Malaysia, 2007

I would like to take this

opportunity to congratulate the President on his

election to preside over the sixty-second session of the

General Assembly. Malaysia will work with him

towards realizing the objectives of the Organization,

particularly in efforts aimed at conferring more power

on the General Assembly in managing the affairs of the

United Nations.

The course of human history is marked by a few

pivotal moments during which we had an opportunity

to make either the correct or the wrong decision, which

had an impact on the destinies of those who come after.

We are now living in such a time. There are certain

problems that touch all our lives without exception.

The change in climate and the increasing discord

between cultures and civilizations are two such

problems. The first problem is now globally affecting

the well-being of planet Earth, while the second is

threatening to tear apart the fabric of peaceful relations

between peoples and nations. Let me first say

something about climate change.

We are now fully aware of the gravity and the

immediacy of the situation. Natural disasters and other

extremes in the weather are occurring now, often in

parts of the world that never before experienced such

calamities. The worst is yet to come. Indeed, the 2007

report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change has made it clear that the scale and urgency of

the challenge is greater than we had thought or feared.

In December of this year, Indonesia will be

hosting on Bali the thirteenth Conference of the Parties

to the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change. We must agree to launch the process

for negotiations on a post-2012 agreement. Ongoing

national and regional initiatives to deal with climate

change must not compete with, and should instead

complement, the negotiations under the United Nations

framework. Malaysia will fully support Indonesia in

order to ensure that the Bali Conference achieves the

success that it deserves.

We need to achieve consensus on certain

fundamental issues, even before the negotiations begin

for a post-2012 agreement. The principle of common

but differentiated responsibilities must prevail. We

must recognize the fact that the poorest countries of the

world have the least capacity to adapt and should

therefore be apportioned the least responsibility to

mitigate the impacts of climate change.

A post-2012 agreement needs to build upon the

architecture and other fundamentals of the Kyoto

Protocol. For example, there should be absolute

emission-reduction targets for developed countries,

expanded mechanisms that facilitate contributions from

developing countries and special provisions for the

least developed countries and the small island

developing States.

We know that climate change has implications

not only for the environment but also for the global

economy. That is an important additional reason why

the principle of differentiated responsibilities must

apply, so that developing countries can maintain their

capacities for sustainable development. Of course,

developing countries have their part to play in the

management of climate change, but it must be

commensurate with their abilities to perform.

On this subject, we must never forget the Earth

Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, where it all

began. Caring for the environment and ensuring

sustainable development were the themes of that global

conference. The message of that Summit was that

nothing less than a transformation of our attitude and

behaviour will bring about the necessary changes.

Those principles remain fully valid, and they should

guide us as we begin the process of negotiations for the

post-2012 agreement on climate change.

Let me now turn to the problem of the discord

that is growing between Islam in general and the West

as a whole. The main cause is the misperception in the

West that Islam promotes exclusivity and encourages

extremism. We must take action to generate greater

understanding between the followers of different

cultural and civilizational traditions. Malaysia fully

supports the various efforts being made in that regard

at the international level. We are confident that such

dialogue will establish the truth that Islam is a religion

that espouses universalism and not exclusivity, and

tolerance rather than bigotry.

Malaysia is equally convinced that it is wrong to

put the blame on religion as the cause of existing

disputes between nations. All genuine religions

advocate peace and harmony among peoples, as well as

acceptance of others. That is certainly the case with

Islam, which teaches its believers to practice tolerance,

forgiveness, peace, fraternity and coexistence. The

Koran, which is the foundation of the religion of Islam,

is very explicit in recognizing the existence of

religions other than Islam.

That religion is not the root cause of the world’s

troubles, as has been confirmed by the report of the

High-level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations that

was released on 13 November 2006. The report

maintains that, although religion is often cynically

exploited to stir passions, fuel suspicions and support

alarmist claims that the world is facing a new war of

religions, the root of the matter is political, not

religious. We should support various initiatives at the

national and regional levels to promote the message

and recommendations of the 2006 report.

Nevertheless, it is Malaysia’s view that such

national and regional initiatives must finally culminate

in a truly universal dialogue based on the multilateral

intergovernmental process. It is only such a process

that can establish binding commitments. Indeed, the

success of such a dialogue has now become an

important condition for securing the wider goals of

global peace, security and prosperity.

