Source: President of South Africa –
Your Royal Highness, Paduka Seri Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, Chancellor of Universiti Malaya;
Your Excellencies, Pro-Chancellors of Universiti Malaya;
The Honourable Minister of Higher Education of Malaysia, Dato’ Seri DiRaja Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir;
The Honourable Chairman and Members of the Board of Directors of Universiti Malaya;
Professor Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Azuan Abu Osman, Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Malaya;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen;
Allow me to begin by thanking the faculty and leadership of the Universiti Malaya for this great honour, which I accept with humility.
While it is conferred in the name of an individual, this honour recognises the achievements of an entire nation.
It recognises the struggle of the South African people for democracy and freedom.
It acknowledges the progress we have made in building a new society founded on the principles of equality, justice and solidarity.
This Honorary Doctorate in International Relations is being conferred at a time of great turbulence and uncertainty in the world. The principles and values that we have sought to advance in global affairs – such as equality, justice, diversity and sustainability – are being challenged by injustice and inequity, unilateralism, protectionism, disunity, unsustainability, exploitation and environmental degradation.
We believe that this Honorary Doctorate is conferred as an affirmation of those values we have always lived by.
The conferment of this honour affirms the bonds of friendship between Malaysia and South Africa and affirms the values that we share.
This is an honour dedicated to our shared pursuit of knowledge and our shared desire to advance humanity through learning and understanding.
It is an honour that I dedicate to people struggling against discrimination, human rights abuses, poverty and inequality, wherever they may be.
Your Royal Highness,
It is an honour to stand before you to discuss “South-South Diplomacy in the 21st Century: Malaysia and South Africa”, which is a topic that resonates deeply with our shared values of unity, cooperation and mutual respect.
To fully understand relations between South Africa and Malaysia, one has to delve into the historical linkages between our two countries.
We need to understand how these connections established a firm foundation for our relationship today.
And how they can pave the way for a bright future through south-south diplomacy.
The bonds that bind our two nations together are not only bonds of friendship. They are bonds of kinship.
They are bonds that go back several hundred years.
Today, we pay tribute to the rulers and peoples of the Malay-Indonesian archipelago, whose exiles, workers and scholars helped build the South African nation.
The earliest recorded arrivals of people from the Malay-Indonesian world at the southernmost tip of Africa were mostly enslaved people.
They were brought against their will and in violation of their fundamental rights to provide labour to the early Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope.
Among these early arrivals were also political exiles, skilled artisans and religious scholars.
Yet even amidst the degradation and dehumanisation of slavery, the arrival of these people was transformational.
This early community carried Islam to South Africa, and the Holy Quran’s message of equality brought comfort to the dispossessed peoples of South Africa.
Scholars of early Cape history recall how the Dutch discouraged enslaved people from converting to Christianity.
To admit them into the Christian faith would mean acknowledging their humanity and personhood.
In stark contrast, Islam offered a sense of belonging that did not care for race, status or position in society.
At a time of bondage and racial hierarchy, the early Muslim community at the Cape practised the values of equality and dignity – values that we have sought to advance in global affairs through our G20 Presidency.
Beyond the sense of belonging and acceptance, the Malay community offered social services like charity, caring for the sick and elderly, orphanages, the recognition of marriages and decent burial.
The mosques and madrasas of the community that came to be regarded as the Cape Malays gave spiritual instruction and formal education at a time when most local churches would not let enslaved people even enter the door.
The Malay language had a formative influence on the development of Afrikaans, one of our twelve official languages.
It is an extraordinary fact of history that the earliest written Afrikaans was actually in Arabic script, recorded in the madrasas of Cape Town in the 1830s.
Today, Afrikaans is the third most widely spoken language in South Africa.
Yet, the most profound legacy of the peoples of the Malay-Indonesian archipelago in South Africa has not been food, culture or language.
The legacy of these early arrivals is found in the ideas of social justice and human equality brought to our shores long before our freedom was born.
This is an ethos that prevails until this very day.
This spiritual dimension would eventually evolve into organised resistance. First against colonial rule and later against apartheid rule.
We recall the contribution of political prisoners like Tuan Guru, who was imprisoned on Robben Island and later established the first masjid in South Africa.
We remember leaders like Sheikh Yusuf of Macassar, who, exiled to the Cape, was influential in establishing Islam in the Cape and providing a sanctuary for slaves.
From these beginnings, the Cape Malay community has birthed many brave leaders who stood up to challenge racial exclusion, colonialism and apartheid.
Seventy years ago this year, Bandung in Indonesia became synonymous with the global resistance against oppression and colonialism.
