Indonesia, 2006

I wish to congratulate

you, Madam, on your election as President of the

General Assembly at its sixty-first session. It signals

the increasing role of women, especially women from

the Muslim world, in international affairs; and this is a

very welcome and positive development. May I also

thank and commend His Excellency Mr. Jan Eliasson

for his able stewardship at the sixtieth session.

Let me now join colleagues in paying tribute to

the outstanding service of His Excellency Mr. Kofi

Annan, whose 10-year term of office as Secretary-

General is about to conclude. Among the valuable

services he has rendered is to give the world

community a way of firmly grasping the fundamental

challenges of our time: the challenge of security, the

challenge of underdevelopment and the challenge of

human rights and the rule of law.

We have contemplated these challenges well

enough to know the answers. We know that long-term

security can be achieved only through a durable and

just peace, not one that is imposed on the weak by the

strong. We can overcome the challenge of poverty only

through a global partnership for development that will

equitably distribute the benefits of globalization. The

challenge of human rights and the rule of law can only

be met by Governments that rule by the consent of the

governed, Governments that are elected by and

accountable to the people. In a word, democracy.

Peace, development and democracy are

inseparable. Development is paralysed and democracy

is meaningless in situations of violence and bloody

conflict. Nowhere is this more poignantly true than in

the Middle East. Over the years, Lebanon has rebuilt

its civil-war-ravaged economy, only to be bombed to

the ground recently by Israel. Hundreds of innocent

civilians were killed in those military strikes, many of

them women and children. The carnage stopped with

the adoption of Security Council resolution 1701

(2006), but this came only after a very lengthy process

during which time the Lebanese people underwent so

much unnecessary suffering and loss. The frustration

and inability to take immediate action is radicalizing

many people in the Muslim world.

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This serves to prove the importance of reforming

the Security Council, in its composition, as well as the

way it works, so that it can take effective action when

action is a matter of life and death for thousands of

people, as was recently the case in Lebanon.

Deeply committed to being a part of the solution

to this crisis, Indonesia is sending an 850-strong

mechanized infantry battalion to form part of the

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), as

mandated by Security Council resolution 1701 (2006).

It has become an Indonesian tradition to contribute

troops to United Nations peacekeeping forces. The first

contingent was deployed as part of the United Nations

Emergency Force I in Suez in 1957.

As for the Arab-Israeli conflict, it is essential to

recognize that the problem of Palestine lies at its core.

There are no military solutions to this problem, as

military might can never guarantee security. There can

only be a two-State solution, with the parties to the

conflict assuming their responsibilities and taking

concrete measures to lay down the foundations of

peace. In this regard, we encourage the formation of a

Palestinian government of national unity, as that will

open a window of opportunity for the resumption of

dialogue and for the revival of the Quartet’s Road Map

for peace.

We appeal to the Security Council to act on this

issue with dispatch, for Muslims everywhere have a

strong emotional reaction to what they perceive to be

the oppression and humiliation of their Palestinian,

Iraqi and Afghan co-religionists. Terrorists operating as

far away from the Middle East as South-East Asia

justify their heinous crimes as retaliation for what they

consider to be aggression against Islam.

Thus today we are witness to the error of some

Western circles attributing to Islam a propensity for

violence, matched by the error of terrorist groups

claiming that violent means are sanctified by Islam.

The only way to liberate the human mind from these

errors is through intensive and extensive dialogue.

That is why Indonesia has been actively

promoting interfaith and intercultural dialogue in the

Asia-Pacific region and within the Asia-Europe

Meeting (ASEM). It is our way of debasing the

ideology of the terrorists and at the same time

empowering the moderates and strengthening the voice

of moderation.

Earlier this month, we collaborated with Norway

in holding the first global intermedia dialogue, which

was attended by leading mass-media practitioners from

five continents. For while the media can be a force for

good, it can also do a great deal of harm, as shown by

the recent cartoon controversy. Through this dialogue,

we aimed to promote mass media sensitivity to other

cultures and faiths, while upholding freedom of

expression. As with the interfaith dialogue, the

intermedia dialogue has been institutionalized and will

be carried out annually.

There is also a great need for dialogue to address

the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Asia. While the

threat of nuclear weapons has subsided in other

regions, a new nuclear theatre may be developing from

West to East Asia.

It is therefore important that we find a diplomatic

solution to the nuclear issue regarding Iran and North

Korea. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons (NPT), as the cornerstone of disarmament,

must be strengthened. In fact, all weapons of mass

destruction should be abolished.

Indeed, we must work for peace in a relentless

day-to-day struggle. Even when the guns are silent,

that is not enough for the long-term survival of

humankind. There must also be development. There

must be an end to poverty as a basic problem of the

human condition; otherwise social grievances will be a

constant threat to peace.

