Global Policy Forum

Ambassador Hasmy Agam
Permanent Representative

Mr. President,

I should like to express my delegation’s appreciation to you and the delegation of Jamaica for convening this open meeting of the Council to revisit this enormously important subject of the Prevention of Armed Conflict which the Council had deliberated on in November last year. I should also like to thank the Secretary-General for his very important statement which provides a useful setting for our discussion this morning.

2. Much has been said, today, on the subject and my statement, this morning, will be relatively brief having addressed the issue in a substantive fashion on that previous occasion. My delegation agrees with many of the points that have been made both in terms of the substance and the approach to be taken in pursuing this important subject. We agree with the need for the United Nations to embark on preventive diplomacy and preventive action as being a more cost-effective approach than mounting peacekeeping operation after a conflict has erupted. The Secretary-General had put the subject in its proper context today and last November and had hit the nail squarely on the head when he said in that earlier debate, that: "the case for prevention of conflict hardly needed restating; quite simply, it is cost-effective in financial as well as human terms".

3. We also agree on the need for greater coordination and cooperation on the part of the entire United Nations system in the area of conflict prevention, including addressing the root causes of conflicts which, as the Secretary-General has put it, are often deep-rooted and involve socio-economic factors such as, inter-alia, poverty and under-development, repression and discrimination. These must be seriously addressed by governments concerned, with the support and understanding of the international community. They must be assisted and encouraged to move in the direction of good governance which is an essential underpinning for domestic peace and stability. We would also underscore the importance of increased coordination and support within the United Nations system particularly in respect of the mobilisation for resources of conflict prevention activities.

4. The Presidential Statement adopted in November last year and the draft presidential statement which the Council will adopt at the end of this meeting, while not exhaustive, contain virtually all of the elements that, if acted upon by the Council and the international community, will go a long way in making preventive diplomacy and preventive action, "an integral part of the work of the United Nations, thereby putting prevention as one of the main tasks of this Organisation" – to quote the Secretary-General himself. In our view, the concept of preventive diplomacy or preventive action should also include conflict situations where there is neither peace nor war, such as the situation prevailing in Somalia. We should not wait for war to break out again in that country before we act.

Mr. President,

5. I would like for the remainder of my statement to take up a point made by the Secretary-General in November last year. During the previous debate, the Secretary-General had suggested - indeed, challenged - the Council to examine how it could make prevention a tangible part of day-to-day work of the Council. To meet this challenge the Council would have to re-orientate itself from its usually reactive approach to the management of conflict to one of pre-empting or preventing conflicts. This would require a deliberate and conscious effort on the part of the Council to set aside a part of its monthly work programme for an in-depth analysis of potential conflict situations and to formulate appropriate strategies and approaches on how best to handle these potential crises.

6. For this purpose the Council would benefit tremendously from timely and in-depth briefings by the Secretariat on potential conflict situations that will be brought to the attention of the Council by the Secretary-General by virtue of Article 99 of the Charter, which should be invoked more frequently than has been done in the past. The Secretary-General has been entrusted – indeed, empowered - to do so by the Charter and should be encouraged to invoke this prerogative to give substance to the concept of conflict prevention. Of course because of the political sensitivities involved it may well be necessary for such discussions to be conducted in a more informal and restricted setting than is provided for under present arrangements. Indeed, given the working method and procedure of the Council, which constrain innovative actions, it is perhaps more appropriate for the Secretary-General to take the initiative on discussions of preventive diplomacy by convening such informal exchanges of views. Whatever the format, an appropriate time of the Council can be set aside for such exchanges of views. In the interest of preventive diplomacy, the larger membership of the Organisation will, in our view, not begrudge a certain lack of transparency on the part of the Council on matters where discretion is required.

7. It goes without saying that there is a need for the Secretariat to enhance its early-warning capability to be better able to serve the Secretary-General and the Council in this area of conflict prevention. The Department of Political Affairs will have to be further strengthened and resources made available to enable it to make a real contribution to this aspect of the work of the Council. To a certain extent, member States with the capability to do so can assist the Secretariat through regular sharing of vital information pertaining to threats to peace and security but this can, at best, be supplementary in nature and cannot replace its own independent means of information-gathering and analysis.

8. Such activities can be further augmented by more frequent use of fact-finding missions, either by the Secretary-General or by the Council itself – an idea which has been suggested by the Secretary-General and which had in fact been successfully put to use when the Council despatched its mission to Jakarta and Dili last year. That mission, however, was not entirely preventive in nature as conflict had already erupted before the Council acted – as were the missions to Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia and Eritrea. A truly preventive action or preventive diplomacy would involve the despatch of a mission to a potential area of conflict that has not erupted and which results in averting the conflict. Such missions, of course, lie more appropriately in the realm of preventive diplomacy as opposed to preventive action and might perhaps be best handled by the Secretary-General or his emissary in the context of his good offices or by individual member States that are prepared to undertake such quiet and sensitive diplomacy. In my view, such discreet diplomacy, without the threat of the use of force, may fall well within the concept of "intervention" that the Secretary-General has been talking about for sometime and on which he may well have been greatly misunderstood. In this context, I am inclined to agree with the opinion expressed by Ambassador Dejammet, the former distinguished Permanent Representative of France when he said during the previous debate on this same issue, that "one should not confuse debate on an issue with having recourse to force, which comes under other provisions that are precise and limiting…" and that the "Council can take up an issue without necessarily envisaging the use of force". In considering these possibilities it is important, of course, for the Council to be guided by the principles of respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of States, enshrined in the Charter.

Mr. President,

9. My delegation associates itself fully with the draft Presidential Statement to be adopted at the end of this meeting. What is needed now is for the Council to act on these important ideas and proposals, lest it be accused of continued inaction on this enormously important subject. As a member of the Council in the remaining five months of its membership, Malaysia will play its part in encouraging the Council to meet the Secretary-General’s challenge to the Council to make prevention a tangible part of its work – if not on a day-to-day basis – at least, initially, on a regular, perhaps, monthly basis.

Thank you, Mr. President.