The Bandung Conference, held in 1955, was the key event that marked the beginning of the Non-Aligned Movement.
It brought together leaders from 29 Asian and African countries to discuss issues of mutual interest, such as anti-colonialism, economic development and peace.
Among the delegates from across the world, the African National Congress was represented by Moses Kotane and Moulvi Cachalia.
The Bandung Conference established the principles of respect for sovereignty, non-interference in domestic affairs and peaceful coexistence.
It laid the groundwork for a broader movement that has grown to include over 120 member states, aiming to foster international cooperation, oppose colonialism and imperialism, and promote economic and cultural development independently of the Cold War superpowers.
In the face of empire, Bandung opened up a new era for South-South cooperation.
Writing about the Bandung Conference many years later, African National Congress President Oliver Tambo would describe the Afro-Asian solidarity movement as having travelled “a long and complicated, but glorious path”.
He said the Afro-Asian solidarity movement “has proved itself as a steadfast friend of all peoples fighting for national and social emancipation.”
All these years later, the Bandung ideals of sovereignty, non-interference in domestic affairs and peaceful coexistence based on unity, dignity and strategic cooperation remain more important than ever.
These are the ideals that continue to define South Africa’s relations with Malaysia.
When the Bandung Conference took place, Malaya had not yet attained independence.
Yet, upon independence Malaysia would go on to play a leading role in the movements of the Global South and the Non-Aligned Movement, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and much later, the G77 caucus within the United Nations.
We cannot speak of this history without paying tribute to the great Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Tunku was a bridge-builder between the nations of the Global South and a true friend of the South African people.
He played a leading role in forcing the withdrawal of apartheid South Africa from the Commonwealth in the early 1960s. He used his stature to condemn the racist regime at the United Nations.
Under Tunku’s leadership, the young independent nation of Malaysia was determined to reflect the principles of Bandung in its foreign policy and in all its affairs.
It is a source of great pride to us that the ties between Malaysia and South Africa have endured.
Since the time of the early Cape Malay community, through the anti-apartheid struggle and into our democracy, our destinies have been intertwined.
That spiritual inheritance planted in South Africa by Tuan Guru, Sheikh Yusuf of Macassar and the other exiles and imams, would come to define the principled resistance of the Cape Malay community to apartheid.
Our shared history may not have been of our making, but it has evolved into a principled solidarity.
When we were liberated from apartheid bondage, Malaysia was at our side.
When President Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed was one of the first foreign leaders he met with.
As a liberation movement preparing to govern, the African National Congress sought to learn from Malaysia’s economic success story.
As we crafted our own economic vision for the democratic South Africa, we were eager to glean lessons from Malaysia’s Look East Policy and the New Economic Policy, which focused on rapid industrial growth with social equity and redistribution.
Speaking in 1997 at the Malaysian Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, President Nelson Mandela said: “South Africa takes particular interest in Malaysia’s success in overcoming the legacy of colonialism and poverty, and in the economic policies that made this possible.”
He added that South Africa had much to learn from Malaysia’s experience as South Africa restructured its economy.
Since the mid-2000s South African parliamentarians and officials have taken study tours to Malaysia to learn about industrial strategy, national planning and policy design.
In the formative years of our democracy, Malaysia was one of the earliest and largest investors from Asia, investing in banking, telecommunications, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and other sectors.
Today, South Africa is Malaysia’s largest trading partner in Africa.
Our economic relationship holds immense potential.
In the course of our visit to Malaysia, we have been exploring areas of cooperation that are aligned to our respective national development imperatives.
On the foundation of our firm diplomatic relations, we are building ties of trade, investment and commerce.
Our countries have complementary resources and capabilities.
South Africa holds substantial reserves of critical minerals.
Malaysia is rapidly expanding electronics, electric vehicle and battery manufacturing industries.
This provides opportunities to develop integrated value chains that recognise South Africa’s ambition to develop its industrial base and add value to the minerals that it extracts.
The formation of the African Continental Free Trade Area offers further opportunities for partnership between South Africa and Malaysia in reaching a market of 1.4 billion people.
There are significant opportunities for partnership in the production of Halal products and manufactured goods in South Africa for export to the rest of the African continent.
As like-minded and active non-aligned countries, Malaysia and South Africa have common views and interests.
As the chairs of ASEAN and G20 respectively, Malaysia and South Africa are advancing similar visions and similar agendas.
We cooperate in multilateral organisations such as the United Nations and its agencies, the Commonwealth, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Indian Ocean Rim Association and others.
