43. Allow me, Mr. President, to add my country’s voice to those from Africa and elsewhere who have extended to you warm greetings and congratulations on your election to the presidency of the nineteenth session of the General Assembly. Your victory is at once personal, national, truly African, and most important, an expression of the great belief of the common man in right and in truth.
44. It. is personal in that you deserve it, because of the belief you have — and have had — in this Organization, and because of the personal endeavours you have put into it. It is national in that to follow is easier than to lead; indeed, was it not your nation that lit the torch for mother Africa which led us into the corridors of the United Nations, an organization which stands as man's bastion of hope. It is truly African because you, Mr. President, are truly African. It is a victory for the common man because Africa, and all the so-called non-powerful nations, base their values on the premise that from the common man the values of peace and prosperity, dignity and respect — indeed, the awe-inspiring thought of the human inspiration — must begin.
45. Within the wake of the fight for freedom and that sure path that was blazed by all our sister nations in Africa, and all other nations that believe in the dignity of man, in his freedom, in the sanctity of his existence on this planet, I would be failing in my duty, if as my country's representative, I did not express its thanks to all the friends who, in the time of trial, of the gathering storm and the hinge of fate, stood by Malawi to affirm the inevitable truth that all nations must live in freedom, and dignity.
46. We in Malawi believe this to be a moment for restating the truth, which is so easily and readily forgotten, enshrined in the Constitution of the nation on whose soil this headquarters stands — not because it was originally theirs, but because they like all other free nations, restated it from history, and because independence is not a gift but a right of all peoples. The whole nation of Malawi comes before you today when the future of man, and his survival on this lovely planet, halve become a matter of urgent appraisal, to remind the Organization of that dedication by which it pledged itself.
47. Today Malawi stands before the world to reaffirm the pledge that our Prime Minister and leader Dr. Hastings Banda, gave on 2 December 1964 in his address in the General Assembly [1288th meeting] that Malawi will abide by the basic faiths and principles that are self-evident and need no questioning. For Malawi it begins from man's search for international peace and prosperity. We believe that peace and prosperity are nurtured by a genuine desire for the dignity and freedom of man. They flow through the enjoyment of equal rights for all men, of all nations, large or small, because their sum is man himself. Malawi cannot, therefore, countenance colonialism or imperialism in any guise or form. Malawi cannot, in our time — as man has never accepted at any time in history — accept that these principles be submerged or intimidated by those negative values guided by strength or wealth but it must rather be guided by justice, responsibility, truth, honour and respect for that which is right and sacred.
48. Malawi is rightly proud of being a member nation of this community. In our present trying times Malawi is proud of belonging to that band of small nations whose strength and influence lies in the keeping of the conscience of the world. In this, therefore, we need not minimize our responsibilities; indeed, it makes them greater because these responsibilities do not depend on the possession of arms but rather on the exertion of spiritual influence without fear or favour. We cannot depend on the gullibility of power, size or wealth and therefore Malawi will not prostrate itself, nor allow any nation in the same position to be used or influenced by the twentieth-century worship of ideologies.
49. That is why, in our foreign policy, as our leader stated a few days ago, we shall be guided by the tenet3 of "discretionary non-alignment". In the pursuance of this policy we shall unflinchingly reserve the right to take our own independent stand on the numerous international issues which face the world today and not simply to follow the respective attitudes of other nations, whether Eastern or Western. We shall refuse, categorically, to be drawn into the arena of the cold war; we shall refuse to perform the marionette shuffles of power blocs or to play the toy soldier games of military alliances designed to serve the interests of muscle or mammon. Malawi does not naively believe in the inherent good nature of man. Our belief can rather be summed up in the words of that great humanist and novelist, Mr. E. M. Forster, who said that he would rather have "less chastity and more delicacy".
50. Ours in Malawi is not a bed of roses. This is made painfully clear when one looks at our position on the map of Africa. We are faced with the most heart-rending problem that any new nation has had to face. We are land-locked. We depend on an economy whose basis is agriculture, Worst of all, we are cradled by one of the most heinous forms of colonialism that any African country has had the misfortune to have near. We shall not flinch in our duty, using all our abilities, accepting all our limitations, to fight for the total liberation of all dependent people, more especially for the total liberation of our dear continent, Africa. Malawi does not believe in mere talk and empty words of exaltation.
