Mauritius, 1996

I join all those who

have gone before me in congratulating you, Sir, on behalf

of Mauritius, on your accession to the office of President of

the General Assembly at its fifty-first session. I also thank

Mr. Freitas do Amaral of Portugal for his skilful

stewardship of the fiftieth session.

Hearing and reading the speeches of world leaders to

this Assembly, I am struck by the extraordinary degree of

unanimity between them — how much we seem to agree in

principle but how little on the right course of action; on the

necessity of diplomacy and discussion as the primary path

to peace; on the necessity of according to every man,

woman and child the fundamental rights and freedoms

which this Organization has, over the years, done so much

to establish; on the necessity of providing equal

opportunities for men, women and children in all our

societies; on the necessity of protecting the environment;

and on the need to ensure that mankind moves forward

together on the path of development.

In all these noble and commendable aims we are

united. However, we often seem to suffer from a paralysis

when it comes to actual implementation of these good

intentions.

This Organization was the response of the human race

to the catastrophic experiences of two world wars and to

scientific discoveries and inventions which confronted us

with unprecedented choices. It was an expression of faith

in the power of human beings to be rational in the face of

these choices and to choose the paths of peace and progress

instead of war and destruction.

But sometimes its voice has seemed very faint and

far off in the midst of the terrible troubles that have

afflicted us since then. Some have begun to mutter of the

ineffectiveness of the institution and to complain of the

cost. I am convinced that those criticisms do not begin to

express the whole truth about the work that is done by

this Organization. We are embarked upon a great and

necessary experiment, and that is why the work of the

Secretary-General is so important. Here I should like to

pay tribute to Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whose

contribution has been so valuable in recent years. It is

particularly appropriate that this great office should be

filled, as we move into the next millennium, by a

representative of Africa, for Africa remains the great

intransigent challenge which the world has scarcely yet

begun to face. Only through the renewed and concerted

determination of this Organization and the vision of

cooperation and mutual responsibility which it represents

is there any hope of successfully meeting the

extraordinary difficulties which the next century will

bring.

Decade after decade, many of the nations of Africa

have seen their efforts at development frustrated by

natural and man-made disasters, poor governance and a

hostile international environment. Foreign aid has not had

the desired impact on the progress of these countries, and

the poorer nations have accumulated huge and

unmanageable debt which they labour, with inadequate

tools, to support.

As the Assembly knows, of the 36 poorest countries

in the world, as classified by the United Nations

Development Programme in the human development

index, 29 are in Africa. The majority of them have per

capita incomes lower than they were 20 years ago. The

countries of sub-Saharan Africa last year attracted only 3

per cent of the foreign direct investment into the

developing world, compared to 20 per cent for Latin

America and the Caribbean and 59 per cent for East Asia

and the Pacific region. Life expectancy is placed at 50.9

years, the lowest among developing countries.

At the same time, a new and more demanding

international economic order is emerging, one in which

Africa is beginning to feel overwhelmed and isolated

from the mainstream of world economic development. If

some of its nations have not yet caught up with the

industrial revolution, what hope have they, unaided, of

reaching the heights of the technological and information

revolutions which are sweeping the developed countries

of the world towards new horizons.

If we are to bring Africa into the general march of the

economies of the world towards progress and prosperity, we

must begin, at the highest level, to coordinate and to chart

a course for Africa to join in. Piecemeal aid and occasional

intervention on the occasion of awesome disasters will not

be enough.

Therefore, we welcome the Group of Seven’s

commitment in Lyon to a partnership for development and

to the elimination of trade barriers to exports from

developing countries. These barriers must come down. But

we question whether this and private investment alone will

be sufficient. Swift and dramatic debt relief for countries in

need of it is essential. We welcome the lead provided by

the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

in this regard, but it must be followed by decisive and

urgent action. Measures should also be designed to promote

the growth of real democracy and good governance, for

economic prosperity must go hand in hand with democracy

and the rule of law. It may seem temporarily otherwise. It

may seem that the creation of wealth can, for a while, be

separated from the yearning of the people and of

individuals to be free, but sooner or later the force of the

aspirations which prosperity brings will burst forth, as the

waters burst from the dam.

Surely we must look with dismay at many areas of our

world in which human rights are discounted or denied. A

case in point is Myanmar, where a democratic vote, held in

1990, has been defeated and denied by force, and where the

house of the elected leader of the people is kept under

constant surveillance and surrounded by soldiers.

My Government will continue to support the cause of

democracy and human rights in Africa and wherever in the

world such support is required. Mauritius will later this

month host the twentieth session of the African

Commission of Human and People’s Rights, which

commemorates the tenth anniversary of its African Charter.

This session of the Commission will undertake, with the

participation of non-governmental organizations and other

interested elements of civil society, an assessment and

reevaluation of the implementation of the Charter and

prepare a five-year plan of action which we are confident

will greatly help strengthen and improve the situation of

human rights in our continent.

