Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 18/10/89
Tajuk/Title : THE OCCASION OF THE COMMONWEALTH
HEADS OF GOVERNMENT MEETING
Your Majesties;
Your Excellencies;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Let me begin by bidding you 'Selamat Datang'. This
Malaysian greeting expresses much more than just welcome.
It conveys the warmth and happiness that we feel in
receiving you here in Kuala Lumpur.
2. I am happy to meet old friends and to make new
acquaintances. We are all, I am sure, delighted to welcome
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, whose presence here today is
really a sort of a homecoming. Pakistan's return to this
family of nations will no doubt enrich our discussion and
help strengthen Commonwealth collective action.
3. I would also like to take this opportunity, on behalf
of all of us, to thank Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
for his stewardship at our last gathering in Vancouver and
for the unforgettable hospitality of the Canadians. I know
that Prime Minister Mulroney as past Chairman, will have a
valuable contribution to make.
Your Majesties, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
4. Malaysia, situated at the crossroads between China and
India, East and West, has for centuries been a meeting place
for peoples and cultures. We carry this tradition today as
we now play host to the leaders of the Commonwealth.
5. Although we have been trading with the rest of the
world for over a thousand years, we had never participated
much in international affairs. But since independence we
have been forced out of our cocoon by international economic
and political pressures. If we do not go out to protect our
interests no one will protect us. Hence our increasing
participation in multilateral organisations. The hosting of
this Meeting is a part of that need to interact and to
protect ourselves.
6. The Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Conference is timely and
relevant. Developments in relations between the superpowers
promise, for the first time since the war, a broadbased and
unprecedented agenda for political and economic cooperation.
Less heartening is that we enter the next decade with the
economic issues of the eighties unresolved. And, equally
disheartening, Apartheid is still with us.
7. These trends and circumstances provide challenges and
opportunities which demand new responses from us. The
Commonwealth, if it is to remain relevant, must provide some
of the answers. The Kuala Lumpur Conference, I hope, will
give us the opportunity to look for them.
8. There is some momentum towards superpower detente. We
cannot assume that as they resolve their differences, our
interests, especially those of the developing world, will
not be sacrificed. We must be mindful of this. We must be
able to forecast and to pre-empt. Peace will carry a cost.
That cost must be equitably shared.
9. In West Asia ceasefire arrangements are now in place
which, hopefully, will lead to an end to bloodshed. The
Palestinians continue to be deprived of their homeland.
Israeli security may be important but surely we must
consider also the security of its neighbours and the fate
of the Palestinians. State terrorism as practised by Israel
is as despicable as any kind of terrorism and must be
stopped. There cannot be peace and security without justice.
10. The situation in Afghanistan is far from being
resolved. Afghans in their thousands continue to live in
refugee camps. The Paris Conference on Cambodia failed to
achieve a comprehensive political settlement. We must
continue our efforts to resolve the Cambodian problem before
it degenerates into another bloody civil war.
11. Of particular interest to us here is the situation in
Southern Africa where our efforts need to be stepped up. We
are agreed that Apartheid must be eliminated. The correct
signal must be sent to the racist regime in South Africa.
Sanctions work. Do not be deluded into believing that the
small changes we are seeing there is due to a sudden
flowering of humanitarian feelings. Concern for the effect of
sanctions on the blacks is misplaced. Consequently,
sanctions must not only continue but must be escalated.
Investments and financial flows to racist South Africa must
be completely stopped.
12. We all know that the independence plan for Namibia is
partly at least the result of sanctions. We also know that
control over Namibia will be grudgingly surrendered, and
every opportunity exploited to frustrate the implementation
of the plan.
13. We must be vigilant that recent developments in
Southern Africa do not obscure the central issues of
Apartheid. We must not allow the racist Pretoria regime to
deflect us. The establishment of a democratic, truly non-
racial, unitary and representative government in South
Africa must remain the principal objective of the
Commonwealth. We must not think of settling old scores.
Whites, blacks and coloured must live together in amity.
Your Majesties, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
14. There may because for hope and encouragement with
regard to the global political scene, but the world economic
trends are not so propitious. While nearly all of the
developed countries still manage modest growth, many of the
developing countries are experiencing stagnation if not
negative growth. The rich countries have apparently ganged
up against the poor. They have arrogated to themselves the
right to direct world trade and to manipulate currencies to
their advantage. Subsidies, quotas, tariff and non-tariff
barriers by the rich have distorted costs and supplies
worldwide. Now environment and human rights are to be used
to hamper economic development in the developing countries.
15. On the question of poverty, especially in Africa, our
response cannot simply be assistance alone. The linkages of
poverty to debt and trade -- and even to the environment --
must be recognised and addressed.
16. The debt burden of the poor is getting heavier. An
unacceptably high percentage of their GNP is spent to
service debts, resulting in a reversal of the net flow of
funds between the rich and the poor. For the poorest the
situation is hopeless.
17. The African debt problem continues to deteriorate --
largely unnoticed. Part of Africa's problem is that the
countries concerned simply do not owe enough to pose a
threat to the international financial system. Hence, the
scant attention to African debts.
