SPEECH BY PETER MALULEKA - STATE OF THE NATION DEBATE

25 May 2004

Madam Speaker
Deputy Speaker
President
Deputy President
Honourable Members
Comrades and Friends.

"South Africa shall strive to maintain world peace and the settlement of international disputes by negotiation - not war. Peace and friendship amongst all people shall be secured by upholding equal rights, opportunities and status for all"

Freedom Charter 1955.

This has been the cornerstone of our foreign policy since the democratic elections in 1994. Our government and the population at large have committed ourselves to the multilateral system of world governance. We recognise the United Nations Organisation {UN} as the primary multilateral body that is entrusted to ensure collective peace and security for our world. To facilitate economic and social development. Although we are a young democracy we are confident that we can play a key role in the efforts to restructure the UN and its agencies. This we believe will enhance multilateralism.

We recognise and understand the fact that on our own there is very little we can do to realise our objective, whether be in the continent or elsewhere in the world. What ever we do we move as a collective to address issues be it in the continent or elsewhere in the world. Some sections of this house will not understand this notion Seventy percent (70 %) of the population believe in our strategy therefore we will go on with it.

We will always seek to build strategic partnerships with strategic countries within the continent in an effort to consolidate the African agenda. Our relationship with countries such as Algeria, Nigeria, Mali, Egypt, Tanzania, Botswana and Mozambique just to mention few examples.

We will continue to build and forge strategic relationship with strategic countries of the south in an effort to consolidate the agenda of the countries of the south. Our interaction and relations with Brazil in South America and India in the subcontinent and our commitment to strengthen relations with China is a demonstration of our efforts and already these relations have yielded some positive outcome for both our country and the continent.

Our relation with the countries of the north or the developed countries is extremely good. Today what ever we say as the country and collectively as the countries of the south, the developed countries are taking note of that. Our agenda with the countries of the north is based on the following issues:

• Global good governance.
• Consolidation and implementation of the African agenda.
• Global poverty and underdevelopment as these are primary problems facing the world over.
• Multilateral approach to international disputes which provide legitimacy to actions and ensure that solutions to question of international peace and security are more sustainable.
• We are advocating a rules based world-trading system that will benefit everyone in the world.

Madam speaker as I have indicated before that our government and our people respect the will of the international community. The Caribbean countries through their regional organisation Cariccon and the African Union requested our government and people to host President Aristide from Haiti. This request was made in the interest of peace in that country. Who is this Aristide? Few facts about him.

• He was a catholic priest who was part of those who were associated with liberation theology. It was very prominent in the 1970s through to the 1990s. Most of the people seating on my left will not understand this liberation theology because you were prcted from knowing it.
• Haiti became the first independent black republic in 1804. It has been ruled by dictators and criminals that are still being sheltered by some prominent western countries.
• In December of 1990 first ever free and fair democratic elections were held. Jean-Betrand Aristide was elected president of that small trouble some country.
• Within a year of his election he was overthrown by General Raoul Cedras and he was forced into exile in the United States of America. No one in this house ever complained about that.
• In 1995 he returned to Haiti on condition that he does not contest the election during that year.
• In 2000 general elections he contested the elections and he won by landslide.
• On February 29th of this year French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and the US Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested to President Aristide to step down despite the fact that he was democratically elected.

The Aristide case again highlights the importance of the multilateral institutions. If had proper functional multilateral system problems such as this one could have been avoided. We are obliged by our international commitments to host president Aristide.

Madam Speaker, honourable members the world will know no peace until the Middle East question is resolved. The Israeli-Palestine conflict has all the ingredients to destabilising peace in the whole world. The United Nations needs to play more prominent role in efforts to solve the crisis. Activists from the region who are ceased with the matter need to be given our full support in their endeavours. We need to emphasise the point that the solution of the problem lies with both the Israel and Palestine communities. They need to find each other. The efforts by the ordinary citizens on both sides to find common grounds need to be encouraged.