The ultimate world stage

Championing a cause: Ismail Sabri delivering Malaysia’s National Statement in Bahasa Malaysia at the UN General Assembly, during which he addressed the issue of Israel occupation of Palestinian territory, among other matters. — Bernama

THE United Nations General Assembly (Unga) in New York City is an annual gathering of world leaders held every September.

All nations are invited and the leaders, whether they are heads of state or heads of government, can say whatever they like at the assembly.

While the UN has largely been labelled a talking shop, leaders still flock to attend Unga as a long established tradition.

“This is the platform for leaders to project themselves internationally and establish some kind of recognition, stature of ‘credentials’ both at home and abroad,” said a foreign affairs observer.

“Equally important, it provides opportunities for important bilateral meetings and consultations with other leaders.”

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is in New York this week, eager to give his maiden speech live at the 77th Unga.

In a statement released prior to his visit, Wisma Putra said the Prime Minister would deliver his speech in Bahasa Malaysia as part of his initiative to promote the language on the international stage.

His delivery was good but it can be an overwhelming experience facing a world audience. Nervous-ness must have got the better of him as he tried opening the water bottle provided to have a sip while delivering his address.

It must also have been odd for Malaysians to hear the Prime Minister addressing the assembly in Bahasa Malaysia, which was simultaneously translated into English and five other official languages of the UN.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres started the ball rolling on Tuesday by saying the world is in “great peril, and paralysed”.

The war in Ukraine is high on the agenda along with mounting economic and environmental crises.

Top European Union diplomat Josep Borrell told reporters in New York that there were many other problems but the war in Ukraine has been sending shock waves around the world.

So it’s no surprise that US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and French President Emmanuel Macron used Unga to level up their criticisms of Russia.

Many other problems, including illegal occupation and human rights violations in Palestine and the fate of Rohingyas driven out of their country as well as cruelty against its own citizens exercised by the junta in Myanmar, did not receive as much attention from world leaders.

Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, presented a report to the Human Rights Council which stated that “Israel has imposed upon Palestine an apartheid reality in a post-apartheid world.”

“There is today in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 a deeply discriminatory dual legal and political system that privileges the 700,000 Israeli Jewish settlers living in the 300 illegal settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank,” said Lynk, whose mandate as a UN Special Rapporteur ended a few months ago.

It is not the first time that the desperate situation in Palestine has been described as such. The late South African anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu had for a long time drawn parallels between Israeli occupation of Palestine territory and apartheid in South Africa.

Archbishop Tutu was an outspoken critic of the occupation of Palestine and the siege on Gaza.

“What’s being done to the Palestinians at checkpoints, for us, it’s the kind of thing we experienced in South Africa,” he reportedly said.

Ismail Sabri in his Unga address expressed his disappointment of the brutal occupation by Israel, calling for major powers on the need to be honest in resolving the issue of cruelty faced by the Palestinian people.

“What is happening today is that most countries are so quick to act in the case of Ukraine. Malaysia wants the same action to be take to resolve the issue of Palestine.”

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric – at 36 years old, the youngest leader to address this Unga – caught the attention of many by calling on leaders to avoid turning a blind eye to human rights violations.

In his maiden UN speech, he urged the world “not to normalise the permanent violations of human rights against the Palestinian people and the law; international resolutions enacted by this assembly must be adhered to year after year”.

Boric also called on member states to support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Just before his address, Ismail Sabri met with Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas to witness the signing of four memoranda of understanding between the two countries on the establishment of a joint committee meeting, as well as on cooperation in the field of health, tourism and Islamic affairs.

Abbas also invited Ismail Sabri to visit Palestine officially to see for himself the Israeli oppression and destruction of Palestinian-owned property in the occupied West Bank.

More leaders and countries are needed to speak up for the Palestinian cause. Malaysia, a long time champion of the cause, is showing the way.