ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE TO A JOINT MEETING OF THE HOUSES OF THE JORDANIAN PARLIAMENT AMMAN
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE TO A JOINT MEETING OF THE HOUSES OF THE JORDANIAN PARLIAMENT AMMAN, 15 FEBRUARY, 2006
As Salaamu Alaykum wa rahmat Ullahi wa barakatu,
(Peace be with you and the mercy of God and His blessings)
What a privilege and joy it is to address the representatives of the Jordanian people and to do so in your Parliament – a place devoted to the prosperity and the well-being of the Jordanian people. This small, dynamic Kingdom, led so ably by His Majesty King Abdullah 11 has many friends and admirers around the world. I represent one such long-standing friend, the Irish nation and I bring you the greetings and good wishes of the Irish people.
This is the first State Visit of a President of Ireland to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan but the Irish and Jordanian peoples have never been strangers to one another. It was my pleasure to welcome His Majesty the King and Her Majesty Queen Rania on their visit to Ireland in recent times and to renew again in this generation the firm bonds of friendship established by His Majesty the late King Hussein bin Talal.
I was honoured to visit Jordan in 1999 to represent the people of Ireland in paying respect to the memory of that remarkable man, a legendary leader and peacemaker deeply loved and respected by his own people, by people of goodwill across the world and a man who held a special place in the affections of the Irish people.
It was largely through His Majesty King Hussein that our two new States grew to know and befriend each other. On New Year’s Eve 1961, the then President of Ireland, Eamon de Valera, launched the first Irish television channel. The arrival of television in our small island nation contributed hugely to the widening of our people’s horizons. The second dignitary to address the Irish nation on that occasion was His late Majesty King Hussein, himself a pioneer of modern communications. In his goodwill message to the people of Ireland at that watershed moment in our development as a confident young State, His Majesty conveyed to us the best wishes of the people of the Holy Land. It is surely appropriate that in more recent years one of the central elements in the economic relationship between our two countries has been our close cooperation in the telecommunications sector.
We are enthusiastic supporters of His Majesty King Abdullah’s initiative on Information Technology in Emerging Markets – more popularly known as ITEM. We have developed our own Bilateral Agreement in the Telecommunications Sector. I am proud that in this “sector of the future”, we have already seen cooperation translated into partnerships, as investments, alliances and joint ventures have developed between our high tech companies.
It was no accident that the late King Hussein should have played such a prominent role in a major Irish national event for although geographically and culturally we inhabit different spheres both Jordan and Ireland have many crucial things in common, things which have long made the pathway to mutual empathy particularly easy.
Jordan and Ireland are both proud, historic ancient lands and peoples. For much of our history we were absorbed unhappily into larger empires. We both gained our national independence at considerable cost and as small countries we have had to work hard to make our own distinctive contribution to a world where much of our environment has been dominated by larger or more powerful neighbours. While our focus has been on peace, stability and the good of our people, our context has often been overshadowed by serious conflict which has had dreadful physical and human effects as well as imposing enormous economic burdens. Yet for all the challenges and setbacks faced by our two peoples they have both succeeded in making Ireland and Jordan two inspirational contemporary stories of transformation into effective modern peace-making democracies, surging in cultural confidence, economic achievement as well as transcending history.
When I travel abroad I am often asked what is the secret of Ireland’s current success - how did a very poor country transform itself into one of the European Union’s best known success stories? In truth there is no one answer but rather an intelligent combination of factors, central among them our admission in 1973 to the European Union. The discipline demanded by membership and the economic opportunities it offered helped us to modernise our economy. The collegial and voluntary nature of the Union proved a perfect environment in which to contribute Ireland’s distinctive political voice. We grew in confidence and in influence. We invested heavily in education, since our people’s brainpower is our biggest and best natural resource and our highly educated young men and women became crucial to our very successful strategy of attracting direct foreign investment and developing our high tech industrial sector. We created an attractive corporate tax environment and developed a social partnership, in other words a national consensus on how to move forward together between the Government, employers, trade unions, farmers and the voluntary sector representing the poor and the marginalized.
Together these things transformed our society – dramatically for the better in the long run but not without pain in the process. We have reversed the tide of outward migration for the first time in one hundred and fifty years, reduced unemployment so significantly that we need migrant labour to help sustain our growth. Today’s economic vibrancy is matched by a cultural dynamism and multicultural diversity as well as an enthusiastic engagement with the wider world.
