To foster change, change yourself

This column is written in hope of provoking thought that may help to induce action by the people of Cambodia, who have suffered more than enough.

In the final analysis, they are their own future.

March 31, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

An inscription on the tomb of an Anglican bishop in Westminster Abbey describes a man on his deathbed reflecting on his life's voyage: When he was "young and free" with limitless imagination, he dreamed of changing the world, but the world would not change. He decided then to change the country; but the country was immovable. So, in his "last desperate attempt" he worked to change those closest to him, his family; but the family "would have none of it."

On his deathbed, the man realized: "If only I had changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and who knows, I might have changed the world."

Indeed, change begins with each of us. Look into the mirror. Change begins with the one who stares back at you!

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean," writes Japanese author and poet Ryunosuke Satoro.

"The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble," writes French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal.

Each and every one of us is important.

But someone also wrote, "Many of us believe that wrongs aren't wrong if done by nice people like ourselves." Obsessed with self-righteousness, we see the need for others to change, but not ourselves.

There was a very humble man, India's Mahatma Gandhi, the pioneer of resistance to tyranny through mass, peaceful civil disobedience, who inspired civil rights and freedom movements worldwide. He said, "As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -- that is the myth of the atomic age -- as in being able to remake ourselves." And he talked Lord Buddha's language: "I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others."

Buddha said, "It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one's own faults. One shows the faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one's own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice."

Matthew 7:3-5 states: "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? ... You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye."

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the stairs," said civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

By developing faith it's possible to reach a goal. In creating the will to take the first steps, the first leg of an important voyage is undertaken. And we have been advised: "To get what we've never had, we must do what we've never done."

Harvard-trained lawyer and land surveyor, Henry Hancock, who fought for the Union during the Civil War, said: "Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny."

One of the most influential forefathers of the U.S., Thomas Jefferson, posited that the opinion of the people forms "the basis" of U.S. governments, hence, "the very first object should be to keep that right." When the force of public opinion is allowed "freely to be expressed," he said, that force "cannot be resisted" and the "agitation" it produces "must be submitted to."

The principal author of the 1976 Declaration of Independence and a principal promoter of the ideals of republicanism in the U.S., Jefferson, who became the third U.S. president, saw the people as a "safe repository for the ultimate powers of society."

And "if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control (over the government) with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to increase their discretion by education."

The government should educate the people in the way and the language the people can understand.

While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates in Article 21.3 that "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government," another influential forefather of the U.S., James Madison, one of the authors of the Federalist Papers that contributed to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, warned, "If men were angels," there would be no need for government; but in a government "administered by men over men ... auxiliary precautions" are necessary -- a system of separation of powers and checks and balances.

"Let the people know the truth and the country is safe," declared Abraham Lincoln, who led the U.S. through the Civil War, preserved the Union and ended slavery. "You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could do for themselves."

Lincoln knew his priorities to achieve his goal: "If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spent six hours sharpening my ax." He also said: "You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."

This column is written in hope of provoking thought that may help to induce action by the people of Cambodia, who have suffered more than enough.

In the final analysis, they are their own future.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.