There is a tendency to blame history, but there is

no evidence in history that points to religion as the

cause of the current discord between cultures and

civilizations. Religion is not the explanation for the

existence of conflicts between Western and Muslim

countries. The answer lies in more recent times: the

repeated use of force by the powerful over the weak to

secure strategic or territorial gains. The vestiges of

those wars for control and domination persist today as

the gnawing problems in Afghanistan, Lebanon, the

Golan Heights and Iraq.

With regard to Iraq, we cannot deny the fact that

many of the problems now confronting the people of

Iraq emanate from foreign occupation of that great

country. Iraqis should be given a full opportunity to

determine their own future. For that purpose, Iraq

needs a government of national unity. That can be

accomplished through national reconciliation.

I place great emphasis on national unity, because

it has been our experience in Malaysia that national

unity is best achieved through the practice of power-

sharing in a government in which ethnic groups of

different religious faiths are represented. Our

Government has succeeded in bringing peace and

prosperity to the country for the past 50 years of

Malaysia’s independence. The international community

has a clear responsibility to assist the people of Iraq to

achieve peace and stability, so that the unity of Iraq as

a nation is preserved, and the territorial integrity of

Iraq as a State is not compromised.

With equal candour, I must also say that the

problem of Palestine, which has been festering for 60

years without a solution being found, tops the list of

grievances that the Islamic world holds against the

West. We are all aware that there are fresh initiatives to

bring Israel and Palestine, together with other States, to

high-level peace talks in the very near future. Although

I take the position that any final settlement of the issue

of Palestine must necessarily take place within the

framework of the United Nations, let us support the

peace talks and hope that they create momentum for a

true meeting of minds.

In particular, we should urge the Israeli and

Palestinian leadership to act courageously so as to meet

the needs and expectations of their peoples, who have

suffered long enough. Of course, real peace can only

be achieved if the legitimate rights of peoples are

recognized and protected during the negotiations.

Palestine has been partitioned before. That should

never happen again.

All of us must play the role of honest brokers,

assisting the parties through a difficult negotiating

process on the path towards true peace. Both sides to

the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must commit to reaching

solutions through compromise. This opportunity must

be seized. The onus of delivery is on all of us.

I believe that the single most important issue in

the way of peace and fraternity between Islamic and

Western countries is the unsettled problem of Palestine.

I am equally certain that once the problem of Palestine

is settled, there will be greater harmony between

Western and Islamic countries, the inheritors of the

world’s two greatest religions and civilizations.

For their part, Muslims have a responsibility to

present to the world the true face of Islam. It must be

made clear that Islam is a religion that abhors conflicts,

more so between Muslims. When disputes do arise,

Islam enjoins forgiveness and reconciliation through

mushawarah, which can be translated as engaging in

dialogue and peaceful negotiation. Furthermore, the

teachings of Islam put a very high premium on peace

and development. Islam is definitely not an

encumbrance to progress and prosperity. In my country,

Malaysia, although Muslims constitute the large

majority of the population, the Government has used

the progressive teachings of Islam as the basis for good

governance to deliver benefits to all sectors of our

multi-ethnic and multireligious society without

discrimination. We call this approach Islam Hadhari.

I have highlighted two major challenges that we

now face in our time. I remain optimistic, however,

that universal human fraternity and coexistence are

attainable if, and when, critical political and strategic

issues are resolved in tandem with the closing of the

gap of misunderstandings between cultures and

civilizations. That effort requires our collective

wisdom and courage to recognize the problems. The

well-being of planet Earth and all the people who

inhabit it are actually within our control. We must have

the will to moderate our excesses and cater for the

needs of future generations, using science and

technology as our tools. The time for us to invest in our

collective future is here and now.

I would be remiss if Malaysia being a member

of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

(ASEAN) I ignored the situation in Myanmar.

ASEAN has done everything possible to encourage

Myanmar towards reconciliation and democracy. Their

failure to do so has brought upon them the current

situation. Let me express my country’s disapproval,

along with that of other ASEAN countries, of the use

of excessive force by the Government of Myanmar to

put down justifiable civilian protests. Malaysia

supports the efforts of the United Nations in sending

Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari to

Myanmar. We call upon the Government of Myanmar

to give him its fullest cooperation to enable him to

fulfil his mission on behalf of the international

community. Let me also call for the release of Aung

San Suu Kyi and for direct engagement between the

leaders of Myanmar and various groups in particular

the National League for Democracy.