We in the international community have the

resources and the skills to conquer poverty. For that

goal to be attainable, however, the developed and the

developing world must be able to faithfully carry out a

contract of partnership that stipulates for each side a

set of obligations.

We do not need to negotiate that contract; it

already exists. For the past decade and a half, the

international community, within the framework of the

United Nations, has produced a substantial body of

documents to which we have formally committed

ourselves. These constitute a contract for the conquest

of poverty and its attendant maladies. It is not just a

contract between and among States; it is also a contract

with our peoples and with future generations.

Hence, it is appropriate that the theme of our

sixty-first session should be “Implementing a global

partnership for development.” As President Susilo

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Bambang Yudhoyono pointed out recently, all we need

to do is bind ourselves to this contract and carry it out

according to its letter and spirit. This means political

will, which is often lacking, and a streak of sincerity,

which is very rare in our time.

The developed nations have four basic

obligations under this contract. The first is to tear down

the walls of protectionism and open up their markets to

the products of the developing world. They must

salvage the Doha Development Round.

Their second obligation is to relieve their

developing counterparts of some of the burdens of the

debt crisis. Developing countries are often unable to

fund their development programmes because they have

to make huge debt payments.

The third obligation of the developed countries is

to ensure sufficient volumes of financial flows to

developing countries, especially in the form of foreign

direct investment. Many developing countries are

simply too poor to muster the capital they need to get

them out of poverty.

Another essential requirement of development is

technology. Hence, the fourth obligation of the

developed countries is to share their technology with

the developing world, striking a balance between social

responsibility and respect for intellectual property

rights.

The obligations of developed countries must be

matched by those of the developing countries,

otherwise the partnership will not be equitable. The

first obligation of developing countries is to practise

good governance. We must therefore wage a relentless

battle against all forms of corruption. The only form of

capital that is abundant in the developing world is

human capital. It is therefore the second obligation of

the developing countries to protect and enhance that

capital through education, human resources

development and health care.

The third obligation of the developing countries

is to provide a climate that is friendly to foreign

capital, particularly foreign direct investment. This

normally means a package of incentives. It also means

a level playing field and a reputation for good

governance.

It is our fourth and particular obligation to make

use of our natural resources with wisdom so that we

meet the needs of today without robbing our future

generations of their legacy. These obligations are not

easy to fulfil, but they must be carried out if the global

partnership for development is to work.

In the case of Indonesia, we carried out the first

obligation as a matter of survival: it was the only way

we could climb our way out of the limbo to which the

Asian financial crisis relegated us almost a decade ago.

We had to make our transition to a more fully

democratic system of governance, becoming, in the

process, a full-fledged democracy.

We instituted reforms in every aspect of national

life. Our economic recovery is a product of reform, and

our new drive for economic growth is driven by

reform. In the spirit of reform and dialogue, we were

able to forge a peace agreement with the separatist Free

Aceh Movement. The peace has been holding for more

than a year and promises to be durable.

As for our human resources, our Constitution

mandates that 20 per cent of our budget be allocated to

education. As part of our effort to achieve universal

education, we are providing free schooling to some 60

million primary through high school students. To

alleviate poverty, we are continuing to extend direct

cash subsidies to some 19.1 million households.

Last year, one fourth of our total population of

220 million benefited from the medical services of

community health centres. We recently reduced the

price of generic medicines by 30 to 50 per cent.

With regard to foreign investment, Indonesia is

sending out some very positive signals. We are

legislating a new package of investment incentives,

including a law on tax reform, a law that rationalizes

the labour market and regulations to streamline

customs procedures. We are establishing special

economic zones. The response of foreign direct

investors was to pour some $6 billion into Indonesia

last year.

To ensure the sustainability of our environment,

we have launched a national programme entitled

“Towards a green Indonesia” aimed at building the

capacity of local government to conserve natural

resources and control environmental degradation. In

sum, Indonesia is ready for partnership — ready to be

an active participant in that global partnership for

development that will enable the developing world to

reach its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). I

believe that many other developing countries are just

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as ready for that partnership; and, if they feel they are

not ready at the moment, it takes nothing more — but

nothing less as well — than political will to get

themselves to a proper state of preparedness. That also

applies to the countries of the developed North — they

must also have the political will to fulfil their end of

the partnership. Otherwise, that partnership will not be

worth the paper on which so many Summit documents

were printed. Given that development, peace and

human dignity are inseparable, the destiny of this

partnership parallels the destiny of the entire human

race; a partnership for development is also a

partnership for peace and for the dignity of the human

being.