Malaysia

Permanent Mission to the United Nations

 

 

STATEMENT BY

H.E. MR. SYED HAMID ALBAR,

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF MALAYSIA

 

AT THE

FIFTY‑FIFTH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS

GENERAL ASSEMBLY, NEW YORK

 

FRIDAY, 15th SEPTEMBER, 2000

 

Mr. President,

 

I would like to join other speakers in congratulating you on your election as the President of this 55th session of the General Assembly. I am confident that with your vast experience and diplomatic skills you will be able to guide the proceedings of this Assembly to a successful conclusion.

 

2. 1 would also like to express my delegation's gratitude to your predecessor, His Excellency, Mr. Ben Gurirab, for the effective manner in which he had guided the work of the last session of the General Assembly.

 

3. Let me also take this opportunity to commend the Secretary General for his great dedication to the Organisation and the many contributions he has made in the service of the international community.

 

Mr. President,

 

4. There are great expectations on the part of the international community that in the new century the United Nations will be a more effective organisation. Indeed, its continued relevance, especially to the developing countries, which comprise the majority of the membership of the United Nations, would, to a large degree, depend on their perception that it is attuned to their concerns and responsive to their needs. The Organisation must continue to serve the interests of all of its members, big or small, strong or weak. It must be more transparent and democratic in its decision‑making processes and work methods.

 

5. In this context, the reform and restructuring of the Organisation continues to be a matter of great importance. Much has been done through the process of reform effected by the Secretary General; but reform is a continuous and on‑going process and should continue to be vigorously pursued to ensure the United Nation's increased effectiveness and efficiency, especially in facing up to the challenges of the new century. As modernization of the Organisation entails additional resources, the critical issue of the financing of the UN must also be seriously addressed and resolved as soon as possible.

 

6.       More intensified efforts should be made to bring to conclusion the deliberation on one of the most important aspects of the reform process, namely, the restructuring of the Security Council. Clearly, the necessary compromises must be made if the ongoing deliberations on the Council are to make any progress at all. We look forward to your leadership, Mr. President, in unblocking the current impasse so that this important organ of the United Nations can be finally revamped and modernised and made more effective. Malaysia continues to support an  expansion of the Council in both categories of its membership. Any expansion in the permanent category should include both industrialized and developing countries. If there is no agreement on expansion of the permanent membership, the Council should be enlarged for the time being in the non-permanent category.

 

7. A central objective of a reform of the Security Council should be to ensure its effectiveness in the maintenance of international peace and security. Equally important, is the need to enhance the Council's unity of purpose among its members, especially the permanent members, so as to avoid the situation that necessitated the taking of international action outside of the Council by NATO, as in the case of Kosovo, when the Council was unable to act. Notwithstanding the special circumstances of Kosovo, future international interventions should be made only with the expressed approval of the UN Security Council, in the interest of preserving the role and authority of the Council as enshrined in the Charter, as well as in ensuring the legality and legitimacy of all such actions.

 

8. Another aspect of the work of the Security Council that should be thoroughly reviewed relates to the imposition of sanctions on member states which have often brought untold sufferings on the general populace, particularly women and children. Sanctions regimes of the future should be established only when absolutely necessary and should be specifically targeted, time‑bound, subject to regular review and lifted when no longer necessary. Interests of all parties to the conflict should be addressed in order to achieve a just and lasting peace. We have seen too many conflicts that seem to be resolved on paper but continue to remain outstanding on the ground.

 

Mr. President,

 

9. We should strive in the new century to make our world a safer place. We should strive to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, particularly, nuclear weapons, but also chemical and biological weapons. We must intensify the global efforts to reduce existing stocks of these horrendous weapons, culminating in their total elimination. The major powers and others that possess and manufacture these weapons, bear a special responsibility. We should all play our part in ensuring that there is no let‑up in the global efforts towards nuclear non‑proliferation and disarmament. We should also limit the production and deployment of ultra‑sophisticated, "hi‑tech" conventional weapons, many of which are being used in the wars of developing countries resulting in the ironic situation of third world countries fighting their wars with first world weapons, thanks to the aggressive marketing efforts of arms vendors of the developed countries. The developing countries can ill afford the arms race that this will trigger, nor the huge defence expenditures to sustain the use of these weapons.

