Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : NEW YORK
Tarikh/Date : 29/09/95
Tajuk/Title : THE 50TH SESSION OF THE UNITED
NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Let me congratulate you Mr. President on your election
to the 50th United Nations General Assembly. I wish you a
successful presidency. Appreciations are also due to your
distinguished predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Amara Essy,
who provided the leadership during the 49th UN General
Assembly.
2. This General Assembly is meeting amidst hectic
schedules of events to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of
the United Nations. Some of us have become preoccupied with
these celebrations. We should ask whether these activities
are merely media events or would they seriously contribute
to a better UN? Will the high point of the 50th Anniversary
be reduced to a special commemorative meeting condensed into
a declaration of good intentions which no one seriously
cares for, or should we resist the tendency to celebrate, to
expand millions on galas and parties and to eulogise through
rhetorical speeches the anniversary of the United Nations'
establishment? After all we cannot even answer the basic
questions of where we stand and what the UN is, whipping boy
or serious enduring player.
3. Admittedly it is easy to raise questions than to find
answers. But these questions must be raised and they
deserve to be answered. On its 50th year the UN system
finds itself under criticism for being unable to handle
basic and critical political, economic and social issues.
Despite earlier hopes of a just world order following upon
the end of the Cold War, what we see is still a UN which
dances to the grating music of the major powers in total
disregard for the high principles and objectives pledged at
its formation. We will have to conclude that the narrow
national interest of the few is still what the UN is all
about. Also the principle which largely move the major
powers, that what they need for themselves must influence
their dealings with the needs of others, is fully operative,
making nonsense of interdependence, social compassion and
justice.
4. And so we must forget the promise of an international
political leadership that can collectively come to grips
with the myriads of issues for a shared survival.
Confrontation between states, intra-state conflicts,
economic and military threats, the dehumanising effects of
poverty; all these are heightened rather than diminished by
the ending of the Cold War. The contradictory impulses of
interdependence and isolationism are more evident than ever
before. Humanitarianism is not only drying up fast; but
what survives is replete with conditionalities. The UN
presents a shattered image with a threadbare moral
authority, despite the important early successes in
decolonisation and the subsequent elimination of apartheid.
5. The victors of 1945 have clung tenaciously to the
levers of power. They control the high ground, exercising
influence and power as nakedly as when they were colonial
powers. Only the masks have changed. The multilateral
organisations created on the eve of war's end were and still
are structured to further their economic interests and the
pursuit of their strategic political goals. The Security
Council, the World Bank, and the International Monetary
Fund, have merely become the instruments of power
perpetuation. Less than six months ago, we were witness to
the use of the UN to push through, draconian-like, the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Before the ink was dry,
some of the nuclear powers proceeded to test their
diabolical weapons. What, may I ask, qualifies some
countries for possession of the means of mass destruction in
perpetuity? It is time that the nuclear-weapon states
commit themselves to nuclear disarmament through a
programmed reduction of their nuclear arsenal within a
specific time frame, beginning with the immediate cessation
of all nuclear tests and culminating in their total
elimination. Soon it may be too costly and too late.
6. Perversely, the major powers not only continue to
compete in developing ever more destructive conventional
weapons, but they also compete to sell arms. And when some
developing countries buy arms, the Western controlled media
accuse them of indulging in arms races.
7. We seem to inherit a world in which moral
considerations have no real role to play or that acts of
realpolitik have no moral consequences. Tears appear to be
shed about the human tragedies in Bosnia, Rwanda, Liberia,
Somalia and Chechnya. But many have become desensitised to
the horrors that flash across our screens. The Charter
incorporating the idealism and dreams of 1945, is more
honoured in its violations than its adherence. Tell us how
have the principles of the Charter on the non-use of force
and the illegality of claiming territory acquired by
aggression been of help to the Bosnians? What protection or
solace has the Genocide Convention been to those slaughtered
in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and Chechnya? The lesson for
the peoples of these countries is clear; no international
order or international ethos will be defended unless the
major powers see their vital interests are at risk.
