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Round Table: Dialogue among Civilizations United Nations, New York, 5 September 2000 Provisional verbatim transcription

Address by Byong-Ik Koh (Republic of Korea)

Mr. Koh: I will try to be as simple and as brief as possible. First, the dialogue among civilizations is now getting on, unprecedently, widely and deeply among people in all nations. Because of the development of transportation and communication there are very wide and deep dialogues going on at every level X at the individual level, at society level and at government level. But these are mainly sporadic, unintended and unplanned at the individual level. Perhaps this unintendedness, this unplannedness may help to achieve genuine understanding or genuine reconciliation. However, in order to get our intended results of this reconciliation among civilizations at this kind of personal level, dialogue will require centuries or even millenniums. So the proposal for dialogue among civilizations by the Iranian President at this time, and its acceptance by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations is very timely and good. Nowadays it is necessary to have not only sporadic unplanned dialogue but centrally planned, supported and controlled dialogues. This may sound somewhat dangerous. It may fall into the danger of making propaganda for specific civilizations or taking sides for specific civilizations, but if we try to be transparent and fair then the planned and organized dialogue from the centre, from the upper level, is very attractive. It is good that UNESCO will have this organized kind of dialogue project.

The second point is a very critical one. Our troubles, or disharmony, in this world comes mainly from the hate and contempt of one ethnic group or civilization towards the other. It is most important to focus our dialogue on efforts to dispel, eliminate or lessen hate and contempt. This feeling of hate, of harsh antagonism or contempt towards others are not an intrinsic a priori feeling, not a born feeling, it is a taught, manipulated and learned or acquired sentiment. We must try to eliminate or dispel this later layer from human beings. President Khatami mentioned, that the dialogue must have a specific purpose. He enumerated compassion and empathy and that is all right. If, however, we have a mistaken purpose then we may run an even greater risk or danger. So, we must have a very specific purpose to eliminate and dispel these mutual feelings of hate and contempt. Those later feelings are man-made, accumulated sentiments and we must remove them. That can be done only by organized efforts.

My comments cover just two points: to illuminate those two points may I take the example of Korea, not for any propaganda for my country but because I know the situation in Korea better than in any other nation or civilization. Korea has a long Buddhist tradition. If you go there sightseeing then any cultural heritage is Buddhist-related X statues, temples, paintings, everything. Buddhism is still very much alive. But before that layer, or simultaneously, Confucianism also came from China and until recent years, Korea was a more Confucianized country than the original country, China itself. It was a most ardent adherent country to Confucianism. These two beliefs were very strong in Korea. At the end of the Second World War Korea began to be Christianized. Today, Korea is perhaps the most Christianized country in Asia, perhaps even more than the Philippines. It surpasses even some Western European Christian countries perhaps. These three beliefs, the teachings of the three sages, Confucius, the Buddha and Christ, are all thriving very peacefully. There is no persecution. I do not say there is no hate. Some desperately hate these sorts of feeling but in general they are very peaceful. From where comes this whole existence of three sometimes contradictory, sometimes clashing, beliefs. There are many reasons but one is that in Confucianism there is an inherent tendency to tolerance. This time I will quote the efforts of Korean religious leaders towards conciliatory, harmonious cooperation. There have been many spontaneous efforts by leaders, mainly at the upper level, at reconciliatory measures. This recent rapidly changing Western Christianized and industrialized state with all three striving in a very harmonious state is unique. As I mentioned in the first point organized efforts from the top have helped to bring this about.

The second point is focusing on the elimination of hate. That occurred very recently, within two months. Everyone knows the antagonism between North and South Korea is unparalleled in the whole world. Children from kindergarten to school children, the media and society, have all had instilled in them this hate, dislike and antagonism towards the other. The other side, North Korea, has even more antagonism towards us than the South. This unparalleled antagonism is now beginning to tremble. I am not quite sure but I get the feeling that it has now begun. That is because of efforts from the top to effect a reconciliation between the two leaders. Of course the people's desire as far as I can see was not affected by that, but efforts to dispel the hate and contempt have been organized from the top. I just wanted to mention those rather practical two points for this dialogue among civilizations.

Mr. Picco: I should like to ask our three last speakers to speak and then we will go round in a much faster fashion. We have reached the stage of having heard a lot from different speakers about the efforts both of individuals and institutions. I should like to bring the conversation to the following concept: is dialogue something like many other manifestations of human endeavour which is the result of individual decision, or is this a collective institutional operation?

[Next speaker Jane Cortez-Edwards]

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