IN a blink of an eye, we are already into the second month of 2022.

There is an idiom, “time flies when you’re having fun”, but it has hardly been “fun” for many people. It is more like a roller coaster ride with ups and downs.

The epidemic then floods, compounded with other after-effects have certainly taken their toll on many of us.

However, many people have stepped forward to help one another and that is the silver lining in every tragedy of human life.

Familiarity is not a prerequisite to help one another but just humanity in its purest form with common values that move us to reach out to help the other.

The beginning of February marks the World Interfaith Harmony Week. It was first proposed at the UN General Assembly on September 23, 2010, by H.M. King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Just under a month later, on October 20, 2010, it was unanimously adopted by the UN and henceforth the first week of February is observed as a World Interfaith Harmony Week.

Living in a multicultural and multireligious country, most of us realise that respect and mutual understanding constitute important dimensions of a culture of peace.

However, if left only to institutions and politicians, we may never achieve the kind of peace that most of us want.

If we do recognise the imperative need for dialogue among different faiths and religions in enhancing mutual understanding, harmony and cooperation among people, then it must be in the hands of the ordinary people.

The World Interfaith Harmony Week initiative, which started in 2007, initially called for Muslim and Christian leaders to engage in a dialogue based on two common fundamental religious commandments: love of God and love of the neighbour.

Since then, this has expanded to “love of the good and love of the neighbour” – a way forward that includes all peoples of goodwill, with or without faith.

Despite the mischievous attempts of politicians to “divide and conquer”, we have to recognise that the common values we hold far outweigh the differences we have.

This in itself gives us the impetus to work for peace and harmony within our communities. It is in celebrating the spirit of love and hope as one human family that can help shape our common home.

Pope Francis in addressing the climate emergency in his encyclical Laudato si challenged us to think about the kind of world we want to leave behind for generations to come.

In the same way, striving for peace and harmony must be with the hope that we are going to leave behind a home that generations to come are going to look back at us with only gratitude in their hearts.

The “harmony week” is not just for putting up a show with banners or cutting ribbons for the world to see that our country is about harmonious living, but it has to be a renewed commitment to work for its intended goal, namely, to reaffirm our commitment to strive for mutual understanding and respect of the other so as to promote a culture of peace in each of our lives.

It has to start with our daily lives, in the micro, before we can speak of the macro.

The underlying premise for having harmonious relationships with others must be built on making an effort to understand someone and to see things from their perspective. 

We have to remove the “myopic binders” that prevent us from reaching harmony. To live in harmony is our human right and no one should take that right away from us.

If we are to effect change and claim harmony, that which stems from our basic right to live, it must begin with us and surely not with the politicians we have now.

If we take a position of apathy, then in the words of the Greek philosopher Plato, “the price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men”.

Let us remember evil thrives on apathy and the greatest danger of our future is apathy.

Harmony must be the narrative we write for our children and their children too.

Let us reclaim our right to write the future we want and not leave it to chance or to other selfish individuals who only want to look after their personal interests. – February 4, 2022.

* Dr Clarence Devadass is a Catholic priest and director of the Catholic Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur. Moral education is an issue close to his heart. He focuses on paving resourceful ways to promote virtues for living in a multireligious society, for a significant life together.

* 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.