UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION. Address by Mr Federico Mayor

Transcription

1 DG/92/42 Corr. English only UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION Address by Mr Federico Mayor Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the presentation of the 1992 Simón Bolívar Prize UNESCO, 21 October 1992

2 DG/92/42 Corr. (The Director-General began his address in Spanish) They have prevented your coming to enlighten us, to console us in our waiting, to lend our wings new strength and span. You are a palpable presence even in your absence, for it is futile to tether and confine the soaring flight of your example. We feel ourselves henceforth invincible in this first dawning of a world, whose sorrows are augmented by your tears yet in which many wounds have been assuaged. I dedicate this poem to Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been exemplary in the struggle for dignity, in her efforts to secure freedom for her compatriots, and in her tireless and indomitable resistance in the cause of democracy I cannot conceive of a more worthy recipient of the Simon Bolívar Prize. I wish her to know of our admiration, of our protest against her imprisonment, of our intention to strive unceasingly until it is finally recognized that there is no alternative to freedom and understanding. She has given us a message of great value for achieving that awakening which is so essential today, for overcoming our coyness, which is such an urgent need. Free yourselves from fear! It is not power that corrupts but fear: fear of losing power in the case of those who exercise it, and fear of torture on the part of those whom power oppresses: Let us - without fear, with persistence, with stubbornness even - proclaim to the four winds that the walls of greed, mistrust and dogmatism must also fall so that a culture of peace may be established, in perpetual tension, at the dividing line between light and shade, at the border between certainty and doubt.

3 DG/92/42 Corr. - page 2 (The Director-General continued in English) Excellencies, May I first say what a pleasure it is to have among us today at this presentation: Mr Perez de Cuéllar, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Emmanuel Pouchepadass, President of the Jury, Mr Bethwell Ogot, President of the General Conference, Mrs Marie Bernard-Meunier, Ambassador of Canada and Chairperson of the Executive Board, and Mrs Ruth Lerner de Almea, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Venezuela. I should like to thank the President of the Jury for telling us something of the background to the Simon Bolívar Prize and for highlighting its original character. The Simón Bolívar Prize, created by UNESCO 15 years ago on the initiative of the Government of Venezuela, commemorates one of the outstanding figures in humanity's long and continuing quest for freedom, justice and dignity for all. Simon Bolívar was not simply the leader of the struggle for independence from colonial rule in Latin America but a man who espoused freedom in its deepest sense, who saw that the struggle for freedom was necessarily a universal one, who understood that education was inseparable from the promotion of freedom, who proclaimed that true freedom could only find expression through the defining genius of a people or culture, and who brought to the cause of freedom distinctive capacities of thought, discourse and action. The Prize that bears his name is designed to honour those who have taken up this same cause in our own time and who, in the words of the Executive Board decision that founded the award, have 'contributed to the freedom, independence and dignity of peoples and to the strengthening of solidarity among nations'. Diverse in the cultures and generations to which they belong, the laureates of the 1992 Simón Bolívar Prize are united in their commitment to promoting the freedom of their peoples and combating the injustice that would deny citizens their independence and human rights. Both embody an ethical commitment to democracy as the foundation of freedom, human development and peace. By shouldering with vision and fortitude historic responsibilities in their respective countries, both have become symbols of the larger quest for freedom pursued in many different contexts throughout the world. One of the joint laureates, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, is with us this evening. Sadly - as I have emphasized in my opening remarks in Spanish - the other, Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi, is not. Her absence brings to mind another distinguished recipient of the Simón Bolívar award, Mr Nelson Mandela, who was unable to receive his prize in person in 1983 for similar reasons. Let us hope and pray that subsequent events in the life of Nelson Mandela will soon be repeated in the case of Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since July 1989 and was not given permission to leave the country on this occasion. As it is, Mrs Aung San - who is fully aware that

