A SIGNIFICANT reconciliation ceremony was held on Tuesday at the Guadalcanal Provincial Police headquarters at Henderson, east of Honiara.
The event was significant because it eased hostilities and tensions between youths of Guadalcanal and Temotu living in the Lungga-Henderson area.
This was after youths from Temotu brutally attacked a Guadalcanal youth and almost killed him.
There were also reported exchanges of swearing, with one youth went to the extent of swearing at the people of Guadalcanal.
Through the initiative of chiefs, the reconciliation was held in the presence of police, allowing the two parties to settle their differences.
This is quite a sad incident and one that should not happened at all if youths learn to respect each other.
Lack of respect or being disrespectful to others is one of the major causes of community disharmony.
Often, it is often drunken youths who the source of disharmony and disorderly in communities.
They tend to swear or utter disrespectful comments against other members of the community, attracting arguments and physical attacks.
Lack of respect was also a contributing factor to the ethnic tension that ripped through our country from 1998 to 2003.
That was how serious a situation can become when we failed to display respect for each other.
Respect is a two-way street.
If you want others to respect you, you must first show it to others.
You don’t expect other members of the community to respect you when you don’t respect them.
Members of the Guadalcanal community who spoke during Tuesday’s ceremony underscored the importance and value of respect.
As landowners and host to the nation’s capital, they expect their visitors and those living in Honiara to accord them the respect they deserve as the host province.
We respect them by respecting their land rights, by getting their permission before you can step on their land, and by simply being courteous and friendly to them.
Today’s younger generation are rapidly losing the mantle of respect those of the older generation use to show each other.
The trend must be reversed if we are to maintain co-existence and community harmony.
The nation cannot afford another ethnic tension.
It’s therefore crucial for young people to respect each other and live for one another.
At the end of the day, we are all Solomon Islanders.
We must respect each other!