Such cooperation is essential at this time of great uncertainty, amidst an increasingly fragile international order.
Conflicts and wars, contestations over trade, the energy transition and the pace of the digital revolution are reshaping the international order.
In some places, they are replicating colonial-era patterns of dependency and threatening to deepen inequality.
At a time of global disorder, the countries of the Global South must evoke the spirit of Bandung to chart a new course for our shared future.
At a time when suffering, dispossession and the denial of dignity persist, our two countries are called upon to together work towards a future that is more equitable, more humane and that respects the dignity and worth of every individual.
Beyond our shared history, beyond our bilateral economic relationship, Malaysia and South Africa stand shoulder to shoulder on the global stage in our mutual quest for social justice for people everywhere.
Our two nations have stood consistently for the reform of the institutions of global governance so that the needs of the Global South are reflected.
We continue to call for reform of the United Nations Security Council so that it reflects the realities of the 21st century, and so that it may fulfil its original purpose as a guarantor of international peace and security.
There is a need to stand together in combating climate change, both in mitigating its effects and in pursuing a just and inclusive transition to low-carbon economies.
We have both a common interest and a common responsibility to ensure that those countries that are historically responsible for greenhouse gas emissions provide substantial support to those countries that are most affected by climate change.
We thank Malaysia for its unwavering support for our G20 Presidency, convened under the theme of Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.
We know we can continue to count on Malaysia’s support in support of the four key priorities of our G20 Presidency.
Our first priority is to strengthen disaster resilience and response.
We are calling for global cooperation – which includes financial institutions and the private sector – to scale up post-disaster reconstruction.
Our second priority is to ensure debt sustainability for developing economies.
We are advancing solutions for unsustainable sovereign debt level, high deficits and liquidity challenges, extending debt relief and addressing the cost of capital.
Our third priority is to mobilising finance for a just energy transition.
We need increased climate finance flows to developing economies, strengthening multilateral development banks, and leveraging private capital for initiatives like the Just Energy Transition Partnership.
Our fourth priority is to use critical minerals for inclusive growth:
We need to have value addition near extraction sites and develop low-carbon manufacturing chains.
We must harness critical minerals as engines for growth and development in Africa.
Through our Presidency, we are seeking to strengthen the response of the G20 countries and the broader international community to the pressing issues of our time: poverty, inequality, climate change, pandemics and rapid technological change.
We seek to build a more peaceful and just world.
We pay tribute to the principled solidarity of the peoples of Malaysia with the oppressed and suffering Palestinian people.
After decades of dispossession, repression and oppression, the people of Gaza are facing genocide.
We cannot but be moved to action by the slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians, forced displacement, deliberate starvation and the destruction of homes, schools, hospitals and other essential infrastructure.
We welcome the ceasefire deal brokered by President Donald Trump and supported by a number of countries in the Middle East and beyond, including the return of the hostages, the release of Palestinian prisoners and the resumption of humanitarian assistance.
However, we are concerned that this ceasefire is being undermined by continued assaults on Gaza and the West Bank.
As an international community, we must make every effort to ensure that the peace deal provides a path towards Palestinian statehood and self-determination.
We must pursue the goal of a two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders, with a Palestinian state existing alongside and in peace with the State of Israel.
We salute Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s leadership in publicly supporting South Africa’s case against the State of Israel at the International Court of Justice and for Malaysia’s active leadership within the Hague Group.
This is truly the spirit of Bandung: the solidarity of conscience.
Our shared history has taught us that through solidarity we can escape the ghosts of the past, overcome the most strident of obstacles and help reshape our common destiny.
As we look to the future, it is essential that we continue to strengthen the historical linkages that exist between us.
We should celebrate the rich history that binds Malaysia and South Africa.
It is important for us to honour the struggles and sacrifices made by our forebears and strive to build a future rooted in collaboration and mutual respect.
As members of this esteemed university community, you have an important role to foster and enhance these connections and become ambassadors of goodwill.
You can lead the way in strengthening the ties between our nations based on equality, freedom, democracy, justice and dignity.
I receive this honorary doctorate with gratitude from the Universiti Malaya, an institution with a rich and proud history.
I accept it on behalf of your brothers and sisters in South Africa, who owe the people of Malaysia and its noble leaders a great debt.
Thank you for standing with us in our quest for dignity and justice.
As we enter a new and even greater era of South-South cooperation, we carry with us the spirit of the early Cape Malay community whose values are the bedrock of the free South Africa we have today.
Let there be friendship.
Let there be peace. Salaam Alaikum.
I thank you.