4 DG/92/42 Corr. - page 3 we are honouring her tonight - has asked Mrs Ma Than E, a fellow countrywoman and close friend of the family, to represent her. I should mention that Mrs Ma Than E held a position of great responsibility at the United Nations Secretariat in New York until her retirement, and that Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi was also a colleague in the United Nations for three years. Both are thus honoured members of the United Nations family. I welcome you to UNESCO House Mrs Ma Than E; I likewise extend a warm welcome to Mr Michael Avis, the husband of Aung San Suu Kyi, Professor at St Anthony's College, Oxford, and Associate Professor in the Department of Tibetan Studies at Harvard University; and I welcome finally Kim, the son of Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also with us this evening. I should now like to evoke briefly Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi's struggle for freedom in her country and its significance for the wider quest for human freedom and dignity. Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi herself tells of this struggle in her book Freedom from Fear, which in its recently published French version carried prefaces by President Fran,cois Mitterrand and President Vaclav Havel (himself the recipient of the 1990 Simon Bolívar Prize). Freedom from Fear reveals an unwavering conscience and a mind filled with an abiding love for the Burmese people and culture. The author has never forgotten that she is the daughter of Aung San, the great national hero who in one year after the birth of his daughter - signed the treaty of independence with the British Government before being assassinated the same year by a political rival. Her father was to remain a source of inspiration for her and the mainspring of her growing political awareness. Her mother, for her part, nurtured in her daughter the idea that her country was like 'a pilgrimage in search of truth and perfection'. Although for many years Aung San Suu Kyi did not give active expression to her political convictions, the time came in 1988, on her return to Rangoon to be with her dying mother, when she could no longer refuse to become the single, fragile hope for many of her compatriots. From 1988 onwards, Aung San Suu Kyi threw herself into the 'second struggle for national independence', drawing on Gandhi's philosophy of passive resistance that had long inspired her. She became leader of a non-violent movement of democratic opposition, steadfast in her refusal of injustice while repeatedly stressing the need for dialogue and reconciliation in her country. Following the victory of the democratic opposition in the elections of May 1990 and the failure of the authorities to take account of the results of those elections, she refused to leave the country, preferring to remain alongside her people in testimony of her faith in the power of the human spirit to overcome any force that seeks to oppress it. A passage from Freedom from Fear sums up this faith and, reflecting as it does the ideals that also inform the mission of UNESCO, I should like to quote from it. Aung San Suu Kyi writes: 'The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit (...). A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill-will, ignorance and fear. (...) Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end (...). The wellspring of courage and endurance (...) is generally a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical principles combined with a historical sense that despite all setbacks

5 DG/92/42 Corr. - page 4 the condition of man is set on an ultimate course for both spiritual and material advancement.' Reading these words, one senses both the tremendous inner strength of their author and the spiritual source of this strength. Aung San Suu Kyi is truly the example of that freedom from fear of which she speaks. We support her in her just cause and devoutly hope that the freedom from fear she employs as a means will ultimately lead to the goal of freedom from fear for all the people of her country and to the full enjoyment of those human rights of which it is the pre-condition. * * * It is a great honour to welcome in our midst today the second of our joint laureates, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. He is one of those rare figures who capture and condense in their personalities the essence of their times. Bestriding pre-independent and post-independent Africa, he has left his intellectual and moral stamp on every one of the great issues which have faced Tanzania and Africa over the last 40 years. Julius Nyerere is a man of many dimensions - political philosopher, statesman, poet, humanist, but perhaps the role closest to his heart is that of teacher. Mwalimu Nyerere, education has always had a central place in your liberation philosophy. In the Tanzanian context, liberation was to be understood not merely as overcoming colonial occupation but also as freeing the nation from economic and cultural dependence on other nations, as building an authentic national identity. This led to the adoption by Tanzania in 1967 of a policy called 'Education for self-reliance'. More than a mere change in educational policy, this was in fact an educational revolution - a recasting of the education system in keeping with Tanzania's real needs and social objectives. Democracy has always been seen by you as essential to a people's freedom. On the other hand, you have always been convinced that democracy could not be restricted to a single model. The culture, geography, history and level of development of a nation had to be taken into account in determining the appropriate institutions and mechanisms of democracy. In this connection, you have consistently placed great emphasis on the importance of educating people in the proper exercise of their democratic rights and on providing them with the basic knowledge to make democratic choices. It was this continuing process of educating the people of your country to assume their obligations as citizens that justly earned for you the title of Mwalimu. The dialogue you thus stimulated at every level of society was an effective demonstration of democracy at work. Through it you affirmed your belief in the importance of asking questions, while freely admitting that you did not always know the answers. Now, as Tanzania prepares to move to a multiparty system of democracy, you have once again shown your fundamental commitment to human freedom through your strong support for the transition to this new stage in the fostering of a national dialogue. It is a characteristic of great leaders that they are consistently ahead of their time: they incarnate not only the hopes and aspirations of a people but also a wisdom that allows them to

