Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK
Tarikh/Date : 01/10/93
Tajuk/Title : THE PLENARY OF THE FORTY-EIGHTH
SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Mr President,
I would like to join the other speakers in extending my
congratulations to Your Excellency Ambassador Samuel R.
Insanally on your election as the President of the 48th
Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Your
election to the important office of the President of the
General Assembly is an honour to your country, with whom
Malaysia enjoys warm and friendly relations. With your
experience and ability, I am confident that you will
discharge your responsibilities well and lead this august
assembly to a successful conclusion of its work.
2. I would also like to express my appreciation of your
predecessor H.E. Mr. Stoyan Ganev, who discharged his duties
with dedication and earnestness, and successfully guided the
efforts in revitalising the work of the General Assembly.
Mr. President,
3. May I also take this opportunity to welcome on behalf
of Malaysia six countries which have joined the United
Nations since last fall - Andora, Czech Republic, Eritrea,
Monaco, Slovak Republic and the Republic of Macedonia. Their
membership would help in strengthening the United Nations
and in executing its increasingly complex role in the
maintenance of international peace and security, and the
promotion of international economic cooperation.
Mr. President,
4. Malaysia is a developing third world country. We
should, according to the stereotypical western concept of a
third world country, be politically unstable,
administratively incompetent and economically depressed.
5. But we are not quite typical. We have actually made
progress. We are quite stable despite a multi-racial
time-bomb we inherited from our colonial past. We are
fairly competent in the running of our affairs. Such is our
progress that we actually contemplate building buildings
which should be the preserve of our betters.
6. And we dare to speak our minds.
7. These are unforgiveable sins and we are reminded every
time that we should not be too ambitious. We are told that
our achievements are temporary, that next year we would go
the way of their preconceived third world countries. Of
course last year and the years before we were told the same.
But so far we have not obliged. We are however humbly aware
that nothing is permanent. Our detractors may yet prove
right.
8. That we do well and are not in dire need of their
development aid is apparently not praiseworthy. Yet, when
other developing countries perform badly they are chastised
and told to do better, or they would get no more aid or
loans.
9. But we will soldier on. We really should not care
about what is said of us. Unfortunately these negative
remarks make life that much more difficult for us.
10. We need foreign investment. To have them we need a
reputation for stability, competence and predictability.
But when investors are told repeatedly that we are about to
explode in racial violence, etc., they are likely to invest
elsewhere. Of course what is said about us is untrue, lies.
But these people apparently subscribe to the dictum, that a
lie repeated often enough will be believed.
Mr. President,
11. We care for the well-being of our people. We want to
develop so as to give them a reasonable standard of living.
But we cannot be cowed into not speaking our minds. If the
powerful nations do wrong, we will speak out against them
even if they say we are unduly suspicious, that we have an
exaggerated sense of our own importance, etc. We can be
belittled but we will continue to speak the truth.
12. Here at the U.N. we will say what we feel we should
say. Of course the controlled `free' Western media will not
publish it. But the few here will hear us. In any case it
is what we achieve that counts with us. We can do without
Western approval.
Mr. President,
13. Four or five years ago the world was celebrating the
impending collapse of the 'Evil Empire'. The Union of
Soviet Socialist Republic was still intact then, but all
indications were that it had given up the fight; that it was
coming to terms with its main adversaries, the countries of
the Western so-called Free World; and that the Cold War was
drawing to a close.
14. Peace was breaking out all over the world and there was
much talk of `peace dividends'. The arms race would end,
there would be nuclear disarmament, and as the saying goes,
the guns would be turned into ploughshares. A brave new
world would emerge: equitable, just and prosperous. There
would be no oppression, no terror and no poverty or
starvation.
15. Everyone would embrace democracy and the market
economy, transiting from authoritarian rule and command
economy without any hitches. And a global policeman would
see to it that every country stay in line or face the
consequences. There was no end to the good things that
would make up the 'peace dividends'.
16. It would be wrong to say that there were no 'peace
dividends' at all -- the Iran-Iraq War, the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan, the war in Cambodia, some of the
Central American wars, and now the violent
Palestinian-Israeli confrontation and South Africa's
apartheid; these did get resolved, partially or completely.
But the world has not become a safer or a better place for a
great many.
17. The Soviet Union did not just become democratic
practitioners of free trade, working with the good guys for
a better world. It broke up into a number of republics, and
Russia has become dangerously unstable and ungovernable.
The respected great reformer of Perestroika and Glasnost
fame has been ousted and disgraced and has been replaced by
another who seems to fare no better.
18. The 'Evil Empire' is no more. But the price in human
lives and displacement of people is very high. And the
price is still being paid.
19. In Georgia, Moldavia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan,
much destruction and many killings have taken place and are
still taking place. The old economic structure has been
destroyed, but the new one is far from being in place.
Chaos, bloody chaos, prevails in many places.
20. Far from achieving universal peace the world is treated
to a spectacle of unparalleled brutality by the Serbs in
Bosnia- Herzergovina. In many countries of Europe fascism
has once again reared its ugly head. Houses are torched and
people burned to death. And the voters actually approved.
