Fr Leslie Raj SJ and a team of four in Singapore have began forum@KINGSMEAD, a series of seminars that they hope will encourage academics, professionals and leaders, especially those who collaborate in Jesuit ministries, to gather for reflection and dialogue in the Ignatian tradition.
The first seminar, held in May, was presented was Dr Maitrii Victoriano Aung Thwin (Maitrii) from the Department of History at the National University of Singapore). He spoke on “Myanmar: What does history tell us?” The dialogue that ensued gave us a deeper understanding of the on-going social reform in Myanmar and its implications on the livelihood of the various ethnic groups in the country. Participants were particularly interested in the role of education and the military.
In the second seminar, held on July 30, Malaysian Jesuit Fr Aloysius Mowe gave a thought-provoking presentation titled “‘Anywhere but here’ – Border Protection or the Protection of People”. Fr Mowe, who is Director of Jesuit Refugee Service in Australia and a board member of the Jesuit Mission in Australia, been active in addressing the issues of refugees and their rights with the Australian government.
Fr Mowe’s presentation opened the eyes and the minds of 25 people who came to the scale of the refugee problem that exists in the world. The number of refugees runs into millions. Each year it is estimated that another 1.1 million become refugees.
Fr Mowe explained that refugees are persons who are fleeing from conflict, persecution and other troubles. They are not persons who are seeking another home for economic reasons alone. Refugees invariably suffer great hardship and danger to seek a new life for themselves and their families in more developed countries. However, instead of opening their borders, many developed nations have made it more difficult for refugees to enter their countries. What is particularly surprising is that many of these countries are parties to the UN Convention on Refugees and its Protocol. Fr Mowe said that the burden of caring for refugees often falls on poorer countries. For example, Pakistan and Iran have been the most hospitable to refugees.
Pope Francis has described this state as the Globalisation of Indifference – people are fleeing from danger and persecution yet the rest of the world, particularly wealthy countries, choose to protect their borders. In essence, the leaders of these countries are saying that it is not their problem.
Why the indifference? Fr Mowe attributes this to fear – fear of the people living in wealthy nations that the refugees will be an economic threat to them, fear that the refugees will take away resources that should be directed to them. Fr Mowe challenged this thinking with facts and figures and asked the question – “Are we punishing persons in real need because of a perceived threat?”
He invited his audience to consider what its response is to this issue and the underlying cause of the problem.
Antony Lee, who attended the presentation, said, “Fr Mowe’s presentation made me think of the injustices of the world and the sad fact that the rich can do more to help those in need. On a personal level, it made me reflect once more about my neighbour – who he is and how I can be more generous in sharing what I have with him. There is much to do.”
Fr Raj hopes to have presentations in the future on other areas that concern Asia Pacific such as art, culture, education, urbanisation, engineering, defence, geopolitics and biodiversity.
For more information about forum@KINGSMEAD, contact Fr Leslie Raj at lesrajsj@gmail.com.