Coming Together in Pursuit of Peace
How did this initiative come about? Why did the three of us get together to launch a call to our fellow human beings to join hands with us to save humanity’s and the planet’s future?
The three of us --- Professor Richard Falk, Professor Joseph Camilleri and I --- have been close friends for more than 30 years. We have been writing and speaking about issues in international relations for a long while. We have taken common positions on a variety of global challenges.
When Vladimir Putin embarked upon what he called a special military operation in Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022, we began exchanging ideas on what was happening through email. The three of us come from different parts of the world ---- Richard lives in both the United States and Turkiye, Joe is a resident of Melbourne in Australia and I am from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Apart from the email, our only other channel of communication is the telephone.
As we reflected upon the situation in Ukraine, we felt that we had to do what we could to strengthen the voices of those who were calling for an end to the war in that country. By July 2022 we knew that the war was not going to end anytime soon. It was then that we decided to draft a joint statement on Ukraine which would also focus upon the larger challenge of peace and security in our time.
The justification for a larger focus acquired greater significance especially when tensions began to peak over Taiwan. Some commentators were of the view that an actual physical confrontation between the US and China was imminent in the wake of the provocative visit of then US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan on the 2nd of August 2022. The three of us were aware of the underlying forces at work in both the Taiwan and Ukraine conflicts which made it all the more imperative for the human family to address the real danger to peace emanating from an aggressive drive for global hegemony on the part of an overwhelmingly dominant military power.
Our joint statement took cognisance of this reality. We described our stand as a call “to all who care for humanity’s and the planet’s future.” In it we not only sought to provide concrete solutions to the conflicts in Ukraine and Taiwan. We also argue for a new global security architecture that reflects the emerging reality of a “multi-centric, multi-civilizational world which respects the independence and legitimate rights of all sovereign nations, and in which no actor seeks to exercise imperial or hegemonic ambitions.” For these far-reaching changes to take place, the active involvement of people everywhere is vital.
As a first step, we circulated the call to about 90 individuals from all over the world on the 27th of August 2022. They were mostly individuals known to the three of us, individually or collectively, who have been involved in civil society causes, writers, public intellectuals and others with a commitment to the well-being of society. 44 of them responded. Among those who were prepared to endorse the call were Alfred de Zayas ; Celso Luis Nunes Amorim; Jeffrey Sachs; Kathy Kelly; Kishore Mahbubani; Mahmood Mamdani; Mairead Maguire; Noam Chomsky; Sulak Sivaraksa; and Yanis Varoufakis. Together they and the other initial endorsers constitute a galaxy of illustrious public figures.
The call was then presented to the public at large for the endorsement of women and men from all walks of life. When we organised the first webinar entitled ‘Humanity’s Future’ on 27th October 2022, we had garnered 2754 endorsers. That number has gone up to 3684 as of 31st January 2023 ( excluding the initial 44 endorsers). They come from 66 countries. Interested members of the public can continue to support the call at change.org.
In this short essay we have shown how this initiative now known as SAVING HUMANITY AND PLANET EARTH (SHAPE) was born. It is our hope that people will remain committed to this initiative. As we move forward, it is people with their ideas and innovations who will shape this effort set into motion by three individuals. They will give new meaning to the message of peace embodied in our call to humanity. In the process they will rejuvenate that message for that message is eternal and perennial.
Dr Chandra Muzaffar is president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).
The above article is based to some extent upon the author’s presentation at the SHAPE webinar on the 27th of October 2022. It has been modified, expanded and updated for the purpose of this website.
