SAINT LUCIA
"The greatest
threat to world peace and democracy is
the systemic
imbalances and inequities in the global economy
and the
institutions tbatgovern it.
This situation is
unsustainable and explosive".
ADDRESS BY
HON. GEORGE W. ODLUM
MINISTER OF FOREIGN
AFFAIRS
AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE
TO THE MILLENNIUM
ASSEMBLY
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
55TH REGULAR SESSION OF
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
“We challenge the
paradigm shift which the developed nations are cleverly
manipulating to
shunt the focus of the United Nations towards Peace-keeping
and Humanitarian
.Assistance. Saint Lucia states clearly and unequivocal
that the United
Nations focus should zero in on DEVELOPMENT as a
radical instrument
for eradicating poverty and war”.
NEW YORK
Mr. President,
Humanity,
our greatest concern, is the reason why we are gathered here today. Humanity
stands at a defining moment in world history. The challenge before us is to
harness the collective consciousness and will of the International Community to
address the problems of Planet Earth. During the course of the last century the
disparities between and within nations have widened. Poverty, ill-health,
illiteracy and hunger among the world's people have increased. The world's
ecosystem, the foundation upon which we all depend for survival is rapidly
deteriorating. This is why we must regard this moment as significant in human
history despite Fukuyama’s aim that history has ended. The Third Millennium
offers us the opportunity to break away from the shackles of the past and
create new beginnings. The choices that we make can change the face of
humankind and lead to the accepted goals of global peace, economic and human
security and the greater good of humanity. The last century was replete with
examples of nations preening themselves for conquest and domination. The
Conquistadors who plundered the New World are still at large using global
institutions, new technology, weapons of destruction, to oppress and dominate
the weak, the innocent and the dispossessed sectors of mankind. The message
that Saint Lucia brings to this Millennium Assembly comes from the pen of Saint
Lucia's Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott who reminds us that:
There are
no worlds to CONQUER
But worlds
to RE-CREATE
Minds that
are historically poisoned with conquest can hardly experience the essential
equanimity and calm of RE-CREATION. The theme of this Millennium Assembly
reaches out in the direction of RE-CREATION - a People - centred reshaping of
the role and function of the United Nations and a purposeful moral thrust in re-creating
the battered, demoralised societies we live in.
Mr.
President, that is why we must embrace the United Nations Millennium Summit's
theme: "We the peoples: The Role of the United Nations
in the 21St Century." The attainment of meaningful transformation in the
world system, calls for a United Nations capable of assuming a vanguard role in
development and in advancing human security. The United Nations system must
play a critical role in promoting global responsibility. Global responsibility
implicitly involves some form of moral commitment to human welfare. It is the
formulation of economic programmes designed to bring about economic
redistribution, to safeguard against economic crises and the formulation of
developmental policies that are in keeping with environmental protection and
sustainability.
The UN
should be strengthened to play a more central role in development, in ensuring
equity and security for its small, vulnerable members like Saint Lucia against
the greed of profit driven powers. Instead we are witnessing a consistent,
systemic weakening of the UN's role in development, and development issues
being left to undemocratic institutions like the World Bank, IMF and WTO that
perpetuate the global economic inequities and where the development issues and
concerns of developing countries are ignored.
UNDP, the
UN's primary development agency is now reoriented to giving advice in
governance and democratic elections. The UN therefore has a peripheral role in
development and small states like Saint Lucia are left on their own to be
devoured by powerful states backed by powerful transnational corporations.
Saint
Lucia joined this Organization and entrusted it with our hopes of peace,
security and development. This Organization has passed on our trust to a few
dominant powers and Corporations. If the UN has a diminished role in ensuring
development, peace and security for its small and vulnerable members, then our
presence here is an unnecessary diversion of our scarce resources. In these
circumstances we feel threatened and vulnerable that our trust has been
betrayed.
Mr.
President, the greater good of human security cannot be fostered simply through
peacekeeping operations and humanitarian missions. There must be a global drive
to empower people. Empowerment through the elimination of the adverse
conditions that cause the incapacitation of the human spirit and the
imprisonment of the imagination. Hence, the United Nations of the Twenty-First
Century must be capable of playing a significant role in liberating the human
spirit and imagination through education and real opportunity. It must be able
to reposition itself to give practical meaning to the rising tide all over the
world wherein the common man aspires to higher and wider horizons.
In
reaffirming our faith in the UN and its Charter, it was again with the hope of
saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war. The threat to peace does
not necessarily emanate from military warfare. There are new forms of war
currently being waged on the small, the weak and the vulnerable.
In
previous addresses to this august Assembly, and in the Statement of our Head of
Government to the Millennium Summit, we pointed out the injustice perpetrated
on Saint Lucia and other banana producing countries of the Caribbean by the
WTO, through its rejection of the marketing regime for bananas in Europe as
being WTO incompatible. That ruling has condemned our countries to the prospect
of economic ruin, as the stabilizing force of our economy has been dealt a
mortal blow.
