Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Let me begin by congratulating Your Excellency, Mr. Han Seung-soo, on your election as President of the General Assembly. I am especially gratified to be addressing the Assembly when a distinguished Asian is again at its helm. I congratulate as well His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan on the Nobel Prize that he, together with the United Nations, has received. That prize constitutes recognition by the international community of the indispensable role of the United Nations and of the necessary work it has done on the Secretary-General’s watch towards world peace and justice.

At the most elemental level, we feel most deeply the sad and tragic impact of the recent inhuman acts of terrorism: the lost lives, the orphaned children, the widowed spouses, the parents struck with the unimaginable grief of outliving their children and, worse yet, of watching them die. As we watched the horror unfold, we felt as though it were happening to us — as indeed it was, for the United Nations is in a sense one family. The blow that was struck at this international city of New York was felt as directly by the rest of the world. As people the world over stopped to watch in horror as the twin towers came down, the world’s economies ground to a virtual halt.

Business activity stopped, investments were withdrawn, markets shrank, tourism dried up, more jobs were lost, living standards dropped even further, destitution spread and the very conditions that favour terrorism spread and deepened. Our misgivings about a world slowdown deepened into certainty about a recession that will be felt most deeply by those least able to endure it: not just classes but whole countries. The average growth rate in the gross domestic product of developing countries could fall from last year’s 5.5 per cent to 2.9 per cent. For most poor countries, that will translate to sub-zero growth.

The face of terrorism that this city saw over a month ago is a familiar one to Asians. It has taken a terrible toll in terms of the lives of our people and the economies of the region. It has destroyed our credit and has deterred investment. It has caused Asian Governments profound embarrassment at being caught flat-footed and unable to offer their citizens the most basic security. In the south-western part of the Philippines, it has taxed our resources and our patience to the limit, for terrorism is the argument of those who are not really interested in reasoning but only in getting whatever they want on their terms alone.

We know terrorism. We are fighting it in the south-western Philippines. The perpetrators of the first attack on the World Trade Center were apprehended by our police. Rather than dismembering our country and dispossessing our people of their homes, we have been negotiating with secessionist groups. But we have thrown the full weight of the law, including the use of force, at those who have resorted to terrorism. We know the enemy, and we know that these are not people you talk to; these are people you fight. As the Secretary-General has pointed out, there are those who will hate and who will kill even if every injustice is ended. You must fight them in the field, when they take to the field and hunt them in cities when they hide inside.

It was in the light of that experience in the southwestern Philippines that we immediately condemned the terrorist attacks on the United States, for we recognized them immediately as desperate and despicable acts by that violent minority which seeks to enslave the world with fear. And indeed, they have given the world good reason to be afraid. The attack on the World Trade Center, which aimed to take the lives of the 50,000 people who worked inside it, shows us an enemy without pity, without compunction and prepared to use any means to achieve the greatest destruction.

The Philippines did not need to join the war on terrorism: it was in that war already, in the southwestern part of our islands. The Philippines could not have done otherwise than to renew its commitment to fight terrorism in a wider field in the wake of 11 September. We know that this is an enemy that must be fought everywhere so that it cannot again strike at will anywhere it pleases.

This is a fight between tolerance and bigotry, between reason and fanaticism, between law and anarchy, between justice and murder pretending to be just. In this fight, there is no side to choose but the one where the civilized nations of the world — long-time allies and former enemies — have chosen to stand united, not least here in this Hall.

The Secretary-General has declared that the 11 September attacks struck at everything our Organization stands for: peace, freedom, tolerance, human rights, and the very idea of a united human family.

I do not know if the future belongs to our side, but I am convinced that there will be no future if our side does not prevail in this fight — at least, no future that any of us would care to live in. In fact, it would not be a future in which most of us would be allowed to live. It would be a future where happiness was suspect, delight was blasphemy, beauty was a cause for shame and independent thought a capital crime.

But while terrorism cannot be placated, and no terrorist should be appeased, there is no doubt in our minds, either, that we must address the concerns that they pretend are the inspiration for their terrible deeds. If the world can show that it will carry on, that it will persevere in creating a stronger, more just, more benevolent and more genuine international community across all lines of religion and race, then terrorism will have failed.

No, terrorism will not stop, but it will have failed. To stop terrorism, the terrorists themselves will have to be stopped. What we can do, however, is to strip them of their moral pretensions and take upon ourselves the causes that they have perverted.

No nation will indefinitely endure the yawning gap between rich and poor — a gap that is only growing bigger, not just within, but across the countries of the world. It is this growing disparity between the ever fewer rich and the ever-increasing poor that has given terrorism the freedom of movement and impunity from accountability that it has enjoyed.

Poverty can be reduced partly by national economic growth. But, more than that, societies have to adopt deliberate policies to ensure that the income levels of the poor rise faster than those of the rich.

Recent developments in the global economy have displayed the perils of overdependence on external markets. We must expand domestic demand and increase the purchasing power of the masses of our people. This is largely the responsibility of each nation. We in the Philippines are addressing the affront of mass poverty through housing, education, lower medical costs, more efficient power, transportation and communications, infrastructure in the countryside, credit to small farmers and micro-industries, productivity, protection of the environment, and development of the areas farthest from our centre of political power and economic activity. The international community also has a responsibility in the elimination of poverty.

Commitments to devote a certain percentage of gross domestic product to official development assistance have a place. But the most effective, and least costly, anti-poverty measure on a global scale is for developed countries to open their markets wider to the products of the developing countries, including in particular those products turned out by poor people in the poor countries — agricultural commodities, textiles, clothing and footwear, as well as electrical and electronic appliances and components.

The global trading system cannot allow developed countries to subsidize heavily their agricultural exports while the developing countries are without the means to help their own farmers.

The recent Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) decided to launch a new round of multilateral trade negotiations. To ensure that the WTO does not lose credibility at this crucial time, our top priority is to ensure that the Doha round is truly a development round.

The effort to conquer poverty must embrace all cultures, all ethnic groups and all religious communities. Nations must allow all to preserve their own cultures.

We must make political autonomy accessible to regions that want it. At the same time, no one must be allowed to resort to terrorism to further political aims.

Respect for culture and religion, resources for development, openness to political autonomy within the sovereignty of the nation and rejection of terrorism are the foundations of the Philippine approach to our ethnic diversity and to the uplifting of our Muslim and tribal minorities.

The vision of nations where poverty is rapidly reduced cannot be attained in places where women and girls are mistreated and their rights trampled upon. As a woman head of State, woman head of Government and woman Commander-in-Chief of the world’s fourteenth largest nation, I say: we cannot conquer poverty without liberating women and girls where they are oppressed. The gender gap is a part of the development gap and must be addressed with equal vigour.

The fight against terrorism, the struggle to eliminate poverty, the work on behalf of social and international justice, the strengthening of the rule of law, the promotion of tolerance and mutual respect, the practice of humanitarian compassion, the liberation of women, the never-ending quest for peace — these have long been on the United Nations agenda. We in the Philippines have been doing this in our region, in cooperation with our neighbours.

The heightened virulence of terrorism, the renewed sense of insecurity among the world’s peoples and the alarming slowdown in the global economy have intensified the urgency and importance of our work. Together, let us get on with the job. It is serious. It is essential. It is urgent.