 |
| Courtesy Prime Minister’s
Dept. |
| Prime Minister Mahathir is
Asia’s longest serving democratically-elected
leader. |
In a February speech marking the opening of the
13th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, Malaysian
Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Dr. Mahathir bin
Mohamad rallied an assembly of 63 heads of state
and government and high-ranking delegates from a
total of 116 member nations to meet a common vision
of “build[ing] a new world order that is more
equitable.”
Drawn together from the far corners of the Earth,
these world leaders intend to bolster South-South
trade and investment and to promote a peaceful resolution
to the festering international conflicts plaguing
global stability.
NAM was established in the 1950s as a forum for countries
without alignments to the Western and Eastern bloc
states. With 116 mainly developing member states,
it is the largest multi-national forum outside the
United Nations (two new members, East Timor and St.
Vincent and the Grenadines, joined at the February
summit). Its member nations represent nearly two-thirds
of the population of the world. The 13th summit in
Kuala Lumpur marked NAM’s largest gathering of
heads of state since the forum’s inception in
the 1950s.
In recent years the movement has struggled to maintain
its relevance in a world no longer polarized by the
Cold War. Given the present geopolitical struggles,
however, world leaders have looked to Malaysia to
lead a shared position on overcoming common challenges,
and to make their voices heard.
The body aims to promote the political, economic,
social, and cultural values that are often under-publicized
in mainstream Western media.
While most accounts of the summit largely focused
on some of Mahathir’s and others’ more critical
anti-war remarks, a stronger underlying message was
heard: developing nations continue to be marginalized
by North-dominated geopolitical decision-making.
As Mahathir and multiple leaders stressed throughout
the summit, without an influential voice in the international
political community, many developing nations feel
stifled, which may ignite their populations into acting
against their own and other governments.
Mahathir warned that “extreme measures,”
such as action against Iraq, “have only amplified
the anger of the oppressed poor.”
“Our people are getting restless. They want us
to do something,” he continued. “If we don’t
then they will … take things into their own hands.
Unable to mount a conventional war, they will resort
to guerrilla war, to terrorism, against us and those
they consider to be their oppressors.”
“The result of this confrontation between the
haves and the have-nots, the developed and the developing,
is a world that is practically ungovernable.”
Acknowledging problems that developing countries face,
such as resorting to autocratic regimes, Mahathir
called for the group to “work for a new world
order, where democracy is not confined to the internal
governance of states only but to the governance of
the world.”
Lakhdar Brahim, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s
representative, shared Mahathir’s sentiments.
“Without the prospect of some forward movement
on the political front [in the Middle East]”
read Annan’s statement, “it is difficult
to imagine how the current cycle of violence and counter-violence
can be stopped.”
Annan’s remarks reiterated Mahathir’s earlier
message, stressing the need for “urgent and concerted
action to address common threats through multilateral
action.”
Brahim also applauded NAM’s selection of
Malaysia to chair the organization over the next
three years. Brahim cited Mahathir’s position
of high respect within the developing world and
expressed confidence with Malaysian Deputy Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s ability to
continue strong leadership after Mahathir steps
down in October.
Malaysia was nominated and unanimously endorsed to
chair the NAM for a period of three years just eight
months prior to the event, when the government of
Bangladesh declined its chairmanship. Malaysia had
just eight months to pull together preparations for
the NAM summit. |
