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Breaking New Ground
By Sonia K

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei has called for an approach that goes beyond purely administrative reform and which can arm the United Nations with the means to meet 21st Century challenges on 21st Century terms.

His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Brunei Darussalam, said this in a speech he delivered at the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday evening held in New York, USA, where he addressed the proposed reforms of the organisation.

His Royal Highness posed: "Does the proposed reform reflect the current century, its priorities, its special challenges and its changing character? Are we certain that we are not trying to solve 21st century problems with the mechanisms, priorities and procedures of the 20' Century and sometimes even the 191 Century?"

He also highlighted how the new century-has-bought a host of, new challenges.' HRH said that the past year, as in every year of this new century, has presented problems that are typical of those the UN is increasingly going to face and expected to solve.

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"They are sadly all the stuff of regular 'breaking news'. Natural and environmental disasters, health, economic and security disasters, countless political failures and the, enormous human suffering that follows," he said. "The immediate impression is a dramatic one. Our new century seems to be defining itself in images of disaster, landslides, earthquake, tsunami, terrorist bombings.

The most lasting images are the human ones," he said. "These are the countless victims of events over which they had no control, knowledge or warning. The long-term result is a deep sense of insecurity. It is reaching into the lives of every individual and every family and- every community in every country we represent.

"Many people are feeling so insecure and that they are engaged in finding ways to salvage some hope for themselves. In Asia, Africa and the Americas, they are doing this in the hundreds of thousands they are leaving their families and homeland to emigrate. They are often putting their lives at enormous personal risk in search for somewhere where they can find hope," he stressed.

His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed said it represents a bleak vision of the future for millions of people. It would be even bleaker without the United Nations.

"Sometimes, in the refugee camps, in the disaster areas and in all the other arenas of destruction, the United Nations offers all it has by way of hope. Hence, the second consideration we give to proposals for reform is a human one," he also said.

"Is the proposal relevant to ordinary peoples' personal lives and problems?

"Those lives are increasingly dominated by the extremely complex challenges of our new century these are global. They are scientific, technological, economic, environmental and political.

"They now involve over six and-a-half billion people. These people are becoming more and more dependent on each other for survival.

I believe this means that we must continue to stress the need for more than just administrative reform. So, our third consideration about reform is practical," the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Brunei Darussalam said. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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