8. The United Nations have been party to the double talk
in Bosnia, insisting that morality had no place in
peace-keeping since the impartiality that peacekeepers had
to maintain required them to eschew making any judgement
about the rights and wrongs of the situation. I ask the UN
whether there can be a middle ground where genocide and
ethnic cleansing are concerned? I ask the Secretary-General
of the UN whether he is obliged to defend the moral
principles in the UN Charter or whether he should console
the dying and the bereaved that there are others elsewhere
suffering worse fates?
9. Isn't there, in the context of the larger picture,
a special role for the UN to provide international
leadership? Clearly, the major powers have failed to
provide leadership; choosing only to act in furtherance of
their national or domestic political interests. They
continue to harp on human rights and the sanctity of human
life but they act only when they run no risk.
10. Admittedly, blame must also be apportioned to many of
us in the Third World. Some of us have led our people down
the path of despair and misery. With the demise of
colonialism, there was the promise of freedom, and
development. Yet many succumbed to the temptations of
creature comfort, failing to further the rights and welfare
of our own people. But then when we were colonies, the only
form of Government we knew was authoritarian colonialism. It
is too much to expect some of us, at the midnight flag
lowering, to suddenly become democratic and sophisticated.
11. The threat of a brutalised world is never more evident
than in the Serb program of ethnic cleansing in
Bosnia-Herzegovina and the massacres in Rwanda. For a long
time the major powers were opposed to taking strong measures
against the Serbs. We are seeing belatedly some sense of
purpose in the NATO bombings and efforts to negotiate a
solution. However, we should be cautious about rushing
towards solutions that reward aggression and genocide. It
is possible that some in the West and in the United Nations
longed for Bosnia's quick defeat. It would save them from
making any decision. But the Bosnians refused to oblige.
In Rwanda the European troops withdrew when the massacres
began. And in Somalia failure to understand the situation
lead to the victims fighting their UN saviours.
12. The United Nations Secretariat must take some of the
blame for all these brutalities. In Rwanda it truly shirked
its duty while in Bosnia it sent in a protection force which
was instructed not to protect the Bosnians. Why it should
be called UNPROFOR was a mystery until lately. It was there
to protect itself. It makes a distinction between
peace-keeping and peace-enforcement. If there is peace to
keep, why do you need military forces? Isn't it because of
the possibility of breaches of the peace that the forces are
put there? And when there are breaches the forces must stop
them, if peace-keeping is to be meaningful. But instead
when peace is broken the UN threatened to withdraw and leave
the victims to their fate.
13. Fortunately, in Palestine, another historical flash
point, efforts continue to be made towards durable peace.
That peace process must result in a Palestinian homeland, a
viable state at peace with its neighbours. The attempts to
weaken the present Palestinian leadership by undermining its
credibility will only result in the rise of extremism and a
protracted and bloody intra-Palestinian conflict which will
spill over into Israel and elsewhere.
14. The absence of international leadership and commitment
is evident in the area of development as well. The rhetoric
of development is increasingly devoid of meaningful content.
The North has turned its back on commitments relating to
development assistance. Yet such is the concern for the
survival of insects and plant life that human development
must be stopped if it is suspected it might endanger a few
animals or plants. That there are plenty of the same
species elsewhere is considered irrelevant. And so
one-fifth of the world's population remain mired in poverty
having been denied development assistance by the rich and
the powerful. The latter have retreated into their regional
clubs and cosy arrangements for perpetuating unconscionable
levels of consumption. Some of the countries of the South
have tried to pull themselves up literally by their own
bootstraps. But the moment they appear to succeed, the
carpet is pulled out from underneath their feet. GSP
privileges are withdrawn and their records of human rights,
democracy, etc are scrutinised in order to obstruct their
progress.
15. Some among the more successful South have been enticed
to join the rich and the strong, so they may not lend
what little strength they have to their compatriots.
16. Commitment to the environment should not be turned into
an occasion for recrimination and pointing of fingers.
