TUN DR MAHATHIR MOHAMAD
1. At a forum in UKM recently, Dr
Chandra Muzaffar raised the matter of sanctions in international affairs and
suggested that sanction is war by other means. Therefore it should be made a
crime and that the campaign to make war a crime should include sanctions.2. I
fully agree with Dr Muzaffar that sanction is a crime.
3. In the past, during the numerous
wars of the European nations, one of the most effective weapons was the siege.
This consisted of cutting off communication of a city with the outside through
positioning soldiers all round the city so that the citizens would be starved
to death or surrender.
4. The concept has been “upgraded” so
that whole country could be cut off from communication and trade with other
countries. The effect is to starve and deprive the people of food and medicine
until the country surrenders. It is another way of killing people as in war.
5. We talk a lot about the rule of law.
We know that for justice to be done everyone must be equal before the law. No
one should be above the law.
6. But sanctions can only be
effectively applied by the powerful against the weak. There is no way for a
weak country to apply sanctions against a strong power, indeed against another
weak country even.
7. Against a strong country even the
whole world or the United Nations cannot apply sanctions. The strong country
can just ignore sanctions. There is no equality before the law. And therefore
there is no justice. The rule of law cannot be applied.
8. What is worse about sanctions is
that it is not the only country under sanctions which will be deprived of their
rights, other countries which have trade and even friendly relations with the
sanctioned country will also suffer the loss of trade and relations. This is so
because if a country continues to trade with the sanctioned country, the
powerful country can punish the recalcitrant by cutting off trade, denying
banking facilities etc. In effect the other countries have to suffer sanctions
as well.
9. We talk about free trade. We talk
about borderless world. We talk about human rights. But the big power or power
can deprive weak countries of all their freedoms with impunity.
10. Truly sanction is war by other
means. It is an expression of might being right. It is cruel and inhumane. It
denies the claim of the big powers that they want to see nations uphold
freedoms including. It negates their assertion that trade should be free.
11. Since sanction is war, it should be
made as criminal as other forms of wars, conventional or otherwise.
No comments:
Post a Comment