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SevenWise Men
In Search of Peace
by
Keith W. Stump and Leon Sexton
Why did a recent event of historie
importance go largely unnoticed in the Western press?
W
ISDOM
has been a
r are commodity
throughout huma n
history.
" l
cannot find one wise man
among you ," lamented the bibli–
cal patriarch J ob more than
three millennia ago (Job 17: 10) .
"Where shall wis-
dom be found? and
where is t he place of
understanding?" he
asked (28: 12).
Lamentably, today's
leaders are often men
of limited vision and
strength of purpose.
represent
one thousand mil/ion
people- more
than one fifth of all
mankind, including many of the
poorest on earth.
Their aim: to promote mutual
assistance among member nations
in economic, cultural, technical and
scientific fields in the common
cause of a better future for South
Asia's millions. It is an undertak-
"Nowhere in the developing
world as in South Asia can be
found such depths of poverty and
human misery coexisting with im–
mense physical and above all hu–
man resources," observed the
Bangladeshi president, Lt. General
Husain Muhammad Ershad, host
and chairman of the summü. The
teeming millions of South Asia live
on a mere 3 percent of
the global land area,
and have a per-capita
income of less than
one
tenth
of the world's av–
erage.
I t always comes as
something of a su r–
prise, therefore, when
one person
of wisdom
and courage strides
onto the world stage
and strikes a blow for
sanity. But when
seven
men of wisdom and
courage come on
stage-that is an event
of historie proportion!
Seven heads of state and government of South Asia (on upper
dais) assemble at concluding session of summit.
Now-in an un–
precedented expression
of solidarity and broth–
erhood- seven leaders
have had the wisdom
to see a way out of
their regional plight,
the courage to put
aside their historical
legacies of conflict and
sit down together with
hope and optimism to
map out a strategy for
peace and cooperation.
When Men of Wisdom Meet
Such an occasion was the first-ever
summit of the seven-nation South
Asían Association for Regional Co–
operation (SAARC). The summit
was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
last December. By any standard,
this was an historie event.
The SAARC summit brought
together for the first time in South
Asia's history the leaders of
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the
Maldive Islands, Nepal, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka. The seven jointly
4
ing of staggering scope and ambi–
tion in a subcontinent that has been
one of the world's more turbulent
regions and where grinding poverty
remains a way of life for many.
Major Breakthrough
Víewed in the context of the re–
gion's stormy past, the Dhaka sum–
mit represented a major break–
through, a landmark in the history
of South Asia. That its seven lead–
ers were sitting down together was,
in itself, a significant accomplish–
ment.
"Today we are gath–
ered as a family in recognition of
that very brotherhood to reflect
upon our common objective and
consider common means to achieve
our goals," declared Sri Lanka's
President Junius R. Jayewardene
in his address at the summit's inau–
gural session.
At Dhaka, the leaders agreed on
numerous areas of cooperation,
ranging from agriculture, rural de–
velopment and population planning
to science and technology, trans–
portation and telecommunications.
The regional forum is not designed
The
PLAIN TRUTH