Mr.
President, since that ruling by the WTO, which granted an unreasonably limited
time to adjust our economy, we have lost 50% of our foreign exchange earnings,
thousands of farmers are unemployed and poverty and crime are on the increase.
Yet, despite our urgent economic situation, negotiations between the EU and the
US have been stalled. Saint Lucia calls on the United States to resume
discussions with the European Union, on a new marketing system for bananas that
could be acceptable to all giving due consideration to the Caribbean proposal.
Mr.
President,
Resilient
a people as we are, we are moving to diversify our economies and to build
another sector, financial services. Again, the economic giants are determined
to crush our development efforts and subject our people to poverty by attacking
yet another sector of our narrow economic base.
Mr.
President,
Saint
Lucia has acted in good faith in fulfilling our obligations to the Charter of
the UN, assuming equality of all member states. We have respected the
territorial integrity and political independence of other member states and
have NEVER interferred in the internal affairs of another state.
Today, the
OECD has chosen to dictate the tax policies of Saint Lucia and other Caribbean
islands, by labelling our tax regime among harmful tax havens and are
threatening to impose sanctions for non-compliance with their prescribed
changes to our tax policies. Mr. President, it is Saint Lucia's sovereign right
to determine its taxes, we cannot tell the DECD countries what taxes to impose
nor do we expect interference in our right to determine that sacred right
entrusted to us by our citizens. Our development options are few and limited,
and we consider this action a violation of our basic human right to development
and to pursue a decent standard of living for our people.
Mr.
President,
Our peace
is threatened, our democracy is being undermined. The conditions for conflict
are being created in my country and in the Region, and yet, instead of
addressing development, we are being asked to strengthen the UN to intervene in
national crises.
Mr.
President,
Within the context of a globalised world the concept of sovereignty is fast becoming an endangered species. No self-respecting nation would willingly abandon its sovereignty for the illusion of a better world when all the signals from this brave new world are destructive and negative. In respect of peacekeeping interventions one can surrender sovereignty to avoid a holocaust but certainly not to permit well-heeled rapacious countries to hog the capital flows in the Financial Services Sector.
Mr. President,
Last week,
through our Heads of State and Government we reaffirmed our faith in the UN and
its Charter as indispensable foundations for a more peaceful, prosperous and
just world.
This
reaffirmation is of particular significance to small developing states like Saint
Lucia devoid of the size and resources to urge the international community to
give due consideration to our concerns and interests. We agreed to entrust the
UN with ensuring equality among states. It is of paramount importance to us
that the UN does not flinch in its role of fostering international dialogue and
consensus building so that the concerns and interests of all member states are
adequately addressed and reflected in the work of the Organization. We do not
expect our trust to be given to more powerful influences to determine our
collective future. We rededicated ourselves to uphold the principle of equality
of states and expect that equality to be realized in policy directives of the
United Nations with a balance in representation for all interests of member
states and regions.
Saint
Lucia calls on the UN to assume its rightful, central role in development and
the governance of globalization, to promote democracy, and good governance
nationally and internationally, to stand for right and the protection of its
weak and vulnerable members against the powerful and dominant, and to seek
equality and justice for all. This should be the focus of the UN in the New
Millennium if poverty is to be eradicated, and peace enjoyed.
Saint
Lucia cannot be enthusiastic about other issues until development and equity in
the global economy become a priority. Our decline in revenues deny us the
capacity to increase our contribution to peacekeeping and we will be reluctant
to do so until there is an increase in our participation and benefit from the
global economy. Man cannot live by governance alone or peace alone. Our people
must find the sustenance that will enable them to participate in governance and
peace. Saint Lucia therefore eagerly looks forward to the convening of the UN
Conference on Financing for Development to discuss, in a holistic manner,
issues of trade, finance and monetary matters in the context of globalization
and trade liberalization.
We have
always promoted an integrated approach to development and addressing global
issues and this age of technology and interdependence lends itself more than
ever to the integrated approach of assessing and addressing the issues at hand.
We
continue to view the financing for development process as the missing and the
critical link in the development agenda for a sustainable and lasting
resolution to poverty and threats to peace. We hope through this process the UN
will reclaim its legitimate role in development entrusted to it in the Charter
and promote the effective participation of all its member states in the
governance of the global economy and globalization, for the benefit of all the
peoples of the world.
Mr.
President,
The greatest threat to world peace and democracy is the
systemic imbalances and inequities in the global economy and the institutions
that govern it. This situation is
unsustainable and explosive.
