YouSaid · the spoken record

RAJARATNAM

lines on the record: 254
first: 1969-09-24
most recent: 1979-09-24
sittings or episodes: 9
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The food demands of the third world were met less by the output of the developing countries themselves than by the increased output of wealthy countries like the United States, Canada, Australia and Argentina. Those countries were able to do this because their farming was on a vast scale, highly scientific, highly capitalized and highly organized. It was also energy- intensive so that, say, one American farmer could feed 57 people whereas a farmer in a developing country would be hard put to it to feed his own family. 18. Unfortunately, the production processes of those few advanced agricultural grain producers involving the use of fertilizer, machinery, freight, processing, marketing and pumping for irrigation depended on one crucial product: cheap oil.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“There is considerable evidence to support the view that we have come dangerously close to those limits. 15. Until about 1972 food prospects for the world looked moderately hopeful. The population rose steadily by about 2 per cent annually, but it was hoped that this would be offset by a 3 per cent increase in food output, 16. Great hopes were placed in the so-called miracle rice developed in the Philippines and on the high-yielding wheat strains developed in Mexico. But that optimism turned out to be short-lived. In 1972, for a variety of complex reasons, total food production fell for the first time in more than 20 years. 17. We now realize that the comforting statistics of earlier years concealed a number of unpleasant facts about world grain production.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“Governed by these facts and figures, one is driven to the inescapable conclusion that, to borrow U Thant's words, the "mad momentum of the arms race" continues unabated. 13. As for defusing the population explosion, though there has been deceleration of population growth in some of the developing countries, generally the situation is worse. Most developing countries are caught in a bind in which even a most dramatic upsurge in the economy would be negated by a still higher rise in population. 14. The old belief that the vast untapped resources of the earth and technological miracles could cope with any population increase has been in recent years shattered by contrary evidence. There are, we now realize, limits to technological miracles. The planet's resources are finite and we cannot sustain life beyond those limits.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“Has the tenth special session of the General Assembly, which was devoted to disarmament, had any visible impact on the arms race? The answer to both questions is unfortunately in the negative. From 1970 to 1978 world military expenditures increased from $200 billion to the current $400 billion. After allowing for price inflation, the world's military spending has increased at an annual rate of 15 per cent. From 1970 to 1978 the total strength of the world's armed forces increased from 21 million to 23 million; exports of major weapons to third world countries reached an estimated $8 billion annually, in constant 1975 dollars, almost three times such exports in 1970; and the strategic nuclear stockpiles of the United States and the Soviet Union increased by 8,000 to a total of 14,000 war-heads.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“As for U Thant's hope that what he called "ancient quarrels" would disappear, there has been not only a more vigorous revival of ancient feuds since 1969 but also the proliferation of new enmities. The arenas for these expanding contests are almost wholly in the third world. According to the SIPRI World Armaments and Disarmament Year Book for 1976, there have been, between 1945 and 1975, in all 119 civil and international wars, involving the territory of 69 States-that is, nearly half the United Nations' membership-and the armed forces of 81 nations. There have also been more than 300 coups and attempted coups in the third world during the same period. Moreover, the authors of the year book also estimate that these wars have killed more people than did the Second World War, 12. Has the arms race abated since 1969?”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“If such a global partnership is not forged within the next decade, then I very much fear that the problems I have mentioned will have reached such staggering proportions, that they will be beyond our capacity to control." 10. That speech was made in 1969. The 10-year respite he gave for mankind to put its house in order will expire next year. None of us can honestly say that the links of a global partnership have been strengthened in the intervening years. On the contrary, the evidence points strongly to a contrary process. The presumed partnership between the rich North and the poorer South is even more tenuous than it was in the early days of the United Nations when the rich were more forthcoming in helping the needy nations to" be less poor. 11.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“I begin with a quotation from a speech by a man we all knew well and who cannot be charged with having been intemperate in either his choice of words or his expression of ideas, the late U Thant, for many years our Secretary- General: "I can only conclude from the information that is available to me as Secretary-General that the Members of the United Nations have perhaps ten years left in which to subordinate their ancient quarrels and launch a global partnership to curb the arms race, to improve the human environment, to defuse the population explosion, and to supply the required momentum to world development efforts.