 

10. We must ensure that genocide, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity that were perpetrated, for instance, in Rwanda, Bosnia‑Herzegovina and Kosovo should never be allowed to be committed again anywhere else in the world. More strenuous efforts should be made to apprehend indicted war criminals so as to send a stem warning to others. They should not be allowed to get away with their heinous crimes with impunity.

 

11. Undoubtedly, the maintenance of international peace and security can be better served through more effective use of preventive diplomacy. This has been highlighted by the Secretary-General in his Millennium Report and should be seriously considered. This organisation will have to develop a more effective early warning capability and to deal with emerging conflict situations through more effective use of the mechanism of preventive diplomacy. A more proactive approach on preventive diplomacy would require even closer coordination and collaboration between the Security Council and the Secretary‑General who would have to put his good offices role to even greater use. However, this should not become an excuse to impose or interfere in the internal affairs of member states. There are growing tendencies, in the name of civil society, democracy and human rights, for the developed countries to set standards for the developing countries to follow in accordance with their own moulds. We even ignore that many of the problems confronting the developing countries are the vestiges of the colonial past. We want to leave yesterday and move to today and the future but it should follow the pace that is appropriate to the particular country concerned.

 

12. United Nations peacekeeping operations should be prosecuted with clear and well‑defined mandates, adequate resources and strong international support, irrespective of where they occur. There should be no perception of selectivity in the launching of these operations. In this regard, it is especially important that peacekeeping operations in Africa, notably in Sierra‑Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia and Eritrea be strongly supported by the international community. At the same time, for peace to be viable, it is essential that peacekeeping missions incorporate the necessary elements of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of the ex‑combatants, with the necessary support of the international community.

 

13. My delegation commends the frank and forthright report of the Brahimi Panel on United Nations Peace Operations. The panel's bold recommendations deserve detail and careful consideration of the membership of the Organisation. Thereafter, we must demonstrate the urgency, seriousness and political will to follow up on these laudable recommendations, lest the panel's report meets the fate of many UN reports in the past for lack of the necessary political will.

 

14. On another conflict situation, it is a matter of great dismay to Malaysia that one of the longest conflicts of this century‑the Arab‑Israeli conflict‑remains unresolved. Successive opportunities failed to be grasped, due to the lack of seriousness of the Israeli government to pursue the path of peace. We are disappointed that the Israeli government fails to live up to the expectations of the international community and lacks the boldness of vision, as well as the will and courage to grasp the one‑a‑lifetime window of opportunity to seal a lasting peace between Israel and Palestine, and Syria, in the interest of regional peace and security. The aspirations of the Palestinian people for an independent and sovereign homeland can no longer be denied. We look forward to welcoming in the very near future an independent State of Palestine in the community of nations, here in the United Nations, as well as in other international organizations. Equally, we look forward to the return of Syrian Golan without further delay. Israel must bury the suspicion and distrust of the past and look forward to the future in an environment that will create opportunities and challenges in a peaceful and stable Middle East.

 

Mr. President,

 

15. Since the East Asian financial crisis, there has been increasing recognition of the nature of the problem of and the need for a reform of the existing global financial and economic systems, which Malaysia has strongly advocated. It is my hope that efforts in that direction will continue to be pursued by the Bretton Woods institutions, even if the worst for the affected Asian economies may now be over and these countries are now recovering. It is dismaying that some quarters are suggesting that with the end of the crisis there is, now, no urgency or even necessity for reform. Given the universality of its membership, the United Nations is well‑placed to make an important contribution to promote the reform process, particularly in the context of its own increasing dialogue and interaction with the above‑mentioned institutions. It would be the height of folly and irresponsibility to wait for another round of speculative currency attacks to jolt us into action.

