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- Read Tony Blair’s comments after receiving the “Statesman of the Decade Award” in 2005. Reading this, and reminding myself of the Blair we used to know and love – (well … some of us did) – I can forgive him almost anything. Almost
Comment at end
19th March, 2009
TONY BLAIR – ‘STATESMAN OF THE DECADE’ AWARD
“Statesman of The Decade”? And this was in December 2005 while he was still Prime Minister, and just six months into his third term.
I just came across this and thought I should post it here. Either this had slipped my memory or it didn’t register at the time. Perhaps I didn’t really notice, especially if aided in this lack of observational skills by the British press. By then the press were putting the foot down and in top gear were accelerating desperately in their knock down Blair vehicle – the Opinions … Papers. The “war criminal” had just won AGAIN! OMG!
The press probably didn’t bother to report it.
Still, it’s worth noting that Mr Blair’s reputation for statesmanship didn’t just drop from heaven as a new possible job opportunity in June 2007 when he left us to the devices of the Great Gordo.
The East West Institute works with others in several areas including working to “ensure global security from terrorism”.
The following citation was read by John Edwin Mroz, President and CEO of the EastWest Institute, to Prime Minister Tony Blair and assembled guests upon his acceptance of the Institute’s Statesman of the Decade award.
| The Board of Directors of the EastWest Institute proudly presents you with its Statesman of the Decade award in recognition of your values-based leadership in international affairs.
In a world in which it is often easier politically in the short-term to turn away from problems outside our borders, you have continually shown leadership, long-term vision and a refusal to accept the unfairness of the international status quo. You have worked tirelessly to rally the world community against injustice. You have unfailingly put concern for those most in need, whether they suffer from oppression or poverty, at the heart of your decisions. For your deep belief that Europe and America share the same open and democratic values and that the world is better when the two work together, we honour you. We recognise, too, how you have fought to ensure the countries of Eastern Europe were welcomed into an outwards-looking European Union- and to build a stronger, more effective United Nations. |
We salute you in particular for:
In all of these areas, you have shown strong leadership based on principle. The EastWest Institute is an independent values-based body seeking to promote world security and bridge divides. In this increasingly uncertain world, people across the globe are seeking leadership. Through your statesmanship, your insistence on the importance of values and in your broad vision of the world, you have set an example and challenged us all to question what more we can do to secure a better future for the world and our fellow man. For this we thank you and proudly bestow on you the Statesman of the Decade Award. |
Thanks to the Above Top Secret site for this. I think! And for their comment …or is that warning?
“The world should keep a very close eye on Tony Blair”
Of course. Who else is there to watch in politics these days?
Mr Blair’s comments at the Award Ceremony
From: Number 10 website
Thursday 8 December 2005
PM’s acceptance comments for Statesmen of the Decade award
8 December 2005
Tony Blair received an award from the East-West Institute, calling it a ‘very great honour’.
This transcript has been edited.
Read his comments
Mr President, Prime Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is a very great honour and privilege to receive this award, and I can truthfully say it is a long time since so many people have said so many nice things about me all at once, or indeed at all, to be absolutely frank. And can I thank the East-West Institute and congratulate it on its 25 years, and thank it also for the work that it does in so many different places in the world. And I am delighted to see so many people who have come from different parts of the world to be with us here this evening in this magnificent Guildhall, which I know very well, coming here every year to give the speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet.
And of course it is a room with many famous things in it, not least the statue of Wellington there, who was one very great leader and who of course was a General before he became the Prime Minister and found the transition somewhat difficult. And there was an entry in Wellington’s diary, just after he became Prime Minister when he had his first Cabinet meeting, and of course as a General he simply gave orders and people carried them out, and the entry in his diary, as I recall it, read: Had my first Cabinet meeting today. Curious affair. Gave them all their orders and damn me if they didn’t sit around discussing them. Not of course an example of leadership I would follow, or be able to.