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“I have therefore attempted in this address to reflect the necessary spirit of hopeful pessimism about human prospects. Though the United Nations was formed for the specific purpose of addressing itself to the problems of humanity as a whole, in practice most of us have generally avoided manifesting any earnestness about humanity lest we be thought somewhat eccentric and unpragmatic. 8. So I hope members will bear with me if for a change I dedicate this address to the cause of global problems. 9.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“We make an urgent appeal to the United Kingdom, the United States and the front-line States to make one last effort to bring about a negotiated settlement acceptable to all the parties involved. As for South Africa, unless the abhorrent system of apartheid is rapidly dismantled, the prospects of a bloody racial confrontation will become inevitable. 6. Reflecting on the sorry state of our contemporary world, Antonio Gramsci, and Italian Communist ideologue, offered humanity this piece of advice: "We need", he said, "the pessimism of the intelligence and the optimism of the will." 7. I can think of no better formula for survival for humanity. It is one that I would commend to this Organization and to political leaders who are also statesmen.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“On the question of Namibia, we are dismayed by the decisions of the Government of South Africa to reject the 1 A Framework for Peace in the Middle East. Agreed at Camp David, and Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty -between Egypt and Israel, signed at Washington on 17 September 1978. proposals of the Secretary-General2 and to hold elections in Namibia without United Nations involvement. We hope that the new Government of South Africa will reverse those decisions and resume co-operation with the United Nations for the peaceful transition of Namibia to independence. 5. On Zimbabwe, we hope the time for a peaceful transition to majority rule has not run out.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“Secondly, we believe that the issue of borders must be settled by negotiation on the basis of the principles of non-acquisition of territory by the use of force and the rights of States to live within secure and recognized borders. Thirdly, we remain convinced that Security Council resolutions 242(1967) and 338(1973) provide the framework for an over-all settlement of the problems of the Middle East. We ..welcome the two agreements concluded between President El-Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Begin of Israel at Camp David as being a step forward. The two leaders have shown great courage. They deserve our support and commendation. We wish also to pay a tribute to President Carter of the United States for his remarkable statesmanship. 4.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“1. Mr. President, may I congratulate you warmly on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly. I should like to thank the outgoing President, Mr. Lazar Mojsov, and also our Secretary-General, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, for another successful year at the helm of our Organization. 2. The two greatest threats to international peace and security are the unresolved problems of the Middle East and southern Africa. 3. On the Middle East, I wish to reiterate Singapore's position. First, we believe that the Government of Israel must recognize the right of the Palestinians to a homeland of their own and that the Palestinians must recognize the State of Israel and respect its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
1978-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 33 (1978)
“Despite their powerlessness, they have the potential ability to disrupt the international economic order by simply becoming poorer and poorer. They will inevitably be pushed over the brink if the rich nations persist in their present economic policies. If and when this happens, given the logic of an interdependent world, the rich nations too must, not long after, be dragged into the abyss. Should this happen, the only bitter consolation I can offer is that a people inured to poverty and suffering for many, many decades can better endure their vicissitudes than can those accustomed to better things.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“The world economic system falters simply because those who exert the greatest influence on it are forcing it to work on behalf of the privileged nations by applying to it ancient precepts like protectionism and a kind of neo-mercantilism. 97. The world economy as now constituted requires an international division of labour it is to move forward. As one economist said recently, "The international division of labour also comes under the law of evolution of the species." 98. This plea to the rich nations for enlightened economic leadership may be, as one third-world leader put it at the end of a conference, a dialogue between the deaf. The capacity of the poorer nations to retaliate is limited. But their weakness — the weakness of the third world- constitutes a sort of perverse strength.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“My criticism of their current policies is not inspired by a spirit of sterile confrontation but out of a realization that they, as well as we of the developing world, have a common interest in preserving an international economic system which is essentially sound, but which has got into difficulties largely because those who operate it have the wrong instruction manual. 96. In short, we have for the first time in human history the foundations of a world economy—not simply a Western economy. We lack the vision and the courage to think and act according to the imperatives of a world economy. Basic to a world economy is an international division of labour, not on the basis of masters and serfs, but as partners.