Malaysia, 2002

Let me begin by

congratulating you on your election as President of the

fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly. I am

confident that given your vast experience and

diplomatic skills you will be able to steer this session

to a successful conclusion.

I would also like to pay tribute to your

distinguished predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Han

Seung-soo of the Republic of Korea, for the

outstanding manner in which he conducted the work of

the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly.

In addition, I would like to take this opportunity

to welcome the Swiss Confederation as the 190th

Member of our family of nations. We are confident that

its membership, which formalizes its long involvement

with the United Nations, will contribute enormously to

the work of the Organization. We look forward to

welcoming our newly independent neighbour, the

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Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, as the 191st

Member of the United Nations in the very near future.

Malaysia would also like to congratulate Africa

on the establishment of the African Union and on its

bold new initiatives, such as the New Partnership for

Africa's Development.

I also thank the Secretary General for his

statement before the General Assembly. Malaysia

shares his concerns over the four issues identified as

threats to world peace.

A year has passed since the evil and cowardly

attacks against the Organization's host country. As a

result, the world has changed fundamentally in many

ways. The international community has been

galvanized into fighting all forms of terrorism. There is

greater recognition that terrorism is a global problem

that crosses borders and lurks in many of our countries,

often without our knowledge.

The Security Council has taken prompt action

resulting in mandatory measures aimed at eliminating

all forms and manifestations of terrorism and requiring

Member States to take legal, administrative, financial

control and other law enforcement measures. Malaysia

supports that action and reiterates its commitment to

comprehensively fighting terrorism in all its forms at

the domestic, regional and international levels.

Domestically, our Government has acted swiftly

and decisively against terrorist groups that have

threatened both our national security and international

security. We have cooperated extensively at the

bilateral level by sharing intelligence information and

by implementing measures to cripple transnational

crime networks that abet terrorist activities. In the

Southeast Asian region, Malaysia and its partners in

the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have

embarked on a programme of collaboration to deal with

the issue at the regional level. At the international

level, in addition to our support of United Nations

actions and other international and bilateral efforts to

fight terrorism, Malaysia works closely with the

member States of the Organization of the Islamic

Conference and of the Commonwealth.

However, Malaysia believes that in our quest to

combat terrorism, the norms and principles of

international law should not be set aside. We also

believe that in dealing with the menace, it is important

for the international community to forge a broad

consensus on what constitutes terrorism. Without a

clear and common definition, certain perpetrators of

terrorist acts will justify their actions in the name of

State security or national liberation.

If the collective effort of the international

community to win the fight against terrorism is to

succeed, we must start looking at the problem in a

comprehensive manner and must respond with a

comprehensive strategy. It seems that in our urgency to

address the problem, we overlook and continue to

ignore why it exists in the first place. We forget that,

however unjustified, terrorism is often rooted in

political and economic grievances that still have not

been adequately addressed. The fight against terrorism

is not merely a fight against the perpetrators and

conspirators of terrorist acts; it is also a fight against

poverty, injustice, subjugation and illegal occupation

that breed anger and hatred. There can be no

comprehensive victory against terrorism if the root

causes of terror are not eliminated.

Malaysia also regrets the continued association in

certain quarters of Islam and Muslims with terrorism,

as if one were synonymous with the other. We would

like to reiterate that no race or religion should be

condemned or discriminated against simply because

some misguided people from that community are, or

may have been, involved in terrorist activities.

Just as it is easy and convenient to hold a

monolithic view of the Muslim world and therefore

assume the worst about every adherent of the Islamic

faith, it is also easy for Muslims to have a similarly

monolithic and therefore incorrect view of other

civilizations. If we continue to view each other in such

terms, the confidence that has been engendered in the

international community in our fight against terrorism

can be eroded.

It is with those considerations in mind that

Malaysia continues to call for the convening of a high-

level international conference under the auspices of the

United Nations to examine the terrorism issue in all its

forms and manifestations and to formulate a joint

response to this global threat.

Malaysia is concerned at the apparent lack of

urgency in addressing the underlying factors that lead

to cause terrorism. For example, most of the Muslim

world believes that one of the key outstanding issues

that continue to elicit resentment and fury is the

situation in the Palestinian occupied territories.

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Malaysia believes that, while all acts of violence

against innocent civilians — whether inflicted by

suicide bombers or by security forces — must be

condemned, we must be even-handed in our approach

in dealing with the situation in the region. It is

important that we understand the root causes of

violence there. We must put it in its proper context: the

continued occupation of Arab lands by the Israeli

occupying forces, in particular the demolition of

Palestinian homes, the devastation of their towns and

cities, the destruction of their livelihood and

institutions and, worst of all, the loss of thousands of

civilian lives and the wounding of tens of thousands

more over the decades, which can only result in

reactions from the Palestinian people. Israel's

oppressive policies and practices have made life for the

Palestinians unbearable and have engendered only

hatred and resentment against the occupying Power,

illegal settlers and those who are perceived to provide

support to them. Israel must take advantage of the

acceptance of the two-State solution and recognize that

political and security issues must be looked at together.