The thrust
of many statements made during the Millennium Summit and this Session has been
to strengthen peacekeeping efforts with resources and personnel. We recognize
that there is need for improvement in peacekeeping efforts to make them more
effective. However, equal emphasis and effort is not committed to addressing
the real threats to peace and the primary cause of war. Developing countries
are threatened by continued deprivation and inequities in the global economy.
Unless these inequities and imbalances are corrected we will continue to create
situations of unrest and threaten intervention, while causes go unaddressed.
Similarly,
Mr. President, we parade the fashionable notion of poverty eradication in
isolation, ignoring the complex, mufti-faceted nature of poverty and the causes
of poverty, including global economic inequities. This façade to placate the
poorest is fooling some of the people but not all of the world's poor. The
holistic nature of development takes precedence over the palliative of poverty
eradication. International cooperation in development should instead be
demonstrated through meeting the UN target of 0.7 per cent of Gross Domestic
Product in Overseas Development Assistance, debt cancellation, special and
differential treatment on a contractual basis for developing countries and
adequate financial support for the UN's development programs.
We
reaffirmed our commitment to promoting democracy, albeit with the emphasis on
democracy at the national level. The inherent weakness of achieving this
objective is clear, since democracy at the national level is undermined by the
lack of a commensurate level of democracy at the international level.
T he world's peoples and leaders will rightly
make mockery of the call for democracy if this principle is not equally applied
in the Security Council, the Bretton Woods Institutions and the World Trade
Organization, the main institutions that currently govern world affairs in
peace, security and the world economy, respectively. The UN must demonstrate
leadership of democracy at the global level if we are to believe in this
principle as a foundation for peace and prosperity in the New Millennium. All
member states must be able to effectively participate in matters of peace,
security and the global economy to give real meaning to democracy and
governance.
Mr.
President,
The
symbolism of the United Nations is universally recognised but our role in this
Millennium is to re-define its goals, sharpen its focus and make it a more
efficient instrument for effecting global change and development. But this
institutional change must be inspired and fired by the commensurate
determination of Member nations to re-create their own societies. The resonance
and sympathetic vibration of our visionary Secretary-General, Kofi Annan is not
enough. We as member nations must set about the task of societal re-creation
within the parameters of our own societies to offset the negative influence of
moral degradation, crime, drugs and anti-social behaviour. These are the benchmarks
of the un-civil society.
Mr.
President,
In the re-creation
of our own societies we face the structural disadvantage of unemployment,
illiteracy and the tyranny of consumerism and materialism. Our young people are
cannon-fodder for the blandishments of cable television. They lap up a culture
and a life-style which militates against their own self-development. They fail
to understand the nexus between earning and spending and develop the appetite
for consumer durables which their economic base could never support. They
become aggressively fired- up with demands and rising expectations which neither
the resources of the state nor their flimsy work ethic can entertain. They
develop a culture of carping criticism which leaves no space for a culture of
appreciation. Caribbean Governments look on almost helplessly at a growing
phenomenon which threatens to disturb the rhythm of projected economic growth
and breeds a kind of lawlessness which conventional law-and-order techniques
cannot contain.
As
globalization erodes the economic and social bases of our islands,
international and bilateral aid dwindles. As ideologies and ideals give way to
pragmatism the weak social and political fabric of these fledgling nations is
laid bare. The vocabulary of containment and patience can no longer hold back
the anarchist tide of popular revolt. Small nations will encounter their own
Seattles with no National Guardsmen to come to the rescue, no sustaining
philosophies to stem the tide, only the grim statistics of falling revenues and
rising expectations.
Nations
which attempt to grapple with these social problems have incurred the wrath of
large countries culminating in isolation and the imposition of sanctions.
Countries like Cuba and Libya have felt the crush of sanctions. The United
Nations system must rethink the strategy of imposing sanctions and must devise
other means of ensuring compliance within the International Community. The
imposition of sanctions is often inhumane and is usually accompanied by
devastating economic consequences and fails to produce the desired effect in
targeted countries. The International Community should realize that
interventions, embargoes and sanctions do not a democracy make!
Because of
the untold suffering inflicted on civilian populations, a 21st Century United
Nations system cannot continue to endorse the imposition of sanctions. What is
even more devastating is that the general will of this august Assembly is often
flouted and ignored when the International consensus calls for a removal of
sanctions. Is democracy merely a convenient attitude? If so, it begs the question
as to the insistence that countries like Cuba should conform to the principles
of democracy when these principles themselves are being compromised and
rejected as a matter of convenience.
It is
these injustices and violations which have turned world opinion in favour of
the embattled Caribbean country Cuba and has made its Leader Fidel Castro a
living symbol of the unconquerable spirit of our people to triumph over
adversity and incredible odds.
Mr.
President, more than ever the positives of a reformed United Nations will
become a refuge, a bastion of hope for nations non-plussed by events that seem
suddenly out of their control.
