TRUTH is objective reality. It is existent actuality.
While due knowledge thereof affirms its nature, implications and consequences, ignorance thereof is the big loss to the ignorant.
Worse it becomes when someone deliberately snubs or brushes the truth aside. And much worse it becomes even when the same either peddles downright lies or prefers to subscribe thereto.
As lying is decorative to the liar, so is it that lie is furthermore a liability to one’s family and circle of friends, to the community whereto the liar belongs if not to society itself as a while – such when the liar is a high ranking public official.
One more thing, as lie is the origin of iniquity of one kind or another, truth is the necessary premise of justice.
Justice is not merely getting what is due and proper, not simply receiving what is right and fair – but also giving and handing over to others what is due and proper, right, and fair to them.
This means that justice is not just a right to have from but also an obligation to give to others. This is the basic rational behind the mandatory paring of “Right and Obligations” – with one necessarily including the other. Otherwise, there would be injustice.
Again, when one demands for these rights from others, he better be sure that he is also doing his obligations to them. This is why justice is the basis of human equity. And this is why justice is the premise of peace.
Peace is living accord among people as constituent members of a society. It is not merely the absence of discord, the reign of silence, the regime of hush and quiet – considering among the dead.
Peace is social harmony in terms of people living together, relating with one another and working together in harmony precisely because they do not only have their rights respected and satisfied by others but also because they fulfill their duties and obligations to one another. And this is why peace is the engine of development.
Development is a progressive reality in favor of man in his two-fold basic dimension as someone with a human spirit and a human body. As his human body has sufficient food to eat, decent clothes to wear, and a suitable house to live, and as his human spirit acquires the knowledge about the realities of the world plus the capacity to act thereon accordingly as not only as an individual person but also a social being – all these are the more signal features of progress and development.
And so too, all these bring about contentment – for those who love truth, treasure justice, value peace, and thus live in contentment.
What is really sad and lamentable is when liars govern the people and unjust public officials are the very ones who instigate social disorder and who therefore are the primary cause of under-development and discontentment in the country.
They constitute a veritable social plague./PN
