'BLIND UNILATERALISM WILL BE UNDOING OF UNITED NATIONS', ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT TELLS CLOSING MEETING OF FIFTY-FIRST SESSION
Press Release
GA/9293
'BLIND UNILATERALISM WILL BE UNDOING OF UNITED NATIONS', ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT TELLS CLOSING MEETING OF FIFTY-FIRST SESSION
19970915 Razali Ismail (Malaysia) Expresses His Belief in Importance of 'Silent Majority'; Says 'Their Collective Voice Can Silence Even Most Powerful'Following is the address by the President of the fifty-first session of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia), to the session's closing meeting at Headquarters this morning:
It is customary for the President to conclude by mapping out the contours of the session and by summarizing the various achievements of the General Assembly. Without seeming to dramatize the fifty-first session, I would like to offer my impressions of the year. To me, the fifty-first session of the General Assembly has been a time of knuckling down to work and more work, minimizing the ceremonials, and of concentrating creative energies to overcome political wills in discord in an effort to advance the purposes and principles of the Charter and to reform the Organization. I would like to believe that perhaps a spirit of partnership is being forged across both sides of the house in a collective effort to modernize the United Nations for the challenges ahead.
Having got through the regular session with what I would like to believe is a new work culture and discarding the syndrome of "business as usual", which has resulted in a year's notional savings of $2 million, the General Assembly has laboured over various aspects of reform and restructuring through the five working groups. There was also the presentation of the Secretary- General's two-track blueprint to "quietly revolutionize" the Organization. Reform fever aside, the year was notable also for the appointment of a new Secretary-General, the special session for the overall review and appraisal of the implementation of Agenda 21, and the tenth emergency special session on the occupied territories.
Working Groups
It is a matter of some satisfaction that we managed to complete the "Agenda for Development" and the work of the open-ended high-level working group on the strengthening of the United Nations system, but we must note how
much was unfinished or unfulfilled in order to achieve consensus. While the political significance of the "Agenda for Development" is embedded in the completion of the document itself, the fact that it does not represent collateral nor guarantee greater financial resources for the United Nations role in operationalizing development, remains a disappointment for developing countries.
International cooperation exercised nationally, globally and in partnership with other stakeholders, came to a serious impasse at the special session. Governments could not even agree to a political declaration that would honestly assess our record on implementing the commitments undertaken at the Rio Summit. The bare-boned outcome of the session neither set new targets nor catalysed resources for programmes, even when the subject of sustainable development holds enormous appeal for governments and publics alike. The special session was telling in its illustration of the United Nations inability to grapple with the failure of governments, marginalized as a norm- setting institution and too weak to convert consensus into material and tangible terms. With official development assistance (ODA) in decline and the political leverage of transnational business and industry in ascendence, I wonder whether pressure can be exerted to make a difference at the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change at Kyoto. This would seem unlikely as the United Nations seems relegated to dealing only with the "soft" issues and not the "hard" issues of economics. There are clearly lessons to be learned in our approach to determining the results of other global conferences.
Non-governmental Organizations
The participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at the special session was a milestone event, giving some nourishment to the much touted and distorted expressions of "empowerment" and "democratization". However, it is one of my disappointments that the wider issue of NGO participation in the work of the United Nations remains unresolved. Despite extensive efforts to clarify and move the issue forward in the subgroup on NGOs, the intransigence of a few and the politicization of the subject did not even allow the subgroup to agree on its mandate. While some are concerned about the logistical aspects of dealing with NGOs -- claiming that there are not enough seats nor enough meeting time to cater for them -- some in fact fear the prospects of greater transparency, accountability and public participation in the intergovernmental decision-making process, using any manner of legal arguments to prevent this from happening.
This approach illustrates that the United Nations is treated ultimately by governments as a creature of national self-interest where national sovereignty is supreme, however and by whomever that is defined, and not equipped with conditions to reflect universal rights and growing transnational concerns. A mix of governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental
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voices in the United Nations would reflect reality more closely than a nation- State dominated United Nations, giving it added legitimacy. The proposed "Peoples' Assembly" cannot be a substitute for the role of NGOs in the decision-making process of the United Nations.
Agenda for Peace
Though the "Agenda for Peace" has been adopted, if not in full, the conflicts between countries on what is sovereign and what is not on issues of peace and security, continues to rear its head with both sides claiming legitimacy.
Emergency Special Session
Twice this year the General Assembly flexed its muscle in the absence of unanimity among permanent members of the Security Council on the issue of illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. I would recommend seeking greater recourse in the General Assembly through the resolution "Uniting for Peace" for those members who cannot find due justice in the Security Council.
Appointment of Secretary General
In the final days of the regular session, the General Assembly and the Presidency responded effectively and played an impartial and constructive role in selecting a Secretary-General, when assertive unilateralism provoked deadlock in the Security Council and threatened to undermine the integrity of the institution of the United Nations itself.
