Is It Truly Asia Or Sharia Lessons From Neighboring Malaysia

Several months back I wrote that Malaysia could no longer justify its use of the slogan Truly Asia. This view is now confirmed by the latest events there.

Forget representing Asia, the Malaysian government today is unable even to represent its diverse society in its entirety. The uprising of the Tamil minority is but the tip of the iceberg. Underneath awaits a huge chunk of crystallized dissatisfaction and disappointment, which could result in the disintegration of Malaysian society.

Peace in South Asia

Recently, the J & K Forum for Peace and Reconciliation arranged a lecture in Jammu by the former Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University, Dr.Amitabh Mattoo. The topic of the lecture was, Is peace possible in South Asia The forum had earlier arranged a similar lecture by Dr.Mattoo in Srinagar last year. At that time the topic was, Peace Building in South Asia An Agenda for Civil Society. In that lecture he had discussed a wider picture of a peaceful and reconciled South Asia of the future which we all needed to imagine and work for. He wanted us to go from Kashmir First to South Asia First. Once overall peace and reconciliation had been established in South Asia on a broader perspective, the minor conflicts like Kashmir would get automatically resolved. Peaceful South Asia is a very sublime and idealistic goal which all of us cherish to reach. Following the last year’s lecture, I had pointed out in my column that it was not practically possible to have overall peace in the region unless the underlying areas of conflict are attended to in the first instance. It is true that unless there is an understanding at the higher level for establishment of peace, the smaller problems cannot be sorted out. All the problems are based on the trust deficit between the various stake holders. The first requirement has always been the establishment of mutual trust. In the latest lecture, Dr.Mattoo’s theme was precisely the same that there was urgent need to establish mutual trust between India and Pakistan. According to him, the jingoist talk of war was out of question. War is no option at all. It was incumbent upon the civil society in the two countries to come forward to re-establish trust and strengthen the evolving democracy in Pakistan.