Hope for a peaceful Christmas

As usual around Christmas, the festive spirit has intensified across the world as Christmas trees are lit up in homes and in public places and persuasive sales promotions beckon people of all walks of life to shopping centers.

At the same time, however, a sense of insecurity and vulnerability permeates this country in tandem with the festive spirit, despite all the security measures being undertaken.

For the world, this has been the case for the last three years ever since the September 11 terrorist attacks on two national symbols in the United States in 2001.

This time around, the Bush administration in Washington DC raised the security alert on Sunday from "elevated" to "high", acting on intelligence information that the threat of a devastating year-end attack by the al-Qaeda network could be the most serious since the terrorist strikes of Sept. 11, 2001.

For Indonesia, anxiety over terrorism started a couple of years ago, only to be heightened by the October terrorist bomb attacks in Bali last year, and by the JW Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta this year. On top of that, the capital city of Jakarta seems helpless against the series of inhumane evictions, engineered by its governor, while floods triggered by human greed and selfishness inundate other parts of the country.

Christmas used to be equated with peace, but such a state of tranquility has for many been absent for the last few years. In his traditional pre-Christmas meeting with the Roman Curia the other day, Pope John Paul II appealed to his close assistants to reach for peace and teach peace. The pope's appeal is more urgent than ever before, because in the face of the tragedies that continue to afflict humanity, men and women are tempted to yield to fatalism, as though peace is an unattainable ideal.

Peace is possible, but only if its basic requirements are met. First of all, individuals and people urgently need to respect international law and the commitments assumed by the authorities who legitimately represent them. Peace and international law are closely linked to each other, in that the law favors peace. The drama that humanity experienced during World War II, for example, led to a profound review of international law and order.

The defense and promotion of peace were set at the center of a broadly modernized system of norms and institutions, as embodied in the United Nations. Pivotal to the system was the prohibition of the use of force.

Today, however, the landscape of the contemporary world has changed substantially. More and more situations of conflict involve agents who are not themselves states. Modern sovereign states find it difficult to deal with conflict, which also involves entities not considered states in the traditional sense. Thus the fight against terrorism.

If this fight is to be won, however, it cannot be limited solely to repressive and punitive operations. It is essential that the use of force, even when necessary, be accompanied by an analysis of the reasons behind terrorist attacks.

The fight against terrorism must be conducted also on the political and educational levels. There should be efforts to eliminate the underlying causes of situations of injustice, which frequently drive people to more desperate and violent acts. At the same time, there is an urgent need to develop education inspired by respect for human life in every situation.

Those principles apply both to relations between states as well as within states. For the establishment of true peace, in the world as well as in this country, law and justice should go hand in hand. The lack of both makes peace elusive, as exemplified by the continuing crisis in Palestine and the Middle East.

The lack of both makes peace elusive in conflict areas across this country, from Aceh to Papua, especially because in all those areas the use of force has been the exclusive means to settle disputes.

Peace, however, is still possible if we really strive for it by respecting the law, justice and humanity. With that in mind, we sincerely wish all of you a peaceful and merry Christmas.