"If they lash you, lash dem back." Johnny heard these words from his revenge-driven mother. So using pure street dialect, he asked his mother: "So if teacher hit meh, wha I go do?" Mother gave a reply that was soaked in the brandy of hostility; check it out: "Well if sir hit you, doh strike back. Daddy go take care of sir. Sir is no match for daddy. Tell dah man (meaning sir) doh touch yuh, otherwise is lix like Crix for he." This is not engaging in fantasy, this is for real. There are parents who even threaten teachers in front of their children and yet we are wondering how we have reached where we have reached. We have dug our graves with our hands and teeth. We have enhanced the gang culture by encouraging children to exact revenge, to be rude to the competing neighbours and to reject constructive criticism. We have forgotten the basics such as courtesy, respect and loyalty. We refuse to say good morning, our arrogance is choking us. We are too high and mighty to say "excuse me please" or even "thank you." There are parents who curse each other; "cuss" might be the more accurate description. Children are watching, they are learning a foreign language, decorated with diamond-studded expletives. Guess what? When the children imitate their parents is "blows in their clothes." Remember that adage: "Do as I say, but not as I do."
We have to adopt the golden rule in order to create a forgiveness revolution. To have a forgiveness revolution requires a spiritual transformation because the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. Mahatma Gandhi expressed his vision in the following manner: "Do not kill your enemies, instead you must kill their desire to kill." We have too much revenge in our society. The first division of the Police Service is attacking the second division and the second division is counter-punching the first division. The Opposition is knocking the Government and the Government is knocking the Opposition. Recent and not so recent corruption scandals dominate the debate. There are men who have shot and killed their wives, and there are women who have stabbed their husbands. We even have sons appearing before judges accused of killing their fathers. In fact, the terms "revenge hits" and "street justice" are used to explain and sometimes justify assassinations. It is clear that no nation can progress when obstructed by the tidal wave of hatred. But where is the origin of this tidal wave? Recently, I heard about a secondary school where a dean of discipline was "disciplined" in a brutal manner by rotten students. Then there is the administrative cholesterol that is clogging the judicial arteries.
And a word of caution should prove to be very instructive to the Ministry of Education. With all the talk of curriculum changes and enforcing discipline, things will fall apart if appropriate action is not taken expeditiously in dealing with bullies who intimidate principal, staff and students. Talking about meritocracy is one thing, but you cannot have a system where the guilty are entrenched and affirmed, while the innocent victims appear neglected, criticised or punished. Those who engage in constructive activities must not be harassed by those who engage in destructive activities. The bully who wishes to strike his teacher or peers should think twice because of the consequences he would have to experience. It makes a mockery of the rules outlawing corporal punishment when students flog teachers and children flog parents. Now we have the continuing debate on ethnic imbalance in the Police Service that was triggered by the comments made by former Police Service Commission Chairman Nizam Mohammed. This produced a healthy debate in some quarters, and a horrible, myopic, revenge-infected debate in other quarters. We cannot escape the dialogue on ethnicity, but it must be approached with honesty, affection, equity, justice and maturity.
This dialogue which should be directed at destroying discrimination and it must have a guiding principle-integrity. It should be strategic and aimed at utilising the skills and talents of every individual in the society. It may sound like idealistic, pie-in-the-sky language, but if we intend to affirm the Constitution and the spirit of the Constitution, we have to stretch every muscle to affirm and empower each individual.
Fulfilling this vision will not be as easy as kissing hands, but we have to aim for this ideal. With the raging hostility, eg the evolving conflict between the trade unions and the Government, it may tend to place the task of creating a forgiveness revolution on the backburner. But that will prove to be a tragic mistake. All stakeholders must play a positive role. Pastors, politicians, trade union leaders, businessmen, journalists, NGO operatives will have to engage in rhetoric that will contribute to construction rather than destruction. But the issues that confront us must be managed effectively with a high degree of professionalism.
In the book God's Little Devotional for Teens, there is an amazing story of forgiveness. Please read and absorb: "During the Korean War, a South Korean civilian was arrested by the communists and sentenced to execution. When the young communist leader learned that the prisoner in his charge was the head of an orphanage caring for young children, he decided to spare him. But he ordered that the man's son be executed in his place. The 19-year-old boy was shot in the presence of his father. "After the war, the United Nations captured the young communist leader. He was tried for his war crimes and condemned to death. But before the sentence could be carried out, the Christian whose son had been killed pleaded for the life of the killer. "He argued that the communist had been young when he ordered the execution and that he really didn't know what he was doing. 'Give him to me,' the man requested, 'and I will train him.' "The United Nations forces granted the unusual request, and the father took the murderer of his son into his own home and cared for him. The young communist eventually became a Christian pastor. For good or for bad, what we do speaks loudly. How vital it is that we do what we say!"
Let us pledge to participate in the creation of a forgiveness revolution.