GA/9091

REFORM OF UNITED NATIONS MUST BEGIN WITH FINDING POLITICAL CONSENSUS ON WHAT IT SHOULD BE AND WHAT IT CAN DO

The following is the opening statement of the President of the fifty- first session of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia):

I am indeed appreciative and grateful at the trust and confidence placed upon me by the members of delegations for having given me the mandate to head the fifty-first United Nations General Assembly as its President. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my appreciation to Diogo Freitas do Amaral (Portugal), President of the recently concluded fiftieth General Assembly, for having led the session in an extremely effective and professional manner.

I wish to extend a very warm welcome to all members of delegations to the fifty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York commencing on 17 September 1996 and going through 23 December 1996. It is my fervent hope that this fifty-first session will be conducted in a congenial atmosphere with mutual respect and cooperation. I am confident that with hard work, dedication and commitment, our efforts will be rewarded with results that benefit all humankind.

I am deeply humbled by this occasion and for the great honour to my country. Assumption of the Presidency of the fifty-first session of the General Assembly reflects your acknowledgement of Malaysia's involvement and contribution to multilateral affairs, and in particular to the United Nations. Malaysia's involvement has become particularly pronounced under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Many speeches have been made in this Assembly that eulogize the purposes and principles of the Charter and entreat Member States to commit to them. Yet despite great strides made with decolonization and the elimination of apartheid, those purposes and principles remain today largely unrealized. The world is plagued by multiple expressions of inequality that continue to perpetuate human misery and entrench deprivation. A world not yet free of

nuclear weapons has to contend with the re-emergence of ethnic and religious enmity, combining with poverty and environmental degradation, to elevate global insecurity to explosive levels.

The interconnectedness of our world is accepted by us but this Assembly still bears witness to such gross injustice in many dimensions of human life. At this time of incredible scientific discovery, when our knowledge and means allow us to seek a common destiny based on common interests, the international community fails in its determination to overcome these critical global problems.

As representatives of 185 Member States we need to examine why we continue to fail in overcoming the narrow boundaries of our national interests, and neglect to deliver our promises of a better world. Perhaps such expectations of the international community are too unrealistic, and the ideals of the Charter too lofty so as to defy realization.

The General Assembly begins its fifty-first session without celebration but amidst criticism of the United Nations' inability to respond adequately to international crises. The United Nations as an organization faces a financial crisis that threatens to cripple it. The organization's effectiveness is seen to be hampered by allegations of mismanagement and inefficiency, and a dysfunctional institutional framework. The cries for reform do not only originate from Member States but are voiced in equal measure by world public opinion. The United Nations not only has to grapple with systemic problems, but faces even greater difficulties when its role and abilities are examined against the backdrop of global events and emerging trends.

As I take on the Presidency, I need to draw upon my last eight years as Malaysia's Permanent Representative. I hope they place me in good stead, understanding the ecosystem of the United Nations, having friends and colleagues with common purpose within the intergovernmental system, the Secretariat community and the civil society outside. I need their help and I extend my appeal for all that I have to do as President.

As in the past, we have a provisional agenda which, for this Assembly, has so far 163 items, with a number of sub-items as well, covering a wide range of issues -- from those dealing with the peace and security agenda to those dealing with development, including development assistance, human rights, women, youth and drugs. In addressing these important items, I hope that the syndrome of "business as usual" will be discarded. What we do here at this Assembly, at great expense, is given critical scrutiny outside. Clearly what we produce from our deliberations must matter, must make a difference. Our sense of purpose and work methods are being questioned. The occasions of delays and long lunches which lead to more delays, at enormous cost, are over. So too I trust the torture of long unfocused speeches in the committees.

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This fifty-first General Assembly will be involved in selecting a Secretary-General. I am confident that the Assembly, representing the larger membership in cooperation with the Security Council, will play a constructive role and with wisdom and impartiality, determine a course of action that will protect and enhance the integrity of the institution of the United Nations.

An important event of the fifty-first General Assembly will be its special session on the review of the implementation of the outcome of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. For this occasion, it is not enough to take a hard critical look at the decisions of Rio. The United Nations has a special responsibility towards operationalizing sustainable development. Decisions from this review must demonstrate the delivery capacity of the United Nations and delegates would be failing in their duty if the consensus we arrive at is seen as empty of significance and content. If the United Nations cannot be the main player on development resources, it must at least be the main development catalyst and one that can strongly influence coordination at the macro level with other bodies with more access to resources, but less democratically set up.

On disarmament, the General Assembly should benefit from the recent development pertaining to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Nuclear disarmament, given the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Test-Ban Treaty and the important advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legality of nuclear weapons will now be at centre stage of General Assembly consideration, with expected outcomes that must benefit the aspirations of humanity.

