Learning from the peacemaking duo

Before last week very few people in Malaysia had heard of the Imam and the Pastor; and the number may not even exceed the hundreds. Therefore when the real people came to Malaysia on Monday last week by way and courtesy of Singapore, there was no overwhelming anticipated excitement as per media-moderated fan clubs.  

Their local host was K Haridas, the Malaysian resident representative of the Initiatives of Change (IofC), who raised the funds to host the Imam and Pastor locally. Initiatives of Change are a global organisation dedicated to “building trust across the world’s divides of culture, nationality, belief, and background.” The organisation is committed to transforming society, beginning with changes in individual lives and relationships.

The Imam and the Pastoris now a documentary DVD and can be very usefully deployed to “train people for positive trust-building and peace-making, using the real life experience of the two peace-makers.”  

In fact, coincidently, a small team of NGOs even conducted the Breaking Walls and Building Bridges Forum using the video for about 150 Taylors University students in their A-Level Programme during the previous weekend before the two of them landed.

The German government funded some of the expenses for the training and a whole group of volunteers invested their time and energy to breaking walls of prejudice and building bridges of trust for a peace-loving environment in Malaysia.  

This column is therefore my report and experience with the Imam and Pastor and “ the testimonials” about their real-life experience of driving this peace-building agenda in Nigeria in the last 15 years.  

Many heard these stories either through their public talk at the Tun Hussein Onn Eye Hospital last Wednesday night, or through attending the facilitator training conducted by our very own version of the I&P equivalents; Madams Hamidah Marican and Patricia Nunis; both founder members of the Malaysian Association of Facilitators or MAFa.

Eyewitness account

Mine is an eyewitness account of my experience of learning from “how they handled each situation and circumstance” wherein they found themselves in; whether in Parliament with the opposition MPs who made many positive propositions, or the Minister in the PM’s Department Dr Koh Tsu Khoon, who not only appeared to have memorised the video, but also asked some very searching and deep question about their experience.

In fact, he even arranged their meeting with Illani Isahak, Coordinator of the Inter-Religious Harmony Committee set up under the Prime Minister’s Department and with the secretariat of the Department of National Unity and Integration. They were both absolutely brilliant in all their engagements and especially at the very last meeting with the Inter-Religious Committee.

Pastor James Wuye affirmed his experience of the meeting with an African proverb to go with their final day’s engagement in Malaysia. The proverb says, “The meal at the bottom of the cooking bowl tasted the best because they have been cooked the most!” He was describing their final meeting in Malaysia with Illani’s committee.   

It was just five days of interaction for them with Malaysians of all walks of life. I am convinced, however, their strongpoint was their ability to listen and then connect with the hearts of their conversation partners.  

I was very impressed with their demonstration and communication of mutual trust, respect and due regard for each other and especially the other, or the third party always. That has left their lasting impression upon me. I now know the actual and complete meaning of the Christian calling for us to follow the complete example of the Prince of Peace whom we call the Suffering Servant.  

But, what humbled me most was that Imam Mohammed Ashafa could put me to shame, in his peace-making efforts and the conviction with which he articulated those ideas; in his actions, words, concepts and even non-actions. He appeared a true leader with full integrity.  

Therefore, in my lexicon and language nuances, they both appeared fully integrated with integrity; at least as far as I could experience them in the many interactions I witnessed.

I now only need to see them in their home environment and see if they are consistent with their espoused theories and theories-in-use; especially with their spouses and families. Often, these are the weakest areas of our lives because they are truly the only ones we can often take for granted.

Koh even managed to get them to meet the Prime Minister. Call it fortuitous, but they both saw their visit to Malaysia as divinely ordained for them in terms of timing premised on our needs as well.

Greatest lesson learnt

What is the greatest lesson then which I learnt from the Imam and Pastor? I learnt that, and to quote the Pastor, “Peace is cheap but wars are very expensive!” Yes, the Pastor was qualified to say this: he lost his arm in the very bloody clashes!

Therefore they advocate four steps in any process of peace-building before it deteriorates into disagreement and then conflict. The primary steps are communication, collaboration, negotiation, and mediation. This must lead to adjudication of the issue or concern. When these fail, it spirals downwards into disagreement, litigation, conflict, descending into a vicious cycle.  

When the first four steps fail, the incumbents also lose the power to be able to resolve the issues internally, and the matter then is out of their control. Outsiders have to get involved.  

May we as Malaysians learn from the experiences of Nigeria and the real life anti-thesis provided by this Imam and the Pastor. May God bless Malaysia also as we fully appreciate our relatively cheap and very comfortable peace that we do enjoy and seek always to avoid any costly wars that could easily conflagrate and become too expensive.