Security Council Reform
A comprehensive package to reform the Security Council remains a tantalizing prospect but countries have first to comprehend the universal aspirations for change in a United Nations mired in ways of governance that are less than democratic. Security Council reform is delayed not only by the logic of those who do not want to redistribute power, but also by those who would prefer the status quo and fear expansion in both categories. Unanimity on this politically-loaded and complicated issue will never be possible. Nor will there be any kind of reform if the working group becomes the amphitheatre for obstructionist voices that speak of principles but exploit the diversity of views and block discussions and the way forward.
I have tried without partisanship -- even if a few will not believe me - - and with a mixture of caution and innovation, to eke out a mainstream position on the reform of the Security Council, and to provide a blueprint of how this may done. I have come close. The proposals remain on the table to be taken up by interested States and brought to final conclusion.
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Finances
The most disappointing and perhaps the most crucial piece of unfinished business of the fifty-first session is the continuing stalemate over the issue of payment of arrears and of restoring fiscal stability to the Organization. The financial crippling of the United Nations continues to obstruct the momentum for reform, preventing constructive negotiations for genuine reform of the Organization. Arguments about complicated legislative procedures, attaching arbitrary conditions to payments and using the media to cast a different version do not reduce what is simply a solemn treaty obligation. Blind unilateralism will be the undoing of the United Nations.
Conclusions
Dare I hazard any conclusions from all of this? What continued to emerge out of the fifty-first session were the difficulties of consensus as an instrument upon which intergovernmental decisions of the United Nations must be built on, but which can also be used as a tool to prevent practical and necessary decisions from being taken. Speaking for myself, we have a long way to go if we are to replace our narrow and unhelpful "a la carte approach" to United Nations reforms with a comprehensive one. The Secretary General's reform proposal deserves our full and expeditious attention without being casualty to politics. The task of strengthening the United Nations will depend in large part on the United Nations ability to adapt to change, beyond creeping incremental adjustments. This will not be easy of course as we do not yet share a common premise of what constitutes reform. And in this respect, the diversity of the United Nations is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness.
Every aspect of the United Nations remains a stake and a prize in the escalating debate between the North and the South, each side with conflicting claims on fundamental values and perspectives, causing political gridlock in virtually every aspect of reform. While it is evident in the governmental and secretariat contexts that major countries place a high premium on the fact that reform should not in any manner affect their rights, prerogatives and status, developing countries on the other hand lack capacity and are often disunited, overly stressing at times form over substance, even as its negotiating power declines as the coherence of other political groupings strengthen.
The United Nations will not be strengthened if reform only concentrates on cost-effectiveness, efficiency and better coordination. Such objectives alone would divert attention from the United Nations real functions and Charter responsibilities. If the United Nations is to survive, it has to transform itself from an organization serving only the interests of States to one serving the interests of peoples living in an interdependent and global society.
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On my part, I have tried to the best of my ability to use the potential of my office to revitalize the role of the General Assembly, consistent with its mandates and the United Nations Charter. I have done so with transparency and without bias, many times using the lure of Malaysian meals to draw the ambassadors into discussions in times of progress and deadlock. While efforts to bring the Secretariat and intergovernmental sides of the house together have helped to dispel myths and ease certain tensions, it has also been necessary on occasion to draw the distinctions between those roles and responsibilities. Drawing such distinctions have in themselves helped to dispense with a ceremonial and protocol-driven Presidency and created a more proactive working office. I have devoted a lot of effort interacting with the world outside the United Nations, keeping my door open not only to government representatives, but to NGOs, students, the business community, universities and to journalists in equal measure. I have also gone on the ground to witness suffering and deprivation by visiting refugee camps even if I could not take up the many invitations from various governments. Far from being an exercise in winning popularity, this has been a serious attempt to explain multilateralism and the role of the United Nations -- its purposes, inner workings, strengths and contradictions -- in plain terms, without glitz or rhetoric. Speaking frankly, and I hope wisely, has helped to distinguish form from substance, placing into frame the shape of difficult issues ahead as the roles of governments, international organizations and non-State actors are being redefined. One of my most memorable events was United Nations Day, where in stark contrast to the Summit of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations, we gave children from around the world the chance to speak in their own words of their hopes for the United Nations. I have tried to strike the balance between vision and practicality, avoiding wooly idealism to make things happen through the issues themselves. I had hoped for effervescence and a combined sense of purpose. If only we, as ambassadors, could have gone beyond our basic national positions, allowing for multilateralism to take root. At the end of the day the unfinished business and the inertia that accompanies it is because of entrenched national positions and their attendant politics. The United Nations has not yet found a formula to become a universal house which can defuse the debilitating aspects of power politics, nor to overcome bilateral and subregional hostilities which stand in the way of effectualizing the universal values of the Charter. We speak so much about globalism and interdependence but are helpless in the face of our built-in discordance. We must not allow those false prophets who speak of the clash of civilizations to be proven true. The United Nations must relate to the real world. I believe in underlining the importance of the so-called silent majority, who must be heard. Their collective voice can silence even the most powerful. Finally, my sincere thanks to everyone, especially those who assisted me in many special ways, perhaps without really comprehending the method in my madness but who nevertheless gave me the benefit of the doubt and found enjoyment none the less. For me and my country, Malaysia, it has been a great honour to serve you and the United Nations.
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