In search of sanity

Look what's happening around us in the world today.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are talking to each other again, thanks to the unrelenting efforts of the U.S. administration. India and Pakistan, who are sworn enemies, renewed their stalled talks through their foreign envoys in Islamabad last week and ended their meeting on a positive note. In another corner of the world, China and its little brother Taiwan have met and agreed to resume their dialogs.

There maybe a lasting peace in Northern Ireland too, soon. The Nobel Committee has recognized this and spurred the contending parties by awarding the prestigious peace prizes to two of their compatriots.

Don't you agree that this happy coincidence, at this period of time, augurs well for world peace?

There may not be an end result in every negotiation. At the least, it will help find a way to unlock the barriers built over many years of distrust and disharmony. Wars don't settle anything. Battles become only testing grounds for new weaponry. No one benefits except armament sellers.

You know how a pope is elected in the Vatican? I was told that all the bishops eligible to vote are assembled in a chamber and its doors are locked from the outside. Unless and until they arrive at an unanimous choice, they are not allowed to come out, even though it may take them hours, days or weeks to reach a decision.

In any negotiation, surely there may be obstacles. Success is a result of making small decisions. Persistence always pays off. Given a genuine desire for peace, all stumbling blocks can be cleared away by mutual give and take, and arriving at honorable compromises along the way. The chronic problems lingering on in various parts of the world must not be left for the next generation to solve.

Bad enough, through lack of good governance in most countries, we are leaving the responsibility of huge foreign debts to our children while the God-given natural resources are consumed and depleted by us in our lifetime.

We may hope that the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka will also be solved one day. Tamils have suffered enough. It is indeed pathetic to see teenage boys carrying heavy weapons in their hands and cyanide pills around their necks, fighting for an unknown destiny.

I strongly believe that in every country, all citizens' rights should be equally protected, irrespective of their being part of a majority or a minority. There just can't be any discrimination for any reason, whether it be skin color, facial features, language, religion, culture or whatever. A citizen is a citizen.

Take the case of Afghanistan. How badly women are treated there; all in the name of religion. Sometimes, I wonder if we are really living near the end of the 20th century or whether we have gone back to the Stone Age. What's happening there is simply atrocious. No right thinking person can accept this.

Henri Moore, the famous sculptor, was once asked how he created his masterpiece. "Very simple," he said, "I place myself before a chunk of marble and chip away everything that is superfluous." In the same way, peace in any region requires meticulous chipping away of mutual hatred, prejudice, historic animosity and religious.

D. CHANDRAMOULI

Jakarta