On May 3, 2009, his Highness the Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar invited President Chirac to help open the 9th Doha Forum for Democracy, Development, Free Trade.

While there, Jacques Chirac took the opportunity to visit the Qatar Foundation for education, science and research, and community development, created in 1995 by his Excellence Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, emir of Qatar and today led by the Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, the Emir’s wife. The Qatar Foundation for education, science and research, and community development and Jacque Chirac’s own foundation have decided to work together.

JACQUES CHIRAC’S SPEECH – Doha – Sunday May 3, 2009

Download Jacques Chirac’s speech at the inauguration of the 9th Doha Forum (PDF)

“Your royal Highness and dear Friend,
Ladies and Gentlemen Prime Ministers,
Ladies and Gentlemen Ministers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,

Democracy is built into the daily life of populations.

Allow me to thank his Highness the Emir of Qatar for allowing me this opportunity to speak to you, craftsmen of the democratisation process. You who are experienced craftsmen, attentive to the soul of populations, craftsmen who are lucid concerning the opposition to overcome.

We know you are confronted with the forces of extremism. They are looking to lock people into ignorance and submission. Women are the first victims of their imprisoning ideas. Extremists are also indoctrinating youths in search of their identity. They offer these youths an ideal built around the return to a society that has never really existed. They divert youthful energies towards violence; sometimes even the most inhumane sort of violence: terrorism.

You measure the power of these hostile forces. You are the rampart against the barbarism of our times. You are modern day Resistants. And I am honoured to be amongst you.

Allow me to share with you some of my convictions, fruit of my own personal experience; convictions that continue to inspire the activities of the foundation I created to work for peace and the dialogue of cultures.

The first is that there can be no democracy if our societies do not possess a certain equilibrium.

Globalisation has of course contributed to reducing extreme poverty, and for this we should be proud. However, it has at the same time, increased inequalities, brutally.

Today, only a minority population participates in global life, taking advantage of opportunities, and masters the languages and technologies.
And there is the majority that remains in one place, has difficulty understanding what is happening, watches as its customs and habits are shaken to the core, and wonders what will become of its children.

I am not talking only of the very poor that still live in conditions unworthy of humanity.

I am also talking of people of modest means: farmers, craftsmen, government workers, small shopkeepers, they all are having difficulties making a living. Food, health costs, housing, schools, everything is expensive. How can they cope?

All around them, they watch as Nature disappears, the countryside urbanizes, neighbourhoods fall into disrepair and disrepute.

The current economic crisis has weakened their situation even more. This is why I requested at the G20 summit that the poor not be left out of the recovery plan. I am happy to have been at least partially heard. Now, action must follow words.

Dissatisfaction amongst those with modest means knows no frontiers; it is not restricted to a particular culture or continent. Let us not be led into error; extremists specifically target these classes with lower means. They suggest to these very populations to turn their backs on modernity, to turn inwards on themselves, and to reject the other.

They heighten their fears and fan their anger. This extremist process is not limited to the Islamic world. It is not the result of an incompatibility between cultures. As you know, I have never believed in the shock between civilisations. Dissatisfaction with globalization is to be found under all latitudes and so too is its exploitation by extremists. This explains why, even in the most solidly established democracies, one must remain vigilant.

Together, we must find other solutions for these poorer classes, solutions that do not include radicalization.

One of these solutions is education. Accessible, good quality education. Education to foster critical thinking, excellency in the sciences, technologies, modern means of communications; an education that respects other cultures.

On this point, I salute the remarkable efforts of the Qatar Foundation, of the President his Royal Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned for having remade your country into a showcase of cutting-edge knowledge.

I would be pleased if our two Foundations could cooperate to make education the cornerstone of efforts for democratization and Peace.

Amongst the solutions to battle extremism, there is also the creation of a new urban civilisation: a clean city, respectful of the environment. A city whose access to water, health services, and to leisure facilities is not reserved for those with means.

The majority of the planet’s population now lives in cities even though they do not provide acceptable living environments for their inhabitants.

Several of us here today are mayors or former mayors. We can tell you that the quality of the city is fundamental for a society’s balance.

This is why new forms of architecture and urbanism – and some are being invented right here – will impact the entire world.

My conviction is also that it is pointless to talk of democracy without understanding how different cultures, different languages, can also be respected and transmitted.

By encouraging what seems to be the most immediately useful to economic life, we lose the notion of the most important skill in a world where different cultures must coexist with equal dignity: the patience to learn. It takes time to understand the other. Time to understand their culture. Time to appreciate it fully. Time to open one’s mind. Yes, we must recover the patience of humanism.

This is the meaning behind the activities of the foundation I have created.
To conclude, I want to say that there can be no democracy without a better world organisation.

With more participation from all countries, with reinforced cooperation to attain the Millennium objectives, with more transparency, injustice can no longer be used as a pretext by those wishing to propagate hate.

We each have a role to play: the States of course, companies, associations, foundations, the media. Society as a whole.

My Dear Friends of Qatar,
You are lucky to have a diplomacy that works actively for peace. The chance to have the Qatar Foundation, a pioneering institution that contributes to preparing tomorrow’s world; Lucky too to be a centre that influences international opinion. You contribute thusly to the next step in global democratisation.
Thank you.”