Items pertaining to social development, including such issues as human rights, women, children, the disabled and the dispossessed are equally important. Equally no less significant is the situation in the Middle East and current development in Bosnia and Herzegovina and many other parts of the world, be it Africa, Asia or Latin America which deserve all our attention. Africa and the least developed countries demand your special consideration as well.

During the fifty-first General Assembly, I look forward to facilitating a greater involvement of the members of the civil society in our work, building upon the success of the Economic and Social Council. The non- governmental organizations are agents for multilateralism at the grass roots where often forces of change take root. We must benefit from their wisdom and contribution. Their involvement will not erode the intergovernmental process. On the contrary, it will strengthen it.

Member States of the United Nations must decide whether the principles of multilateral cooperation have value or not. If so, we must determine the ways and means of articulating its form and process. Central to this is whether the United Nations is the appropriate institution. This in turn is

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related to the nature and value system of our societies, projecting into the future. We should ask: have the ideals of social justice and compassion diminished to the extent that national self-interest no longer requires us to deal with the needs of others? Can Member States disengage from the threats and misery of the world in the context of self-interest? Looking around us it is clear that an array of non-military threats to human security continue to confront us. Global problems such as environmental degradation and pollution, the spread of infectious disease, the international trafficking of drugs and organized crime, the mass movements of peoples, and the crisis of environmental and social sustainability require global solutions. These phenomena and the forces that impel them cross national boundaries, affect whole populations, cannot be ameliorated by military means, and require international cooperation for their resolution.

The strong links between peace, development and human security is embodied in the United Nations Charter itself. The globalization of trade and the movement of capital and markets around the world have not bridged the growing disparity in wealth between the poor and the rich. This gap grows wider both between and within nations.

It is in the role of improving the economic and social conditions of people that the United Nations should assert itself more aggressively. It is also a role that is most daunting and one where results have been meagre. National governments are losing their political room to manoeuvre because of growing economic pressures and demands that can turn them into agents of the global market place and diminish the state's autonomy as an effective global actor. The United Nations can play a critical role in identifying the resources for poor developing countries and assessing the social impacts of the world economic order by ensuring overall policy coordination between the Bretton Woods Institutions and the World Trade Organization. The United Nations should also monitor the activities of transnational companies who wield so much power.

The intergovernmental process as practised in the United Nations faces the problem of reconciling the contradictory impulses of upholding global norms and universal rights against the requirements of protecting sovereignty. The participation of civil society actors in the United Nations may mitigate power politics and help relieve the tensions between the dictates of universality and national sovereignty.

A hard look should be given to achieving the laborious nature of consensus decision-making, which frequently rests on the lowest common denominator. Maybe United Nations delegates are too distant from the problems they are charged to address, and the camaraderie of diplomatic life has softened the edges of critical judgement. It is a moot point whether we should delegate the solution of global problems to international diplomacy alone. International diplomacy does not seem to deal with the critical time

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factor. Months, if not years pass before international agreements are negotiated and implemented. Environmental destruction, for example, that can lead to serious contamination or deforestation, is faster than the political potential for protection and implementation. Also we must not allow ourselves to cast about for "solutions" at the United Nations that will merely keep our own power and standards of living intact when we are determining the fate and livelihood of others.

The United Nations must begin to embed itself in reality and push the critical issues especially poverty and social injustice to the centre of national and public debate. What will it take to do this? Of immediate need is political will by Member States to commit to the principles of democracy and accountability. The nature of democratic practice needed for such an enterprise is one based on careful deliberation and consultation so that compromise to the lowest value is minimized in favour of optimizing the best options that will protect universal values.

The reform process must begin with finding a political consensus on what the United Nations should be and what it can do. A coherent and feasible strategy for the future, a narrower mandate, committed resources, streamlining priorities combined with responsible and inspired leadership are prerequisites in this process to achieve a relevant and vital United Nations for the future.

I humbly urge all Member States to seize this moment for substantial change, and to imbue this opportunity with constructiveness and in a spirit of tolerance and compromise. I extend this appeal also to the Secretariat of the United Nations, maligned and unappreciated but on whom the intergovernmental process strongly depends. It is my view that there can be no real serious reform of the United Nations without both Member States and the Secretariat coming together at an early stage to determine a common premise for reform or for undertaking major initiatives. Lessons must be learned from recent events or the United Nations as a whole will be the casualty.

The United Nations is not a world government. In a sense, an association of States have come together to make the United Nations a global institution to serve the interests of all, extending beyond governments, drawing creative energies from the world's diversity itself. The fate of the United Nations depends primarily on how much its Members are willing to invest in a viable organization and what universal values are strongly held on to. Tragedy of huge proportions happens when the United Nations does not stand up to power considerations that undermine universal values. Consider Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda. The onus lies primarily with the major Powers. The United Nations cannot be the vessel of power politics. Neither can it be sustained by noble interest and lofty principles alone. We have to construct a critical equilibrium.

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