Text of the Speech made by Mr. Ramani (Malaysia) in the Security Council Meeting No. 1247 held on 25 October 1965

Text of the Speech made by Mr. Ramani (Malaysia) in the Security Council Meeting No. 1247 held on 25 October 1965

It is not my intention to speak on the subject of the debate this afternoon or to canvass the reasons why we recessed and resumed. I was just going to refer to one matter of great interest to me, which was explained by the representative of France. That relates to the question of parties who are in a position to raise points of order. He explained, undoubtedly in the light of his very long experience in the Security Council, to which I always defer, that no one who is not a member of the Council has ever been in the past or should hereafter be permitted to raise points of order. Mr. President, you accepted that and you entirely agreed with it. I do not wish to give the impression that I challenge that ruling. I, of course, bow to that ruling and I accept it in any event until the end of October, because I want to put forward the view that the question is not concluded in the way in which the representative of France put it before the Council. I want him to acquit me of succumbing merely to the temptation of putting another point of view just because it is a point of view opposed to his own.

Rule 30 of the provisional rules of procedure states: "If a representative raises a point of order the President shall immediately state his ruling." The question then arises: who is a representative for the purpose of raising points of order? Rule 14 states:

"Any Member of the United Nations not a member of the Security Council and any State not a Member of the United Nations, if invited to participate in a meeting or meetings of the Security Council, shall submit credentials for the representative appointed by it for this purpose. The credentials of such a representative shall be communicated to the Secretary-General not less than twenty-four hours before the first meeting which he is invited to attend."

Therefore, once he is invited he puts on the garb of a representative. The Charter, in Articles 31 and 32, repeated in rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure, clearly puts limitation on the right of a representative so invited. Rule 37 states:

"Any Member of the United Nations which is not a member of the Security Council may be invited, as the result of a decision of the Security Council, to participate, without vote, in the discussion of any question brought before the Security Council...." Paucity there, if the persons who are invited to participate should be forever regarded as standing outside the door of the Security Council, it would be unnecessary to say that they shall participate without vote; and therefore their participation in the discussion is permitted. The only thing that is denied to them is the right to cast a vote. If you go on to rule 38, that engrafts a second limitation on the right to participate. Rule 38 states:

"Any Member of the United Nations invited in accordance with the preceding rule or in application of Article 32 of the Charter to participate in the discussions of the Security Council may submit proposals and draft resolutions. These proposals and draft resolutions may be put to a vote only at the request of a representative on the Security Council."

Therefore, we arrive at this result. A State invited to participate has to provide a representative, and the moment he becomes a representative he participates in the discussion before the Council. One can easily imagine dozens of possibilities in which the ability to participate in a discussion may be gravely hampered, if not prevented, if points of order may not be raised at appropriate times.

I submit that there is another point of view: that any person other than a person called under rule 39, who only gives information-who is invited to participate and make his submissions is entitled to participate in the discussion. There are two things and two things only that he cannot do : first, he cannot vote, and secondly, though he may submit a draft resolution he cannot have it voted upon unless a member of the Council so requests.

That is what I wanted to say. Undoubtedly, it might be that in the past the position was not clarified in this manner. I had to pay some attention to it during the time when I was President of the Council. All I want to say at the moment is that there is another point of view.