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Najib Urges International Community To Work Together In Dealing With Three Major Challenges

Posted by Save Sandakan On October - 7 - 2009

On the third challenge of managing climate change, Najib said it was a major challenge not for the future generations but today’s generation.

He said the forthcoming summit in Copenhagen must reflect a strong commitment and action to reverse serious deterioration of planet earth.

The tragedies in the region such as the earthquake in Padang, Indonesia, hurricanes in the Philippines, tsunami in Samoa and major floods in southern India “should remind us of how fragile the world we live in is, and how interdependent our world has become”…………..

October 06, 2009 19:12 PM

Najib Urges International Community To Work Together In Dealing With Three Major Challenges

From Leslean Arshad

PARIS, Oct 6 (Bernama) — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has called on the international community to collectively meet and overcome three major challenges — ensuring a durable, just and equitable peace for all times, creating a new global financial achictecture and managing climate change — although it may not be an easy task.
“Today as we grapple with the ever-deepening gulf between cultures and faiths, the dark clouds of a global recession and heart-wrenching tragedies induced by climate change, the choice before us is not one of unilateralism or isolationism.
“The path forward lies in a more imaginative and inclusive form of global collaboration,” he said when addressing the Unesco General Conference on Tuesday.
Najib is the first Malaysian prime minister to be given the privilege to address the august body.
In addresing the first challenge — ensuring a durable, a just and equitable peace for all times — Najib said the peace must be premised upon a convenant of the willing and not one enforced by way of hegemony through fear and coercion.
Such peace, he said, could only come into existence if they were willing to constructively engage with each other through inter-cultural dialogue and Malaysia was willing to play its role in facilitating inter-cultural dialogue.
“Geography and the legacy of history have positioned Malaysia strategically to act as a bridge in linking all the world’s major cultures. It is not an offer grounded in altruism but an offer based upon our mutual and shared interest.
After all, it is a truism that a peaceful internal and external environment is prerequisite for national development to take place,” he said.
Najib said the 1Malaysia philosophy and his clarion call for 1dream, 1people, and 1nation for Malaysai was the right formula not only for national harmony but was also appropriate towards enhancing regional and global peace.
Therefore, he said, the next logical extension of the national philosophy would be the concept of 1Region and ultimately 1World.
Recalling the state of the region 40 years ago, Najib said SoutheEast Asia was a region mired in conflict but today by-and-large it was a region of peace and stability.
He said the culture of peace and stability in the region was under pinned by Asean’s unique form of regionalism which was predicated upon dialogue and constructive engagement within and beyond the region.
Touching on the second challenge of creating a new global financial architecture, he said it was imperative that the new global financial archictecture to be created would ensure that prosperity was shared equitably and appropriate mechanisms must be put in place to deal with excesses and manipulation of the system.
The world could be brought to the brink of catastrophe and misery without a judicious regulatory framework.
“We can never again allow unbridled capitalism based on naked greed to run amok,” he said.
In ensuring the desired outcomes, he said, the robust entrepreneurial spirit must be tampared with social conscience.
On the third challenge of managing climate change, Najib said it was a major challenge not for the future generations but today’s generation.
He said the forthcoming summit in Copenhagen must reflect a strong commitment and action to reverse serious deterioration of planet earth.
The tragedies in the region such as the earthquake in Padang, Indonesia, hurricanes in the Philippines, tsunami in Samoa and major floods in southern India “should remind us of how fragile the world we live in is, and how interdependent our world has become”.
Najib said that although the task of the policymakers and leaders in ensuring that these challeges were met was not easy, they could not afford the price of inaction.
“We need to do what is right even if it is hard. These are the challenges of our times. It can neither be left unmet nor unresolved.
“They must be addressed head on by the world community with a concerted will and common purpose drawing upon our reservoir of good will and collective experince,” he said.
– BERNAMA