My country, whose only resources are the stability of

its democracy and the enterprising spirit of its people,

comprises many races, cultures and religions. We look to

Europe, Africa, the Far East and the Indian subcontinent for

our cultural inheritance. Our people cross many divides.

Therefore, we are able to witness and sense the impact of

the rapid development of the modern world upon these

different cultures and peoples more quickly, because we

are a part of them. And I can tell the Assembly that what

we see gives us cause for concern.

As the old world order passes and a new one

replaces it, we are going through a period of transition

fraught with pitfalls and dangers. We cannot but be

dismayed at the number of countries that are falling prey

to the ancient and deadly sirens of ethnicity and narrow

nationalism that appeal to man’s baser instincts of

intolerance and xenophobic fear. Our continent of Africa

seems particularly affected. Somalia and Liberia seem to

descend endlessly into chaos, while Burundi threatens to

blow up again.

We are concerned by recent indications that parties

to the Middle East peace process may be giving in to the

temptation of pandering to extremist fringes. We owe

peace to this Holy Land and to the generations to come.

We owe it to the memory of two statesmen who laid

down their lives to this cause. The resolute pursuit of

peace is the only way to defeat the assassins, those who

felled President Sadat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In the Commonwealth family of nations to which we

belong, the uniqueness of which is its very diversity, a

number of Member States are blighted by this affliction.

Mauritius fervently hopes that the sister island of Fiji

will soon be able to resume its rightful place in the

comity of nations by correcting the inequities written into

that nation’s constitution in a moment of tension, when

racist passions were unbridled. We would be pleased to

share with the people of Fiji our own constitutional

experience of a pluricultural society.

In my own country, only 10 months ago in a free

and democratic election, the people voted overwhelmingly

for change. The Government has pledged to render our

democratic process even more transparent and

unequivocal. The numerous strategies and policy

objectives enunciated by the new Government at the

beginning of the current legislature, earlier this year, aim

precisely at confronting squarely the problems that we

face on all the issues that I have broached. Our overriding

objective will be to ultimately make the economy work

for the people and not the people work for the economy.

While a Government’s overall objective is to

improve the well-being of the people, sound economic

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policies alone will not make our countries prosper. In order

to create the right environment for the economy to flourish

there must be good governance. This is also a moral

imperative. The history of mankind inevitably moves in the

direction of greater freedom, more transparency, wider

accountability in all sectors of public life and greater access

to information held by public agencies relating to citizens.

My Government is committed to a continuing process

of democratization which will reinforce our institutions by

creating wider confidence in them. We are convinced that

this will create a climate more conducive to investment and

will enhance the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of our

people.

While the pursuit of happiness has perforce to be

individual and private, it cannot be to the detriment of the

collective good. The protection of the environment is one

endeavour that has to be undertaken collectively at the

national as well as the global level. Only if mankind as a

whole takes care to ensure the integrity of our planet can

we envisage a future for generations yet to be born. It is up

to us to ensure the viability and ecological health of the

planet we shall bequeath to those who come after us. My

Government will pursue on its own national territory a

vigorous policy of conservation and rehabilitation of natural

resources. Our actions at the national level will be matched

by our contributions at the international and regional levels,

in concert with all our partners, to advance on these same

issues.

Through our membership in regional and subregional

organizations, we are undertaking, in close partnership with

neighbouring countries, to advance and promote the same

objectives that I have defined. Only one year after joining

the Southern African Development Community (SADC),

Mauritius has become an active member, putting its skills

and knowledge in sectors where it has acquired valuable

experience at the service of fellow members.

Mauritius informed this Assembly last year that it had

initiated a process for the creation of a regional cooperation

platform in the Indian Ocean region. Indeed, the Indian

Ocean region was the only one in the world which did not

have such a platform to discuss the economic and social

development policies of its countries in a coordinated

manner. I am pleased to inform the Assembly this year that

the Mauritius Indian Ocean Rim Initiative has gathered

considerable momentum. The Initiative, which started with

only seven countries, has doubled its membership to 14

countries. A charter has been drawn up to provide the

relevant framework within which to develop and implement

regional cooperation programmes. In addition, in contrast

with some existing regional blocs, it has adopted an

outward-looking approach, so as to be compatible with

the multilateral system. The association has the

distinguishing feature of having adopted a tripartite

approach comprising government, the private sector and

the academic community, to ensure as wide a consensus

as possible.

Mauritius is convening a ministerial meeting in the

first week of March 1997 to give political blessing to the

Indian Ocean rim association for regional cooperation.

The Indian Ocean region can now serenely look forward

to playing its role, as a serious regional partner in the

international arena, in the effort to uplift the standard of

living of the peoples of the region. I am sure that the

international community will lend its full support to this

nascent regional grouping, in line with the often repeated

appeal for South-South cooperation.

