The recent terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday prompted a local Pastor to draw on a very important lesson he learned from his childhood - becoming friends is the surest way of preventing strangers from becoming enemies.
This is his recollection in full:
When I was 10 I ignorantly called my classmate a ‘black Boy’. Unhappy at being chastised by our teacher I proceeded to punch him during recess to exact my own ‘justice’.
Our parents were summoned to the Principal’s office. My father walked in and offered an immediate apology with the assurance he would make me ‘pay’ for my unwarranted indiscretion.
My friend’s mother responded with the request that in lieu of pain she should be allowed to take me to her home everyday to have lunch, do homework and play with my friend. I have never forgotten her summary, “We must make them friends and not allow them to be enemies”. I spent many memorable and happy days with them. I sat in on lessons on the Quran.
Ever since then we have been blessed with a lifelong friendship spanning 52 years now. To this day, I a pastor, am welcomed in this home as family.
We can live and embrace one another if we teach our children to be friends and not enemies.
Dedicated to all who have suffered in Christchurch and Sri Lanka with the prayer that parents will see this as an opportunity to make our children friends.
The lesson that the pastor drew is an important one.
Due to the perceived differences in terms of our language, appearances and values, most of us choose the easy way out by being friends with people from our our own religious and ethnic backgrounds. We close ourselves to those who are different.
This is an opportunity missed.
What we don't know becomes a convenient bogeyman or enemy.
Genuine friendships take time to forge but once they do, there exist an understanding that is deeper than the mere tolerance that most Singaporeans have for one another.
For that to happen, we need to provide the youths with the right time, platform and space, instead of segregating and putting up barriers between them.