21. During the Cold War days the protagonists tried
constantly to provoke uprisings against Governments of the
countries they were opposed to. They would provide
financial and material help and the promise that they would
protect these rebels or provide them with asylum.
22. With the collapse of the communist bloc, the people
there expected help when they overthrew their Communist
Governments and established democratic free market societies
or they sought independence for their countries. In some
instances they found their expectations justified. The
Slovenes and the Croats enjoyed the full support of the
Europeans and were able to mould new nations. But the Kurds
and the Bosnians learnt that they thought wrong. It is only
coincidental that both are Muslim communities.
23. The most tragic case is that of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The crime of the Muslims is that they wish for a non-Muslim
religiously heterogenous state. They were viciously
attacked by the Serbs who openly declared that they were and
are doing this to ensure that Europe remains Christian.
They are not prevented by the Europeans.
24. The cruelties committed by the Serbs defy imagination.
In one case, which caused officials in one of the powerful
countries of the West to resign in protest over their
Government's passivity, a six year-old child was repeatedly
raped in front of her mother who not only had to watch but
was prevented from giving any help until the little child
died after two days of exposure.
25. This is not an isolated incident. Muslim women, old
and young and little girls were raped, brutalised and killed
by the tens of thousands at the hands of the Serbs and the
Croats.
26. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have died and
are dying and some two million have been forced to flee from
their burning towns and villages.
27. And what do the erstwhile champions of freedom and
democracy do? They actually prevented the victims from
defending themselves. Instead they try to force the victims
to accept the partitioning and surrender of their
territories which had been ethnically-cleansed by the Serbs
and Croats. Thus are the rapers and murderers to be
rewarded? Only the most gullible will still believe that
the vociferous champions of freedom and democracy will risk
their necks for other people's freedom and democracy.
Mr President,
28. Malaysia would like to record its satisfaction over the
acceptance of Malaysian troops to serve in the U.N. forces
in Bosnia-Herzegovina. We regret, however, the exclusion of
certain Muslim countries from participating in the UNPROFOR.
Apparently the distrust of Muslims is quite widespread.
29. Malaysians are prepared to serve under whoever is
appointed by the U.N. in Bosnia-Herzegovina. We hope that
our troops will be well-supported. We will not protest if
the U.N. decides to increase pressure on the Serbs,
including mounting a military offensive, provided due
preparations are made.
Mr President,
30. When we add up, the 'peace dividends' accruing from the
ending of the Cold War have not been really substantial. If
at all, the debit side is much bigger than the credit side.
The most glaring example is the reneging on the much needed
development assistance to poor developing countries.
31. Still when drawing up the balance sheet from the ending
of the Cold War, one cannot but highlight two significant
items on the credit side. The recent signing of the
PLO-Israeli peace agreement and that between blacks and
whites in South Africa must be regarded as the biggest
achievements of the post Cold War period. Admittedly there
is still a great deal to be negotiated before justice can be
rendered to all sides and before true peace becomes
permanent. But the most crucial parts are over.
32. I would like to congratulate all the parties concerned
for their good sense and their boldness. The extremists on
both sides will not be happy. There will be more violence.
But I am sure those who are for peace and good sense will be
as brave in peace as they have been in war.
33. I commend these accords to the good people of Northern
Ireland. It is brave not to surrender even one inch. But
it takes real bravery to compromise.
Mr President,
34. One may well ask why in the face of the much-publicised
failure of the U.S-sponsored peace talks, there should be
this sudden break-through? The answer is to be found in the
press statements. Good sense cannot prevail when the media
demands that statements be made by each and everyone before
and after each negotiating session. The negotiators are
forced to make public stands, to demonstrate how tough they
are and how they will not give in even an inch. Having made
these stands they were not able to accommodate good sense
anymore.
35. In the peace talks in Norway there was no press. And
good sense was able to prevail. There is this great
democratic principle about the need to know. Do we all
really need to know every detail of every negotiation? Does
every Israeli settler or Gaza strip Arab, or for that matter
every Tom, Dick and Harry in every part of the world need to
know everything about the negotiations? Must Palestinians
continue to be killed and be
made homeless because everybody needs to know what was said
by whom?
36. This need for transparency, this right to information
is an invention of those who want to make money from the
information industry. We should know about the bestiality
of the Serbs in Bosnia so we may react. But this knowledge
is largely denied us. On the other hand, we are shown this
parade of negotiators to a peace conference day in and day
out. Can the average man do anything worthwhile because he
has seen the daily TV report?
Mr. President,
37. We live in the Information Age. There has been and
there will continue to be an unending explosion in the field
of information technology.
38. Today we can sit in our homes and watch and hear a war
as it is being fought; witness with eyes and ears a beauty
contest as it is being judged and look at bugs under a
microscope as it swims, via the TV screen. We see all these
as they are, where they are without a second's delay.