We have witnessed in recent years the growing

significance of regional accords and blocs in determining

and fashioning the orientation of multilateral financial and

trading systems and institutions. We believe that

regionalization is a necessary step towards a more liberal

global environment inasmuch as it allows the less

endowed countries and regions with specificities of their

own to experiment and to test the political, economic and

social reforms of their programmes. A similar approach

has been adopted by the more advanced countries and

regions, as evidenced by the emergence of the North

American Free Trade Agreement and the consolidation of

existing groupings, such as the European Union and the

Association of South-East Asian Nations, to mention just

a couple of them.

In addition, we have witnessed a new interpretation

of the concept of regional blocs as purely geographical

units that make use of their own individual characteristics

to experiment, and to test political, economic and social

reforms programmes within a smaller geographical entity

before challenges are confronted on a worldwide scale.

Regionalization is increasingly being viewed by aid

donors and international financial institutions as a means

to promote overall economic development and to create

an enabling environment that will attract foreign direct

investment in specific regions. This process has also

changed the way in which international businesses and

multinational corporations are restructuring their activities.

Improvements in telecommunications facilities, the

adoption of advanced technology for the transmission of

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information in real time and the use of more rapid and

reliable modes of transportation have all contributed to

giving regionalization a new dimension in political and

economic issues. Hence, the prospects for ensuring a more

balanced global development process are more real and

attainable.

The decades-old partnership between African,

Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States and the European

Union through the Lomé Conventions, the fourth of which

will come to an end in the year 2000, has served as an

excellent instrument for trading agreements between the

African, Asian, Pacific and Caribbean countries and the

European Union. This instrument has to a very large extent

helped in consolidating the links between the ACP States

and the European Union. It has permitted the growth of

trade, economic, political, social and cultural development,

for both developed and underdeveloped countries. However,

the successor agreement to Lomé IV will have to take into

account the changing pattern in world trade and the

acquired benefits under the Lomé Conventions, and in this

context we shall wait for the publication of the green book

on the subject commissioned by the European Union.

The Sugar Protocol, which provides for guaranteed

prices and quotas for the ACP sugar-producing countries,

has been instrumental to a large extent in the socio-

economic development of Mauritius.

While I have addressed development issues mainly, we

should not overlook the crucial question of disarmament.

The principled stand of Mauritius in the field of

disarmament has always been to advocate a world free of

nuclear weapons as well as chemical and other weapons of

mass destruction. On the question of nuclear weapons, we

once again reaffirm our total commitment to nuclear

disarmament, and hope that the world community will make

all efforts to secure unanimity around the views expressed

in this Assembly by Member States that have some

difficulties with some treaty provisions. Furthermore, with

regard particularly to the position of Mauritius on the recent

decision on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty,

we stood by the principle that we have always applied to

other issues in the past, namely that of fairness and non-

discrimination against any party. It is therefore imperative

that we give renewed momentum to the disarmament

process in general, and address the flaws of the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty urgently.

In order to meet the challenges of the next century, we

believe that it is urgently necessary to pursue the reform of

the United Nations. It is vital that the Security Council

should be enlarged and made more representative and

balanced among its permanent members, and should

include developing countries such as India. And it is

equally imperative that the Working Groups of the

General Assembly should complete their task of

producing an effective and credible programme for

reform. It seems to us self-evident that, after 50 years,

some revision and redesign is necessary. We think, with

Shakespeare,

“When we mean to build,

We first survey the plot, then draw the model;

And when we see the figure of the house,

Then we must rate the cost of the erection;

Which if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then but draw anew the model

In fewer offices...?” (King Henry IV, Part 2, Act I,

Scene 3)

Some have come to this Assembly in order to

complain that the world and the United Nations are not

doing enough. But we should inquire of ourselves first:

What are we doing to advance or to hinder these causes

upon which, in principle, there is such remarkable

agreement?

After this overview of the world situation, allow me

to speak of a matter of national interest to us. One of the

fundamental principles to which we all subscribe is that

of respect for the sovereignty of Member States.

Interference in the internal affairs of States and disregard

for their national sovereignty has often been a source of

tension and conflict. Now that the cold war is behind us

and we move towards ever greater economic, commercial

and cultural integration, we should be able to find

amicable answers to questions of sovereignty. Mauritius

has sovereignty disputes regarding the Chagos

Archipelago and Tromelin Island with two countries with

which we have historically close and friendly ties. These

differences were referred to as friendly disputes by

Sir Seewoosagar Ramgoolam, architect of our

independence and father our nation. We hope to resolve

these differences through quiet diplomacy and dialogue.

The cold war has died, but the need for peace and

security lives on. The state of affairs in the world today

challenges us but must not daunt us. Against this

background, the principle of meliorism — that the world

may be made better by human effort — should prevail in

our actions. Those who have the means and capabilities

to help should not waver or shy away at the call of the

United Nations.

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These are some of the ideas that I wanted to share

today. It is my hope that we will all join in a global

partnership for the achievement of a better and stronger

United Nations at the service of the peoples in whose name

we stand here.