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Mr. President,
I would like to congratulate you on your
election and offer my very best wishes for the
coming year. May I also add my appreciation to
our outgoing President for all his work. I would
also like to thank the Secretary-General and his
staff, as well as the United Nations agencies
who are doing such a fine job all over the world
in very difficult situations.
Mr. President,
I like the theme for this year’s debate, and
would like to say a few things about the first
two words, which I think are the most important
ones.
“Effective Responses”.
We all know what “responses” are because we make
them every day. But “effective” is a far more
difficult word, and that is because none of us
here actually decides what it means.
It is not up to us to judge whether our work is
successful or not; that is up to the next
generation. It is our children and grandchildren
who are going to look back at the past and see
whether we did a good job.
That is the way it has always been. And that is
what many of us in Brunei Darussalam have been
doing recently because this year is an important
anniversary for us. It is now 25 years since we
joined the organisation.
Those of us who were here at that time remember
it very well. We remember exactly why we joined.
It was a dangerous period, and a small country
like Brunei Darussalam did not want to be left
on its own.
We wanted to be part of a larger community, a
world community, but there was a real problem.
The Cold War was on and nearly everyone was
divided into two camps. That meant that we had
to choose sides.
Looking at the United Nations today, however, I
would judge its response to the past 25 years as
very effective. Things are much better now than
they were back then.
Certainly, many of the old problems may still be
with us: terrorism, poverty, disease, war, and
the 60 year-old struggle by the Palestinian
people for justice, hope and dignity.
But we also have a lot of good things going for
us nowadays. We have more knowledge, and
communication is better than ever before. Above
all, we are not divided into two camps. As a
result we have far more opportunities than we
had 25 years ago.
When our next generation looks back at us, and
judges us, the question they will be asking is
what we did with those opportunities and whether
our responses were effective.
I think we have opportunities to make a great
response.
The Secretary-General and his staff have
important proposals for reform, change and
development. If we accept them and do something
about them, we can take the biggest opportunity
of all and change the whole direction of world
affairs. I think this is exactly what people
want us to do.
There is a lot of support for change outside
this building. No one wants to remain divided
into developed or developing nations any more,
or first, second or third worlds. They want us
to be in one world, in one situation, sharing
its problems and being part of any solution.
Mr. President,
That is the message we received after the first
G20 meeting in April this year. It seemed to
give us a real choice; either to keep on doing
things the way we have always done since 1946:
or to change directions, and all work together,
big and small, regardless of background, culture
or faith, and find a new way into the 21st
Century.
This week’s G20 meeting in Pittsburgh sent out
the same message, and it was good to hear. It is
only a soft message, however, and a small
change. The big decisions are still being made
for us, and not with us. But at least it is a
start. This is the kind of change we want to see
and there is nothing to stop us from taking it a
long way further. After all, it is not like 25
years ago. We have a real choice and no one is
forcing us to take sides.
For the moment it is up to us. The keywords,
though, are “for the moment.”
The G20 are not the only ones sending us
messages. There are other very urgent ones. They
are coming from the environment, the climate,
the global economy, and energy and food
supplies, and they all add up to a serious
warning.
This is telling us that very soon the choice
will not be ours to make and any changes will be
made by forces we cannot control. That means any
“response” may be largely “ineffective.”
When the next generation looks back at us, they
may not just be judging us. They could even be
condemning us.
Thank you.
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