Oleh : DATO SERI DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat : MANDARIN ORIENTAL HOTEL,
KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh : 30-09-2000
Tajuk : AT RED RIBBON GALA 2000
Penyampai : PM
First of all I would like to thank the Malaysian AIDS
Foundation for once again inviting me to their premier fund
raising event, the Red Ribbon Gala. I am given to understand
that this Gala is held only once every two years although the
last one was postponed due to the economic slowdown that our
country experienced. Syukur Alhamdulillah, the country's
economy has now recovered and the Foundation is once again
calling upon the generosity of the Malaysian business
community. I understand that the Malaysian business community
has responded with great generosity, illustrating that
corporate social responsibility is very much a part of
Malaysian business life.
2. In the past few years our country has experienced some
major challenges. Our economy has been attacked and internally
we have also faced some significant threats to our stability,
our communities and our way of life. It is not entirely a bad
thing for us to face these challenges because they provide us
with the opportunity to re-assess how we look at things and
how we respond to things and in so doing we will hopefully
learn something from the experience and emerge all the better
for it.
3. It has been our good fortune that the threats we have
faced have been visible and their results quickly felt and
assessed and therefore we have been able to respond
effectively. Of course they need constant monitoring and our
responses need constant evaluation so that we remain forever
alert and ready to defend our country from whatever challenges
it may face.
4. But what if the challenge is largely invisible, and its
effects not yet felt? Do we wait until we can see an enemy
before we react or do we have the foresight to see far into
the future in order to recognise an enemy even before it makes
itself visible?
5. HIV/AIDS is a threat that is still invisible to the
Malaysian public but it is nevertheless there. Already we have
lost many citizens to an otherwise preventable disease because
we have not been able to see the enemy. The enemy in this case
is a tiny virus whose sole survival is dependent on the
ignorance and denial by many that such a virus exists. HIV has
been able to take advantage of all of man's weaknesses, but
specifically man's unwillingness to accept the existence of
what it cannot and does not want to see. And in so doing has
wreaked devastation and suffering far beyond what man has ever
been able to do by himself.
6. Consider this: in 1999, 200,000 Africans were killed due
to conflict. But two million Africans died of AIDS. We may be
able to see a human enemy, we may equip ourselves with
expensive guns in order to fight that enemy but we cannot
inflict the sort of suffering that a tiny virus can inflict.
7. This suffering is not limited to those who have been
infected. 13.2 million children around the world have become
orphans because of AIDS. In some countries in Africa, life
expectancies have been shortened by some 20 years and the
entire demographic picture of those countries have changed. A
generation, those in the young productive ages have been lost
and the impact on countries cannot be easily rectified.
Essentially, AIDS is an impoverishing disease for countries
because it strikes at the very people who can help to develop
a country.
8. In addition, AIDS is altering the global economic
scenario, perhaps in a more unfair way than globalisation
itself. It is clear from the global AIDS pandemic that the
countries that are suffering most from AIDS are those that are
the poorest, the ones most crippled by debt, the ones least
stable. In addition AIDS makes them even poorer because these
countries have the least capability to provide treatment for
those who have become infected. The net result is that the gap
between the rich and the poor, the North and the South,
becomes even wider.
9. In Malaysia, we are fortunate in that we are not hampered
by some of the factors that have prevented many countries from
responding effectively to the epidemic. But still the numbers
of our citizens who have become infected continues to rise,
with the concomitant suffering that their families and those
around them are subject to.
10. There is in fact no reason for this to happen in our
country. But it happens because many are still unable to
accept that HIV/AIDS is a disease that is among us and that
requires urgent attention. Too much talking and handwringing
has been done about the many different ways to respond to the
epidemic;in the meantime, Malaysians continue to become
infected because the information they need to protect
themselves has not reached them.
11. It is time to stop talking and start acting. At every
level of society, whether on the part of Government or on the
part of civil society, there has to be a realistic and
effective response. At the very highest levels of Government,
there is already a move to face the epidemic squarely in the
face. In 2001, the heads of the Government of the ten ASEAN
member nations will meet at a summit to discuss the
seriousness of the epidemic and the need for a concerted
coordinated regional action. This is a Malaysian initiative
and I hope that this demonstration of political leadership on
HIV/AIDS will result in increased attention by all ASEAN
citizens.
12. I cannot emphasise enough the need for prevention, care
and support programmes to be done at the community level. This
is where the impact of the epidemic will be felt most and
where such programmes are needed most. I normally do not care
for NGOs, especially those which only know how to demand
others to do their bidding but I make an exception with the
Malaysian AIDS Council, an NGO. I congratulate the Malaysian
AIDS Council for its commitment to enhancing the capacity of
non-governmental organisations to carry out positive
programmes, whether through providing financial aid or through
training. We also welcome the role of the Malaysian AIDS
Council in bringing to the table issues which, because of the
stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, remains hidden, and for
assisting the Government in advocating for a more just and
equitable access to the expensive anti-retroviral drugs
through compulsory licensing and parallel importing. This is
definitely an issue on which the Government and the positive
NGOs can work together for the good of our country.
13. The Government will also continue to play its role in
providing a suitable policy environment for the positive NGOs
to play their role and we will support such NGOs as much as we
can. But we also call upon the private sector, which in fact
have the most to gain by prevention programmes, to support
education about HIV/AIDS among their employees and in the
communities, as you are doing tonight. We need to do this
jointly, between the Government, NGOs, the private sector and
the media. Only then can we truly avoid the negative effects
of this dreadful epidemic.
14. I also understand that tonight we shall be honouring
several journalists, artists and special people who have all
done their bit to help educate the Malaysian public and bring
issues related to HIV/AIDS to the fore. I would like to
congratulate all the winners and hope that they will continue
to contribute to the national effort to fight this epidemic by
disseminating accurate information about HIV/AIDS.
15. Lastly I would like to call upon all Malaysians to open
their eyes to this invisible enemy, known as HIV, and the need
for urgent action. Let us stop having endless discussions on
what are the real reasons for AIDS in our country. The fact is
that while we talk, the virus does its work and we will always
be several steps behind in controlling it. Let us not see the
epidemic in hindsight when it is too late but rather have the
foresight, the vision, to see that urgent action now can
forestall a future darkened by this tiny invisible enemy known
as HIV.
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