Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : NICOSIA, CYPRUS
Tarikh/Date : 21/10/93
Tajuk/Title : TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY THE
PRESIDENT OF CYPRUS AT THE OPENING
OF THE COMMONWEALTH HEADS OF
GOVERNMENT MEETING
President Glafcos Clerides of Cyprus;
Heads of State and Government;
Secretary-General of the Commonwealth;
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is indeed a privilege and an honour for me to be
among the speakers chosen to thank President Clerides and
the people of Cyprus for their warm and gracious welcome to
Commonwealth leaders who are gathered here today for the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
2. We share with you, Mr. President, your pride in playing
host to this august gathering which will mark yet another
milestone in the forging of friendship among a community of
nations that calls itself the Commonwealth. Having had the
experience of hosting CHOGM ourselves, Malaysia is well
aware of the tremendous effort that has been put in by you
Mr. President, by your government and by the people of
Cyprus to make our stay here a memorable and comfortable
one.
3. I am sure the other Commonwealth leaders would
join me in expressing our most sincere appreciation for your
gracious words of welcome and for your kind hospitality.
Mr. President,
4. As we look back to our last meeting two years ago in
Harare, we can take pride in the fact that the Commonwealth
has moved many steps forward in several areas of cooperative
endeavours.
5. The priorities we agreed on at Harare in charting a
path for the Commonwealth through the 1990s and beyond are
now being translated into action by our officials. The
Steering Committee of Senior Officials, whose first meeting
was chaired by Malaysia in April this year, will provide
broad operational policy and resource allocation guidance to
the work of the Secretariat in the furtherance of the
priorities in the Harare Commonwealth Declaration. It is my
hope that the Secretary-General will, within the framework
of a more streamlined structure of the Commonwealth,
continue to provide direction to the Secretariat in line
with the same principle of good governance which the
Commonwealth is advocating among member countries.
6. Within the context of Commonwealth political
cooperation, our greatest success, since Harare, has no
doubt been in South Africa. The Commonwealth has long
struggled to dismantle all vestiges of apartheid in South
Africa. We have led the international crusade to eradicate
from our midst a practice which unjustly segregates man from
man because of the colour of his skin. We have, CHOGM after
CHOGM, pursued the matter with relentless fervour. We have
kept the issue under constant scrutiny. It is therefore
with a great sense of gratification that we, in the
Commonwealth, welcome the recent passage of the bill on the
establishment of the Transitional Executive Council by the
South African Parliament. We hail this event as an
irreversible step that will bring South Africa nearer to the
Commonwealth goal of a free, democratic, non-racial and
prosperous country. While there is still some way to go
before this goal is fully achieved, we nevertheless see this
bold step taken by the South African people as a determined
and genuine desire to see the end of apartheid. We are all,
I am sure, ready to help South Africa recover from the after
effects of sanctions.
7. Our gratification, Mr. President, at the developments
in South Africa comes from the knowledge that we have
succeeded in bringing justice and equality to our brothers
there. Our gratification comes from the knowledge that our
efforts have not been in vain. Most of all, our
gratification comes from the knowledge and belief that
through concerted efforts even the most intractable of
political problems, apartheid, can be resolved. There is a
lesson to be learnt here. World leaders, in trying to find
a solution to the problems in Bosnia-Herzegovina and
elsewhere, can usefully draw upon the Commonwealth
experience in South Africa.
8. Just as we can join forces in bringing pressure to bear
on the white South African government to tear down the walls
of apartheid, so can we join forces to bring pressure to
bear on the powers who hold the key to the solution of the
Bosnian problem.
9. The position of Malaysia on Bosnia-Herzegovina is well
known. Many are inclined to think that we are influenced by
our common religion. I would like to point out that Malaysia
had been equally active and as vehement in South Africa,
Namibia, Cambodia and other non-Muslim communities which
faced similar problems. We feel strongly when injustice and
oppression are perpetrated anywhere. The incessant
slaughter of innocent people, young and old in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, continues under the full glare of media
coverage -- served to us on our television screens together
with our evening meals. The bloody massacre turns even the
most sturdy of stomachs. And all for what? For the sake of
territorial aggrandisement! For the sake of ethnic
superiority! For the sake of a Serbian dream! Enough is
enough. We in the Commonwealth must help to find an
equitable and just solution to this holocaust if we want to
stand tall and uphold the very principles we had so
vehemently lauded in Harare, that is:
- the protection and promotion of democracy ..... -
the protection and promotion of fundamental human
rights ....
10. Some of us even went so far as to say that where human
rights violations are concerned we have a right to intervene
even in the internal affairs of a country. Yet in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, where ethnic cleansing involves blatant
murders and rapes of Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs aided
by the Serbian Government of rump Yugoslavia, the
righteousness that some of us display over minor
infringements of human rights, is remarkably absent.
Instead the Serbs are to be rewarded with territories they
have ethnically cleansed. Can we in the Commonwealth who
had appealed for outside cooperation to help some of our
members in need, ignore the Bosnian tragedy and elect to be
silent simply because this is not a Commonwealth affair?
11. Elsewhere on the political and economic front, there
are other crucial issues to be addressed. While we rejoice
at the recent signing of the Peace Accord between Israel and
the Palestine Liberation Organisation, we grieve at the news
of the ongoing conflicts in Somalia, in Georgia and in other
regions of the world. While we welcome the economic success
of many emerging 'dragons and tigers', we worry about
growing protectionism through the emergence of trade blocs.
We keep hoping, as we had hoped all these years, that the
Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, the guardian of free
trade, will come to a conclusive end by the close of this
year.
12. The CHOGM Executive Sessions that will begin this
afternoon will provide us with the opportunity to deliberate
at length on these issues of common concern. Since the
Commonwealth's membership spans the North-South divide, I
have every hope that a common position on these issues can
be fully explored and exploited. Malaysia has a number of
issues it intends to raise including those pertaining to
Commonwealth Functional Cooperation. Malaysia will be
tabling some new proposals on the Commonwealth Consultative
Group on Technology Management, a project approved at the
Kuala Lumpur CHOGM in 1989.
Mr. President,
13. A gathering of nations is only worthwhile if it speaks
with one voice. On South Africa, the Commonwealth not only
spoke with one voice but acted in unison as well. The
result is clear for everyone to see. But racial intolerance
is not found only in South Africa. Easy mobility of people
is making many countries multiracial. While countries have
a right to favour their own citizens, I hope the
Commonwealth will always stand united against the many forms
of religious, racial and pigmental intolerance.
14. In conclusion Mr. President, I would like to recall my
statement, said tongue-in-cheek at earlier CHOGMS, that
there is no common `wealth' in the Commonwealth. I would
like to add a sequel to that statement here in Cyprus by
saying that we can, if we want, make common `wealth' out of
the Commonwealth. And this common `wealth' need not
necessarily be confined to material wealth. It should
transcend the material to include racial harmony and
religious tolerance.
15. Once again, Mr President, on behalf of my wife and
members of my delegation, I would like to thank you for your
warm words of welcome and for your most gracious
hospitality. I look forward to our deliberations in
Limassol and Paphos under your skillful chairmanship.
Thank you.
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