6 DG/92/42 Corr. - page 5 discern the direction in which the future of their country lies. You, Mwalimu, are without doubt such a statesman. Allow me in this connection to quote from an article entitled 'Freedom and Development' which you published back in October In that article you wrote: 'Every proposal must be judged by the criterion of whether it serves the purpose of development - and the purpose of development is the people. (...) There is only one way in which you can cause people to undertake their own development. That is by education and leadership. Through these means - and no other - people can be helped to understand both their own needs and the things which they can do to satisfy these needs'. Dr Nyerere, it has taken the international development agencies several decades to come to the conclusions you had already arrived at in the 1960s. For the idea here expressed is essentially that of human development, which has subsequently gained such wide currency. Indeed, a very large number of your ideas, deemed impractical by many at the time you expressed them, have since become part of the conventional wisdom. I am thinking, for example, of endogenous development, the cultural dimension of development, and the widespread agreement today that the existence of democratic political institutions is a sine qua non for sustainable development. Although you have always advocated that the form of social and political development in Africa should be based on African traditions, you have never favoured a backward-looking approach. I am tempted to say that the past for you has always served the same function as a car rear-view mirror - as a means to steering a safe forward course. Indeed, all your activities, speeches and writings contain one recurring theme - that of change. To quote your own words: '... The choice is not between change or no change, the choice for Africa is between changing or being changed - changing our lives under our own direction or being changed by the impact of forces outside our control. In Africa there is no stability in stagnation in this twentieth century; stability can only be achieved through maintaining balance during rapid change'. Some 20 years after you spoke these words, your description of the challenge facing Africa and many other regions of the developing world at the present time retains all its relevance. Dr Nyerere, your life as a statesman is an inspiring example and model of the exercise of power. From 1962 to 1985 you exercised supreme political authority in your country, which you dedicated to the enlargement of freedoms through national development. At the end of this period, you became one of the rare leaders in modern times to relinquish power voluntarily while it was still in your possession. You did so, I would suggest, because your commitment to freedom and democracy is essentially an ethical and universal one. Your courageous support for the struggle against apartheid has been based on the belief that the struggle against this supreme manifestation of injustice must be that of all the people of Africa, and this belief is itself a reflection of a wider conviction that 'the exploitation, the humiliation, the suffering of all men wherever it takes place - means the exploitation, humiliation and suffering of mankind'. Your life, Mwalimu Nyerere, has been exemplary in its unity, and the quest for freedom, the apprenticeship of freedom, have been at its very heart. Excellencies, The 1992 Simón Bolívar Prize is awarded to Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi in recognition of their tireless promotion of freedom and justice in accordance with the principles of the United Nations. I salute their vision and courage and that of unknown men and women everywhere who strive to protect and enlarge democratic freedoms.

7 DG/92/42 Corr. - page 6 It is now my great pleasure to present to Mrs Ma Than E, on behalf of Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi, and to Mwalimu Julius Nyerere the cheque, certificate and medal that go with the 1992 Simón Bolívar Prize.