May 13 mooted as day of reconciliation

Based on the notion that ‘Change, Peace Starts with Me’, a conference on ‘Tools for Change’ has mooted that May 13 be turned into a day of forgiveness and reconciliation among Malaysians.

Initiatives of Change (IofC), formerly known as the Moral Re-Armament movement, has taken up the idea and is now working towards ‘National Reconciliation Day’ on May 13.

It has formed a committee, Creators of Peace Circle, following a four-day international conference held last week.

Project coordinator Regina Morris said the spectre of the racial riots of May 13, 1969 has raised fear and that many are still not willing to face it.

“A group of participants from the conference decided to lay the ghost to rest by turning the spectre of May 13 into a National Day of Reconciliation,” she explained.

The committee hopes to launch the project by providing victims of the May 13 incident with a safe space to talk about what they experienced during that week of fear and violence.

“National Reconciliation Day is designed to draw participants through personal reflection to an awareness of needs in their own lives and communities, and to encourage steps to take to create peace,” said Morris.

“It allows space for people to tell their deepest stories and to be heard without judgment and in strictest confidentiality.

"It is formatted to build deep listening, which is a powerful tool of release and personal transformation.

"We hope by the end of the process that those taking part will become creators of peace themselves.”

Self-transformation in working towards a peaceful nation is an expected outcome from the project, mirroring the essential truth ‘As I am, so is my nation’.

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi who inspired the formation of IofC, Morris said: “There is no way to peace - Peace is the way.”

IofC is an international movement for social and global transformation inspired by personal transformation. It was started in 1938 as Moral Re-Armament.