Politics and Governance

2012 Awards Dinner

Overview

From the welcome remarks by Ross Perot, Jr.:

It is a pleasure to welcome you to this evening’s awards program. As chairman of the EastWest Institute, I have long been impressed by the outstanding work our organization is doing to make this world a safer and better place. EWI’s Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention has brought us the

distinction of working side by side with two of tonight’s honorees, the Hon. Dr. Fehmida Mirza of Pakistan and the Hon. Ms. Shinkai Karokhail of Afghanistan. These impressive leaders have worked in exceptionally challenging environments, embodying the courage that will be needed to bring about substantial, lasting change for the better.

Our honorees will be jointly presented with the first-ever H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Award for Values-based Leadership, named for the wife of the late Sheikh Zayed of the United Arab Emirates. Known as "the mother of
the nation," she founded the first UAE women’s organization: the Abu Dhabi Society for the Awakening of Women in 1973. She also launched a nationwide campaign for the education of young girls.

I am also honored to welcome the Hon. Mr. Koichiro Gemba, who now serves as Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. A reform-minded leader, Gemba has worked to enhance his country’s energy policies, agriculture and fiscal structure. We will present EWI’s International Peace Building Award to Gemba, which he will accept on behalf of the people of Japan for their commitment to the nation and people of Afghanistan.

I would also like to extend my warmest welcome to our many distinguished guests in attendance tonight, especially those representing Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UAE. We are especially honored to hear from H. E. Dr. Zalmai Rassoul, Foreign Minister of Afghanistan.

Thank you for joining us and I hope that you will continue to support the EastWest Institute’s efforts to enhance peace and security throughout the world. 

Truth and Love will Win over Lies and Hatred

"Please don't talk about the good Soldier Schweik," implored Vladislav Hancil, the former head of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. "I don't like this book, it's too painful for me...because it's so true. We Czechs, we're not fighters, but how could we be...between Germany and Russia? In spite of this, we do find ways to come out of dreadful situations all right."

It didn't look like events were going to be "all right" when, on the night of November 17, 1989, the Czechoslovak police assaulted a peaceful student demonstration. What began as a defiant stand by the communist government, however, quickly became a last stand as Czechoslovaks turned out en masse to protest the faltering regime. Chanting the slogan "Truth and love will win over lies and hatred," the people, led by Vaclav Havel and Civic Forum, brought down the government.

In June of 1990, Stephen Heintz was in Czechoslovakia as an election observer and witnessed the initial jubilation as men and women carrying bouquets of flowers, tears streaming down their cheeks, voted with a clear conscience for the first time in their lives. Within a year, Stephen was working for the Institute and heading the newly opened Prague Centre, a major training facility located in a villa outside the Czech capital. In those days, the Prague Centre was situated downtown, on the riverbank in the beautiful historic home of the Havel family, and Prague became the European headquarters and heartbeat of EWI on the continent. Thousands of community and national leaders were trained and scores of projects conducted from Prague throughout the region. The library where President Havel once wrote became EWI's conference facility, keeping up the spirit of open thought and dialogue.

Ten years after the November Changes of 1989, the Prague Centre organized one of the most fascinating conferences since the end of the Cold War. In what Oxford historian Timothy Garton Ash noted was one of the exceptionally rare cases wherein "it really was true...that today's speakers need no introduction," Czech President Vaclav Havel and EWI hospitably received former Presidents George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Helmut Kohl, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the wife of the late President of France, Danielle Mitterrand. If the "10 Years After" Conference commemorated a remembrance of things past, other conferences would work toward the future. One such conference was certainly the Bardejov Conference of 1991 in Slovakia.

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