As you know the island of Ireland is divided into two jurisdictions, the one I represent is an independent sovereign republic, the other, Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom. The problem of political and ethnic violence in Northern Ireland has presented our Government and the Government of the United Kingdom with considerable challenges in the pursuit of peace. Huge energy has been invested in building today’s peace process which for all its ups and downs and setbacks remains the best hope for bringing a stable and egalitarian democracy to Northern Ireland, and a lasting, true peace between those who share the island.
The divisions bequeathed to us by history and the dreadful toll of death and damage have made it very hard to establish the kind of mutual trust needed to build a peaceful future. Ongoing violence seemed for so long to undermine even the most superhuman of efforts. Thankfully in recent years the main paramilitary organisations seem to have grown in awareness that their violence was utterly counterproductive and that the political objectives they sought could be much more effectively pursued through democratic dialogue.
A compelling aspect of today’s Peace Process is the strength of the friendly cooperation and sense of common purpose between the Irish and British Governments. Both Governments are co-signatories since 1998 to an International Peace Treaty known as the Good Friday Agreement which sets out the framework for Northern Ireland’s future. They are working together with all the parties in Northern Ireland to achieve full implementation of the agreement and while progress is slow at the political level, it is very evident that among the people there is a vastly changed attitude to each other and a willingness to accept that with a little compromise on all sides, we can all have ninety percent of something humanly decent which is infinitely better than one hundred percent of nothing but chaos.
The new neighbourliness and genuinely warm friendship we now enjoy with our closest neighbour, the United Kingdom, owes much to the inspiration of the European Union which is itself an outstanding example of partnership between once bitter enemies. We are part of that family of twenty-five nations now putting behind us the divisions of Two World Wars, of the Iron Curtain and the long litany of death and disaster which made 20th century Europe a nightmare for so many suffering human beings. Now a stable, peaceful Europe acknowledges the responsibility it has to forge happy and respectful relationships with our closest regional neighbours here in this part of the world from where comes the very wellspring of Europe’s civilisation. Ireland, both bilaterally, and as a member of the European Union is deeply committed to honouring that responsibility and to working enthusiastically with Jordan and our other partners in the Euro-Mediterranean Process as they seek to promote harmony and prosperity here in this beautiful but troubled region.
The Barcelona Process, as our partnership is known, is one of the most remarkable inter-regional frameworks in recent international diplomacy. The Barcelona Declaration of November 1995 gave us a shared vocabulary and set out a truly ambitious agenda for the transformation of the wider Mediterranean region. It was based on a vision of the Mediterranean becoming again what it was in the past: not a dividing line between Europe and its southern neighbours, but a bridge to one another. The Barcelona Declaration was agreed in the context of the historic opportunity offered by the Oslo Agreements for a lasting, peaceful and comprehensive settlement of the Arab – Israeli conflict. Unfortunately, that hope has proved more difficult to sustain than was then foreseen. The Barcelona Process remains a promise still to be realised. The widening gap between the standards of living on the northern and southern regions of the Mediterranean Sea cannot be ignored. Peace in the Middle East has not been achieved. The challenges have, if anything, become more complex, and more dangerous yet all the more urgent in their need of resolution.
Ignorance of one another, suspicion of one another, fear, misconceptions, mutual incomprehension – these are now the highly combustible fuel that ignites conflict and energises the pernicious myth that our cultures, our faiths and civilisations are inherently incompatible. I do not need to explain in this Chamber the extent to which this myth is susceptible to exploitation, with horribly tragic consequences. At every level it is clear that we have to invest in developing and enriching our peoples’ understanding of each other. We have to reveal through our efforts the joy, wonder, progress, prosperity and peace that flow from respectful acceptance of our diversity and from partnership with one another.
I cannot avoid referring today to the tensions of recent weeks, which have been felt across this region, and across Europe. I am very conscious of the sense of hurt and anger felt in the Islamic World following the publication of images of the Prophet Mohammed. At the same time, it is important that we resist violent attempts to exploit these powerful emotions by those who would wish to drive us apart - and in this regard, I am proud to record here today the exemplary approach been taken by the Islamic community in Ireland and its leaders. They have expressed their views clearly in recent days but they have worked assiduously to maintain calm.
