Inquirer Editorial: PEACE

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The Philippine Daily Inquirer makes its stand about peace today. In it's article PEACE, Inquirer calls on all Filipinos to "exert pressure on all sides to lay down their (government and rebel groups) arms" and expresses its hope that the "nation will begin enjoying peace again."

A copy of the article published online and on paper is pasted below.

PEACEhttp://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/editorial/view/20110104-312387/Peace

THE CHRISTMAS season is over, but this story can bear a retelling. It is the story of the Christmas Truce of World War I.

On Christmas Eve 1914, on the battlefields of Flanders, Belgium, one of the most unusual events in history took place. The Germans had been fighting a ferocious battle with the British and the French. Suddenly, the Germans climbed out of their muddy trenches and set up small Christmas trees, complete with candles, on the edge of the ditches. Stanley Weintraub, who wrote about the event in his book, “Silent Night,” said: “Signboards arose up and down the trenches in a variety of shapes, some in fractured English [such as this:] ‘You no fight, we no fight.’…More placards on both sides popped up.”

Spontaneously, a truce took place. Soldiers from both sides met in the middle, shook hands; buried their dead; exchanged gifts, food, postcards, newspapers and cigarettes; sang Christmas carols; and played soccer. Weintraub said the truce didn’t last forever. “Some of the generals didn’t like it and ordered their troops to resume shooting at one another. …[But] for a few precious moments there was peace on earth and good will toward men. All because the focus was on Christmas.”

Weintraub said, “A celebration of the human spirit, the Christmas Truce remains a moving manifestation of the absurdities of war.”

Fredrick Niven, a minor Scottish poet, said in his “A Carol from Flanders”: “God speed the time when every day/ Shall be as Christmas Day.”

And well might all right-thinking Filipinos echo the thought expressed by Niven: After decades of insurgencies and fighting, it’s time our nation enjoyed peace. It’s only the politicians, generals and hardline ideologues who want war. The ordinary people want peace so that they can earn a living without fear of being caught in the crossfire, or being displaced from their homes, refugees in their own country.

The communist and Moro insurgencies have exacted a terrible toll in human lives, public and private property destroyed, and foregone opportunities for pushing the economic and social development of the country. Reuters news agency said that since 1969, “the (NPA-government) conflict has killed 40,000 people and stunted economic development in rural communities, scaring potential investors as the rebels exact ‘revolutionary taxes’ on plantation, logging and mining companies.”

No definitive total has been given of the casualties from the Moro insurgencies. But just to give an idea of the human suffering they have caused, as many as 738,000 have been internally displaced in the MILF heartland in Maguindanao, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

President Aquino has said that he is giving top priority to the eradication of poverty and corruption. In the brief six-year term that he will be at the helm of the nation, he cannot possibly completely eradicate poverty. Still, he can make a big head start. But peace has to reign all over the land so that people can work in the fields and the city without fear of being caught in the crossfire, so that corporations and other economic ventures can conduct their operations without interruption and so that foreign investors will find our country an attractive place to put their money in.

The long Christmas truce between the government forces and the rebels of the NPA and the MILF has shown the great advantage of peace over war. We hope that the peace efforts on these two major fronts would be pursued aggressively this year, and that they will have positive results. Most politicians, generals and ideologues would want war to continue for various organizational and personal reasons. But the people, who are sovereign in our democracy, can exert pressure on both sides to bring about peace.

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, himself a retired general, said: “I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”

May 2011 be the year when Filipinos will exert pressure on all sides to lay down their arms and may it be also the year when the entire nation will begin enjoying peace again.#