Oration
by
Professor Godfrey LaFerla
PhD, MD, MRCS Eng, LRCP Lond, FRCS Ed, FRCSRCPS Glas, FRCS Eng
Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta
Head, Department of Surgery, University of Malta
Chairman, Clinical Department of Surgery, Mater Dei Hospital
It is indeed an honour and a privilege to be here today witnessing the inclusion of a
fellow gastroenterologist, Bernard Kouchner, to that very exclusive group of remarkable
personas on whom the University of Malta bestows the Degree of Doctor of Science
Honoris Causa.
Sir Francis Bacon is quoted to have commented about that person who “makes more
opportunities than he finds” whilst Orwell commented that: “in our age there is no such
thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues”. M. Kouchner, the
man who stands before us today, seems to be doing his best to prove both gentlemen
right.
From a young age he came face to face with the reality of life. M. Kouchner was
born on the 1st of November of 1939 in Avignon, France of a Protestant mother and
a Jewish father. At a very early age, he witnessed the perishing of both his paternal
grandparents in the concentration camp of Auschwitz.
His political journey began when he was briefly involved with the French Communist
Party in the early sixties. On a visit to Cuba in 1964, Kouchner spent a night fishing
with Fidel Castro! His brush with this party, however, did not last long and in 1966,
following a divergence of ideals with the leadership, he had to leave. But M. Kouchner
is a radical with a can-do attitude, so this did not stop him from taking a leading role in
the Sorbonne’s Medical Faculty strike committee during the students’ protest of May
1968. Following his medical qualification, he went on to specialise in endoscopy of
the digestive tract. This led him to embark on a medical career at the Hôpital Cochin
in Paris where he practised as a gastroenterologist between 1975 and 1987.
In the meantime, M. Kouchner put his medical training to the test by working in
Biafra with the Red Cross during Nigeria’s civil war. Seeing children there starve
to death fired in him a lifetime commitment to the cause of preventing humanitarian
crises and bearing witness. He was also a humanitarian volunteer during the siege of
Naba’s refugee camp in East Beirut in Lebanon while civil war raged there.
All these experiences further strengthened M. Kouchner’s deep conviction in the
responsibility to protect but at the same time acknowledged that refugees and economic
migrants need different kinds of protection. This led him to found, organise, as well
as serve as President of Médicins Sans Frontieres. As you all well know, this is a nonprofit-making humanitarian organisation made up of voluntary medical personnel
who help in situations of emergency or inadequate medical care in the developing
world. This organisation won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. After setting up MSF
in 1971, he furthered the concept by creating Médicins du Monde in 1980. In 1973, he
worked with a French University to create a Masters degree on emergency medicine.
This includes courses on the organisation and hygiene of refugee camps as well as on
legal protection and the right to return.
His commitment to humanitarian causes is well known – such as when he chartered a
cargo ship, “Ile de Lumiere”, and together with a group of doctors went to the South
China Sea to rescue Vietnamese boat people who were trying to get to Hong Kong.
Unfortunately, his high profile exposure in this project led to a falling-out between
him and the organisation he had helped to create.
He was also involved in organising a plane for refugees from El Salvador and gained
everlasting notoriety when he led Operation Restore Hope in Somalia when he waded
ashore carrying a sack of rice on his shoulder. The humanitarian interventions he
organised or participated in, in practically all the troubled areas of our world, caused
him to travel extensively: from Central America to South East Asia, from the Balkans
to the Middle East and of course, Africa. He himself admits that for international
peace missions he knows how to find the money – from governments, foundations,
civil society. The extensive missions he has been involved in amply illustrate this.
In July 1999, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General appointed this passionate
humanitarian activist as Special Representative for Kosovo. During the time he spent
in office, he led UN efforts to create a new civil administration and political system.
And he was responsible in helping to build the economy shattered by three years of
war. For the services he rendered to Kosovo, he was awarded an honorary doctorate
by the University of Pristina. M. Kouchner held this UN post until January 2001.
M. Kouchner is the recipient of various human rights awards amongst which one finds
the Dag Hammarskjold Prize in 1979, the Prix Europa in 1984 as well as a joint Noble
Peace Prize awarded to Médicins Sans Frontieres in 1999. Incidentally, he once told
an interviewer that by creating MSF “we were establishing the moral right to interfere
inside someone else’s country”. This belief led him to concur, and once again be the
centre of controversy, with the invasion of Iraq on the grounds of removing a dictator
rather than to search for weapons of mass destruction.
M. Kouchner has played an important role in his country’s politics for several decades
now. His government career started in 1988 where he served France under various
Prime Ministers in posts mostly pertaining to health and humanitarian issues. Under the
Socialist Government he occupied a Cabinet post responsible for humanitarian action.
He then became Minister of Health in 1992 under Mitterand’s presidency and later he
continued his political career in the European Parliament. When Lionel Jospin became
Prime Minister in 1997, Kouchner was appointed Minister of Health for the second
time.
He now occupies the difficult role of French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs
in the right-wing government of President Nicolas Sarkozy – a post which has put him
at odds with his own Socialist Party.
Bernard Kouchner firmly believes, and has no hesitation in reiterating, that his strategy
is not only to help people or transform the world, but to do both. Indeed, he feels that
when people are in trouble, it is our duty to help them out no matter the circumstances.
To do this he has forgotten the pleasantries, forgot pleasing everyone and stuck to his
morals. Indeed, Nelson Mandela is reputed to have once whispered to him “thanks for
intervening in matters that don’t concern you”.
Despite his very busy political life, M. Kouchner has found the time to lecture. Between
2002 and 2007, he lectured on the rights of the refugees and human rights as Professor
of Health and Development at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. 2003
found him lecturing at the Harvard School of Public Health.
He also found the time to become an accomplished and prolific author as well as a screen
writer. Apart from producing several books, he contributes substantially to magazines
and newspapers and is co-founder of the news magazines L’ Evènement and Actuel.
That is not all; writing under the pseudonym of Bernard Gridaine he has also written
several successful scripts for television.
M. Kouchner is the recipient of numerous awards and honours that cover an incredible
gamut of prestigious institutions. Given his track record and his enthusiasm for any
project he undertakes, I am more than sure that the one being bestowed on him today
will not be the last.
Perhaps Time Magazine has neatly summarised what this living legend is all about:
“this humanitarian breaks taboos and reveals matters that render us sleepless. Faced
with globalised inhumanity burning the 21st century he is introducing a new humanism
without geographical or political borders. He does it not to open the gates of paradise,
but to bolt the gates of hell.”