ISLAND VOICES
Education tore down barriers

Speech excerpts by Brigadier Banares Khan Jadoon from Pakistan at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies graduation dinner this month in Waikiki.

By Banares Khan Jadoon

To the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies faculty, we offer our thanks for a truly extraordinary academic experience.

They have reminded us that knowledge is indeed power, that the truth (if we can find it) will literally set us free, and that the path to truth is through open and open-minded dialogue.

They have reminded us too that teaching is, without question, the noblest profession — more so than medicine, or law, or diplomacy, or the profession of arms — for only the teacher can enrich us and elevate us by forcing us to come face-to-face with the gulf that separates what we think we know from what we actually do know.

They have reminded us that learning is something we are never too old, or too experienced, or too accomplished to engage and prosper from. Learning is what happens when we question the answers we already possess.

And, therefore, they have reminded us that education is what remains after we have unlearned the things that have been programmed into us throughout our lives. Education is lifelong pursuit that is our means of conveyance along the road from ignorance to awareness to knowledge to understanding to wisdom.

The APCSS experience has been designed to break down barriers and build new relationships that can withstand and overcome the pettiness of politics, the provincialism of culture, the deafness and dumbness of ideology and the inertia of bureaucracy.

I am reminded of a story involving one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln. At the height of the U.S. Civil War, President Lincoln was asked to make some remarks at a reception. He proceeded to extol the virtues of both sides in the bloody and divisive conflict, praising the soldiers of both North and South for their sacrifices and their humanity.

Later, in the reception line, Mr. Lincoln was approached by a lady who was well-known for her outspoken and vehement patriotism. She berated the president for speaking of befriending the enemies of the Union, rather than destroying them.

Mr. Lincoln looked her straight in the eye and said, "But madam, do I not destroy my enemy when I make him my friend?"

Such words serve to underscore why we have been here for the past 12 weeks and what we should take away with us.