Philanthropy

Inaugural Kuala Lumpur World Peace Conference

Addressed by Tan Sri Lim At the Inaugural Kuala Lumpur World Peace Conference
9 August 2003

The 20th century was a period that saw the most remarkable triumphs of the human spirit and ingenuity.

Humans climbed the highest mountain on Earth and walked on the moon.

Humans invented technological marvels - the jet plane, the microchip, the computer, the internet.

Humans found ways to transplant human organs and defeated hundreds of diseases. Thousands of big and little things that increased our knowledge, that improved our lives, that advanced our civilisation.

But the 20th century also stood out as the bloodiest and most brutal in the history of the world. Wars in the century to the year 2000 killed more than 140 million people, either as casualties on the battlefield or as victims of starvation, poverty and disease that followed war.

Countless more lives have been shattered. At the start of 2002, some 20 million refugees were being cared for by United Nations agencies in more than 120 countries. Many more were left out, unaccounted for.

In violent conflicts between 1986 and 1996, more than 2 million children were killed, 5 million were disabled and 12 million were made homeless.

The proportion of civilian deaths has increased dramatically in recent conflicts. In World War One, 50% of the victims were civilians. In World War Two, the proportion increased to 65%. Today, 90% of those who died or are maimed in violent conflicts are civilians.

But it does not look like we are stopping here.

The number, deadliness and availability of weapons and the willingness of states to resort to military force have been increasing at an alarming rate.

In 2001, world military spending was estimated at 840 billion US dollars.

In all of that year, the United Nations and all its agencies spent only 10 billion US dollars on all their humanitarian interventions.

No one will blame you for believing that the world must have gone insane.

The world today is not only a dangerous place to live in, it is also one that is very unequal and unkind to the great majority of its people.

The three richest people in the world have more wealth than the 50 poorest countries combined. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read or write their names. In their miserable world, there is no education.

Across the world, more than 1 billion people have no access to drinking water, 2 billion have no access to electricity and 3 billion have no access to sanitation.

This is a divided world - a world divided by imbalances not just in wealth and power but in all things that contribute to the dignity of the human race.

Today, we live in fear of unrestrained militarism. The militarily powerful states arrogate the right to attack pre-emptively any other country that they think might pose a threat to them, or whose leaders simply do not agree with.

Just a few days ago, another bomb exploded in the capital of our next door neighbour, killing and hurting many. To be sure, there is much frustration and bitterness, much hatred and anger everywhere. This is an unsafe world. This is not a peaceful world.

It is against this backdrop of intensifying fear, escalating confrontation and increasing tension that the Kuala Lumpur World Peace Conference is being held.

This country is no stranger to violent conflicts. For more than 400 years, it has suffered wars and foreign occupation. It went through years of bloody, savage terrorist insurgency.

Through it all, Malaysians held firm to the belief that war is not the solution - it never was and will never be.

Malaysians believe that winning hearts and minds offers the only true path to achieving lasting peace.

It is our intention to make Kuala Lumpur a point of rally for those who would commit themselves to seek peace.

Kuala Lumpur, God willing, will provide new impetus to thoughts and actions that, we hope, will trigger a chain reaction and move us towards a more peaceful world.

We have begun the process of building the common ground of international understanding by reaching across the world to salute a friend of peace - His Excellency President Jacques Chirac of the French Republic.

We take great pleasure in presenting His Excellency with the inaugural Kuala Lumpur World Peace Award. And we are honoured by his acceptance of it.

Besides his unwavering support for the peaceful resolution of international conflict, President Chirac is an outstanding advocate of equitable distribution of development among the global community of nations.

In conclusion, allow me to quote the words of our Prime Minister Dato Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his speech to the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Kuala Lumpur last February. I quote:

"The life of any human being is sacred, no matter if the person is a friend or an enemy. That is why war is not a solution. A contest based on who can kill more people in order to establish who is the victor and who the loser, worst still in order to establish who is right and who is wrong, is primitive and does not speak well of the so-called high level of civilisation we have achieved." Unquote.

For years, the Prime Minister has been at the forefront of opposition to war as a means of conflict resolution. He has been one of the world′s most consistent, outspoken and forthright advocates of peace.

The Prime Minister is a pacifist who believes that peace must be upheld with just as much commitment and resolve as some nations go to war. He has never wavered in his opposition to violence, inequity and injustice.

It is now my pleasure to invite our Prime Minister Dato Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad to the rostrum to deliver his Keynote Address and to declare the Conference open. Please join me in welcoming the Prime Minister of Malaysia.