Your Majesty, Heads of State, Heads of Government, Sonny RamphalSecretary-General, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
First, can I thank you, Sir, most warmly on behalf of all your guests for this magnificent occasion? It is, I think, an innovation in the normal scheme of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings and an exceptionally pleasant and agreeable one. We thank you, Sir, for your hospitality.
Perhaps we might also take the opportunity to congratulate Your Majesty on your election as Agong. You already have an unequalled record of public service in administration, in the law and as holder of Malaysia's highest judicial office. Your versatility, Sir, is remarkable. To be both Malaysia's youngest High Court Judge and the Manager of the Olympic Hockey Team is a combination which none of us could emulate (laughter). Malaysia is fortunate to have a Head of State of such outstanding experience and wisdom. [end p1]
May I also say thank you on behalf of all Heads of State and Government here assembled for the warm welcome and hospitality we are receiving during our stay in Malaysia. Malaysia has for centuries had contacts with every part of the world. That was the natural consequence of your position astride the great seaways linking India, the Middle East and Europe with Japan, China and Korea. There is nothing new for you in playing host to people of many races from far away parts of the world, but no-one can fail to be impressed by the tremendous progress which Malaysia has made, most especially in recent years under your distinguished Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir.
Just as one small example, I would point out that your country is now the third largest manufacturer of integrated circuits in the world after Japan and the United States, so without Malaysia nothing would work, from our computers to our washing machines! Malaysia's success is a model of how to harness natural resources to natural enterprise.
We congratulate you, too, on the very prominent and constructive part which Malaysia plays in world affairs. We think of your position as a member of the United Nations Security Council; we think of your contribution to United Nations Forces in Namibia and in the Middle E* we think of the outstanding part played by Dr. Mahathir in chairing the very successful international conference on drugs in Geneva. There is no doubt that Malaysia stands in the front rank internationally and we all applaud that. [end p2]
Your Majesty, it is quite a daunting task to be asked to give a dinner speech to a room full of brilliant after-dinner speakers. Can there be a funny story left which they have not either heard or re-told themselves or quite probably heard and re-told themselves?
Just as daunting is the number of lawyers present. You and I, Sir, are both members of Lincoln's Inn; our Sonny RamphalSecretary-General comes from Gray's Inn, but he has coped pretty well despite that! (laughter) and at a quick count, there are something like a dozen lawyers among the other Heads of State and Government—even one married couple of lawyers, although I understand, of course, Dr. Mahathir goes against the trend by being the first Malaysian Prime Minister who is not a lawyer—instead, a doctor married to a doctor.
You may recall the old Scottish saying that there are three sorts of lawyers: the able, the unable and the lament-able (laughter). I am sure here we are all in the first category, although lawyers are not always popular. You know, St. Peter once turned down an applicant to enter the Gates of Heaven. The applicant said that he would like to appeal the decision and asked for a lawyer. “I am sorry!” said St. Peter, “but we have not got any of those up here!” (laughter)
One of the best aspects of our Commonwealth meetings is the level of debate, now of course reaching even greater heights with the presence of a former President of the Oxford Union, Prime Minister Bhutto. We have the great advantage of a common working [end p3] language. There is a natural understanding which I do not think is equalled in any other international body. We also have a tradition of tolerating a variety of views and I usually succeed in adding to them! (laughter) That is what makes our meetings interesting, controversial and worthwhile. We try to agree because that is the basis for action, but where we disagree—as we sometimes do—we better understand the reasons for our differing views and it helps sharpen our thinking.
In one of our communiques a few years ago, we used the phrase “frankness in friendship” . That sums up very well how we disagree in the Commonwealth when we disagree.
The other great principle which draws us together is our commitment to parliamentary democracy. The fact is that right across the world we are seeing the advance of democracy, most spectactularly in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, but also in Central and South America and that should be a tremendous source of satisfaction to the members of the Commonwealth who are in a very real sense champions of democracy worldwide.
We all shared the thrill of seeing genuine debate for the first time in the Congress of People's Deputies in the Soviet Union and even seeing the Government defeated on a particular proposal, although of course none of us would like that to happen too often! [end p4]
Of course, no parliament can claim an unblemished record. We have experienced some slightly unusual ways of doing things at Westminster. It is recorded of Charles James Fox, one of our most famous parliamentary orators, that on Thursday he spoke in the debate, went to dinner at half-past eleven at night, from thence to White's Club where he drank till seven the next morning, thence to Almack's where he won £6,000 and then set off for Newmarket for racing. Well, we occasionally have all-night sittings in these days, but they are not quite as exciting as that and I should remind you that Charles James Fox never became Prime Minister, although that might have seemed a very good training for the Foreign Secretary that he was to become! (laughter).
Your Majesty, our meeting already in these first two days demonstrated its worth with the vigorous and illuminating debate on world affairs and what strikes me most about the way the world has changed since our last meeting can be summed up in the single world “hope” .
There have been setbacks: the atrocious massacre in Tiananmen Square, the conflict in Lebanon, the failure to find a solution to the problems of Cambodia, General Noriega 's squalid rule in Panama, acts of terrorism and violence in which many of our citizens have lost their lives. [end p5]
All that is a matter of great sadness, but we have so much else more positive to set against it: the great changes sweeping the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, bringing an end to the Cold War; the return of democracy in Pakistan; the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan; the ending of the Gulf War; the way in which we are all making greater use of the United Nations; the prospect of independence for Namibia; the change of government in South Africa and the freeing from prison of many of those whose release we have all sought for many years.
Who would have thought at the Commonwealth Conference in Lusaka in 1979 that ten years later I would be standing in Zimbabwe with President Mugabe and President Chissano of Mozambique, as I did earlier this year, watching British Army Officers training the Zimbabwe and Mozambique armies? That is an example of the extent of the change.
Yes, the world has moved forward since our last meeting and there is the prospect of far greater and more hopeful changes still between now and the end of the Millennium. Many Commonwealth countries still face major problems: debt, development, population; we have new problems to tackle, including the very important issues of global environment and drugs.
Not all our hopes will be realised, but among the many Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings which I have attended—Lusaka, Melbourne, Delhi, Nassau, London, Vancouver—and of course some of you have been to many more still, among them all this is the time when I feel most optimistic about the future. [end p6]
Tomorrow, we shall leave for our Retreat. When we return to Kuala Lumpur, it will be to bid a formal farewell to Sonny Ramphal and to thank him for his outstanding and distinguished service on behalf of the Commonwealth for over fourteen years (applause). But that is for the future.
This evening, may I express our thanks to the Yang di-Portvan Agong, to Malaysia, and may I express our hopes and beliefs that we are entering a new era of hope for our countries and for the Commonwealth (applause)