The Bahamas, 1994

I wish to join other

speakers in congratulating you, Sir, on your election to

the presidency of the General Assembly at its forty-ninth

session. Your experience in international affairs, as well

as your proven diplomatic skills, provide the assurance of

a successful conclusion of our deliberations.

At the same time, I wish to express our gratitude

and sincere appreciation to His Excellency Ambassador

Samuel Rudolph Insanally, for the distinguished manner

in which he presided over this historic Assembly during

a particularly challenging forty-eighth session, ably

representing not only his country, Guyana, but the entire

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Latin American and Caribbean region. We commend him

for his performance.

Our Secretary-General continues his outstanding

stewardship of the United Nations during these critical

times, when this world body is increasingly being called

upon to respond to crises of staggering dimensions. The

Bahamas appreciates his tireless efforts.

Anniversaries are times of celebration and times of

reflection. As this world assembly approaches its fiftieth

birthday, it is wholly appropriate that we should seek to

evaluate our record.

I believe that we can all agree that in our efforts to

guide international relations in the 50 years since the end of

the Second World War, there have been both successes and

failures. We must surely build on the successes and

redirect our energies to effectively reduce the number of

failures.

The credible success of this world Organization and its

specialized agencies in measurably improving the health,

literacy and education standards of the world’s poor is no

mean achievement. So also has been the success of this

body in seeking to ensure the environmental integrity of the

planet, in galvanizing the resources of the world to fight the

illicit drug traffic, and in peacefully resolving disputes.

We can all be justly satisfied that the persistence of

this Assembly played a pivotal role in bringing to an end

the racist Government in South Africa. The victory of non-

racial democracy in that torn land must give us hope even

in the face of the most intractable problems. The Bahamas

joins other Members in welcoming South Africa back into

the fold of the General Assembly.

The Bahamas fully supports the noble cause of the

Government of South Africa as it begins the task of

reconciliation and reconstruction. President Nelson

Mandela and the people of South Africa can be fully

assured of my Government’s hand of friendship.

Victory in South Africa allowed us to dare to hope for

an opening in Haiti. This Assembly knows very well the

long history of abuse of that poor Caribbean nation — a

land in which the apartheid of wealth has flourished in a

destitute country. For many generations now, Haitian

nationals have felt compelled to abandon their homes,

frequently in unseaworthy boats, in search of personal

dignity and of economic and political liberty.

My country has frequently been their first safe

harbour, and, while proud of our record of assistance, we

have been and remain ill-equipped to offer such refuge.

Members are aware of the tremendous burden that my

country has had to bear in this regard. This refuge has

been provided by the Bahamas in spite of the absence of

either recognition or assistance from the international

community.

To say that our education, health and welfare

resources have been stretched beyond capacity in our

small island developing country is to greatly understate

the situation. When we add the extra costs attributable to

the necessary marine patrols associated with the

monitoring of undocumented persons, the full burden

created in the Bahamas by Haitian nationals fleeing their

homes begins to become apparent.

Hence, the recognition by this body of the absolute

necessity for the world community to forcibly respond to

the brutality of the military dictatorship in Haiti is very

much appreciated. The support given to the early

initiative led by the Caribbean Community to force a

resolution of the crisis in Haiti has already borne fruit,

and we commend the United States of America for its

leadership in this important initiative.

We therefore join in welcoming the formation of the

multinational force authorized by the Security Council to

take all necessary action to restore the democratically

elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Notwithstanding the tremendous costs that in recent years

have accrued to the Bahamas as a result of developments

in Haiti, we have also agreed to lend manpower support

to that force.

Today’s announcement that the coup leaders have

resigned and will be leaving the country now paves the

way for the desired return of President Jean-Bertrand

Aristide later this week.

