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.