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“In a very real sense, growing prosperity in the poorer countries will not only bring life to the listless economies of the North, but will also create demands for skilled personnel and expertise from the developed countries. 94. This, of course, requires a new sense of realism and a more responsible approach on the part of developing countries to economic development. They must accept the fact that the road to prosperity is paved with rocks rather than roses. Co-operation between the rich and poor nations should not be on the basis that the former has a moral obligation to the latter, but on the basis that each must benefit fairly from the endeavour, though not necessarily equally. 95. But my address is directed primarily to the developed nations.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“The way to overcome the economic crisis, then, is for rich countries to pursue policies which will convert the great and almost unlimited needs of the developing majority of mankind into effective monetary demands. This can be done by permitting them to earn more by selling freely, and by encouraging the flow of investments into the third world to set up industries which produce goods far more cheaply. Such a policy will reduce living costs by making available cheaper goods to consumers in developed countries. 93. Equally, the increased incomes that poorer countries will earn would be spent quickly on imports from industrialized countries.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“It is estimated that about 7 million more Americans will need to find jobs between now and 1981. France will need a million and a quarter new jobs; Japan, some 3 million new jobs. I do not know how many millions more will enter the labour market in other developed countries. Crippling the economies of the third world through protectionism will not provide new jobs in developed countries. It is more likely to increase unemployment. And at the moment the developing countries import nearly 70 per cent of their requirements from the countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. If the earnings of the developing countries are reduced through protectionism, there must be a corresponding decrease in imports from the developed world. 92.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“After all, 70 per cent of the commerce of the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is among member States. 90. If the world economy is to be truly global, then the developed world must turn its attention to the 75 per cent of the world's population that remains poor but with vast untapped resources and potential markets for the goods and services of the rich countries. But, so long as that 76 per cent account for less than 20 per cent of the world's income, the markets remain potential rather than actual. 91. The development and modernization of that 75 per cent could well perform the functions that the post-war reconstruction of a war-devastated Europe and Japan performed for the world economy up till the 1970s.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“But technological innovation alone cannot restore vigour to the international economic system. If the world economy is defined in terms of, and limited to, the economies of the rich North, then there is no way out of this crisis. The capacity of the North to absorb the products of its industries and enterprises has reached the point of near saturation. The debate about the limits to growth is applicable only to the handful of rich nations. Their economies possibly can grow no further. But if the world economy is defined to include the third world, then it is only in the initial stages of growth. As I pointed out earlier, the present crisis has its origins in the fierce competition among the industrialized nations for shrinking northern markets.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“As stated by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 in their declaration issued at their meeting in New York on 29 September 1977: "The renewed trend towards protectionism in the developed countries is a cause of deep concern because of its negative impact on the export earnings of developing countries and on their terms of trade, employment policies and development efforts." One passionately hopes that in the not-too-distant future, and well before the probable great crash, there will be an explosion of technological innovation in the developed world that will reverse trade policies whose effects would be to wipe out in the countries of the third world the pitiful advance in industrialization they have made during the last 30 years. 89.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“It is ridiculous to chant piously about interdependence and a global economy when the developing countries are denied even the opportunities to compete in the markets of the developed world on the basis of merit, quality and price. Third-world industries can survive only by selling cheaper. So protectionism is an attempt to shift the burden of unemployment on to poor nations that cannot afford even to put their jobless on the dole. 88. It is even more ridiculous that high-technology societies with highly trained labour forces should, in addition to producing jet aircraft, rocket engines, computers and other complex industrial marvels, also fight the poorer countries tooth and nail in order to produce unnecessarily expensive plastic buckets, T-shirts, shoes, undergarments, and pyjamas on the basis of protected markets.