It is especially important that the international

community now dedicate sufficient funding and expertise

to the economic reconstruction of Haiti to achieve

democracy in that land. It must continue to do so even

today as Haitians await the announced departure of the

feared military from leadership and the return of their

elected President. We who promote and encourage the

adoption of democratic forms of government must also

accept a degree of responsibility to service that

democracy, especially in its infancy. The infant

democracy that is struggling to be born in Haiti will

8

surely die unless it receives the succour and support of the

international community.

Since the Second World War, the world community

has addressed the plight of political refugees. The

increased demand to assist persons fleeing political

persecution is demonstrated in the ethnic purges and

warfare in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The dramatic exodus, during the first half of this year,

of hundreds of thousands of persons across the seas on

unseaworthy craft or down long roads across borders

dramatically brought to the attention of the world

community the plight of undocumented persons seeking

shelter outside of their homelands.

The burden borne by the Bahamas as a result of the

presence of large numbers of undocumented Haitians is

now compounded by the more recent arrival of hundreds of

Cubans seeking to enter the United States of America. The

Bahamas Government is encouraged by recent efforts by

both the United States of America and the Republic of

Cuba to address this perennial problem of Cuban migrants.

The gravity of the Haitian crisis, the inhumanity of the

genocide in Bosnia, the cruelty of the murders in Rwanda

and the ongoing war in Angola all are clarion calls to our

Organization and to the world that we must desist from

tardy, piecemeal approaches and address in a timely and

comprehensive manner not only the effects but the very

root causes of these situations.

Not least among these is economics, evidenced by a

crisis in development. Despair at the hopeless socio-

economic conditions of one’s daily life has given rise, in

those so affected, to a basic pessimism and to the

willingness to risk even one’s life for changed

circumstances. Where basic needs are unmet and survival

is in jeopardy, there is little stake in the future and little

reason to consider the sustainability of one’s actions. The

real threat to our future security is therefore no longer

military aggression but deteriorating economic conditions.

The alleviation of widespread poverty while managing finite

resources in the face of spiralling population growth will be

among the major challenges of the twenty-first century.

The Bahamas, therefore, looks forward to the

Secretary-General’s revised “Agenda for Development”,

hopeful that it will serve as an effective guideline for the

creation and implementation of measures commensurate

with the legitimate aspirations of Member States. We must

not lose ground in this session by becoming submerged in

attempts to redefine development. We must, rather, focus

on the different levels of development that exist in our

several countries. We must learn their effects and find

solutions for narrowing obvious disparities. These

solutions must include programmes specially suited to the

differing levels of development of Member States.

We must therefore ensure that our quest for

sustainable development is people-centred. We must

consider sustainable human development with a focus on

justice, equality and democratic freedom as well as on

material well-being that incorporates equal opportunity for

all. Inequity engenders violence, and violence fragments

society.

The Bahamas, in spite of its apparent growth and

strong economic indicators, is still only a developing

nation. However, unlike many other developing nations,

the Bahamas is continually frustrated in its efforts to

secure international resources and concessionary financing

from multilateral institutions because of its reputed level

of per capita gross national product.

As a small archipelagic country of a mere 260,000

people scattered over 100,000 square miles, burdened by

the cost of transportation and infrastructure replication,

and with a very small minority of our residents in an

extremely high income bracket whilst the overwhelming

majority of the population is at the opposite end of the

economic scale, we are advocating that this grossly

misleading per capita criterion for gross national product

should not be the only basis upon which resources and

assistance are allocated to developing countries, such as

the Bahamas.

It is the view of the Bahamas that the entire system

for determining eligibility for development assistance

should be comprehensively reviewed, as it is clear that

special consideration ought to be given to countries like

the Bahamas, with peculiar imbalances and vulnerabilities.

For its part, the Bahamas is engaged in a process of

refining its development indicators in an attempt to ensure

that data provided to international institutions are truly

reflective of our economic-development reality. We

expect that the data so provided will also have an impact

upon our budgetary assessments.

This comprehensive review, we believe, must

include consideration of the vulnerability index identified

in the Programme of Action of the Global Conference on

Small Island Developing States as the direction to be

followed in the development of a measurement of the

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ecological fragility and economic vulnerability of small

island developing States.

