated by Kofi Annan, the oak looks strong, but cannot bend, and so it gets knocked over by a storm, whereas the reed looks weak. But because it can bend with the wind, it survives the storm. Today, almost every leader claims to govern by democratic principles and organizes periodic elections, most of which are open and fair. But there are many leaders who manipulate the system to make sure they win. In other words, rather than impose their rule through brute force, these leaders are tempted to counteract the legal and democratic framework. To such leaders or people, It is rule by law, rather than rule of law. Regimes have developed a multitude of methods, some more elusive than others, to ensure that level playing fields are limited to few. This may work in the short run, but it is a dangerous strategy in the long run, for democracies without credible elections/ a means for the people to choose want they want are no democracies at all. As such, they cannot provide societies with the feedback loops and resilience that characterized genuine democracy.
We must remember that elections are a mechanism for the arbitration of political rivalries, and peaceful and democratic rotation of leadership. If political rivals and their supporters do not believe the electoral process to be free and fair, then they will ultimately resort to less peaceful methods to change political direction. We must not let the street take the place of the ballot box, but that requires credible elections. To some people, their adage is ‘power at all cost’. The Global Commission on elections, security and democracy identified five challenges that must be overcome to ensure them.
v First, the need to strengthen the rule of law so that elections and the rights of voters and candidates can be protected and respected.
v Second, professional and independent national bodies, which can manage elections so that they are credible and the results are legitimate.
v Third, greater efforts are needed to build the institutions, processes and behaviors that are vital for genuine multi-party competition and the attribution of political power.
v Fourth, the integrity of elections requires political equality (as the people wish).
v Finally, unregulated money in politics undermines voters’ faith in elections and confidence in democracy. Vote buying and bribery of candidates, including by organized crime, have to be prevented.
All these cannot be done without you and i, our collective efforts and responsibility to be the enforcer of the law.
WHAT ROLE CAN WE PLAY?
In elections, others just like us who in any way call themselves party faithfuls commit all kinds of atrocities. From insult to murder to stealing of ballot boxes and threatening others life. Others are who for hatred in any ordinary day, resort to chaos in a society. Apart from this, to satisfied their human ego or selfishness, People are employed or hired to fight and cause violence because, perhaps, they felt cheated or because of resources. Shakespeare’s wrote in his book; The Hamlet, in act 2, scene 2, line 203 ‘’Though this be madness, yet there is method in it’’. The madness in this is that, we have lost our conscience and fight for some greedy persons outside our walls or for our own human ego, and the method in this is that, we can use that same resources we are fighting for to unite each other.
REMOVE THE RELIGIOUS BARRIER
One religion that has receive an unfair tagging is that of the muslims, we must know that God did not create religion but rather he create humanity. Muslims are not bad people. Like any other religion(e.g Hindu, Buddhist, Chrsitianity etc), Some people have used the religion to advance their own murderous causes. Some aspect of the media have not helped. The words “terrorists” and “militants” are hardly used these days without Islam. .
When someone takes a weapon e.g. gun, goes to a a gathering perhaps a market or night club and starts killing people, the media call him a “gun man.” When he is overpowered, they recommend a psychiatric assessment and they will later report of how he was abused as a child and how that might have influenced his violent behaviour and attitude. This same action was seen when a young man rose one day to shot the president of republic of Ghana during a church service and later was subjected to psychiatric investigation and hence his discharge.
If the suspect bears a Muslim name, however, the narrative is different. He is labeled an Islamic terrorist even before he is arrested. It is that simple!
For this reason, perhaps, many people who have not had any negative encounter with Muslims are quick to tag them as violent. Recently when I was thinking about this unfair tagging and negative reportage, one question came to mind: “ironically, If some pastors were parade(take into consideration the ‘good’ ones and the ones whose actions are questionable), which one would we say represents a true Islam?
A pastor told his members he had to lash them with cane and they obeyed. Another use his congregation to eat grass and they did. Some even ask their members to prepare soup with the water they used after bathing and they did. It’s obvious other religious leaders still operate in the old law, ‘’a tooth for a tooth’’ and an eye for an eye’’ taking the law into their own has threatening the rule of law. Whiles the new covenant teaches that, LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF, perhaps some preachers still holds on to the old law ; a tooth for a tooth , an eye for an eye. For me, this is not Christianity but rather, a different theology being preached altogether of which I termed as, ‘’REVENGE CHRISTIANITY’’ and extremist. This is inimical and hinder progress and threatens world peace.
