The state of affairs of world peace today is demoralizing; war is a soaring multi-billion dollar industry today. Certain long-term warring conflicts are maintained by third forces while promotion of peace is not on the cards because the enterprise formula requires sustenance of the status quo if those at the top of the food chain are to perpetually continue to repatriate reasonable profit from the volatile environment.

We, on the home front, at the beginning of any day, through print media tabloids, social media platforms on a mobile or computer, or by television content; watch as our people are perpetually fed content, narrative of which is openly contrived by persistent interest groups. These interest groups-cum-influencers use their media stranglehold to introduce and sell their values and ideas by luring and outfoxing unassuming citizenry.

After 200 years, we as Basotho should ride on the crest of festivities to resuscitate and rejuvenate our lodestar as well as re-identify what must forthrightly become our nation’s unswerving and intrinsic arbiter of the morality, our truth and national values. Coincidentally, it’s as if President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China knew that both the celebration of the bicentennial of the founding of Lesotho and the celebration of the founding father were predicated on the self-same tenets that he so graciously expounded on his new year’s eve speech.

The same, consistent thought manifested on the occasion of the “Central Conference on Work relating to Foreign Affairs of China, 27 to 28 December in Beijing China”.

In true to form manner, he eloquently posited that “As I speak to you, conflicts are still raging in some parts of the world. We Chinese are keenly aware of what peace means. We will work closely with the international community for the common good of humanity, build a community with a shared future for mankind, and make the world a better place for all.”

In this important year in the life of our country and her people, we embrace and take heart in the reassuring words of President Xi when he assured the Chinese youth and encouraged future generations to remain steadfastly grounded in their values.

“If a country does not cherish its own thinking and culture, if its people lose their soul, no matter which country or which nation, it will not be able to stand,” he said.

President Xi made this clarion call indicating the importance of ancient philosopher Confucius’ thinking and the cultural heritage of the Chinese history to posterity.

Confucius is popularly renowned to have said: “Wisdom, compassion and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men” and “The wise never doubt. The Humane never worry. The brave never fear”.

This policy stance that President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China has taken is indicative of the wise words of Confucius because nature has never witnessed a mission so burdensome that it requires all three virtues of wisdom, compassion and courage just to attempt it.

In appreciation, it is pertinent to recollect that in our history as Basotho, King Moshoeshoe’s mentor Chief Mohlomi taught him to “become a peaceful, loving and humane leader whose spear should perpetually remain dry and never drip blood of his subjects”.

The similarities between these foundational ideologies are glaring, one of Confucius convictions was a Sage King, “A king of great virtue, called a sage, by observing the way of heaven and based on his understanding of human nature, establishes social norms and laws to regulate public lives. What he says and does is thus the model for all to follow. “

In a world where nations and peoples struggle to find their identities, where multi-billion dollar corporations and rich countries fight to entrench their own value systems without regard to rights and values of indigenous populations, we the people of poor nations would easily become desolate and our heritage inconsequential without such humaneness.

President Xi’s policy of “building a community with a shared future for mankind, and making the world a better place for all” comes in handy. It reassures us that, indeed, peaceful coexistence and common prosperity are sacred ideals to pursue for the world to be a better place for all as our founding father King Moshoeshoe’s wisdom which he magnanimously bequeathed to us states that “we should shun all forms of discrimination”.

Our founding father firmly believed that “war ravages, pillages and kills like the cold winter breeze which brings about plant dormancy and animal hibernation while peace activates, restores and enlivens like the summer rain that brings live anew. . .”

These ideals are inspirational for all people of the world who lost all hope that peace not war, negotiations not hegemony, multilateralism not quid pro quo nor sine qua non interests of the so called “might is right” nations will continue to prevail in our lifetime.

President Xi clearly states: “As I speak to you, conflicts are still raging in some parts of the world. We Chinese are keenly aware of what peace means” and notwithstanding the high tide, he is setting out to swim against the tide to endeavor selflessly because Chinese people and the People’s Republic of China, as he succinctly puts it “are keenly aware of what peace means”.

Remember the old adage: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

The tide against which those who love and work for peace must swim is made even steeper by well oiled machineries that peddle and make war and conflict trend but in the midst of all that, President Xi is intransigently determined and unequivocally resolved to march on. On the eve of the new 2024, President Xi Jinping elucidated further on his policy that “building a community with a shared future for humanity is to push for jointly responding to challenges and achieving common prosperity among different countries and build a peaceful, safe, prosperous and progressive world. The goal is to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity”.

The policy has very cogently grafted objects and parameters that seek to outline which observances to mind if “an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity” is to be achieved.

Such policy further proposes “to respond to a series of major issues and challenges facing the world, we call for an orderly and equitable multipolar world and inclusive economic globalization that delivers benefits for all. An orderly and equitable multipolar world is one in which all countries, regardless of size, are treated as equals, hegemony and power politics are rejected, and democracy is truly promoted in international relations. To ensure that the process of promoting multi-polarity is overall stable and constructive, it is essential for all countries to jointly uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, uphold the commonly-recognized basic norms governing international relations, and practice true multilateralism.

“Inclusive economic globalization that delivers benefits for all is one that meets the common needs of all countries, especially those of developing ones, and address the development imbalances between and within countries resulting from the global allocation of resources.

“We must resolutely oppose any attempt to roll back globalization and abuse of the concept of security, oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism, firmly promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, overcome the structural problems that hinder the healthy development of the world economy, and make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all.”

A wise and conscious African freedom fighter once said “the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”. Promotion of peace as a basic and necessary living condition of all human beings remains the single most onerous and studious task on the shoulders and backs of leaders, administrations, organizations and peace loving people because the beneficiaries of war and conflict have invested and concretely entrenched themselves by owning and controlling all information highways.

Through these discourse shapers and agenda setters and civil society organizations (I dare say), the mind of the oppressed remains chained so that the oppressor stays at the top of the food chain.

Confucius once warned the ruling class “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.”, though the peace mission seems insurmountable, what is heartwarming is that the Chinese President champions it and leads from the front.

I am upbeat and inspired that in 2024, Lesotho will borrow a leaf out of People’s Republic of China’s book by finding foundational ideas on which to build a high mast pointing to our polestar and perhaps only then would we have ascertained where the arbiter of the morality, our truth and national values is.