39. We can watch murder as it is being committed, in all
the gory details. And we can be shocked by it. But then we
can also watch Michael Jackson doing his 'moon-walk' even as
mass murder and massacres of the most brutal kinds are being
committed at that very moment.
40. What we see and hear and witness, Mr President, is what
the media decide we should see and hear and witness. If the
media wants us to be shocked by the massacre, it can
broadcast lurid details of that massacre. But if it chooses
to broadcast Michael Jackson at the time the massacre was
taking place, we will be stomping our feet in total
enjoyment.
Mr. President,
41. Clearly the people who decide what we should see and
hear hold terrible power. They can have us dancing in the
streets or they can have us rioting in the streets with
firebrands in our hands, burning, looting and killing.
42. Can we doubt that such people are powerful?
43. Make no mistake. The people who control the media
control our minds, and probably control the world.
Presidents can be made or broken by them. And they have.
Countries can be isolated or accepted despite violations of
human rights, depending on how the media presents them.
44. And who controls the powerful world media? Not the
national Governments of tiny developing nations. Not even
the Governments of powerful nations. A very few people in
the west control all the international media. Some are
journalists but quite a few are not. Collectively they are
Big Brothers.
45. Now they have an even more effective weapon in the form
of the worldwide TV network. Today they broadcast slanted
news. Tomorrow they will broadcast raw pornography to
corrupt our children and destroy our culture. They are
already doing that in Europe.
46. Today we can still control the reception. The day is
fast approaching when only a coat-hanger would be needed to
receive TV broadcasts from across the world.
47. We will have nowhere to retreat. Already the small
nations are being accused of being undemocratic and limiting
freedom because we do not allow reception of international
TV networks. We hope it is because our accusers believe in
the freedom of the press. But we suspect it is because
they monopolise the world
media and they stand to profit substantially from the
freedom they insist every nation should have.
48. Malaysia believes in press freedom. But that freedom,
as with other freedoms and rights, must be accompanied by
responsibility. We will continue to expect the Malaysian
media to be responsible. We will not forego the need to
enforce this responsibility. But as to the international
press we can only hope and pray that they will realise the
damage they are doing. We will not interfere with them.
They are free to report and to write any amount of lies.
But we do hope that occasionally they cover the truth also.
Power corrupts. But power without responsibility is the
most corrupting influence of all.
Mr President,
49. We have heard often enough of the need for
restructuring the U.N. We need it because the world has
changed. It is not the world of the immediate Post World
War II that we have today.
50. The people who plunged the world into a horrendous war
are now the good guys, telling the world how to be humane.
The rapacious invaders of the past are now the good
samaritans distributing aid to the needy. Will there always
be no room for the reformed?
51. We talk of democracy as the only acceptable system of
government. It is so good that we cannot wait for the
democratic process to bring about its acceptance by every
country. It must be forced upon everyone whether it is
welcomed or not. Yet when it comes to the U.N. we eschew
democracy. And the most undemocratic aspect of the U.N. is
the veto power of the Permanent Five. We can accept some
weightage for them, but for each of them, alone, to be more
powerful than the whole membership of the U.N. is not
acceptable; not before, not now and not for the future.
There can be for the time being some permanent members.
But the veto must go. A formula must be found for new
permanent members of the security council. Whatever may be
the other qualifications, they must include a genuine and
sincere interest in international welfare.
Mr President,
52. At the Ministerial Meeting in Vienna this year a more
comprehensive definition of Human Rights was presented.
Many countries like Malaysia were smeared in Vienna for
allegedly refusing to accept the universality of human
rights. We do subscribe to the universality of human rights
but not to the irresponsible variety propounded by the West.
Human rights is not a licence to do anything without regard
to the rights of others. The rights of the majority are
just as valid as the rights of the minority or the
individual. A society has a right to protect itself from
the unbridled exercise of rights by individuals or a
minority which in the West has contributed to the collapse
of morality and the structure of human society.
53. If individual and minority rights are so totally
inviolable than you must allow the resurgence of Nazism and
their violently racist activities in Europe and elsewhere.
But it is apparent that at least the west still think racist
violence is wrong. We hope they will also accept that
freedom from poverty and the wish to develop are essential
elements of human rights. Finally countries like Malaysia
must take exception to preachings on human rights from
people who willingly condone and to a certain degree aid
ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Until they redeem
themselves there, all their talks of human rights sound
hollow.
Mr President,
54. This litany of the woes of the developing countries and
the world may seem endless. Actually the list is far from
complete. Trade and protectionism, aid and debts, UNCED
and pressures on
environmental issues, antarctica and many more have not been
touched upon.
55. The world of the Post Cold War period is not a
thoroughly bad place. But for the developing countries
including Malaysia, there is really very little to crow
about.
56. A statement in the U.N. Assembly is not going to change
the world. But there is really nowhere else that the woes
of the third world can be aired. Not to air them is to
encourage the kind of supercilious arrogance on the part of
those who are most responsible and yet still presume to
extoll their own virtues and to preach to others. Even if
the benefit is minimal, the truth must be told sometime.
I thank you, Mr President.
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