 

Mr. President,

 

16. East Asia's traumatic experience is also a strong reminder of the negative effects of globalisation on developing countries. While globalisation may be inevitable, and is becoming a permanent feature of the new international order and system, it is far from being a panacea. Indeed, the United Nations Human Development Report indicates that globalisation has led to the marginalisation of many developing countries, resulting in an increasing disparity in economic attainment between nations. This conclusion is not surprising given the existing inequitable international economic order and the differing access to technology. With all its potential benefits, globalisation, in its unfettered form, is likely to cause more harm than good to the small, vulnerable economies, at least in the short and medium terms, unless measures are put in place to protect them. It will bring about not free trade but an unfair and inequitable exchange‑the inflow of capital, goods and services from the developed North in return for the outflow of hard‑earned foreign exchange from the poor countries of the South. The notion of "a level playing field", which is the central creed of globalisation, would perpetuate the present inequities in favour of the strong developed economies at the expense of the vulnerable economies of the developing world. It will only ensure the continued domination of the weak by the strong.

 

17. For globalisation to be universally embraced without reservation, there must be in place certain ground rules to regulate the conduct of free trade of goods and services to ensure an equitable exchange between unequal "partners" predicated on a win‑win proposition. At the same time, the principle of transparency should be applied across the board to include currency traders and market manipulators, which are now somehow exempted from such a requirement as well as from payment of taxes. Until and unless these measures are instituted, globalisation will be seen by the developing world as a largely predatory ideology of the rich nations for the exploitation and subjugation of poor ones. This impression is further reinforced by the intolerance on the part of some of its promoters to dissenting views in their zeal to prescribe the one‑size‑fits‑all approach towards globalisation. The developing countries should be allowed to pursue globalisation at their own pace so as to enable them to develop social and institutional structures to fully benefit from the process, while minimising its negative impact. For many countries, the price to pay for globallsation as presently interpreted, particularly the loss of independence, would be simply too great for them to bear. This is not the time for us to re‑examine the concept of nation states and sovereignty of nations, in order to accommodate the needs of the giant multi‑national companies that operate across borders.

 

18. In the meantime, to brace themselves for the full impact of globalisation, it is necessary for the developing countries to forge enhanced cooperation among themselves in the true spirit of South‑South cooperation and on the basis of mutually‑beneficial "smart partnerships", with the involvement of the private sector. This would facilitate a useful exchange of ideas and experiences among themselves on the globalisation process. Malaysia is pleased to share these ideas and experiences with its partners from the developing countries, and have done so in the past several years, in the context of the Langkawi International Dialogue (LID). We are pleased to see that these dialogues have been emulated by Africa through the South African International Dialogue (SAID). Indeed, in an increasingly complex world of the future it is only appropriate for the developing countries to develop such synergies through strategic linkages among themselves as well as with the developed countries.

 

Mr. President,

 

19. To assist in the process of globalisation, it is incumbent upon the international community to ensure that the developing countries, particularly the least developed among them, continue to receive development assistance to enable them to make the leap out of chronic poverty. Indeed, given the intrinsic link between peace, security and development, the Organisation must continue to be on the vanguard of the global developmental efforts, upon which so much of the world depends. It is imperative for the United Nations to carry out its developmental mission with even greater vigour at a time of increasingly scarce resources and exploding populations. This is where the continued role of the UNDP is especially critical, with additional resources and more effective programmes, particularly for vulnerable small island and land‑locked states, and those in Africa, where, in a number of cases, economic performance has fallen back rather than progressed since independence. Notable gains have been made in several African countries but Africa's ability to rise out of chronic poverty can only be attained with continued international assistance, including forgiving of their external debts, without which many will remain trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty, violence, and natural or man‑made disasters. In this regard, Malaysia reiterates its strong support for, and looks forward to, the convening of an international conference on financing for development in the year 2001, involving all major stakeholders, including the private sector. The convening of such a forum is imperative as there would be no development without the necessary financing to support it.

 

Mr. President,

 

20. Along with the Millennium Summit, this session of the General Assembly will be remembered, inter‑alia, for paving the way for the kind of United Nations that will eventually emerge to serve the international community, at least in the early decades of the twenty‑first century. While the shifting patterns of relationships among nations have yet to find a final form and the future is far from clear, there is no denying that in an increasingly complex and interconnected world of tomorrow, the United Nations is likely to play an increasingly critical role. For that the Organisation must continuously place itself at the forefront in the search for solutions to global problems.

 

Thank you