In this connection, I would remind the Assembly of an

important message which was reinforced by the recent

Conference on Small Island Developing States, that is, that

unless the peculiar difficulties of these States are properly

addressed, those States will not have the wherewithal to

proceed on a path to sustainable development.

The marine environment presents both an opportunity

and a constraint with respect to the sustainable development

and security of any island State. As a maritime nation, the

Bahamas attaches tremendous importance to the

Convention, which has resulted in the creation of a new

legal regime for the oceans. Among its new achievements

are the recognition of the legal status of archipelagos, the

12-mile territorial sea, transit passage, the exclusive

economic zone, and the protection and preservation of the

marine environment and the resources of the deep seabed

as the common-heritage of mankind.

The Bahamas was particularly pleased to join with

other Member States in signing the agreement on seabed

mining in July of this year, as that agreement modifies

provisions that had prevented many States from becoming

parties to the Convention. The long awaited entry into

force of the Convention is therefore of extreme importance,

as it provides a boost to our efforts to curb infringement on

both our national security and our national resources.

While the socio-economic health of the world still

presents challenges for the Organization, we have scored

some political successes in the recent past. These successes

include, of course, the peace accord between Israel and the

Palestine Liberation Organization signed in September of

last year, which led to self-rule in the Gaza Strip and

Jericho for the Palestinian people, and the signing of the

Washington Declaration between Israel and Jordan last July.

We also applaud and encourage the dialogue now under

way between Israel and Syria.

In spite of those successes, peace-keeping still

occupies an important place in our activities. However, we

must ensure that peace-keeping operations are not

conducted at the expense of other activities which are

equally important, such as the development programmes of

the United Nations. After all, development is a prerequisite

for peace.

For small countries with limited resources, such as the

Bahamas, a major justification for membership in

international organizations is the enhancement of national

capacity. It is therefore the duty of the United Nations to

facilitate the efforts of small countries to arrive at just and

equitably sound solutions to differences within the

international society of States, especially when they

involve political and economic giants.

It is from this perspective that the Bahamas supports

the efforts of the Republic of China to entreat the

Organization to examine the merits of establishing an ad

hoc committee to analyse comprehensively the current

implications and future ramifications of the preclusion of

the 21 million people in the Republic of China from

contributing to, and availing themselves of, all the

benefits deriving from membership in the United Nations

and its affiliated agencies. Our Organization is expected

to reflect universality and to demonstrate impartiality

when forging international agreements for policy

commitments, for accessing resources and for action.

The Bahamas welcomes the report of the Open-

ended Working Group on the question of more equitable

representation within the membership of the Security

Council. The Group’s work thus far has been positive

and constructive, and we trust that the momentum of its

discussions will be maintained.

The report on the Security Council is of importance

to all Member States. As its conclusions affect each

Member quite directly, it is essential that the Council

should be seen to reflect as accurately as possible the

wishes of the entire international community.

Accordingly, it is imperative that the composition of a

new Security Council properly reflect regional diversity

and thereby enhance the legitimacy of the actions of that

important United Nations body.

We in the Bahamas look with great expectation to

the observance of the fiftieth anniversary of the United

Nations. The preparatory period for this event is an ideal

time for reflection on targets and objectives which have

already been set by our Organization, some of which have

now been outstanding for many years. Turning fifty is an

opportunity for the Organization to regain the confidence

of our peoples. It will take hard work and determination

to achieve the desired results so that over the next 50

years the United Nations will be known in all societies

and across all levels of those societies as the real leader

in the fight to bring dignity to mankind.

In the words of the great Johann Wolfgang von

Goethe:

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“We must not hope to be mowers

And to gather the ripe gold ears

Unless we have first been sowers

And watered the furrows with tears.

“It is not just as we take it,

This mystical world of ours;

Life’s field will yield as we make it:

A harvest of thorns or of flowers.”