These principles and norms, though not written or announced, have kept most of clan conflicts out of the public forum and have served to bind families together during troubled times. These traditional principles and norms have provided for opportunities for resolutions.
With the introduction of modern resolution systems of doing things, chaos – these days, havoc – seem to be the current norm.Suits abound and the new system has prospered. Proponents of the new system dwell happily in the struggles that families go through in pursuit of what is thought to be the right path and the clans are being dismantled and long established family links are severed on a regular basis – particularly after the death of traditional chief title bearers.Last week, an article was published in this paper about a clan attempting to settle its disputes and have fallen short due to lack of or unwillingness of the families in the clan to follow established internal clan protocols.Interviews with members of the said clan have revealed that: our present court system is likely to decide and order families in the clan to maintain their distances from each other; that the conflicts are no longer of matters of traditional familial history, but that of who can present the most plausible of all documented evidences; and that after the verdict, family histories would diverge onto differing paths that would never cross again.I feel for the families affected by the conflicts that rise as a result of people who make every effort to twist traditional histories to achieve self-serving goals. These are the people who will intentionally break away from established traditional practices and processes in favor of the modern court system. These are the people who will do and say anything to get that which do not belong to them. These are the people who are at odds with a majority of clan family members, but are in synchrony with the present court system.Herzog, once the president of Germany, said it perfectly when he stated, “Without mutual knowledge there can be no mutual understanding; without understanding, there can be no trust and respect; without trust, there can be no peace, only the danger of conflict.”The members of Otong Clan of Ulimang, Ngaraard – just like many other clans in Palau – are in a serious conflict. They, I hope will make every effort to resolve their disagreements in a traditional fashion.Otherwise, I wish for everyone to be happy for one another and be willing to resolve traditional and familial disagreements outside of the courtroom. Moreover, I pray that each clan today begin to draft its history and preserve it for future members to refer to in order that future conflicts as experienced by the Otong Clan are prevented; and that every member of the clans would have “mutual knowledge and understanding” of their respective clans; and that Palauan traditions would then be able to survive for the next few hundred generations.