In my last
address to this time honoured institution, I alluded to the plight of Africa. I
would like to reiterate that as Africa was the last impression of the twentieth-century,
poetic justice demands that it must be our first preoccupation in the twenty-first
century.
Mr.
President, in the process of Re-creation Saint Lucia and the Caribbean must
strive to become a catalyst for Peace in the International Forum. We must use
our collective influence to contain the border disputes which threaten to
create friction in Latin America and the Caribbean. We must also be wary of
importing conflicts into our Region. In the case of Taiwan and China it is
vital that we pursue the line of working towards a one-China policy instead of
fuelling the hostilities which characterise the existing relationship between
these two countries. An early resolution of the impasse between Taiwan and
China will strengthen the solidarity of the Developing world. In the case of
Africa, the Caribbean has always enjoyed a peculiarly symbiotic relationship
with Africa. Men like Padmore, C L R James, Eric Williams, Sir Arthur Lewis and
Walter Rodney have all worked assiduously at the side of African Leaders like
Nkrumah, Nyerere, Sekou Toure and Leopold Senghor in order to realize the
ultimate dream of a United Africa liberated from the bondage of poverty,
disease and exploitation. This noble tradition must continue. Once again Saint
Lucia calls on its CARICOM colleagues to pursue the possibility of obtaining
Observer Status at the Organisation of African Unity.
Mr.
President, the peoples of the African continent face the onslaught of the AIDS
pandemic that threatens to decimate the population of the entire continent. But
the devastating effect of AIDS is felt not only on the African continent. Today
the world is confronted with the greatest health crisis in human history. The
effects of this disease can destabilise fragile democracies and economic
progress in both the developing and the developed world.
We welcome
President Clinton's efforts to create an African AIDS Trust Fund and the pledge
of one billion US Dollars to combat AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. We also welcome
President Castro's undertaking to send two thousand Cuban doctors to Africa.
However, given the trans-national nature of the disease, the United Nations
should use its institutions to launch a movement towards the full eradication
of this scourge. Mr. President, if the world is to survive the ravages of this
plague, we must not only pledge financial resources towards research and the
development of pharmaceuticals, but we must make them affordable and
accessible, and also continue to sensitize the international community to
preventive measures.
Mr.
President,
At year's end, the General
Assembly will witness the end of the first International Decade for the
Eradication of Colonialism. Much remains to be done before the United Nations
is successful in carrying out its statutory mandate to ensure complete and
absolute political equality for the peoples of these territories. This must
remain the guiding principle of the international community. That the majority
of the remaining non-self-governing territories are small islands does not mean
that the self-determination of their peoples is less important than former
territories which achieved ~ a sovereign status. We must resist all attempts to
legitimize the present unequal colonial arrangements which do not provide for
full and absolute political equality. Saint Lucia therefore fully endorses the
adoption of a Second Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism, and calls on
member states and United Nations Organizations to fulfill their
responsibilities under the Charter and relevant General Assembly resolutions.
Mr.
President, on the initiative of the Government of Canada a debate has started
in the forum of the Organization of American States on the subject of global
human security. It is comforting for developing States and especially small
developing states to feel that the conscience of the International World has
been pricked into focusing on the security of the entire globe. On a discordant
note the United States of America is now concentrating its attention on a
National Missile Defense System aimed at protecting the United States from
missile attacks. At this strategic juncture in the New Millennium when world
leaders are gingerly massaging a Culture of Peace and Disarmament this action
runs counter to the mood for reconciliation, and universal nuclear disarmament.
This unfortunate and myopic emphasis on the protection of one nation and one
people might well trigger off a rash of self-protective nuclear explosions
effectively eroding the fragile trust which underpins the hope of global human
security.
Mr.
President,
There are
no worlds to conquer but worlds to re-create. The re-creation of the United
Nations must be posited on the basis of mutual respect between rich and poor.
Mutual respect between large and small nations. As small and desperate as our
small islands appear to be we should hold fast to the principles which inform
the operations of the United Nations.
We
challenge the paradigm shift which the developed nations are cleverly
manipulating to shunt the focus of the United Nations toward Peace-keeping and
Humanitarian Assistance. Saint Lucia states clearly and unequivocally that the
United Nations focus should zero in on DEVELOPMENT as a radical instrument for
eradicating poverty and war.
No six
hundred million-dollar carrot on a stick will tempt us to abandon the principle
of a nation's capacity to pay. No Congress should determine the scale of
assessments for the United Nations and there should be no conditionality for
paying arrears and meeting one's obligations to this institution.
Mr.
President, the hungry sheep look up and are not fed. The wolves run amok and
batten on their hunger, and the cycle goes on in its impropriety. This august
Body must not flinch in its Millennium resolve to end the carnage.
So I come
to you from the weary battlefield of time
Armed with
the disappointments of yesterday,
In the
struggle I may die
I thank
you.