It is obvious these so-called pastors are doing abominable acts that are alien to the religion they profess to follow. But do we see all Christians in the light of only the bad ones? The answer is no. At least, that’s not how the media tell us.
I really remember, when the bibles states, ‘’Behold that all things have become new. The old has passed away’’. Such church leaders as extremist, want to counter it and operate on their self insular interest and formulations. For those linking theirs with Islam, their mode of operation is mostly violent. To defeat religious extremism, we need to condemn the actions of the extremists without crucifying their religion.
To remove the venom of a snake bite, it takes a antidote prepared from the same snake specie to cure it. Although, i may not be a Buddhist, but to learn from them, according to Buddhist theory, we are born and reborn countless numbers of times, therefore, we are connected right from creation and it is conceivable that each being has been our parent at one time or another. In this way all beings in the universe share a family relationship.
Whether one believes in religion or not, there is no one who does not appreciate love and compassion. Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the care and kindness of our parents; later in life, when facing the sufferings of disease and old age, we are again dependent on the kindness of others. If at the beginning and end of our lives we depend upon others' kindness, why then in the middle should we not act kindly towards others and respect them as well?
One of such ways to build peace is to use a resource at our disposal and to effect change is through the social media. The social media is now one of the powerful resource at our disposal as youth today. However, others abuse it. Whiles you only take a ‘’selfie’’and upload on your social media platform sites, why not use it to promote peace as well.
Another way is that, we can contribute towards a cause to promote peace.
You do not expect to acquire much wealth in terms of monetary value before you can start donating to the cause of peace. You can start doing it now.
Moreover, it’s also necessary to promote peace through community engagement, clubs and schools. Working to bring especially young people together to be ambassadors of peace, rule of law and respect for human right.
A genocide begins with the killing of one man – not for what he has done, but because of who he is. A campaign of 'ethnic cleansing' begins with one neighbour turning on another. Poverty begins when even one child is denied his or her fundamental right to education. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life, all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations we must note. Therefore, to stand for peace, we must start with ourselves.
In this century and the ones to come, we must start from the understanding that peace belongs not only to states or peoples, but to each and every member of those communities. The sovereignty of States must no longer be used as a shield for gross violations of human rights. Peace must be made real and tangible in the daily existence of every individual in need. Peace must be sought, above all, because it is the condition for every member of the human family to live a life of dignity and security.
Hypocrisy and injustice on the world stage is what has set the world ablaze with unending conflicts.
We can fight terrorism by uprooting the cause. What could cause the young university graduate from the Kwame Nkrumah University to join a terrorist group? Is it because he is a Muslim? No! but it’s because of his own conceited ways and false doctrine. Violent extremist just to fulfill their evil acts just like in every other religion, pastors and church leaders hide behind the pulpit to orchestrate their dubious agenda in the name of church. And so does any other religion hide behind the name of the religion they profess to follow. And so i say, if your religion requires you to hate someone, they you need a new religion.
So the clarion call is ;
Never in history has violence won against anything in the human race. In bid for this, we must allow the principles of rule of law and the use of nonviolence to pursue peace and to substantiate any claim we may have. Indeed, nothing is permanent except change. As far as there will be changes in government through voting, as we exercise our right to effect change in governance, let us prompt and educate each other on peace and the prevention of violence in any small way and in the right way, For it's through this can we live and realized our true creed. It’s the duty of all, either; Christians or Muslims, Traditionalist or Pagans, Buddhist or Confuciounist, young or old, white or black, protestant or Catholic, Jews or gentiles, civilian or military to teach and advocate for peace. when we make peace reign, the mountains of jealousy will be lowed, the fountains of hatred will stop to flow, the facet of envy will refuse to turn, the lyrics of selfishness will never echoed and the beauty of love will be established in our hearts. The valley of instability will be covered because we know that all men are created equal.When this happen, we will realized our true creed as human specie. We can leave in one society as one being, whether Christians or muslims, Buddhist or Traditionalist, Confuscious or Tibatan or Hindu, Protestant or catholic, Young or old, black or white. We do this to be self evident that we are the magnificent work of one true creator.
THANK YOU.
One for all...All for one.
E-mail: peaceaidint@gmail.com
APA style: Promise E. Nukunu(2016). When it hurt so bad:the reason to stand for peace. retrieved from www.mmigh.blogspot.com
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