OIC needs joint peace forces
Dear Sir,
Human civilisation has reached a point where people and nations have realised that wars and aggression against each other will harm social development and have developed international laws and organisations to act as a watchdog to prevent circumstances that can escalate conflicts to a level that leads to human suffering.
In the past, wars were triggered for different reasons; among them were religious ideologies, access to markets and trading routes, oil and gas reserves and desire for global hegemony. At times, logic and reasoning were bulldozed by political and military might of nations, leaving scars on the sanctity of international law.
It’s a fundamental right of every nation to fight for its legitimate rights and to have a strong mechanism to defend its rights from those who intend to violate them, preferably by diplomatic means and, if left no option, show its muscles to achieve the goals.
Unfortunately, in recent times we have witnessed Muslims being killed brutally in parts of the world and the international community has been complacent about saving their lives. Yes, they may have shed a tear, but I doubt that if mere tears could have saved a child who was being burned alive.
The current global politics and international relations have been driving nations and communities to form groups and clusters of economic and military powerhouses to protect each other’s interests.
The member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) have developed great economic strength but it’s not translated into an institution that can defend its rights and counterattack or prevent any external or internal threat harming its interests. Such an institution is the need of the hour to help prevent genocide, human rights violations, conflicts and protect its members’ territorial sovereignty by developing a self-reliant model of peace-keeping forces collectively raised from its 57 members countries. Examples of similar alliances and joint forces already exist in the world so, in essence, there is hardly any need to reinvent the wheel.
Such an alliance and joint peace force will not only safeguard the rights of all OIC members-countries from any external threat but will also bring sanity and prudence among its member states if any power would try to divide and conquer them by igniting sectarian violence or any other way. It can also have the power to discipline its member countries in resolving internal conflicts among themselves.
Resources of many OIC member countries have been spent on wars and the cost of human lives has been mind-boggling, particularly in the last 100 years. If they were spent on human resource development, the situation among the 57 OIC member countries could have been much different. But it’s never too late. We can still develop an institution that can safeguard our rights and will minimise our dependency on leased foreign forces at a high cost.
Yes, on the face of it, this idea appears to be idealistic as each individual member country in the OIC has its own governance structure and economic priorities.. But I believe such a step will strengthen the OIC member countries’ position economically and militarily. All that is needed is leadership and political will to implement this idea.
I would like to call on my brothers and sisters living between Casablanca and Jakarta to request their political and government leaders to uphold the sovereignty and dignity of our generation on the basis of self-reliance. I am sure if we are able to build such an institution, our territorial sovereignty will not be targeted by drone planes remotely controlled thousands of miles away and we will be capable enough to secure our territory and deal with any external or internal threat by ourselves.
Faisal Tahir Khan, [email protected]
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