DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang today called o­n all parties to condemn the US-led unilateral war against Iraq in the special parliamentary motion and debate tomorrow.

He urged all political parties to stand united in the debate and "they should not make an attempt to exploit it for partisan purpose."

"DAP fully agrees with the sentiment expressed by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad o­n Friday that the government and opposition parties should shed their differences and speak with o­ne voice o­n this issue," he said in a statement.

Be rational

Secondly, Lim said the motion and debate should be informed by rationality without being guided by sentiment or emotion like what was delivered by Acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in his live address to the nation o­n Thursday after the US unleashed war against Iraq.

"The MPs, for instance, should not be branding the US-led attack o­n Iraq as an attack o­n Islam, call for a jihad, or even trot out a proposal that Islamic nations should use oil as a weapon against the west.

"This will be a disservice to non-Muslims in Malaysia and the world who have stood up against the unjust and illegal attack o­n Iraq," he said.

Thus, he added, Malaysia should be consistent in condemning the attack and not to undermine our own credibility with statements that cannot withstand scrutiny.

International responsibility

Thirdly, Lim urged MPs to be fully aware of Malaysia's new international responsibility as Chair of the Non-Alligned Movement (NAM).

"The challenge is to prove that NAM is not totally irrelevant and impotent in the face of the greatest threat to international law and order for half a century posed by US-led unilateral war against Iraq without United Nation sanction.

"The MPs should focus their debate o­n the effective responses to NAM such as demanding an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to send UN forces to Iraq," he said.

He also urged the MPs to call for the UN to convene a special session of the UN General Assembly to demand an immediate halt to the US-led war.

Alternatively, he suggested that parliamentarians call o­n the UN to bear a major responsibility in post-Saddam Iraq and the post-war reconstruction of Iraq to ensure that the US-led war o­n Iraq will not be followed by the US colonisation o­n Iraq.

"Since o­nly 96 nations are needed to convene an emergency session of the UN General Assembly, there is no reason why NAM cannot be in the forefront to make such a requisition as it has 116 countries," he said.

Lift ban

He also said that Malaysia - as the NAM Chair - should set an example to the world of the proper responses to the Iraq war by the civil society and populace by allowing the freedom of speech, assembly and association.

"Therefore, the government should lift the blanket police ban o­n anti-war demonstrations as long as they are carried out in orderly and peaceful manner," said Lim.

"In fact, Malaysians should be in forefront in the world in demonstrating against the war in Iraq."

Finally, Lim urged the MPs to be aware that they are debating under a cloud as to whether the second Gulf War foreshadowed a new era of geopolitics, where the bilateral or trilateral agreement replaces multilateralism with the re-emergence of the new law of "international jungle where might is right".