……感謝各位會員在兩年前投票選我擔任這個職務！我會鞠躬盡瘁、不遺餘力地去履行我的職責，但我亦同時需要你們每個人的支持。
擔任這個職務是一個真正的挑戰！整個世界都在面對前所未有的挑戰。對世界民研學會來說，我們着力的，依然是可以如何以專業誠信和質素去貢獻全人類。
在杜拜舉行的75週年會議上，我們有寶貴的機會回顧自己的歷史，然後邁向另一個75年。知識的增長不是一條直線，但願我們可以在未來25年取得的成就，比我們在過去75年得到的還要多！
在尋找自我的過程中，我總結出民研學會的三個核心價值，就是自由、素質和人性。 我在杜拜這樣解釋：自由是要讓人民的聲音得到聆聽，是就人民的想法進行和發表科學研究的權利。素質就是科學方法的應用，專業標準的發展，和讓不同界別的代表和專家發展 有關技術。人性，就是用來指導我們如何運用知識來減輕災害和衝突，以達致人類的最高共同利益。推動人性，應該是我們的最終目標。我認為這三個核心價值對我們整個民研群體，不論是在「中央」、「地區」、還是 「個人」層面都同樣重要。
未來兩年，我將會是世界民研群體的頭號僕人。我懇請各位繼續支援我和世界民研學會，讓我們秉持信念，服務全人類。
世界民研學會不應是一個受地理、種族、文化或認知限制的組織。在過去75年，我們在概念、方法、專業和跨文化研究等領域都取得非常成功的發展。我們會珍惜這些成就，但我們亦會同時開闢新的天地，比如引用先進的科技、打破不同科學之間的隔膜、甚至把科學和藝術結合起來。在組織的層面，我們會與世界上不同的專業團體、世界民研的地區分會、以及我們的地區代表緊密合作，凝聚會員，發揮我們的專業力量。世界民研會在不同領域和範疇推動多元化和下而上的積極發展，而非側重於同質性和上而下的運作模式。
畢竟，我們的共同使命，是要讓人民的聲音得到聆聽。為此，人民不應被分割，而我們也不應自我分割。我期待有一天，可以看到一個只有人性而沒有疆域的世界。在未來100天，我會努力諮詢各位，凝聚力量，好讓我們可以一起建設一個更加美好的世界。
……thank you fellow members for electing me to this position two years ago! I will do my best to fulfil my duties, but I will need help from every one of you!
Taking up this position is a real challenge! The whole world is facing unprecedented problems on all fronts. To us in WAPOR, our primary concern shall remain to be professional integrity and quality for the wellbeing of humankind.
In our 75th Anniversary Conference in Dubai, we had the precious opportunity of reviewing our own history, and then ventured into the next 75 years and beyond. Knowledge growth is not linear, so let us aim at achieving more in the next 25 years compared to what we have already achieved over the past 75 years!
In my own soul-searching exercise, I have concluded that there are three core values for WAPOR, namely, Liberty, Quality and Humanity. I explained them in Dubai: Liberty is the right to let people’s voice be heard, it is the right to conduct and publish scientific research on what people think. Quality is the application of scientific methods, the development of professional standards, research techniques among professionals and representatives across different disciplines. Humanity guides us to apply our knowledge to mitigate disasters and conflicts, to promote the common good of humankind. Enhancing Humanity should be our ultimate goal. I consider these three core values to be equally important to our entire WAPOR community, whether at the “central”, “regional” or “individual” level.
In the two years ahead of me, I shall be the number one servant of the WAPOR community. I now appeal to each and every one of you for your continued support of me and WAPOR, so that we can work together to serve humankind based on the core values we believe in.
WAPOR shall not be an organization limited by boundaries, whether geographical, ethnical, cultural, or epistemological. Over the past 75 years, we have developed very successfully in areas of conceptual, methodological, professional, and cross-cultural studies. We shall treasure our achievements, but we shall also break new ground, like the application of advanced technologies, the breaking of barriers between different sciences, and even the integration of science and art. In terms of organization, we shall work closely with our sister organizations around the world, our own regional chapters and country representatives who will be our link with the general membership. We shall promote diversification and bottom-up initiatives in different areas and domains of WAPOR development, rather than homogeneity and top-down directives.
Our common mission, after all, is to let the voice of the people be heard. For this purpose, people should not be divided, and we ourselves should not be divided. I personally look forward to seeing a borderless world united by a common humanity, one day, and I will use the next 100 days to be a period of intensive consultation and consolidation. Let us work together for a better world!
Link: https://wapor.org/letter-from-two-wapor-presidents-january-2023/