The situation poses a serious challenge to each one of us, and especially to leaders of goodwill. While working to ease tensions, we can learn valuable lessons from the tragic misunderstandings we have witnessed. I believe we all now have an obligation to re-examine our relationships, and to ensure that they are based on, and at all times reflect, a real sense of respect for each other’s deeply-held values, beliefs, cultures and traditions.
I was pleased that during Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union two years ago it proved possible to secure agreement on the establishment in Alexandria of the Anna Lindh Foundation for Dialogue between Cultures and Civilisations. Our gift to our children has to be an education which opens them up to the web of connections which link us to one another.
The story of European civilisation cannot be told without considerable mention of this region as the cradle of culture and philosophy which moulded so much that we take for granted in our daily life. Every true European knows that our heritage is incomprehensible without reference to towns and cities such as Baghdad, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Cairo, Alexandria and historic Petra. To attempt to un-bundle, to separate our cultures as if they were no more than parallel but separate universes, would be to rewrite history. We are wound together like strands of a rope - pull us apart and we still bear each others imprint for we have shaped one another indelibly. Whatever the vanities of history we know they cannot be undone but we can prevent the future from becoming another wasted opportunity, a landscape of wasted lives. We have a clear and pressing obligation to build new bridges between our peoples and to invigorate the links between Europe and the Middle East.
Neither of our lands is a stranger to the scourge of terrorism. The hearts of the people of Ireland went out to all in Amman who were the victims of the cruel terrorist attacks so recently inflicted on your capital city. We shared your great grief, and we admired the dignity, and the sense of national solidarity of the people of Jordan as they united in demanding an end to terrorism and a reawakening of the values of human goodness and tolerance which are central to the message of Islam and of Christianity. These are the values which can unite us in the quest for a better, fairer future and I know they are central to the efforts of His Majesty King Abdullah, the Government, Parliament and the people of Jordan to promote healing and reconciliation among the tragic people of your neighbour Iraq. The Iraqi people deserve a better future and this region has so much to gain from their active participation and leadership. Ireland, and our partners in the EU, will work with you and with the Iraqi people in fulfilment of our collective responsibility under the Charter of the United Nations to build a prosperous future for Iraq based on inclusiveness, democracy and respect for human rights.
The Arab – Israeli conflict has for too long blighted too many lives in this region. Regrettably it is often characterised by international experts and commentators as the ultimate insoluble problem. Such a counsel of despair simply cannot be allowed to prevail. We must assert with conviction that it is possible, indeed it is essential, to effect a settlement which will bring peace to Israel, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. We in Ireland, working with our partners in the EU, are determined to continue to support those Israeli and Palestinian leaders and people, who exhibit the courage and the deep humanity necessary for such a solution. The Quartet Roadmap remains the only available framework for a settlement, based on the co-existence in peace and security of two proud and prosperous States – Palestine and Israel. Can you imagine what life would be like not just for this region but for the world if such a happy day were to dawn?
I am especially conscious of the central role played by Jordan in the efforts to achieve this great prize of peaceful coexistence. On so many occasions in your history you have had to face up to the most difficult of decisions. You have forthrightly asserted the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to their own state and you have courageously recognised Israel’s right to live in peace and security. That investment in this region’s future is also an investment in the stability and good governance of our entire planet for which we are all indebted to you.
Already in this short visit I have felt Jordan’s determination, its confidence, its integrity as a centre of political gravity and an economic engine, a bright beacon of leadership across this region. As you celebrate four thousand years of history and at the same time build a strong modern democracy, a bulwark of hope and a maker of peace, please be assured that the good wishes of the Irish people accompany you and all our friends in Jordan.
I thank each one of you for receiving me this morning. I welcome this opportunity to publicly thank His Majesty King Abdullah and Her Majesty Queen Rania for the great warmth of the welcome they have extended to me personally, to my husband, Martin, and to all the members of the Irish delegation. I will leave this Kingdom with cherished memories of a talented, courageous and hospitable people who are blessed to live surrounded by wonderful natural beauty, great precious archives of history and who face regional challenges with a passion for peace and justice.
Shukran jazilan. Thank you very much.