THE above was the title of a forum I once hosted at George Washington University with the help of two Palestinian and Israeli doctoral students in the D.C. area.

This past week, “Trumpire” adherents declared their self-proclaimed “deal of the century”. The media, too, cooperated by propagating it.

My personal retort remains unchanged – it is the same fake deal the victors of the two wars have been selling since 1948, although others more sincere have tried to improve things.

Good luck with finding the missing piece. I’ll instead label it the “steal of the century”.

Mediating a definition with dignity

In any serious negotiation for a moderate way forward, as with Jimmy Carter’s Camp David Accords, there must be a powerful mediator, but the entire discussion has to be premised on mutual respect and genuine honesty on the part of both negotiating parties.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has already called it the “slap of the century”. In any mediation effort related to face, dignity or sovereignty, the rights and privileges of both parties must be fully respected.

Abbas’ language and reference to “a slap on the face” is very telling. It appears like a total rejection of the plan, and usually, this means without any due consideration whatsoever. This, to me, is another Hong Kong in the making.

Therefore, while the proposers or abusers claim their peace plan, the recipients or other related parties will have no choice but to reject it and call it a slap on the face of all Muslims and Islam in general. Sadly, this will set us back to the pre-9/11 days.

Thus, I conclude that this plan will remain the “missing peace”.

Dignity is life and living

Human sense and feelings of dignity, or their absence, cannot be bought or sold with monies.

I discovered this truth in my dissertation research. Most, if not all, of the 47 workers I interviewed at two AES power plants said their experience showed that money was unable to buy the values of human respect and personal regard.

Such values are accorded or assigned because one views the other as an equal, another human being created by a “Common Other”, often considered the Almighty. This includes atheists.

Only humans can experience such a regard or accord. Animals do not have the same experience, but we can conduct studies to learn their responses.

In fact, it was with the experiments of Pavlov and Skinner on dogs and rats that we evolved the field of behaviour modification with the concept of positive reinforcement.

My only problem is when such findings are extrapolated directly into the field of organisational behaviour and development (OB&D) without critique or awareness of the higher nature of human beings.

Behaviour v action as human conduct

OB&D was founded on some psychological assumptions made by the extrapolation of the said experiments onto human beings as a group of people in one organisation.

The process makes a jump in logic, from lesser animals to humans in orchestrated conduct. I have two issues with this:

– Animals cannot “think”, while humans can and do. The capacity for logic and reason makes one human. Making choices is a very human capability. And;

– Groups do not usually act in concert, if not brainwashed or involuntarily orchestrated. Usually, groups are a normal distribution curve as a dispersed group of three identifiable mathematical groups.

Therefore, human beings can focus on their conduct or action, and the choices they have. – February 2, 2020.

* KJ John worked in public service for 32 years, retired, and started a civil group for which he is chairman of the board. He writes to inform and educate, arguing for integration with integrity in Malaysia. He believes such a transformation has to start with the mind before it sinks into the heart!

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.