Let us not have a blind Southeast Asia region

Let us not have a blind Southeast Asia region

By Vorapun Srivoranart

BANGKOK: During a recent visit to Thailand, South African
Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad shared his country's
experience in national reconciliation, offering a relevant lesson
to Southeast Asia in transition.

We are bombarded by non-stop daily reports of appalling
violence flaring up around the globe. Gruesome violence in
Indonesia, the Abu Sayaaf rebellion in the Philippines and
repression in Myanmar have dominated the regional news.

It is frustrating after watching the news to ask: why can't we
just live peacefully together? In reality, the world today is far
from being a utopia. The end of ideological struggle during the
Cold War flung open a Pandora's box full of pent-up feuds over
ethnicity and religion.

Political fault lines are being created around the world by a
human need for the sense of being which often provokes a
destructive sense of otherness towards other groups with a
similar need.

As a result, national reconciliation is a painstaking process
that rarely materializes since most of the wounds can never be
healed.

But South Africa is an exception. It stands as an archetype of
smooth transition and reconciliation. Less than 10 years ago,
South Africa was still a pariah state, but now it is seen as a
beacon of democracy and harmony between people of different
backgrounds.

Above all, it represents a victory of the human spirit. To
show what racial harmony really means, Pahad cited the
composition of his delegation as an immediate example: they came
from entirely different communities that could never mingle
during the Apartheid years.

In 1994, people thought that we would have the mother of all
race wars, he joked.

Some might argue what is good for goose is not necessarily
good for the gander and that what had happened in South Africa is
unique. Nonetheless, the South African case is worthy of
examination, especially for Southeast Asia where countries are
trying to reconcile societies fractured by the financial crisis
of 1997.

According to Pahad, the most important tool that helped bring
down the dreaded Apartheid regime was international sanctions.
But sanctions, he says, must be carried out in a comprehensive
manner with all major powers in the same boat.

History has proven that as long as these big brothers continue
to exercise hypocrisy, sanctions, even if imposed by the UN, are
doomed to failure. Worse, sanctions tend to inflict hardship upon
ordinary people, not their targeted rulers as in Iraq and
Myanmar.

Pahad says decades of UN sanctions imposed on South Africa
were less than effective until the United States imposed
sanctions in 1986.

However, external pressure alone is not enough to usher in any
significant change. Change requires domestic firewood: a
conducive social, economic and political environment. Potent
political forces enjoying popular support must exist as an
alternative to the ruling regime. The African National Congress
had a long and arduous struggle since its founding in 1912.

Next, a sense of common identity and fate bound the South
Africans of all races together. Pahad terms it a new patriotism,
which is in line with the Rainbow Nation as envisioned by the
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former president Nelson Mandela.

Another crucial ingredient is a willingness to compromise to
avoid impasse. This requires a strong faith in the value of other
human beings, which eventually opens a door for dialog. Without
trust, no genuine reconciliation can ever be achieved.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission under the leadership
of Archbishop Desmond Tutu is at the heart of the healing
process. It helps to inculcate a commitment to accountability and
transparency into public life.

Pahad says the process allows whoever committed crimes against
human rights to step forward and recommend reparation measures to
restore the victims' dignity and prevent future violations in
return for amnesty.

This underlies one thing always missing in our world:
forgiveness. In truth, the act of forgiving is braver than
retribution and requires much more courage. The recourse to
violence does not help rectify past wrongs but triggers a chain
of terror instead.

On the use of violence and violent response, Mahatma Gandhi
once commented that an eye for an eye will make the whole world
blind.

From this perspective, it was the decisive political
leadership by Mandela, who pursued a non-violent path, that
diverted South Africa from the mother of all race wars.

Perhaps, this is what Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid
might have had in mind when he promised amnesty for disgraced
former President Soeharto if he returned all his ill-gotten
wealth to state coffers. Only time will tell if he is doing the
right thing.

East Timorese leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao has
likewise pledged to grant amnesty to pro-Jakarta militias,
despite the damage they inflicted, if they participate in
national reconstruction.

He always says the East Timorese are ready to forgive but not
forget.

Thailand has come a long way to be what it is now. Many lives
and much blood were sacrificed but the spirit of reconciliation
was never lost.

As a result, it is in a good position to share its experience
with friends of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
undergoing a similar transition, though in different contexts,
whenever this is needed.

Without trust in other human beings, the courage of forgiving
and the spirit of reconciliation, from the individual to the
international level, the future of Southeast Asia and the world
as a whole would be bleak.

What is the point of having a global village where residents
are estranged from each other?

-- The Nation / Asia News Network