Features
A singular triumph for Soft Power
The choice of the winners of the prestigious award should be considered as most appropriate against the backdrop of the rising popularity of Hard Power among anti-democratic, authoritarian states.
Hailing the conferring of the award on the three winners; human rights champion Ales Bialiatski of Belarus, ‘Memorial’, a human rights institution in Russia and the Centre for Civil Liberties of Ukraine, international commentators said that, ‘They have for many years promoted the right to criticize power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens. They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses and the abuse of power.’
Although in the short term the bestowing of the award on the mentioned winners would not help in substantially containing the Putin-inspired savagery in Ukraine or have the effect of curtailing the perpetration of state terror in other parts of the world, it will prove effective in the medium and long terms, considering that it would enthuse human rights advocates the world over to continue vigorously with their campaigns, garnering in the process ample goodwill and support for their cause among peace-loving publics everywhere, who constitute the majority of the world community.
The substantial cumulative effect of the latter process, highlighting the positive role of human rights advocates, is that there will be an eventual change in world opinion in favour of peaceful ways of resolving intra-state and inter-state conflicts. That is, Soft Power will emerge triumphant over Hard Power or the use of coercive means to resolve disputes.
However, right now it is Hard Power that is seemingly reigning in Ukraine. The Russian invasion has taken a particularly brutal turn following the bombing of a key bridge linking the Crimea and Russia in Eastern Ukraine. Acting on the belief that the blasting of the bridge was carried out by Ukraine resistance forces, Russia is in a no-holds-barred effort to destroy vital infrastructure that is instrumental in sustaining the wellbeing of the Ukrainian people, such as energy sources.
In the process Ukrainian civilian centres are coming under attack as well. In one such recent Russian assault, a children’s playground was devastated. Civilian buildings suffered a similar fate. As should be expected, scores of civilian lives have been snuffed out. Today, life seems to be extraordinarily ‘cheap’ in the Ukrainian theatre.
While Ukrainian civilians are the number one victims of the Russian invasion, the Russian people too are being subjected to a slow and relentless death. The most recent Russian assault on Ukraine was preceded by what seemed to be a number of military setbacks for the Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine. International TV footage unraveled the magnitude of the losses being incurred by Russia. Scores of corpses of Russian soldiers felled in battle, for instance, are being left abandoned on highways.
Young Russian men in their hundreds are reportedly fleeing Russia in a bid to escape conscription into the armed forces by the Russian authorities. This is in addition to the material hardships Russian civilians are being subjected to in the wake of the clamping of Western economic sanctions on their country.
All this and more will convince the Russian people eventually of the enormity of the tragedy that is the invasion of Ukraine. Being intelligent and morally sensitive it will be only a matter of time before the Russian public sees the wisdom in suing for peace. The human rights defenders in their midst will prove to be vital catalysts in this process.
Accordingly, the time is ripe to turn ‘Spears into Plough-fares’. The majority of the member states of the UN General Assembly have done well to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine but more must be done by the world body and all peace makers to popularize Soft Power over Hard Power. To begin with, the world would need to decry in one voice the wanton shedding of civilian blood in the Ukraine theatre and elsewhere.
There could be no ‘fence-sitting’ on this question. The taking of civilian lives for whatever reason needs to be condemned by all states that claim to be civilized. It applies to countries big and small. After all, it could be the Ukrainian civilians today and tomorrow the civilians of weak Southern states, such as Sri Lanka. Economic links with aggressor states are no excuse for maintaining an opportunistic silence.
Even as this is being written Hard Power is continuing to brazenly manifest itself in Myanmar where democratic icon Aung San SUU Kyi is being handed one long prison term after another for presumed offences that need to be substantively proved in an impartial court of law. SUU Kyi’s continuing persecution is a veritable indictment on those sections of democratic world that are preferring to ‘look the other way’. The international community could follow a two-pronged approach in Myanmar of making its economic and other sanctions sting the Myanmarese junta more painfully while more proactively and dynamically helping Opposition democratic forces in the country to forge ahead strongly.
The strife-torn sections of the world need to take a leaf from countries such as South Africa where Soft Power and humanity have won the day. There is a strong possibility of the theatres of war and strife throwing-up leaders such as Nelson Mandela who had come to see the meaninglessness of answering violence with violence. Having been blessed with a moral conscience these leaders thought through the issues of their times and perceived that there is no better way to lasting peace than win-win solutions to the questions at hand.
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize could go a considerable distance in bringing into being political leaders who place great value on Soft Power as opposed to Hard Power. The Prize serves as a reminder to human rights activists everywhere that the democratic world is solidly behind them. At the same time anti-people, repressive states are put on notice that their lot in the world is increasing alienation and isolation.