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“But for the workers in the poor countries, the transfer of low-technology industries has meant jobs for people who had none and the acquisition of skills that vastly increase their earning capacity. Their wages may not provide them with butter, but they do get bread. 87. So protectionism is not a defence against cheap labour; it is protection for high-cost industries. It does not create new jobs, but deprives poorer countries not only of jobs but also of the opportunity through free and fair competition to provide inflation-plagued consumers in the rich countries, with cheaper goods and therefore higher incomes. Increased earnings in the poor countries would in turn provide the incomes to buy the sophisticated industrial products of the richer countries.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“Economic measurements of growth suggest that something like one fourth to one half of gross national product growth is attributable to technological progress. The petty world of quotas, tariffs and neo-protectionism is not going to provide the needed jobs that technological innovation can create. According to some economists, were the countries of the European Economic Community to put up trade barriers, for example, their current total of 5.5 million unemployed, far. from decreasing, would be likely to double. 86. The argument that the jobs of the workers in the developed countries are being threatened by cheap labour from poor countries is a myth. By the standards of workers in the affluent countries, wages are certainly lower in the third world.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“The odd thing, however, about this campaign is that, although the transnational corporations are situated in the developed rich countries, not a single one has been shut down, either by law or industrial action. 84. The thesis that is dearly projected to the developing countries is that transnational corporations are all right for developed rich countries but bad for developing countries. However, to judge by the experience in my own country, transnational have on balance been economically beneficial. They have brought new jobs, higher earning capacity, increased skills and management expertise which we would not have been able to acquire on our own. 85. Today, new jobs are fewer in the rich countries. Among other reasons, it is because of the slackening of technological and productivity.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“Today, however, instead of congratulations and encouragement being extended to the developing countries, the cry in the rich countries now is that they must be protected from the cheap-labour products of the developing countries. Pressure is now being exerted to prevent international corporations from investing in the developing countries on the grounds that transnational are morally evil and bent on exploiting the wretched in the developing countries. Unfortunately, some third-world countries were sufficiently confused as to join this campaign to liberate the developing countries from the alleged ills caused by transnational corporations.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“This transfusion was largely initiated by transnational corporations, which, in the process, forged new links in global interdependence. Investments- flowed from the industrialized countries to the developing countries, whose products were in turn exported to the industrial North. 82. Between 1965 and 1973, industrial output as a result of this in the developing countries grew by 7.3 per cent, the comparable figure for the industrialized rich countries being 4.7 per cent. So the poorer countries, despite many disappointments and blunders, were by the 1970s responding to the Western exhortation to modernize, industrialize and go in for trade—not aid. 83.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“Another factor responsible for expansion of the world economy until recently was the explosion of technological innovations in major industrialized countries, particularly in the United States. Those innovations brought about increases in productivity, and therefore in living standards, and further resulted in the creation of spectacular new industries like television, jet travel, digital computers, wonder drugs and synthetics. Those new industries in turn created new and better-paid jobs in industrialized countries. Unemployment therefore virtually vanished and labour shortages developed. 81. One consequence of this for the third world was the transfer from the developed to the developing countries of bio-technology industries.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“The most spectacular results of American aid were produced in the more advanced societies. By 1958, partly as a result of United States aid, Europe and Japan had not only fully recovered from the devastation and destruction of war, but had developed the capacity to compete with the United States. 79. The turning-point was when the dollar shortage developed into a dollar glut and the first cracks appeared in the Bretton Woods arrangement. In August 1971, the United States removed the convertibility of the dollar into gold. That was the start of the crisis. Devaluation of the dollar followed in December of the same year. In February 1973 the second dollar devaluation took place, and by March 1973 the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates had broken down. 80.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“In retrospect, it is clear that the Bretton Woods arrangement was accepted, not out of deep convictions about its validity, but because in the circumstances then prevailing there was no conflict between national self-interest and its principles. 