If I can say a few remarks. I have been asked to make a few remarks on the subject of leadership. I have actually got five short thoughts on leadership to offer you, although when we are talking about statesmen, we should never forget what Lloyd George said, which was, looking back on his political career, he said: “A politician was someone in politics with whom you did not agree. Someone you did agree with was a statesman.”
And I think it is very easy sometimes to regard leadership as something where essentially if you are in agreement with the person offering leadership then you think the leadership is fantastic, but otherwise you can be somewhat sceptical of it.
But insofar as I have learnt things from my time as a leader, I think these are my five points really that I would make to you.
The first is that we should always try to recognise what has changed in the world in which we are called to exercise leadership. I think one of the big changes that has happened in the world in the past 20 – 30 years has been that many of the old divisions between Left and Right have been obliterated, and here as the 20th century was the century dominated by intense political division and ideology, the 21st century calls for something rather different. And I think the reason for that, and the reason why I have found in my time as Prime Minister of Britain that I have had friendships on both the progressive and the conservative side of politics, is that the essential characteristic of today’s world, what has changed more than anything else, is its inter-dependence. And that is why it is so important that some of the subjects that have been talked about tonight are high up the political agenda.
I believe passionately in Africa as a moral cause, but I also have to say to you that if I think of Africa, and I think of hundreds of millions of young people growing up in poverty, uncertain of their future, then I think it is not merely a moral cause, but how foolish it would be if we in the wealthy part of the world allowed the obscenity of such poverty to continue. That is why Africa is important, it is important in its own right, but it is important because in the world we are developing today, if we allow that continent to fall behind then it will go worse with us too in the wealthy world also. It is why I believe as well that the subject of climate change cannot be tackled by any country alone, but must be tackled by all of us working in concert together. And it is why I believe so passionately that Europe and America, whatever our differences from time to time, what unites us in terms of our values, in terms of our purpose and history and tradition is so much more important than anything that could ever divide us.
And when I was listening to Valerie speak earlier, and how honoured I am to share an award ceremony with him, when I was listening to him earlier I thought of how important it was also that the emerging countries now – Russia, and India and China – are part of the dialogue that we, Europe and America, can have. Because whether it is world trade or it is terrorism, nothing can be solved unless we work in concert together.
So what has changed about our world is the central importance of its inter-dependence. But what has not changed, and it should never change, is that any leadership – and this is my second point – should be based on values. And these values – democracy, freedom, the rule of law – again I believe passionately are not western values, they are not American values, or British values, they are the universal values of the human spirit. And any time, anywhere, people are given the opportunity to embrace those values, they take that opportunity.
Neither do I believe that those values are the property of any one religious faith. I don’t believe that people in Muslim countries want democracy any less than any of the rest of us. And I believe that when we take action as international leaders, it should be with that clear sense of the values we believe in. I remember Sierra Leone and how important it was to act, I remember Kosovo and how difficult it was to act, but I remember too that despite all the problems it was very clear that if you believed in freedom and democracy and the rule of law, ethnic cleansing had to be stopped in Kosovo and a murderous group of gangsters could not be allowed to take over Sierra Leone.
And if you will permit me one very personal reflection. I should like to thank perhaps above all others, those in the British Armed Forces who have served my country so well, and the international community so well. We can be proud of them.
So we know what has changed, and we know what should not change – our values. But my third lesson of leadership is take the tough decisions and see them through, and that is easier said than done. It was Churchill who said: “If you are going through hell, keep going.” And sometimes it can be very difficult. Marty was kind enough to mention Northern Ireland, and I am delighted to see David Trimble here this evening as well, a very deserved award winner for peace in Northern Ireland. Because you know whatever the ups and downs and the difficulties, we just had to keep going there the whole time. And as you, Marty, remember in the role you played so importantly, none of it was easy. Often it looked as if the objective we started out with was miles away from what we were able to achieve, but nonetheless we had to keep going. And if I could make any plea at this time of all leaders in the world, it is in the Middle East where things are so full of possibility, but also of danger. Let’s keep the pressure going for that two state solution in the Middle East, it is of such vital importance for the future of our world.