Worse, it should not be politically instrumentalised to
disadvantage the South. Development can take place without
irreparable damage to the environment. Forcing the
developing countries to remain undeveloped in order to
preserve the environment for the rich is manifestly unfair.
Yet the environmental obstacles placed in the way of the
poor South will do just that, beggaring the poor to enrich
the already rich.
17. Poverty in itself creates an environment that is as
damaging to humanity as any other kind of environmental
pollution. Obviously we need to determine our priorities.
Do we keep the poor permanently poor so the rich can enjoy
the environment or do we sacrifice the environment a little
in the interest of relieving poverty?
18. We, in Malaysia, accept that economic development
should not be at the expense of other groups or the future
generations. Environmental sustainability, social equity
and a culture that allows for the fulfilment of human needs
must replace the culture of materialism. The Western
consumer society, which is spreading worldwide requires
ever increasing consumption to keep production and profits
continuously rising. For this more fuel is needed and the
trend in the consumption of fossil fuel in recent years is
alarming. Yet very little is being done to curb such
wasteful use of a depleting resource while the development
of renewable resources such as hydro power meets with all
kinds of objections. Progressively industrialising Malaysia
has the capacity and the resources to design and implement a
model of development sensitive to the needs and cultural
values of developing countries without imitating the flawed
Western model. We only ask that misguided crusaders should
keep out. These modern day imitations of the Communist
agitators would do well to look at their own countries'
wasteful consumption and carbon dioxide emission.
19. Social disintegration is a serious problem as the
world's population become more urbanised. This is not
helped by the West seeking to impose its moral values. The
institutions which hold society together are now being
undermined. At the Beijing Women's Summit despite a
consensus cobbled together to alleviate the sufferings of
women, the mad quest for personal freedom took one more
tradition bashing step. People it seems cannot be free
unless they have sexual freedom; a freedom which rejects the
inhibitions of traditional and religious values, of marriage
and family as institutions of society. Sexual freedom will
render fidelity meaningless as much as it renders marriages
anachronistic. The new liberalism extends to a new
definition of the family, which is to include homosexual
pairs, unmarried women with children by unknown fathers,
groups of men and women living together with no fixed
partners and many other combinations.
20. If the West wants to be liberal and sexually free, this
is its right. But what is wrong is the attempt to impose
its morality or lack of it on the rest of the world. And in
Beijing that was what it tried to do. The UN should not
lend itself to this kind of undemocractic disregard for the
rights of others.
21. Of late there has been much talk about reform of the
UN. Clearly there is a need for this after 50 years of the
UN carrying the tattered baggage of the last World War.
Surely the results of that war cannot be reflected in the
structure and procedures of the UN forever. It has to end
some time. And the 50th anniversary is as good a time as
any for burying the relics of past follies.
22. Since democracy seems to have displaced religion as a
faith, it is fitting that there must be democratic reforms
in the UN. Some of those countries which had vested
themselves with infallibility and permanency have now become
second raters. New players have emerged who should be
accorded recognition. A more equitable representation on
the Security Council is a must. This means that permanent
seats should be given to regions possibly determined by a
regional mechanism.
23. The veto power should be dropped. Under no
circumstances must the Security Council be made an
instrument of any one country.
24. Reform must extend also to the financing of the UN. It
is wholly unacceptable that member states, especially the
rich ones, should fall into arrears with impunity and yet
exercise special rights and influence. The membership rules
must be applied to one and all. New bases for assessment
should be made taking into consideration the wealth or lack
of it among the members.
25. Various global taxation schemes including modest levies
on global air travel, a tax on global speculative flows of
capital, a tax on the exploitation of mankind's common
assets on the seabed, and a tax on the trade in weapons of
war have been proposed. Of these the last one, based on the
principle that he who profits from the tools of war must
contribute to the maintenance of peace, merit urgent
attention and adoption.
26. Reform of the United Nations also require the cleansing
of the bureaucratic aegean stables in the Secretariat. The
morale of the international civil service is at its lowest
ebb. The excesses and the fat must be trimmed but failure
to do so must not be used as an excuse for not paying dues
or for opting out.