78. After the end of the Second World War, only the United States wars in a favourable position for providing the necessary international economic leadership. It had the vision and foresight to formulate policies with an international perspective based on the premise that world prosperity was indivisible. The United States made available capital and liquidity, directly and through multilateral institutions, while its industries provided the hardware for European and Japanese post-war reconstruction. In the process, American trade policies were liberalized.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“The present economic crisis has its fundamental cause in the developed world—the rich countries—and predates the fivefold increase in the price of oil. The oil price certainly aggravated the crisis, but it did not originate the crisis. 77. The genesis of the present economic crisis antedates the oil crisis. The Bretton Woods Conference is the conventional starting-point of post-war world economic history. That Conference was certainly not perfect, but it is also true that the crisis began and intensified as the world, for political rather than economic reasons, departed from the spirit and underlying principles of the Bretton Woods agreement". The Bretton Woods arrangement worked from the end of the war to about 1958, and it worked well.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“There are as many explanations as there are economists for the present economic crisis, but it is generally agreed that the main element in the crisis is the inability of the industrial economies to expand further. The crisis is attributed to saturation of world markets and a decline in demand. 75. This is true if the world market is conceived of as being confined only to a third of the world's population. Their market has possibly reached the saturation point, and the world economic crisis will persist and worsen so long as rich countries regard the global economy and world markets largely in terms of 30 per cent of the world's population. The remedies applied so far have in fact been postulated on the basis of this fallacy, and predictably, inflation and unemployment continue to bedevil the international economic system. 76.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“What is described as a global economy in fact consists largely of trade and exchange between a third—only a third—of the world's population. In 1972, before the advent of the so-called oil crisis, rich countries, with less than 30 per cent of the world's population, carried out 53 per cent of world trade among themselves. 73. As against this, the growth rate of exports of developing countries—the poorer countries-as a percentage of world trade has declined steadily since the end of the war. It fell from 31.2 per cent in 1950 to 17.4 per cent in 1972, whereas that of the Western countries rose from 60 per cent to more than 72 per cent over the same period. 74.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“Moral appeals make greater impact only if they are also empirically valid. Therefore the main thrust of my thesis and argument is not that the rich nations should help the poorer nations as a moral obligation but that, by helping the developing countries, they would in fact be helping themselves. 71. Clearly there is a multiplicity of causes responsible for the present crisis but, in my view, the most fundamental of all, and one which the developed countries have tended to gloss over, is that a world economy where the ratio of per capita income between rich and poor nations is about 13 to 1, where less than a third of the world's population, comprising the rich nations, generate over 70 per cent of its income, must be intrinsically unsound. 72.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“Since the restoration of health to the world economy would require considerable self-discipline and sacrifices on the part of all nations, the point I have just made is relevant when it comes to apportioning the burden of responsibility for curing an ailing world economy. 70. I am fully aware that highlighting the greater measure of suffering in the poorer countries is not going to heighten moral sensibilities in the developed countries to a point where they would be willing to undertake sacrifices on behalf of their more desperate brethren. This is as true of rich countries as of the richer developing countries: nobody wants to help anybody else at their own expense. It is a sad fact of life that in lean times—such as those we are going through—the milk of human kindness dries up.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“In the developed world unemployment does not entail starvation or subhuman distress. The unemployment relief conferred in the developed countries exceeds by far the normal earnings of some 30 per cent of the world's population, who are estimated to earn SUS 100 or less per year. 68. Moreover, the 15 million unemployed in the rich countries are far outnumbered by the hundreds of millions of workless who existed, and whose numbers have increased in the third world, even in the boom years. 69. In making this point, I am not minimizing the distress that unemployment is causing in the rich developed world. But whereas unemployment is a question of distress in the developed world, for some 50 per cent of mankind, employment or unemployment represents the difference between barely living and dying slowly. This is the prospect.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“There is a responsible body of opinion which contends that a second great depression, far more catastrophic than that of the 1930s, is possible within the next few years. 