Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who described his mission of highlighting these issues at the 77th UN General Assembly (UNGA) here as a success, said Malaysia, for example, had been consistently fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people for a long time.
“Malaysia will continue to support Palestine until the cruelty against them is stopped and they establish their own country,” he told reporters on Sunday at the end of his four-day working visit to New York.
“We are disappointed that the Palestinian issue is still not resolved even though there have been three UN resolutions.”
On Friday, Ismail had delivered a national statement at the general assembly, where he touched on the issue of Palestine, the war in Ukraine, the crisis in Myanmar which caused Malaysia to accept about 200,000 Rohingya refugees, and the need to reform the UN, which is now considered incapable of resolving various conflicts around the world.
“Most of the countries acted so quickly in the case of Ukraine. Malaysia wants similar action to be taken to resolve the issue in Palestine. Israel needs to stop being an apartheid entity,” said Ismail, who begins a working visit to the United Arab Emirates on Monday.
He said the international community should also act quickly to resolve the political crisis in Myanmar, adding that the UN seemed to have washed its hands of the issue and left it up to Asean.
Ismail said his call for UN reforms, especially the removal of the veto power, had received positive feedback from several other leaders he met, including UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres.
“By right, the principle of one country, one vote should be given priority. But in reality, the voices of the 193 UN member countries are not important, because the five countries that have veto power can cancel whatever resolution that is brought up,” he said.
On his proposal for the UN to establish a mechanism for international monetary cooperation to deal with economic issues, including inflation, Ismail said although the central banks of each country had the right to raise interest rates, the impact on other countries should also be given due attention.
“For example, when the US raises its interest rates, it affects Malaysia and other countries as well. What we want is coordination or consideration before measures like this are taken,” he said.
In his speech at the UNGA, Ismail had said the proposed establishment of the mechanism was aimed at building a more effective, fair system that was able to bring balance to development in the world.