Speech by President Lula upon receiving the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of Malaysia

It is a great honor to receive the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of Malaysia; I accept it with deep emotion and sincere gratitude.

My journey is intertwined with the history of millions of my compatriots in overcoming hardship.

This title is also a well-deserved recognition of the Brazilian people.

It is an honor to receive this distinction from an institution that represents Malaysia's commitment to its national identity.

Here were forged leaders who are committed to the progress and social transformation of this country — such as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and the first Malaysian astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.

The National University of Malaysia is young, like the vast majority of higher education institutions in Brazil.

In our countries, higher education has historically been designed and reserved for the wealthiest classes.

For elites that are often closer to former metropolises than to their own people.

The first Brazilian Federal University was established in 1920, 420 years after the arrival of the Portuguese.

I am very proud to be the president who created the most technical and higher education institutions, despite not having a university degree myself — and who opened the doors of universities to the children of the working classes.

Today, Brazil projects a future in which development is not limited to the growth of the wealth of a few.

We know that a prosperous tomorrow only comes with social justice, dignity and opportunity for all.

It is with this conviction that my government removed Brazil from the FAO Hunger Map, and achieved the lowest ever recorded unemployment rate.

Malaysia is also proof that the state's action as a lever of development is crucial to overcoming poverty.

Its story also resembles the Brazilian one in other aspects.

We are countries of the Global South, with colonial pasts and plural societies.

We share fundamental values such as the defense of dialogue, cooperation, multilateralism, and social justice.

We play an active role in the international stage, and we are a factor of stability in our regions.

The degree in "International Development and the Global South" that I receive today confirms my conviction that the role of politics is to face inequalities, within and between countries.

Politics is built in the day-to-day life of the classrooms and corridors of universities.

During the most difficult moments of History, teachers and students kept alive the flame of free thought, the value of science, and the defense of equality.

Science does not resign itself to the ill of socially determined diseases or pandemics.

Ideologies that preach racism, colonialism and misogyny are not supported by scientific knowledge.

Critical thinking is incompatible with misery and war.

Youth is outraged by the fact that 673 million human beings still go to bed hungry every single day.

Moreover, university communities around the world have raised their voices against the brutality of the genocide in Gaza, and against the moral inertia that still prevents the Palestinian State from being created today.

It is almost always young people who remind us that peace is the most precious value of humanity.

It cannot be bought with the 2 trillion, seven hundred billion dollars that the world spends annually on weapons.

Only the solidarity of actions by peoples and nations can pave a future of shared prosperity.

Brazil is working to strengthen dialogue and cooperation between the countries of the Global South.

We are the majority of the world's population, and we share the same desire for justice and overcoming inequalities.

We reject the logic of war as a continuity of politics.

Tariffs are not coercion mechanisms.

Nations that have not bowed to colonialism and the Cold War dichotomy will not be intimidated by irresponsible threats.

Bandung's spirit lives on.

The BRICS is a key player in the fight for a multipolar, less asymmetrical, and more peaceful world.

The defense of an order based on dialogue, diplomacy and the sovereign equality of nations is at the heart of the Brazilian proposal for United Nations reform.

Without greater representativeness, the Security Council will remain inoperative and unable to respond to the challenges of our time.

The upsurge of protectionism and the paralysis of the World Trade Organization impose a context of unsustainable asymmetry for the Global South.

It is time to interrupt the mechanisms that have supported the financing of the developed world for centuries at the expense of emerging and developing economies.

It is unacceptable that rich countries have nine times more voting power in the IMF than the Global South.

The international financial architecture should direct resources to the sustainable development of those who need it most.

We cannot glimpse a different world without questioning the neoliberal model that deepens inequalities.

Three thousand billionaires have earned 6.5 trillion dollars since 2015.

This figure exceeds the annual nominal GDP of ASEAN and Brazil together.

In the quest for unlimited profits, many forget to take care of Planet Earth.

Climate change could lead up to 132 million more people to extreme poverty by 2030.

A decade after the Paris Agreement, resources are lacking for the just and planned transition.

Above all, there is no time to correct courses.

We are twenty days away from COP30, to be held in the heart of the Amazon.

It will be the COP of truth.

It will be time to overcome extractive greed and to act based on science.

Less than 70 countries presented new nationally determined targets [NDCs] to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Among the countries that pollute the most, only 14 have done their homework.

The data is alarming.

Everything indicates that, even if the current NDCs are met, the planet will surpass the 1.5-degree limit to its temperature increase.

A few days ago, researchers pointed out that the generalized mortality of warm-water coral reefs may be the first point of no return reached by humankind.

[Destroyed] Tropical forests are a point of no return that we must avoid at all costs.

In the Brazilian Amazon live 30 million people who have the right to live with dignity.

The Tropical Forests Forever Facility, which we will launch at COP30, will remunerate the ecosystem services provided to the planet.

Universities will continue to play a decisive role in facing the climate crisis.

Your admonitions regarding the environmental risks that threaten the planet must be urgently listened to.

Magnificent Mr. Rector, Your Highness the Sultan of Negeri Sembilan,

This tribute reaffirms my faith in education as an instrument of emancipation and equality.

I receive the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of Malaysia not as a point of arrival, but as a stimulus to continue fighting for a fairer, more sustainable and supportive world.

A world in which the countries of the Global South have a voice.

Malaysia and Brazil can be the gateway to promote greater mutual knowledge between South America and Southeast Asia.

May today be another seed launched to strengthen human ties between Malaysia and Brazil, and to inspire new generations to dream, question and act.

I will continue working to expand the academic and scientific exchange between our universities.

I hope Brazilian Portuguese can be heard in the corridors of the National University of Malaysia — and that more Malaysian teachers, researchers and students can experience Brazilian educational institutions.

They will be ambassadors of friendship among our peoples, and will form a corridor of ideas and innovation.

I thank Your Royal Highness, the teachers and students of this institution, and the people of Malaysia for their generosity.

This diploma does not belong to Lula. This diploma belongs to 215 million Brazilians.

Thank you very much.