67. If this prognosis is correct, then no nation in the world can escape its consequences, and the first casualties will be among the 100 or so Members in this Assembly listed as poor and developing. For a number of the poorer countries-the so-called "fourth world"-the consequences could be permanent crippling, economically as well as politically. The effect of the recession on the developed world so far has appeared in the emergency of some 15 million unemployed. However, without underestimating the seriousness of this to the developed world, it is nevertheless necessary to put this distress of rich nations in proper perspective.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“We hope that this effort to bring about a non-violent transition to majority rule in Zimbabwe will be successful. We also hope that the ongoing talks between the Government of South Africa and representatives of the five Western members of the Security Council will lead to an internationally acceptable solution in Namibia. As for South Africa itself, the abhorrent system of apartheid should give way to a new polity in which the minority will recognize the rights of the majority and the majority will respect the rights of the minority. 66. Overshadowing the issues I have briefly touched upon and, in the long run, pertinent to their resolution, is the world economic crisis which shows no sign of receding.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“The issue of borders must be settled by negotiations on the basis of the principles of the non-acquisition of territory by the use of force and the right of States to live within secure and recognized borders. My Government remains convinced that Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) provide the framework for the search for peace in the Middle East. 65. As for the question of southern Africa, my Government welcomes the Security Council's decision in its resolution 415 (1977) to authorize the Secretary-General to appoint a commissioner for Zimbabwe. We share the view that the United Nations should co-operate with the administering Power and the United States to help to bring about a negotiated settlement in Zimbabwe.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“This year we welcome two new Members: the first, the Republic of Djibouti, yet another new nation from Africa that is joining our ranks. I should also like to welcome the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, which happens to be a member of the region in which we live and a neighbour of ours. We extend to both our best wishes for peace and prosperity. 64. My Government welcomes the joint statement of 1 October of the American and Soviet Governments on the Middle East. We have long been convinced that the solution to the Middle East problem lies in the willingness of the Government of Israel to recognize the right of the Palestinians to a homeland of their own, and the reciprocal willingness of the Palestinians, including the PLO, to recognize the State of Israel and to respect its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“I should also like to thank the previous President, Ambassador Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe, who presided over the difficult thirty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly with his customary flair, intelligence, eloquence and fairness. 62. The Secretary-General has again steered the United Nations through a difficult year and our thanks and felicitations are extended to him once more. I would especially highlight the skill and tact with which he has presided over the Cyprus talks and the unpublicized good work he has undertaken in specific human rights cases and in the improvement and streamlining of the international civil service that supports the functions of the United Nations. We are indeed fortunate to have Mr. Kurt Waldheim, a man of great experience and few illusions, to hold this most difficult and thankless job. 63.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“60. Mr. President, may I, on behalf of my Government and the delegation of Singapore, congratulate you on your election to the important office of President of the thirty-second session of the General Assembly. Your election is a tribute to your personal qualities as well as to your country, Yugoslavia, a leading member of the non-aligned group, of which Singapore is a member. Your election to this high office is the culmination of your brilliant career in law, journalism, diplomacy and government service. The realistic and pragmatic approach you advocated in your presidential statement for this session. 61.”
1977-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 32 (1977)
“My thesis is that in the present state of international relations the most effective way to promote international security is to work at the subregional and regional levels. For this reason my country would attach great importance to the efforts by countries in different parts of the world to promote regional economic co-operation and mutual trust. Wars are not made by arms, but they are conceived in the minds of men. To prevent wars we must therefore free the minds of men from the cobwebs of age-old suspicions, fears and mistrust.”
1976-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 31 (1976)
“It is, first of all, a drain on the economies of the third-world countries; but even more important is the fact that it creates a new form of dependence on the great Powers, which can exploit the third world's dependence on them for arms to manipulate them, to engineer conflicts between them, and to use them as their proxies in their competition for influence and dominance. This may partly account for the tremendous acceleration in the arms race, especially among countries of the third world. In order to check the arms race, we must understand why nations arm themselves in the first place. Some nations may arm themselves in order to increase their power, but most nations arm themselves because they feel insecure. Therefore, in order to promote disarmament, we must attack the problem of international insecurity. 141.”
