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Thank you chairman
and my thanks to the government and people of
Malaysia for their hospitality and their support
for the Non-Aligned Movement. We are most
grateful.
May I also add my welcome to our new members
from Antigua and Barbuda and from Dominica.
Chairman, this is a very sad time for one of our
very close neighbours in Indonesia. So, may I
express my deepest sympathy to their government
and people on the tragic loss of life, following
last Saturday’s earthquake. We were very sorry
indeed to hear the news.
Turning now to our
meeting. I have a couple of things to say about
our theme. I think it is a very good one. It
offers two excellent ideas: “Cohesiveness” and
“Dynamism”.
These are both very
big words, Chairman, so I would like to put them
in simple terms, basically, because that is the
way our people can understand what we are trying
to do.
So, I will start
with “Cohesiveness”.
I would sum it up by saying that this is why we
set up links between our own region and other
regional groups in Africa, Latin America, other
parts of Asia and why we expanded our dialogue
relations all over the world.
The main hope is to
share experiences and ideas and, very simply, to
get know people better, understand each other
and see how we can all help one another.
Briefly, it is a
way of handling diversity. It says, “diversity
is good”. It makes us stronger and it makes it
much easier to have peaceful dialogue.
So since this movement is one of the most
diverse groups of all, diversity should be our
greatest strength. That is how I see
“cohesiveness”, Chairman.
Without it, we end up in confrontation with no
dialogue and no chance of any consensus. It is
therefore very important indeed.
Next, the other
part of our theme, “dynamism”. In other words,
if diversity means strength, how can we use it
to produce some action.
Let us take our
response to terrorism, for example. Slowly, I
think we are beginning to see some progress.
This is good to see but it is largely defensive
and I think we need to do more than just
respond. We need more action on long-term
solutions and the kind of action that you could
really call: “dynamic”.
An excellent example of this was the lead the
OIC gave a few years ago in setting up
inter-faith dialogues to promote tolerance. That
seemed to me to be a very good idea.
It has been
repeated in our own region, largely through the
efforts of Indonesia and our regional colleagues
and dialogue partners. It encourages people to
show tolerance and goodwill and not to divide
the world up into: ‘we’ and ‘them’.
That is what I
understand by being “dynamic” and, after all, it
is what this movement has always stood for. Not
“we” and “them” but “all of us” working
together.
It is probably even
more important now than it was in the Cold War
years. I would therefore like to see NAM doing
all it can to put this kind of approach into
action, whether it is religious, economic or
political; between the North and the South; or
any other division.
That is how our see
our theme, Mr. Chairman. As I said, a very good
one, with some very important principles.
Consequently,
whatever specific proposals we have for our
leaders at their Summit in Cuba, I hope they can
direct us all towards the ideas behind this
theme: tolerance, dialogue, confidence in our
own future, and, especially, confidence in our
own ability to shape it.
Thank you. |
