The public is the sole partner of peace!

By Gemechu Tussa

The struggle for peace in the world in general and in developing countries in particular remained being a serious challenge.  There are various reasons that poisoned peace in this earthily life. One of these challenges could be the misinterpretation of religious issue. Past experiences indicated that almost 80 per cent of the conflicts in the world had emanated in connection to religion.  The number of wars that had been fought in connection to religion is so large in contradictory to what the religious discipline preach followers.  

In those old days, historical documents indicated that religions were the direct causes of conflict. One religion waged war against another religion. However, the current trend is quite different from the previous ones are becoming pretexts for other hidden interests. Although conflicts are not basically religious, they take place under the cover of religion. This is an attempt that some individuals or groups interested for conflict would get followers for their hidden agendas. 

Groups with such a hidden agenda considered and advocate as if war is something holy and the will of the lord. This is done intentionally in order to win the hearts and minds of religious people so that they could devote for their interests.Why do anti-peace groups prefer religion? The answer is quite simple. It is because of the fact that religion is the most sensitive issue. Although every religion encourages the idea of peace and tolerance, almost no one remains in peace or tolerates anything when it comes to religion.

Under the cover of religions, a number of wars had been conducted and some of them have continued for years and killed many.The other reason could be the aggravating nature of the international media. Whenever, there is a conflict, there is media that added fuel to it. The international media, in most cases, cover disputes and conflicts. It usually set its agenda to smell issues connected with wars, conflicts  and deaths.

The effort of the media to preach peace to the world is insignificant. No matter how many media one could browse, read, watch or listen, there is little about peace rather ample information about conflicts and war.

Why the media is make a difference in its agenda setting for the thriving of peace throughout the world? This a festering question to answer. But it might be creating sensation and bringing many people to follow that media as people give more attention and develop more interest to conflicts. However, this is not a complete and positive consideration. It lacks one of the crucial theories in media, which is the social responsibility for the wellbeing of the society.

The other festering question of the people is when the media will set its agendas to teach the importance of peace.  When will it work for peace in collaboration with the peace loving people? The miss-link here is the ignorance of the media towards peace advocacy. Peace advocacy should be one of the crucial tasks of the international media in creating a world that is comfortable to its citizens.  It is quite clear that if media failed to work in enhancing peace and set peace as its major agenda, most people cannot realize the importance of peace and may not cooperate until something worse comes to them.

However, media could teach that it is possible to handle everything peacefully. Any demand can be presented peacefully and answered in the same way. However, the media itself exaggerated issues to a wider conflict. So the media should join the struggle to ensure peace.

It is also possible to consider the self interest of some individuals or groups taking various measures that could poison peace for their personal gains. Despite the need of the entire people to peace, politicians and other groups of different interest have been creating various peace poisoning activities. One of the reasons for this could be using anti-peace activities for wealth accumulation. In some cases, some groups want to control power so as to embezzle public wealth. In other cases, some group of people may accumulate a lot of wealth and want to maintain their status if people are engaged in conflict.

All the aforementioned causes for the essence of peace could be meaningfully reduced if the media work for peace. The media has ample access to  get information and to know all these ill-activities than any other organizations. Therefore, the media has to make a fundamental change in its approach of reporting particularly in enhancing peace to the community.

The challenge to bring lasting peace mainly in developed countries is the fact that the media is not effective partner of peace loving people.  Besides, there is lack of coordination between the government, media and people. One typical example could be unconsolidated efforts in fighting terrorism. Although terrorism is a global problem, the cooperation in fighting it is so detached and loose.  Some countries have become shelters for terrorist groups creating havoc in other countries. For instance, Egypt is victim of the Muslim Brotherhood and Ethiopia is also the victim of Oromo Liberation Front. Both are terrorist groups with similar major agenda but targeting different countries.

Ethiopia is fighting all kinds of terrorist groups regardless of the target countries they focused.  It has been sacrificing a lot in fighting Al-Shabab in Somalia, it has also been cooperating with the United States of America and other countries in fighting al-Quida and it give no room to Muslim Brotherhood or ISIS.

Although all countries have aims to get rid of terrorism, some of them only consider this issue based on the target country. For instance, if we can take Egypt as an example it harbored OLF and supports it both financially and technically.  

Obviously, OLF has a strong link with Al-Shabab and with Muslim Brotherhood. Just after it got strengthened obviously it will also attack Egypt. Terrorist groups don’t have borders and have no loyal friends.  We can learn a lesson from Osama Bin Laden. Where did Osama trained? It was in the USA. Top American officials admit that the U.S. armed and supported Bin Laden, which later morphed into al- Qaeda in the 1970s, in order to fight the Soviets. But Osama formed al-Qaeda and fought the United States of America.

Now the United States is fighting against al-Quaida, the international terrorist group. On the other hand, America has become a safe haven to the terrorist groups Ginbot 7 and OLF.  These terrorist groups are living comfortably in the United States and its ally countries. Here is the paradox in fighting terrorism. There seems a meaningless cooperation for peace among world countries. It has become evident in this case, the sugarcoated solidarity against terrorism.

It is possible to avoid all these anti-peace elements and practices if there is a real collaboration among all countries in the world. Besides, the   real commitment and cooperation among the media, politicians, religious and educational institutions for peace could change the world to the better. It is obvious that unless there is a strong public participation, efforts to ensure peace might end up fruitless.  In fact, the participation of the people in general and that of the youth, women and religious leaders in particular could play an indispensable role in bringing lasting peace to this world.

If we ask who could bring lasting peace to this world, the answer should vary. Some may say the lord from the religious perspective. Others say the government from  political perspective. Even others may say the media. All are possible answers. But the point is the fact that the consolidated efforts of all parts could bring peace. Above all the people are the sole partner in the thriving of peace. They have indispensible roles in realizing lasting peace in this earthily life. But the people could be reached through political parties, religions, media and the like. Bringing lasting peace therefore requires the cooperation of all these parts and that could be done under the auspice of governments.