Message from Yohei Sasakawa, Co-founder of Forum 2000 and Friend of Václav Havel

I would like to express my sincerest sorrow over the passing of Václav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic, and heroic leader of the Velvet Revolution, and one of the architects of Czechoslovakia’s transition to democracy.

 

Former President Havel was a dissident playwright who led his countrymen in overcoming their country’s totalitarian regime, in spite of repeated imprisonment; an intellectual who brought unswerving conscientiousness and idealism into both his words and actions; and an indomitable leader who changed society.

 

He was also one of a very small group of people that I count as friends.

 

In 1995, while in Hiroshima for a conference on the question of whether or not peace has a future in our world, he visited the Peace Museum there and was shocked by what he saw. The experience drove him to ask, “What kind of future should we be aiming for?”

 

After discussing the issue with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, he devised the idea of an intellectual forum to debate it, and then brought it to me. I saw it as an excellent idea, and immediately agreed, but attached two conditions. First, I said that it should be held in Prague, as the center of Europe. Further, I stipulated that the forum not be a one-time thing, but be held annually over the course of 10 years. Thus was born Forum 2000, an initiative in which former President Havel would play the central role for the next 15 years.

 

Former President Havel and I were born and raised in completely different parts of the world. We lead utterly different lives. However, I believe that we possessed the same concerns. The same fundamental values. The same beliefs. As we discussed the creation of Forum 2000 I knew that it would not only be a truly important initiative, but that our discussion was also the start of a lifelong friendship.

 

From the October 1997, opening ceremony at the Palace (the official residence of the President of the Czech Republic), through October of this year, Forum 2000 has been held a total of 15 times. In recent years, former President Havel’s health had gradually worsened, but this year as always, he addressed the gathering, setting the tone for our debate with incisive opening and closing remarks.

 

To date, the forum has hosted such distinguished guests as former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, former US Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, former German President Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker, President Shimon Peres of Israel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, former President of South Africa Frederik Willem de Klerk, and many other politicians, philosophers, scientists, architects, spiritual leaders, writers and artists. Most attendees came from all around Europe and helped to raise the intellectual level of the international conference, making it one of Prague’s most important autumn events.

 

It was former President Havel’s wish that world leaders and thinkers gather together to take up the challenges faced by our societies, and strive through debate for a new ethical and spiritual value. I believe that the forum’s purpose was to nurture a sense of responsibility for the creation of a better world. To this end, he often discussed the establishment of a moral minimum, and I believe that he was concerned that if we did not all possess at least a minimum standard of ethics, that our world had no future.

 

Today, as never before, our world needs places for intellectual debate on such noble-minded ideas. And yet, it is just at this critical juncture that we have lost our most good-hearted leader. I cannot express the depth of my grief. Václav Havel, may your soul rest in peace.