Chairpersons remarks made at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit on the 8th of February 2001 by Mitsuhei Murata
We presently face certain deep changes in our societies brought about by the so-called ﾒInformation Technology Revolutionﾓ. One of the significant consequences would be the increased role of individuals on policy decisions. This will bring about a heightening of the significance of civil society in governance. This is why we now hear about the birth of global civil society and the advent of a new balance of power. However, a fundamental question remains: what should be the vision and the consciousness of a civil society? Without these, civil society could lack governance, becoming unfocused and unruly. We should bear in mind some visible aspects of civil decline such as high crime rates, the break-up of marriages and families. A considerable amount of effort is therefore needed to enlighten civil society.
In this respect, I would like to point out two aspects. The first one is the search for common values and the second one is the enlightening and the education of the citizenry. The search for common values is of utmost importance in view of the present disturbing situation around the world. The world is sick. From my own perspective, this sickness is the outcome of a lack of three senses. That is, the sense of responsibility, the sense of justice as well as the sense of ethics. The symptoms of this sickness are numerous, but I would like to point out three of them which I feel must be remedied as soon as possible.
The first concerns the sense of justice, which is quite evident especially in the field of economy. GDP-based economics that prevails today totally ignores unquantifiable values such as family and community life, culture and tradition, environment as well as human dignity. The increasing disparity between the rich and the poor at the national and international levels, the destruction of the environment, are among the more conspicuous consequences of this. I would like to make a plea, similarly expressed in last yearﾕs meeting by Mr. Guy Sorman, to replace GDP economics by the so-called ﾒGandhi economicsﾓ, which takes into account the above-mentioned essential values that are not quantifiable.
The second concerns the sense of responsibility, which is evident particularly in the field of energy. The abuse of natural resources and the dumping of quasi-permanently dangerous waste materials demonstrate a total disregard for the welfare of future generations and therefore should no longer be tolerated. The use of nuclear energy by the military as well as civilians has proven to be so dangerous and that the only remedy, I believe, is the denuclearization of the globe.
The third concerns the sense of ethics. There have been laudable efforts made so far in the international community. I would like to mention particularly the contribution made by the Inter Action Council which consists of former presidents and prime ministers under the chairmanship of the former German Chancellor Helmud Schmidt. Its fruit, the Universal Declaration of human responsibilities, which was prepared by Professor Hans Kiling, deserves greater attention. It is in line with our increasing awareness that rights need to be joined or coupled with responsibilities. I would therefore urge a follow-up on this initiative by animating a worldwide debate on this issue. The importance of ethics cannot be stressed too much, for sustainability is an ethical requirement. Therefore a strong motivation is necessary in order to attain sustainable development and ethical convictions can create such a motivation.
With regard to the role of communications in promoting sustainable development, I would like to touch upon the enlightening and the education of the citizenry. The advent of the new age requires a new education. Citizens are actually obliged to live in the network of serious dangers and humanity even faces the crisis of its extinction. The responsibility of industrialized nations is to disseminate globallyﾊthis kind of education that challenges the crisis of humanity, putting to use their financial assets. A new education should provide the necessary knowledge and capacity of judgement to overcome this crisis.
There are so many important facts that experts know but do not voice out. Experts know that nuclear technology is indivisible and cannot be separated between the military and the civilian sector. Its civil use opens the way to its military use and that is what is happening. Nevertheless, what is loudly called for is only nuclear disarmament and not the abolition of civil nuclear installations. This situation must be remedied. In my University, I do not hesitate to lecture on how dangerous, how expensive and how irresponsible nuclear energy is. The Chernobyl disaster should have taught us a lesson on this, and for the sake of humankind, a decision to denuclearize the world should have been made. I therefore urge the civil society to start a serious campaign in line with this.
We should recall that there are more than 420 nuclear reactors around the world today. How long can we expect to prevent fatal accidents from happening? We are faced with two choices, the first is to start the denuclearization of the globe and the second is to be eventually forced into the first by a catastrophic disaster as predicted by the famous science fiction writer Dr. Arthur C. Clark. Dr. Clark predicted during his interview with the Asahi Newspaper on January 4. 2001, that there will be an accidental nuclear explosion somewhere in Asia in 2009 and the UN will pass a resolution calling for total nuclear disarmament.
I do hope that the debates on this panel will contribute to provide civil society with a strong motivation to promote sustainable development to remedy the suffering daunting world situation.
