Address by
The Honourable Said W. Musa
Prime Minister, Minister of Finance
and Foreign Affairs

To the Millennium Summit of the United Nations
6th September 2000

OUR SHARED FUTURE

Brothers and Sisters all:

Many of my colleagues address what is wrong with our world: the poverty, the inequality, the injustice, the violence, the hatred, the greed that is destroying the earth and its people.

We all know the reality, all are shocked, if sometimes numbed, by the horrible statistics that show the unbelievable extent to which human evil and stupidity have brought us appalling misery and suffering.

I ask: is this state of affairs beyond our control? Do we believe that these problems are intractable and that nothing can be done? Or can we summon up the courage and the political will to take the practical and cooperative decisions necessary to ensure a shared and better future for our peoples.

In the past, we looked to the nation state for solutions. Today the true center of governance has changed dramatically. Transnational and  multilateral organizations control our lives; they are the agencies of what we may call real, existing world government.

That government is powerful, it rules the entire world; but it is not democratic. It is not just. And it is not accountable.

A relatively small number of world agencies really do determine the fate of the world's peoples, and they are controlled by a few for the benefit of the few.

For example, the G7 members, with 12% of world population, control 57% of the votes at the IMF and the World Bank. The OECD countries, with only 19% of global population, control 70% of world trade. And no one is fooled by the fiction that the World Trade Organisation practices representative democracy.

Not so very long ago, autocracy was the norm; then a kind of limited democracy evolved, with voting rights limited to property holders or those with a certain income. Only relatively recently has universal suffrage become the norm or even the goal of most countries.

But in global governance, where we are called to be more enlightened if we are to survive, we are so far behind that we appear even to be afraid to demand democracy, accountability and justice.

If we want this United Nations Organisation to fulfill its lofty goals, indeed if we want it to remain relevant in the Century, we must remake it into an organization that takes global governance away from the self-appointed few and brings greater democracy to all its operations.

The Security Council must be reformed; the effectiveness and legitimacy of its proceedings would be immeasurably enhanced by a curtailment of the veto and by expansion of its membership. We must make the General Assembly, and the other nominally democratic organs of the UN, both more powerful and more accountable.

Apart from those bodies already mentioned, there are hundreds of global agencies and organizations that preside over critical aspects of the everyday lives of our peoples. We must ask the Secretary General to monitor their work and draw up for our approval a code of conduct for transparency and accountability.

The UN, itself acting democratically and responsibly, must be given the power to hold every agency of global governance to account; to put in place mechanisms for regular evaluation and correction, with means of ensuring compliance. These organizations must be made to act in accordance with the principles of a sustainable development that puts people first.

In his millennium report, our Secretary General insists that "better governance means greater participation coupled with accountability". We must find effective ways of including more directly the people whose lives are affected by our decisions.

The prevention of deadly conflict, the elimination of hunger and chronic poverty, combating the deadly HIV/AIDS epidemic and other infectious diseases, managing global warming, confronting pervasive crime and violence, closing the digital divide and achieving universal quality education - the magnitude of the immediate and urgent tasks before us is too great to tackle without concerted action. The UN must be the body that coordinates our actions in keeping with all the necessary practices of good global governance.

Globalisation offers great possibilities for prosperity, security and human well being, but only if the architects of globalisation can be held to account, only if it becomes a globalisation of solidarity.

In many small states like Belize, our economies are fragile and vulnerable. We live on the margins, and fear that unrestrained globalization will further marginalize us. But we must be bold and face the future convinced that together with the developed world we can forge a more responsible and equitable globalization. At the time of Belize's independence, we committed ourselves to create a socio-economic framework where individual initiative is adequately rewarded within a socially responsible environment where education, healthcare and all the basic needs of our people are satisfied. We will maintain that commitment.

For the last half of the past century we fought to end colonialism and bring freedom and democracy in our nations. Now we are called to a new appointment with history: to bring democracy to global governance, to share a better and more productive future where all can live in dignity and peace.

May the Almighty guide our deliberations and our actions.

As Salam Aleikum.

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