27. It is heartening to note that UNCTAD and other economic
agencies of the UN have now acknowledged that linking trade
with non-trade issues serves no useful purpose either for
the developed or the developing countries. Unemployment in
the developed countries is not due to workers in developing
countries working hard to compensate for their lack of other
competitive advantages, but rather to the profligate ways of
the developed nations with their high wages and unemployment
benefits. Why it is assumed that workers in developed
countries would work when they are to be paid for not
working is a mystery at par with the idea that people would
be happy and productive if the diligent are paid as much as
the indolent.
28. The reform of global institutions must encompass the
Bretton Woods organisations. Their energies and resources
must be channelled towards the battle against the pollution
caused by poverty worldwide. The Bretton Woods
organisations have to cease acting as debt collectors for
the mighty and the rich bankers, who in turn must learn to
live within the rules of their own creation, that of taking
commercial risks which go hand-in-hand with the pursuit of
gain. A return to their original mandates, that of
promoting balanced development in the case of the World
Bank, and that of enforcing monetary and fiscal
responsibility in all countries, irrespective of their
status in the global economy, is a first priority. Reform
must include a re-evaluation of the governance arrangements
at the Bank and the Fund through a realignment and
re-allocation of quotas and share-holdings that take into
account the changed structure of the world economy. New
arrangements for governance must recognise the growing clout
of the newly emerging economies that now contribute to a
rising share of global output, to trade and capital flows.
29. The debt millstone weighs heavily on the poor. This
burden must be eased, especially for the poorest nations of
Africa. Malaysia hopes that effective actions will be taken
forthwith taking into account decisions made at the 49th
General Assembly on finding a durable solution to the
external debt problem of developing countries.
30. While bilateral debts extended by donor countries have
over the years been restructured and rescheduled - though
with humiliating conditions imposed by the Paris Club of
Creditors - multilateral institutions, led by the World
Bank, have steadfastly refused consideration of
restructuring debt owed to them. The World Bank continues
to increase its profit levels and amasses reserves which
today stand in excess of US$16 billion. Why are these
reserves, built from payments by developing countries, not
used for debt relief? And why do we allow the intransigence
of one or two countries to preclude the issuance of Special
Drawing Rights by the International Monetary Fund? These
and other issues must feature in a reform of the Bretton
Woods institutions.
31. The conclusion of the Uruguay Round, and the
establishment of the World Trade Organisation offer a
glimmer of hope for rule-based trading relationships.
Malaysia applauds and welcomes the underlying principles and
we pledge ourselves to play by the mutually agreed
undertakings.
32. Regrettably, powerful trading nations threaten through
unilateral actions to undermine the carefully negotiated
agreements. The deliberate creation of regional trading
blocs, the introduction of managed trade, the attempts to
link human rights, environmental considerations, and labour
codes to trade, are major threats, which if implemented
would dim the hope of a free environment for trade. We
reject such attempts. The new protectionism, will return
the world to a bygone era when trade wars led to military
confrontations.
33. And finally the new threats with the advent of the
Information Age. The poor countries have long suffered from
biased reporting by the world media, controlled by the
developed world. Now the computer network created for the
spread of knowledge and information has become polluted by
the irresponsible dissemination of filth through them.
Someone is making money from this filth. The world
community must find a way to keep out such filth and to
provide for legal action to be taken against them by
aggrieved countries even when they broadcast from outside
their borders. They should be allowed to bring these
miscreants for trial in the aggrieved countries under their
laws. After all we have already had many instances of
extraterritorial application of the laws of some countries
without so much as a by your leave.
34. Freedom of information is fine but even in this age of
freedom we cannot allow morals to be completely undermined
in order to enrich the merchants of porn and filth.
35. When all is said and done we still have to admit that
the UN is the only truly multinational organisation where
the voices of small nations can be heard. We support the UN
but we must correct the tendency to make it an instrument of
the rich and the powerful. The UN must stand on the side of
the collective needs of people and nations in order to serve
all humankind.
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