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The Role of GOPIO
in Global Security |
Two weeks ago I led a
team of European Parliament Members to observe the Second Round of the
Presidential elections in Indonesia, and joined the 250 EU long- term and
short-term observers who were in that country since the early part of this
year.
In April this year the Indonesians voted in the most complex elections
ever held anywhere in the world to elect a National Parliament, Regional
Parliaments and District Councils, thereby casting 600 million votes for 4
separate assemblies in 500,000 polling stations scattered around 12,000
islands.
This empowered 150 million people to vote in the first democratic
Parliamentary elections held in that country since independence in the
early 1960s. This near miracle was repeated again on the 19th September
when the Indonesians for the first time directly elected their new
President in a peaceful and totally transparent way.
Why am I telling you this? I am telling you this because it is Indonesia,
not Pakistan Iran, or India that is the largest Muslim country in the
world.
I am telling you this because a Muslim country which has been a
dictatorship for the past 30 years has made the transition peacefully to a
democracy.
I am telling you this, because it nails the lie forever that Islamic
countries are incapable of embracing democracy and human rights.
I am telling you this, because in order to get elected many Indonesian
politicians had to tone down, not build up their Islamic credentials. The
fundamentalists were not elected - the moderates were.
What is possible in Indonesia, is now possible in Pakistan, in Iraq, in
Syria, in Iran and the rest of the Muslim world.
I am also telling you this because it was done in Indonesia without the
force of arms, but by the force of example and encouragement.
I am proud to say that the European Union expended vast amounts of time,
money and effort to help the Indonesians to achieve this modern miracle
which has not been the subject of a single world headline. Not one.
So what has this to do with the Global Organisation of People of Indian
Origin - their 24 million members, the Indian Diaspora and this conference
today?
It has much to do with this conference today.
India and the people of Indian origin, which include the people of
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and, yes, Pakistan are all endowed with
ancient cultural and traditional values.
Lord Gautama Buddha, in his precepts asked for the following: - moderation
in all matters, the middle way in every act, individualism and enterprise,
make profits but not excessive profits, encourage savings and investments
and promote initiative and entrepreneurship but be constrained by
tolerance, mutual understanding and acceptance of other peoples’
differences.
The same philosophy underlies every precept of the Hindu pantheon:
tolerance, acceptance, individualism, enterprise, family, and investment
and protection for the future.
These values, enunciated by Emperor Ashoka two thousand five hundred years
ago and carved on huge pillars are still to be seen at every crossroad
from Afghanistan to the Deccan, from Bengal to Maharasthra.
In today’s world, unfortunately, we have allowed these values and beliefs
to be described in the western world as “liberal, western philosophy”.
It is no such thing.
It forms, instead, the bedrock of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy which has
created one of the oldest and most tolerant civilisations the world has
ever known. That civilisation spread its message to China, to Japan and
yes to Indonesia through the Sri Vijaya Empire to the Buddhist Bororobudur
to the still Hindu Island of Bali. When the Taleban blew up the two
ancient statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan they knew what they were
doing. The statutes represented an ancient civilisation of tolerance and
acceptance.
The Taleban represent intolerance and exclusion.
These Indian values were articulated two thousand years before Bentham,
Adam Smith, Hume, Berkeley, Voltaire or de Tocqueville.
In this regard, Milton Friedman is an Indian. Fredrick Von Hayek is an
Indian. Margaret Thatcher is an Indian. Tony Blair is an Indian. And even
George Bush is an Indian - though not a Red Indian !
Because they all espouse, in one form or another what we describe as
“tolerant, open society free market social values”.
Today, our world - that world we now cherish and fear for, is at a
crossroads and the issue will be settled one way or another for
generations to come. The choice is stark.
The choice will be whether the world will be run by people who believe in
tolerance, moderation, liberty, individualism and free will or whether the
world will be run by a cabal of intolerant, dictatorial, despotic regimes
who cannot tolerate differences or any spark of creative freedom in others
whom they cannot sanction, licence or control.
As the Sub-continent was at the pivot of world history, it will be the
pivot of the world’s future.
50 years ago, what started as a family fight at partition - the question
of Kashmir - has now grown to be a matter of global security concern. It
has spawned nuclear terror. Why did we, old as we are, knowledgeable as we
are, ancient in wisdom as we are, tolerant as we are, allow this to
happen?
In the same 50 years something else also quite remarkable happened.
Ignoring the historic strictures that most Hindus lived under for
thousands of years - that they were not to travel beyond the Hindu Kush -
millions of people of Indian origin including those born in what is now
Pakistan have migrated to the far flung corners of the globe.
Today over 25 million people of Indian origin live in other parts of the
globe.
And in their new countries and cities, most have settled down and
adjusted. They have been respected. They are valued. They are seen to be
people of substance, knowledge, and tradition. They are recognised as
being successful and as intrinsic to their new countries’ economic, social
and cultural well being.
But not all.
Some have failed to adjust, some have sought security in fundamental
Islamic values, and want to become jihadists.
Yet, there is still time and opportunity for them to play a constructive
role. That time is not too long. It is shortening, as fears of jihadist
attack and militancy grow in Western countries.
We of the GOPIO have now a critical and crucial role to play. Either we
are seen as a force for good in the West or we will be seen as a threat.
We cannot duck out of this challenge. We are involved because we are here.
We are here because we chose to be here, in Europe, in America, in
Australia, in Canada. No one forced most of us to be here. We chose. With
that choice goes responsibility. Not only responsibility to our family but
also responsibility to those who have welcomed us amongst them. They now
feel under threat from the jihadists.
However, …..
In Afghanistan, a whole country some 4 years ago given to a jihad, last
month 10 million people registered to vote at the next presidential
elections only some weeks away.
The revulsion felt by British Muslims and French Muslims at the images of
cowering foreigners and grisly beheadings by jihadis in Iraq is leading to
a backlash against them.
People in the Muslim world are becoming convinced that what is happening
is the very destruction of Muslim civil society. The jihadists’ actions
have had the opposite effect. They have not led to a triumph of Islam but
rather to a state of fitna, which threatens the very stability of Islam
with disintegration, fragmentation and ruin.
When the jihadists in Iraq grabbed two Frenchmen as hostages to demand the
removal in France of the ban on wearing headscarves by Muslim school
girls, the Muslim Community of France rallied behind their adopted land
and demonstrated against the kidnappers.
The people of Muslim descent in Europe are giving priority to their French
German and British identities, identifying with the liberal Indian values
we discussed earlier. In Europe the land of unbelief, Muslims are
experiencing personal liberty, liberal education, and the economic
opportunities of democratic societies.
I said before that we must include within the ranks of the people of
Indian origin, the people from Pakistan and Bangladesh who now live in the
West among us.
We must include them lest they be excluded.
We must, because they have a very important role to play.
They are the living proof that Islamic values can live in harmony with
democratic and liberal Indian values in the West among Westerners.
We who believe and live by our ancient Indian values of tolerance and
respect must now put these into effect among our own Muslim communities
living around us. We in GOPIO are the bridge over which many millions will
walk and join hands. That is our task.
Then the family argument in the sub continent will be solved. The answers
will come from us, showing those living in India and Pakistan that we are
living together, doing business together, making money and contributing to
the wider community----- together in Europe, America Canada Australia and
Africa.
We are the showcase for our less well-informed compatriots back in
Pakistan and other Islamic countries who view all things western with
suspicion. India and her democratic institutions have shown this for 50
and more years. Last month Indonesia also showed the way.
Now its up to us to show that it can be done in the West,
for ALL of us.
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