It must also acknowledge the need for the

establishment of an international protection force to

separate the two parties.

The international community, including the

United Nations, cannot afford to stand on the sidelines

indefinitely. It is time for the Security Council to

become more actively involved and intervene directly

in the situation, beginning with the dispatch of a

United Nations or other international peacekeeping

force to the occupied territories. Failure to act will only

perpetuate the violence and exacerbate the resentment

felt by the Palestinians — and by the Muslim world in

general — towards those who are perceived to be

responsible for refusing to address this issue in a fair

and just manner.

We are pleased that Afghanistan is now on the

threshold of becoming a viable, progressive and

democratic State. However, many impediments to

national unity and cohesion remain. These must be

overcome through sustained international support and,

more importantly, through the political will and

commitment of the people of Afghanistan themselves.

Such support should take the form of increased

infusion of development funds and other forms of

assistance and, more urgently, the promotion of a more

secure environment in the whole country. We owe it to

the long-suffering Afghan people to assist in the

rehabilitation of their country and to ensure that the

circumstances that led to their civil strife are removed

and that they will not be abandoned once the

immediate task of removing terrorist elements in

Afghanistan is completed.

If the international community does not focus its

efforts on comprehensively fighting terrorism by

attempting to find a credible settlement between the

Palestinians and the Israelis, and on nation-building

efforts in Afghanistan, it risks being dragged into

opening up battle fronts that could result in greater

instability in the world and hamper efforts at

combating terrorism.

In particular, we remain concerned that targeting

Iraq outside the framework of the United Nations and

in contravention of international law would not only be

wrong, but result in a more volatile world order. In this

regard, we welcome the decision of the United States

to work with the United Nations to address this issue

rather than pursue a unilateral policy of military

intervention.

Malaysia agrees that the United Nations must not

be cast aside. Engaging the international community

through the United Nations, however, must not be

merely an exercise in public diplomacy. The

international community cannot be made to assume

that military intervention against Iraq, in pursuit of

both disarmament and regime change, is inevitable and

that the United Nations is being engaged only as a

matter of course.

The strength and relevance of this Organization

has never come from affirming the unilateral designs of

one Member nation; rather, it rests on the collective

will of the international community that emerges from

a multilateral process. Engaging the international

community means initiating this consensual approach,

which can address security concerns, without

destabilizing the region, within the norms of

international law.

In this effort, it is imperative that the

international community be presented with clear and

incontrovertible evidence of the perceived threat posed

by Iraq to regional and international security. At the

same time, every diplomatic and political effort should

be made to urge Iraq to fully cooperate with the United

Nations, including by allowing the return of United

Nations weapons inspectors, and to comply with

Security Council resolutions, as every State Member of

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this Organization must do, so as to facilitate a

resolution to this issue.

A pre-emptive attack against Iraq without any

credible evidence being provided to the international

community of the threat it poses will have serious

implications for the international campaign against

terrorism. Such an attack may produce real cleavages

and draw imaginary battle lines between the Muslim

world and the West, especially if the continued

oppression of the Palestinians remains unattended-to.

Such an attack could swell the ranks of the

discontented in the Muslim world. It would provide a

pretext for depraved extremist groups bent on stoking

the flames of populist radicalism to mobilize and

multiply. While it is important, therefore, to view the

Iraq issue in terms of regional security, it is equally

important to understand the broader consequences that

will follow.

In our interdependent world, the need to

strengthen the multilateral process is now more urgent

than ever if we are to achieve our common goal of a

just and humane international order based on

international cooperation and solidarity.

The broader membership of this Organization has

a vital stake in ensuring the centrality of the

multilateral process as embodied by the United Nations

and its specialized and affiliated agencies. Through it,

the Members of the Organization can articulate their

concerns and exercise their collective will in the

protection and promotion of their interests. It is

therefore important to ensure that the Organization and

all that it stands for are not set aside on the basis of

expediency or the exigencies of the moment. In this

context we are reassured by the Secretary-General's

emphasis on the imperative of the multilateral process.

As the country that will hold the forthcoming

chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM),

Malaysia will work together with other NAM members

to ensure the continued centrality of this process,

including the promotion of their development agenda.

In this context, we must continue to exert our

combined efforts to ensure that globalization works for

the benefit of all. In order to achieve this, we will have

to create an international environment that is more

conducive to satisfying the legitimate development

priorities and needs of developing countries, as well as

to addressing the economic imbalances prevailing in

the world today.

The United Nations has a pivotal role in

strengthening the multilateral process. It is ironic that

in an era of enormous economic, financial and

technological resources and capabilities, the world is

witnessing a dangerous crisis of confidence in the

credibility of multilateralism as a result of certain

negative trends in the international system.

This challenge must be squarely and urgently

addressed and remedial action taken here at the United

Nations and in other relevant international forums. It is

the expectation of States Members of the Organization

that the United Nations will play a crucial and leading

role in all of these efforts. Therein lies the continued

relevance of the United Nations to its Member States.