By Pastor Luis L. Aoas
Any intervenor has a range of objectives he might choose to pursue. One’s strategy for intervention is determined primarily by the objectives chosen for intervention. Once the potential intervenor has examined his skills and has established goals for intervention, an appropriate role and strategy is selected.
Selecting a strategy rarely follows this kind of formal or rational process, of course. Third-party individuals and organizations often are thrust into a conflict situation without systematic examination of their goal(s) for the outcome of the conflict, and without careful consideration of intervention strategies. This is true of community mediators as well as Peace Officers or Peacemaking forces.
There are at least a few factors which may determine good strategies in pursuing peace goal(s) or objectives in a tribal conflict intervention:
1. Having a good purpose which may benefit and be accepted by both warring tribes.
2. Knowing the problems: It is a common mistake by a negotiator, counselor, and tribal leader to assume that he knows the problems of the people by merely hearing information form different people; or relying on his past experiences. Ignorance of the subjects/problems is evil and paralytic. There is no substitute for understanding the real issue before trying to intervene in tribal problems.
3. Giving recognition and high respect to the tribal leaders in the community: It is extremely important to give due respect to old men an the barrio officials because they are the key people who can convince the few who are against the decision of the majority.
4. To identify good regional leaders from neutral tribes: Regional leaders from other tribes are indispensable in solving tribal problems. They are the best advisers of their fellow tribal leaders should they be reluctant to give their own decision in public.
5. Decision-making: It is a fact among the Kalingas that decision from outside being employed for the people may be temporarily successful or appear to be so but it is doomed to failure. The best decision is according to their own culture and customs which involves all the people in the community to express their own opinions. It is a consensus type of decision which everybody can honor, uphold, and respect without written documents to refer to after the agreement is made by all the people in the community.
In so doing, intervenors should avoid would-be-peacemakers whose interests revolve around money and other personal interests. They will spoil the consensus-type decision from both warring tribes.
Skills of the Tribal Conflict Intervenor
There are certain skills that any conflict intervenor needs to master to be effective — regardless of his values, roles, strategic approach, or level of the conflict in the social system. Most intervenors will be utilizing these skills sometime during their work in a specific conflict situation. The skills themselselves, however, are not tied to any particular role type or strategy.
1. Self-Analysis. Of the most critical skills for any successful intervenor is the ability to assess one’s own position, skills, potentials, and limitations vis-a-vis any dispute. Unless the potential intervenor can clearly see himself as a facilitator with certain characteristics of understanding attitudes, it is impossible to keep the intervention in appropriate perspective.
Good intervenors possess certain personality traits: (a) flexibility, or the ability to keep options open yet uncompromising to one’s goal(s) and yet not rigidly committed to any one process or solution); (b) delay or denial gratification — a successful intervenor must be willing to let the parties take credit for any solutions achieved and to inhibit any tendency to “give the right answer” just because he perceives it at any given moment in the conflict scenario; and (c) ability to avoid counter-dependence — once helping relationships have been established, “professionals” often have a difficult time withdrawing, so knowing when not to intervene and when to get out are crucial abilities.**
(To be continued)