1976-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 31 (1976)
“Concepts of co-operation and not concepts of liberating one another should govern relations between third- world countries. Co-operation means the pooling of re-sources, skills and aspirations to enhance further our independence and bargaining position against the more advanced nations. 139. The liberation of others, on the other hand, can be undertaken only by pawning our resources, our lives and, eventually, our integrity to those on whom we depend for our arms and who will make quite sure that when the slaughter and the battles are over it is they, not we, who emerge victorious. 140. I shall sum up my thesis in the following way. The massive flow of arms to the third world confronts it with a new danger.”
1976-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 31 (1976)
“If that enslavement is to be avoided, it is imperative that third-world countries stop saying and doing things that increase mutual distrust and fear among themselves. If we do not fear one another then there is no need for us to put ourselves in bondage to arms dealers. 137. In my part of the world, the five countries which have grouped themselves into the Association of South-East Asian Nations [ASEAN] have succeeded in dissipating fear and distrust among themselves. There are possibly differences of views and conflicts of interest from time to time, but through ASEAN co-operation we have been able to resolve, or at least to contain, those differences and conflicts. We are discovering that, when nations set greater store by seeking out areas of agreement than areas of disagreement fear and distrust are likely to fade away. 138.”
1976-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 31 (1976)
“The successful liberation of their own people from imperialism has led some leaders to see themselves as chosen vehicles for the liberation of all mankind and, in particular, their neighbors, whose independence has been recognized by this Organization. It is saddening to hear formerly subjugated countries, like the imperialists of old whom they displaced, proclaiming their right and responsibility to bring "true" liberation and independence to lesser breeds outside their borders. 135. It is the suspicion and fear generated by Messianic proclamations such as those which are driving many third-world countries into the arms of the arms dealers and thereby creating the necessary conditions for proxy wars, for the enslavement of the third world. 136.”
1976-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 31 (1976)
“My purpose is simply to alert us to this clanger; to accept that the danger is real, even though it may not be as stark as I have presented it. 133. The compulsions behind the third-world arms race are many and complex; undoubtedly, manipulation by great Powers contributes to it. Also, confrontation with neighbors is a time-honored way of distracting attention from the short-comings of a ruling class and of re-establishing the national solidarity once forged when the enemy was the alien imperialist whom we have driven out. To those, add recollections of ancient glories and new broodings over real or imaginary wrongs predating the imperialist era. 134. Further, in some third-world countries a Messianic spirit appears to be emerging.”
1976-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 31 (1976)
“Once a war is begun or engineered, it is the dealer and not the client who becomes the crucial element. Ware between developing countries can be sustained or halted by the dealer. They can be halted by the dealer's withdrawing his experts and withholding spare parts and replacements; or the dealer can sustain and direct the war if he thinks it Is in his interest to do so. 131. Of course, the client can dismiss the dealer, but only by putting himself into possible bondage to another arms supplier. 132. That, then, is the dangerous situation in which the third world finds itself today. I have merely stated the nature of the problem without offering possible solutions to it because that would require an address just as lengthy.”
1976-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 31 (1976)
“Arms contracts today include provisions for-training, technical support and the establishment of facilities to maintain and repair equipment. Often those contracts include provisions for foreign experts to build roads, communication networks and other facilities which come under the term "infrastructure". For without such an infrastructure the performance of the system is likely to be substandard or to fail altogether. There must also be an assurance from the seller of spare parts and replacements when needed, as it is not economic to stock spare parts for the lifetime of the equipment. 130. All this is ideal for the direction and conduct of proxy wars. The client can start wars but he needs the co-operation and goodwill of the dealer to ensure that the operation does not end in total disaster.”
1976-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 31 (1976)