In Iraq and in Afghanistan there were difficult decisions taken, and some of those decisions, as you could see, were decisions that were deeply divisive in the international community. And I know in respect of Iraq there were many people who disagreed with the original decision and the original conflict, but again I make this appeal, whatever divisions there were, whatever side people were on when the decision was taken, for the past two years or more American troops, British troops, the troops of many other countries have been in Iraq under a United Nations mandate trying to bring democracy and stability to that country, as indeed we have been doing in Afghanistan. And for all the difficulties, I have found one of the most uplifting things in the whole of my political career has been the sight of people in Afghanistan, in Iraq, these people, unused to democracy, never having exercised the prospect of democracy before, and here are we in our western countries, so used to democracy that sometimes we don’t even bother to exercise our right to vote, and yet these people, millions of them in Afghanistan, millions of them in Iraq, even braving terrorism and threats and intimidation to exercise their democratic right. If anyone ever doubts the wish of these people to be free, look at what they did in Afghanistan and in Iraq, given the chance, they voted – voted – for freedom, and we should stick with them and see it through so that democracy takes root in the way that it should.
And you were kind enough to make reference to building the coalition against terrorism in the aftermath of September 11. One thing only I want to say about that. It was an easy task, it was right to do it, because I never doubted for one single moment that the attack on September 11 was never an attack on America alone, it was an attack on our way of life, our values. America was attacked because America was the most powerful nation upholding those values. But the attack was not on America simply, but on all of us who share those values. And even though it has from time to time been a difficult and a rough ride, I said shortly after September 11 that our job here in Britain in the face of this terrorist threat was to stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States of America. I still think that, and I am proud of the work my country has been able to do in these past few years.
My fourth lesson of leadership – try not to govern by headlines. It is one of the toughest things to do in modern politics, but there are sometimes when I reflect and get frustrated by the fact that you can get thousands of people out on the street to protest against President Bush or America at any point in time, and it is a great right that people have, it is a democratic right to protest and long may it exist, and long will it exist, but sometimes I despair of the fact that you never see a placard or a protestor about regimes like those in North Korea, where the people live in almost unimaginable oppression. And sometimes one of the most difficult things in leadership is to realise that the most important causes are not always those that catch the headlines, but those in respect of which the concern is there, felt in the lives of millions of people who don’t have access to CNN, or the BBC, but only because they don’t have access to the basic freedoms that we enjoy.
My final lesson in leadership, well I think it was Harry Truman that said: “A statesman is a politician who has been dead 10 or 15 years.” It is about the criticism and the praise. My belief is, don’t let your ego get carried away by the praise, don’t let your spirit be diminished by the criticism, and look on each with a very searching eye. It is very kind of you to have said these nice things about me this evening, I am sure there will be plenty of alternative speeches that could be made about me, and I shall try and keep an even balance between the two.
And so thank you all very, very much indeed for coming along this evening and giving me this award which really touches me very deeply. It is a very curious thing to hear yourself described in those ways and to look back over your own career, because kind of at the time you just do it really. But you know however difficult the job is, and thank you so much for showing those pictures of me when I looked at least 30 years younger, although it can only have been a few years ago. It is certainly a job that ages you. I was in a school the other day actually and a little kid, because they had just had a mock election there, and she said: “Oh Mr Blair, I am your biggest fan.” And the head teacher leant across to me and said: “Actually she is your only one.” But it is a job that comes with its fair share of knocks, but you know something about jobs like this, in the end they are voluntary and we should never ever forget it is a privilege and an honour to do them, and it has certainly been a privilege and an honour to come along this evening.
And John, to all your colleagues at the East-West Institute, thank you all for the work you are doing, thank you for the honour you have bestowed on me this evening, and thank you Ladies and Gentlemen for being so kind to give me this award which I shall treasure for all my life.
Tags: Blair award 2005 statesman, East West Institute, statesman of the decade, Tony Blair, values based leadership
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