18. What we need is a bold financial initiative. Such a
plan would have to recognise that existing debts, public and
private, are not worth their full value and that most
African debtors cannot sustain full debt-servicing. Making
debt-slaves of whole nations is worse than the inhuman
practice of debt-slavery in the past. Those who can must
pay, but consideration must be given to those who truly
cannot.
19. Yet another dimension of the problem is the increasing
attempt by the G-7 to interfere decisively in the management
of the global financial and trading system. Their decisions
to realign currencies have not only severely affected the
debt-servicing burden of developing countries but also the
resource flows and their growth prospects.
20. Problems of debt and poverty cannot be overcome while
significant disparity exists between the economic growth
rates of the developed and the developing countries.
Developing countries need better access to markets and
a greater flow of foreign investments not only for economic
growth but also to provide them the means and the capacity
to service their debts.
21. For world trade to grow, the principles of an open and
fair multilateral trading and payment systems must be
upheld. While we try to reduce tariff barriers, and
stimulate global trade, we are now threatened by a
discernable increase in non-tariff barriers. Further,
the focus has shifted from "free trade" to "fair trade".
Industrialised countries are increasingly demanding
reciprocity even as they deny the developing countries
tariff concessions and preferential treatment.
22. This is evident in the current Uruguay Round of the
MTN. Pious pronouncements have been made on interdependence
and the importance of multilateralism. But they are
contradicted by the actions of those who make them.
Bilateralism and regionalism are being allowed to gain at
the expense of an open multilateral trading system.
Your Majesties, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
23. The environment is now a matter of grave concern to
everyone including the developing countries. The degradation
of the environment can no longer be ignored and urgent
solutions must be found. Unfortunately, many developed
countries seem intent on laying the blame for the world's
environmental problems on the developing countries. Yet by
any measure, it is the developed countries which have most
assailed our environment. Nuclear testing, excessive use of
fossil fuels, private transportation, release of CFC into
the atmosphere, massive wastage of paper, toxic chemical
disposal; all these and more are the direct result of the
life style of the rich.
24. Poverty, of course, contributes towards environmental
decline, but it is only because the poor cannot help
themselves. If they are denied the few resources they have ,
they are going to become poorer and would cause even greater
environmental degradation. On the other hand, the rich
can afford not only to reduce their waste generating life
style but can expand more on reafforestation of the
agricultural land they had wrested from their forests. With
their technology and their wealth they can actually make
millions of acres of desert bloom.
25. Unfortunately the line taken by environmentalists is to
lay the blame on poor countries and seek to force them to
slow-down their development in the interest of restoring the
environment which the rich had polluted. Even World Bank
loans are now to be made conditional upon environmental
consideration.
26. We agree that concerted international effort is needed.
The Commonwealth can help by bringing some sanity and
balance to the current debate. We all must share the burden
of keeping our environment livable, but, the sharing must
be fair and in accord with the means at the disposal of each
of us. The poor must not be made to pay for the past and
present sins of the rich.
27. Another problem which transcends national boundaries
and which requires a global approach is the drug problem.
Malaysia makes no apology for the severity of our punishment
for drug traffickers. We see today how very serious the
problem can become. Whole Governments are being threatened,
subverted and corrupted by the drug traffickers. Alone many
nations may just go under. Only a combined and
coordinated anti drug trafficking war by the international
community can hope to defeat this evil and prop up
Governments against the violent assaults by the merchants
of death. An all-out global war must be waged with all the
money and forces at our disposal. The cost will be high but
the price we will have to pay if the drug menace spreads
will be far higher. We are seeing this now. Extradition,
confiscation of all proceeds from drug trafficking and
severe punishment for traffickers must be universal. It is
the laxity of some nations which has caused the drug habit
to spread. Remember that along with the drug habit will
come AIDS. Those who advocate leniency are guilty of
spreading AIDS as well. We must act now.
Your Majesties, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
28. In keeping with custom, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, as
Head of the Commonwealth, is in Malaysia during the course
of the Conference. Malaysia, as host, would like to thank
Her Majesty for her gracious presence. The Malaysian
Government and the people of Malaysia are greatly honoured
by her acceptance of our invitation to make a state visit
to Malaysia immediately before the Conference. She has won
the hearts of everyone of us by her friendliness and charm.
Her Majesty's presence makes the Commonwealth that much more
cohesive and meaningful. We wish her good health and long
may she reign.
29. In conclusion, let me state that the relationship which
binds the Commonwealth together can be enormously rewarding.
There is much that we can do for each other and for the
world if we set our mind to it and we act.
30. Malaysia in a way has rediscovered the Commonwealth.
We admit that we were at one time disenchanted. But in an
increasingly interdependent world the Commonwealth provides
an important forum for the discussion and even the
settlement of some international problems. We also see a
role for ourselves in the Commonwealth, small though it may
be. We pray and hope that the Commonwealth will, in this
era of rapid and radical change, live up to the expectations
of its members. We hope the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth
Conference will contribute towards this end.
31. Once again, I bid you welcome to Malaysia. We will do
our best to make your stay comfortable.
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