How Soft Power could count in mitigating twin earthquake fallout

Survivors of the twin earthquake tragedies in Turkey and Syria, and other affected sections, are appealing to the world for immediate and substantial relief assistance and the hope of the humanist is likely to be that their calls would not fall on deaf ears. The enormity of these tragedies is such that the affected could not be faulted for seeing the humanitarian assistance rendered thus far as being both inadequate and late in coming.

In the South Asian region, Pakistan is going the extra mile in rendering assistance to the quake-affected populations and its inspirational example may need to be replicated over the length and breadth of the world, if the suffering in the countries concerned is to be alleviated. Something of note is that these natural disasters are not only occurring at a disconcerting rapidity the world over but that they are increasingly mind-numbing in magnitude.

To call them ‘tragedies’ is a gross understatement, the commentator is compelled to say, considering the ineffable suffering and turmoil they bring about. At the time of writing the death toll, for instance, from the disasters has reportedly exceeded 40,000. Just a few months back, flood waters laid waste one third of Pakistan’s land area and needless to say, the human suffering that the disaster incurred was staggering.

It would be in the fitness of things for the world to suspend what it has come to see as ‘normal business’, in these times of phenomenal suffering. For example, the world’s number one powers would do well to set aside their usual divisive politicking and do their utmost to render assistance to the quake-affected. Hopefully, more would be spent by them on welfare assistance to the world’s natural disaster-affected sections rather than on armaments.

It is a time when the dictates of hearts and consciences may need to be followed. That is, Soft Power and not Hard Power emerges as essential and imperative. Hopefully, ‘Spears would be transformed into Ploughshares’. The visionary humanist would need to take over from the power-seeking, puffed-up politician, whose point of view does not usually extend beyond self-glory and national power; the latter defined in terms of armed might.

In other words, universal values, such as, love, compassion and empathy for the suffering, which form the substance of Soft Power, need to come centre stage and should be practised by the world’s political leaders and their publics. This is the foremost challenge facing the world at present.

Interestingly, at the time of writing, the US embassy in Colombo has just concluded what is described as its ‘Youth Forum Leadership Summit 2023’, with the participation of selected youth evincing leadership qualities. Among other things, such forums are said ‘to develop leadership skills among youth that model inclusion, equity and transparency.’

This is as it should be. The mentioned skills essentially relate to the realm of Soft Power and to the extent that this is so these forums need to be welcomed. Values such as inclusion, equity and transparency go to the heart of democratic development but the conductors of the forums would need to figure out how these values could be integrated into the liberal-democratic model, which is preached by the West.

For instance, how the market economy could be moulded to provide for material equity, arises as a challenge. That is, economic liberalization needs to be balanced with re-distributive justice. However, there is no denying the need for such forums and there is an equal need to extend such programs to cover older age cohorts, such as midlevel managers in the public and private sectors of this country. They, after all, are the budding policy and decision-makers of Sri Lanka.

A religious consciousness that usually enshrines and validates humanity has been on the decline in the West but this is not quite so with the global South. However, the religiosity seen in the South cannot be fully equated with spirituality; central to which are core values, such as, love and compassion. What we have in the main among Asiatic cultures, for example, is formal or organized religion, but it could be argued that the Southern consciousness has a comparatively higher potential to be receptive to the core values of the world’s religions.

A challenge facing lay and religious leaders of the global South is to harness this receptiveness to serve the best interests of powerless and victimized sections of polities. The quake victims of Turkey and Syria count significantly among the latter.

Democratically-oriented youth leaders, such as those who had attended the mentioned US forums, and other sections with a humane vision, should consider it appropriate to volunteer their services in quake-devastated Turkey and Syria and other areas witnessing human suffering, but their task would be rendered more effective if they also drink deep of the wisdom that the South offers in this connection. There is the Ahimsa doctrine of India’s Mahatma Gandhi, for example, that would stand them in good stead in the challenges facing them.

While Western democracy continues to stand as one of the most recommendable systems of governance formulated and practised by mankind, values such as Ahimsa offer the best prospects of bringing healing and stability to divided societies if adopted insightfully. Democratic theory could be considered as suffering from a lacuna if doctrines such as Ahimsa are not integrated into it. Since Ahimsa speaks most eloquently to the hearts and minds of people everywhere it should be brought to the heart of conflict-resolution theory as well.

Accordingly, considering the wealth of Soft Power that it possesses, this could be considered the South’s hour to stand and shine in bringing healing to those areas of the world that are currently in the clutches of trauma and suffering.

The natural devastation in Turkey, Syria and other parts of the world, this columnist hopes, would enable prominent countries of South Asia, such as India and Pakistan, to come together in an effort to pool their spiritual resources or Soft Power to work out ways of alleviating the suffering and hardships of the relevant traumatized publics. It is the time to realize that Soft Power cannot be cloistered or ‘kept under a bushel’.