The idealism of Ibrahim Gambari

Today I had  a guest lecture for my foreign policy and diplomacy class. It was an honor and privilege to have been given the opportunity to listen to Mr. Ibrahim Gambari speak to a class of interested and hopeful political scientist. 


Mr. Ibrahim Gambari is the United Nations Special Representative for Darfur. It his address to us, he was speaking about the foundations of the United Nations and his work and passion in pushing for the adherence of human rights around the world.  Mr. Ibrahim was truly his own person. He spoke with such passion , grace and conviction for the rights of each and every human being that lives in this world.

Being political scientists and hailing from Singapore especially, my classmates were naturally very skeptical about the idea of advancing the adherence of human rights to the rest of the world. Singapore's foundation largely lies on pragmatism and feasibility. We can see this foundations as the cornerstones in which Singapore has engineered their policies which in my opinion is a noteworthy achievement considering the growth and development of Singapore thus far.

For anyone who have lived in Singapore long enough would be able to guess the kind of questions that my classmates would inevitably ask. This one question struck me the most and in turn lead me to write this up.

The question was : Is working on encouraging countries to adhere to the basic observation of human rights an idealistic one? Why does the UN work so hard to try and push for the observance of democratic principles and human rights when clearly most countries violate human rights all the time and usually are able get away with it.

Mr.Ibrahim responded by saying something that I will never forget for the rest of my life. His response reminded me on why I choose to major in political science and more specifically why I wanted to work for the United Nations.

" The whole foundation of the UN is an idealistic one. So what if countries still commit gross violation of human rights? Does it mean that we should stop trying and dismantle the UN? Should we just give up and watch as our fellow human beings are being tortured everyday without any reason?"

Idealism allows us to dream of a better future, there are two types of people in the world.Those who look at reality and say that it cannot be changed and the second group of people who looks at reality and tries to bend it to fit an idealistic dream. Mr. Ibrahim Gambari fits in the second category of people. Because he believes that the promotion of human rights is a endeavour  worth pursuing DESPITE claims of it being idealistic. His commitment to the promotion  of human rights is simply inspirational and he has been working on this endeavour for 21 years.

It is ideals that we should try to achieve. Of course we might fail and the road to realize that ideal is steep and difficult to attain. But it is in our interest to promote and propagate human rights adherence for this simple reason:

         "Every violation of human rights to a person, is a violation to ourselves."

Nothing can be more poignant,potent , piercing about this statement. Mr.Ibrahim ended his talk by sharing a poem with us by Martin Niemoller which will remain with me always.

" In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."