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Dr. Mahathir's speech to the UN General Assembly will be more meaningful if he has practiced what he preached   Media Statement by Loke Siew Fook (Petaling Jaya, Friday): DAPSY expresses our support for Dr. Mahathir's call for the abolition of the single-country veto in the United Nation Security Council. Dr. Mahathir suggested that the veto system in the UN Security Council permanent members to be modified, so that two veto powers backed by three other members of the Security Council could block any UN resolution. He said even this should be slowly dismantled in favour of majority decisions in the council. "Important agencies of the UN must be freed from the domination of any single country and they should gradually be made more democratic", Dr Mahathir told the 58th Session of the UN General Assembly in his last address to the world body yesterday in New York. It was no doubt that Dr. Mahathir has rightly spoken up for the developing and Third World countries and pointed the threats faced by them in the unipolar world today. Dr. Mahathir concluded his speech by saying, "If we want to have democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights, the powerful must demonstrate their commitment to all the noble ideas". Dr. Mahathir's speech was noble and respectable but DAPSY calls on Dr. Mahathir to put in practice what he said domestically. If we want the world to respect Malaysia and take Dr. Mahathir's speech seriously, then the Barisan Nasional government must demonstrate their commitment to all the noble ideas. Although no Malaysians will deny the contributions of Dr. Mahathir in economic and infrastructure development in the country in his 22-years premiership, he must realize that he has fared badly in the subject of democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights. His legacy as the longest-serving Prime Minister of Malaysia will be more meaningful if in the last 22 years, he has abolish the Internal Security Act, the Official Secrets Act, the Sedition Act, UUCA and all other draconian laws, nurtured a vibrant and meaningful participatory democracy, ensured a truly independent judiciary and created a culture of zero-tolerance to corruptions in all levels of government. Dr. Mahathir who will leave office at the end of next month will have no chance to demonstrate what he said anymore. The buck is now passed to Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in his capacity of the new Prime Minister to carry out and demonstrate to the world what Dr. Mahathir preached to the world yesterday. (26/9/2003) * Loke Siew Fook,  DAPSY National Secretary