NEW YORK: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has highlighted the irony of the international community considering themselves civilised when in fact they are still very primitive since they accept killing people as a way to settle disputes between or within nations.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Malaysian prime minister noted that Malaysia had launched a campaign to criminalise war in keeping with the objectives of the UN.
“It is ridiculous to hang a murderer for killing one person but to glorify the people who are responsible for the deaths of millions of people. Modern wars are total in every way. Not only will combatants be killed but innocent people, the children, the sick and incapacitated are also killed and wounded.
“Whole countries are devastated, and trillions of dollars lost. In the end, both the victors and losers suffer,“ he said in his statement at the General Debate of the 74th Session of UNGA, here on Friday.
He said there are other ways of settling disputes such as negotiation or submitting to arbitration by third parties as well resorting to the courts of law – the World Court, the International Court of Justice for example.
“Malaysia does not just talk. We do. We settle disputes with our neighbours through negotiation and through the World Court. We won some and we lost some. But no one has been killed,“ the prime minister said.
He described as ridiculous this talk about “not one inch of my territory”.
“We know that if we go to war, that inch is going to cost us more than what it is worth. When one goes to court, one does not always get what one claims to be rightfully ours. But it is the same with war. We do not always win,“ he said.
Dr Mahathir pointed out that in a contest between two parties, one must lose if the other is to win.
“But if we use peaceful means we can still lose but it will cost us much less. No one would die, nor land devastated,“ he said. - Bernama