51. If at times, therefore, we may look as if we have failed, it will not have been for lack of trying. But never in the history of mankind should it be said of us that we killed this noble task of liberation, by sacrificing the goal and prostituting ourselves for immediate cheap applause, for if Malawi should die in the endeavour, the death will not be Malawi’s only; it will be partial death for Africa. If it succeeds in circumventing this monstrous obstacle to victory, it will be a victory for Africa and all the free world.
52. For tins, therefore, we shall continue, determined as ever, with the best of our ability to fight for the liberation of our brothers in Southern Rhodesia with whom for months we have shared imperialist prisons. For this we shall, fight to destroy the cancer that has been sapping the life of our brothers in South West Africa, Angola and Mozambique, and for the just Cause of Bechuanaland, and indeed for the whole Sum total of those millions that still live under the shadow of man's inhumanity to man; and, above all, for those millions in South Africa, whose tragic lot has put the twentieth century to shame for tolerating the inhuman regime that takes the form of the so-called Government of South Africa.
53. Malawi now stands on the battle-line of this challenge to the human race. Malawi wishes to state here that in these areas the sands of time are running short. Let it not be said that the chambers of this great Organization heard the warning, but never heeded it, for what would be more tragic than to lead the world into a human tragedy so senseless?
54. Malawi is one of the "new boys "in this Organization. We have walked through the corridors of this building with open eyes. We have seen beyond the pinstriped suits, the colourful togas and pompous brief cases; heard through the whiffs of sophisticated chatter and the knowledgeable nudge on the elbow, the true message of the United Nations, that message that penetrates through the many forms of eloquence bringing us back to what this Organization is really all about. To reduce it to a simple definition, it could be summed up as the responsible concern of man for man and nation for nation.
55. Indeed, is it not humiliating to know that, when crops are being ploughed under in one area of our planet, children are dying of hunger in another part of it? Is it not callously humiliating to know that the most noble abilities of man are spent in burning uranium while, in the same breath, there are talks about aid and help to the developing areas of the world? Of what use is that nobility that rests in the face of the ladies that sell UNICEF stamps in this building? Of what significance are the school children's United Nations clubs if they are not going to flower into the spiritual embodiment of this ideal that man still refuses to accept in the General Assembly?
56. The developing nations, and Malawi in particular, believe that the exploiting imbalance of trade arrangements has begun to be tackled by the former exploiting Powers. The United Nations Trade and Development Conference is a beginning, but only a beginning. Like numerous speakers before me, I wish to say that my country will watch closely what will follow after Geneva.
57. In the great debate that questions the-burning issues that certain countries should or should not be admitted to the United Nations, we can only restate our Prime Minister's statement in his address that Malawi reaffirms the provisions of Article 4 of the Charter, which stipulates that: "Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the ... Charter". We stand, therefore, for the admission of China.
58. One of the obvious weaknesses of this Assembly is that China is not sitting with us here today. It seems anomalous to us that China must blow dangerous fireworks into the atmosphere before the United Nations can stir up the huddles in the delegate's lounge to consider the whole question of world peace.
59. I said before that the duty of Malawi will be to add her voice to those small nations that keep the conscience of the world. Malawi believes in this Organization because it accepts the big and the small on terms of equality. Malawi is often reminded of that great period a few years ago when the noble people of the United States of America in their wisdom had the courage to elect a boy as their President. The world saw then the vision of a new frontier. It is this new frontier that Malawi will endeavour to bring into the chambers of this Organization.
60. Before I close, let it not be taken for granted that Africa, and Malawi in particular, will sit down and watch acts of unwarranted interference in our national affairs by any nation, great or small, by any group of people, who, through their own wishes and desires, believe that they have a mission to, fulfil in our country. The affairs in the Congo have disturbed Africa and the world, Malawi and Africa have fought before for their rights. We shall continue against any collusions or acts of subversion, to fight for the maintenance of our national integrity. The problems Or Africa are basically African problems. They can never be solved by foreign aeroplanes or foreign ideologies. Nor* shall we allow our God-given natural resources to be used for our destruction and the spiritual massacre of our simple people. We look to the future with a new vision of man whose values are basically spiritual.
61. Our plea to the Assembly this year is to ask it to remember the words of that great poet, John Milton, in Paradise Lost: ... What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the height of this great Argument I may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men.