War devastates peace and it is mostly due to the state leaders. They must be culpable for war since they control their subordinates to go to war. Therefore, people should elect a peace-loving leader who can criminalize war. War does not bring good to anyone. Indeed, the people will be miserable because of the war.
In NGO Summit on the Prevention of Drug and Substance Abuse on 4 June 2013 at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY), Mahathir conveyed that many people will talk about who will be a hero and other aspects such as dignity or pride. “They never tell us dread of war, the number of the dead and victims, and the number of armies getting mental disorder or losing their leg or hand. It is pathetic,” he asserted.
He told that to change people’s perception on war is not easy and needs time. “However, people of Europe, the United States, and Canada have considered war a crime. Therefore, Indonesia and Muhammadiyah should contribute to alter people’s mindset and stop war. We had better do other things instead of going to war or murdering one another,” he emphasized.
Mahathir’s appeal has underlain Muhammadiyah and UMY to cease war and to create world peace by conducting Mahathir Global Peace School (MGPS) each year with Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF), Malaysia. The second MGPS was organized on Monday, 17 February 2014 – Sunday, 2 March 2014 at Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations of Malaysia (IDFR). The focus of the second MGPS was the same as the first MGPS which was organized on 3 – 15 June 2015 at UMY, but the second MGPS emphasized ‘Interstate Diplomacy and Economic Justice for Global Peace and Conflict Resolution’ as the theme. One of the aims of the MGPS is to provide a comprehensive knowledge of global peace and conflict resolution to war, poverty, racism, security, religious intervention, social issues, and gender issues.
Indeed, the MGPS will become a gateway for academicians and leaders in the world to take roles in creating peace and proposing new conflict resolution through education and cross-cultural understanding. In line with the statement of Former Chairperson of Muhammadiyah Din Syamsuddin in the opening of the first MGPS, to coin peace is everyone’s responsibility and entails cooperation with a lot of parties such as the people, government, forces, community, religion, and academicians.
Meanwhile, acting as the keynote speakers of the second MGPS were Tun Dr. Mahathir Muhammad (Former Prime Minister of Malaysia and the President of PGPF), Dr. M. Jusuf Kalla (Vice President of Republic of Indonesia), Prof. Dr. M. Din Syamsuddin (Former Chairperson of Muhammadiyah), Prof. Dr. A. Syafi’I Ma’arif (Former Chairperson of Muhammadiyah), Prof. Johan Galtung (Transcend International), General Tan Sri Mohd Azumi Mohamed (Rtd) (Perdana Global Peace Foundation, Malaysia), Dr. Surwandono (International Relations lecturer of UMY), Rudi Sukandar, Ph.D. (The Habibie Center), Prof. Guardial Singh Nijar (University of Malaya), Prof. Dr. Tulus Warsito, M.Si (Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta), Irfan AmaLee, M.A. (Co-Founder and Director of Peace Generation Indonesia), Prof. Chandra Muzaffar (President, International Movement for a Just World Universiti Sains Malaysia), Hilman Latief, Ph.D. (Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta), Prof. Amin Abdullah (Muhammadiyah UIN Yogyakarta), Jeremy England (ICRC Kuala Lumpur), Lina A. Alexandra, and Brigadier General (TNI/the Indonesian Military) Drs. Jan Pieter Ate, M.Bus, M.A. (Director of International Cooperation of Ministry of Defense of Republic of Indonesia).
