🇲🇾Mohamad Haji HasanMalaysia · UNGA 81 speech

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Mr. President, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, I join others in congratulating my friend, His Excellency

to Khalilurrahman on his election as President of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. Dr. Khalilurrahman, you have Malaysia's full support as you lead this Assembly through a period of profound global uncertainty. Mr. President, indeed, we are meeting at the most challenging time for the UN in many years. The world has become accustomed to crisis. War is escalating. Major power rivalry is sharpening. The international arm control architecture is under strain. New technologies are transforming societies faster than our institution can adapt. But perhaps the greatest danger is not any one crisis. It is the growing belief that an international system cannot solve them. This is the trust deficit confronting the UN today. And Malaysia, Mr. President, believes that we must confront it openly and honestly. Trust can only be restored through concrete action. When international law means what it says, and when the people of the world can look to this hall and believe that their voices still matter. Mr. President, we must remember that the UN is not merely here for the aftermath of war, but to prevent war from taking place. Yet too often, we respond only after disaster has arrived. We count the dead, we deliver supplies, we rebuild what has been destroyed, and then we wait for the next crisis. This cannot be a future of multilateralism. We must move from reaction to prevention. And nowhere is that task more urgent than in Gaza. Mr. President, Malaysia will not stand here and research statistics that everyone in this hall already knows. We all know the scale of death in Gaza. We know how many children, families, medics, aid workers and journalists have been slaughtered. We also know that Gaza represents the highest number of children made orphans in a single conflict. Malaysia and many other member states have exhausted every effort in pursuit of justice for Gaza. We have consistently called for immediate ceasefire and unrestricted supply of aid. We have supported humanitarian works in Palestine. We have pushed for punitive actions towards Israel. And we have advocated for full Palestinian membership in this hall. And yet, again and again, Mr. President, the collective will of this assembly has accounted the silencing effect of the veto. Malaysia will speak plainly, Mr. President. We are sick of it. Mr. President, nowhere is the need for reform more critical than in the Security Council. Nowhere are the shortcomings of the United Nations more glaring than in the Security Council. The exercise of veto must be questioned and strongly challenged by every single member of this General Assembly, particularly in cases of crimes against humanity. Resolution 76/262 has already created an accountability channel between the Council and this Assembly. We must make full use of this resolution as a launchpad for greater accountability regarding the use of veto. Expanding the Council's membership alone will not be enough to resolve its failure. It is the veto that must be challenged, and it is the veto that must be abolished. We must begin the work now. There is still time to save the global order. The paralysis of the Security Council will not be the paralysis of the United Nations. Mr. President, it is fair to say that global trust in the United Nations' ability to deliver is at an all-time low. This in turn demolishes trust in the very idea of the multilateral order. The citizens we serve and represent are afraid, Excellencies. They are watching the world order fragment. They are witnessing the reemergence of armed race. They have heard overt threat over use nuclear weapons, and they are seeing their government choose not to regulate AI and the many ways it is being abused, but instead give it more power. In such chaotic times, the only way to course correct is to rebuild trust in the power of proactive governance and multilateralism. Mr. President, trust comes from the way in which we, as the world leaders, can manage transformation forces. For centuries, Global power was concentrated in states. But today, a new source of power have emerged. A handful of private actors now control how billions of people communicate, work, transact, and consume information. Artificial intelligence is changing how economies cooperate, how societies function, and how governments make decisions. The opportunities are enormous. but also are the risks. We must therefore ask simple question, who governs the transformation? Technology must serve humanity, never the reverse. And the answer cannot be that small number of companies or countries decide the rules for everyone else. The United Nations must continue to empower global south countries who are likely to be more greatly affected by an equitable AI development to participate in global discussion on AI. The global South cannot simply become a destination for data centers while decisions about AI are made elsewhere. We must be partners in innovation, not merely customers and market, and not merely destinations for investment. Partners involved in the decisions that will shape our future. Equitable decision making and equitable development. That means managing the enormous demands that tech infrastructure places on water, energy, land, and other resources so that the benefits of AI can be shared more broadly across the borders. Mr. President, in our hyper-connected world today, indeed, very few things stay where they begin. Technologies are rapidly shared, and they can just as rapidly disrupt. Similarly, war can also travel beyond borders. Across West Asia, escalating conflict threatens some of the world's most important routes for energy and trade, including the Strait of Hormuz, and the Bab al-Mandab. The consequences of conflict do not stop at these shores. A family in Southeast Asia has no part in these disputes, yet that family still pays the price when food, fuel, and cost of living rise. Malaysia therefore urges all parties to step back from escalation. Diplomacy has shown that dialogue is possible, that past must not be abandoned. Or we risk sending further shockwaves through global markets and needlessly bringing suffering to innocent families around the world. Mr. President, most nations in this hall are not great powers, yet Decision taken by few can shape the future for all. We are the global majority. As I said earlier, we must not simply live with the consequences of choices made elsewhere. We must help shape those choices. Middle power size of Malaysia can help keep dialogue alive when major powers cannot agree. Regional organization such as ASEAN, can bring the perspectives of their people into global debates. We must have the confidence to speak for our regions, not be spoken for. Mr. President, I began by speaking about trust. Let me close where I began. The question before us may appear simple, but in truth, it is profound. When people are suffering and when the world looks towards this hall, will this organization still answer the call for which it was created? Actions speak louder than words, my esteemed colleagues. We must restore trust, manage transformation, reform institution that no longer serve current realities, and we must ensure that the rules of the global system apply equally to all. Malaysia will not turn away from the UN in its hour of difficulty. We will not abandon multilateralism just because it is imperfect. We will do the whole work to make it worthy of the trust placed in it, because we believe in multilateralism, most of all when the alternative is a world ruled by power alone. Excellencies, 80 years ago, the founders of this organization resolved to save succeeding generations from war. We are those succeeding generation, and that promise now rests in our hand. The world needs a UN that delivers, one that ensures that international law is truly international and guarantees that every region has a voice. And above all, one that ordinary people can look to in their darkest hour and still believe that it will act, that the world has not forgotten them. Excellencies, before concluding, we would like to offer our most heartfelt gratitude to the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. As this will the final session of the General Assembly during his tenure, we thank him for leading the UN with unyielding dedication and patience through many unprecedented global upheavals. These are the qualities we will need to face our future as an organization. And if there is anything that humanity has demonstrated throughout our history, it is our capacity to adapt. My esteemed colleague, Mr. President, let us adapt and prove ourselves worthy of the promise entrusted to us. Thank you, Mr. President.