Indonesia, 2014

It is a great honour for

me to stand once again before the Assembly — the

last time I shall do so in my two terms as President of

Indonesia. I could not agree more with the theme chosen

for this session, “Delivering on and implementing a

transformative post-2015 development agenda”, which

is very much in line with the work of the High-level

Panel I have been privileged to co-chair.

For the past 15 years, the international community

has been working on a grand and ambitious project

for humankind, the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs). Our hard work over the years has produced

achievements that include breakthroughs in combating

poverty, increasing school enrolment and improving

public health. Those achievements are encouraging and,

in some instances, inspiring. But humankind as a whole

has not achieved all the MDG targets. The successes

have been uneven, differing between regions, within

regions and even within countries. We have come a

long way, yet we still have a long way to go.

For those who have made it, as well as for those

who have yet to make it, I have learned one great lesson,

which is that the most important driver of change

lies in governance — not just good governance, but

smart governance. Smart governance usually involves

innovative leadership and active public participation.

Without at least those two elements, all the hard work

we put in will not produce the desired results. And with

smart governance, nations can exceed their potential

and leapfrog over others ahead of them. In Indonesia we

have managed to increase our national per capita income

by 400 per cent within just one decade, something that

was beyond our wildest imagination.

The quest to achieve the MDGs over the past

15 years has also reinforced the need for a more robust

global partnership. There has certainly been much

activity. But somehow, our efforts in the World Trade

Organization, on the post-Kyoto climate, on reforming

the global financial architecture and the United Nations

and in many other areas have proved painfully slow.

As we set forth a new global agenda for development,

I believe we can draw on those years of trial and error to

become more acutely aware of the promises and pitfalls

of development, and of what we want and what we do

not want. We do not want development that measures

progress in terms of material possessions alone and

ends up dehumanizing and marginalizing our citizens.

What we want is sustainable development with equity.

Yet the importance of our work lies beyond the

issue of development, since we are now also confronted

with yet another major problem. We are witnessing a

worrying deterioration in the relations between the

major Powers. None of us, certainly not the United

Nations, can afford to bury our heads in the sand about

that grim development.

It is especially worrying, given that for more than

two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world

actually witnessed a series of promising events. Most

fundamental was the fact that improved relations among

the major Powers created ample space for new strategic

and economic opportunities. Global trade totals have

reached $23 trillion, an almost six-fold expansion since

the year after the Cold War ended in 1990. The fastest

growth — one and a half times as fast as during the

preceding two decades — was from 2000 to 2013, the

period that coincided with our work on the MDGs. The

value of global investments reached almost $1.5 trillion

in 2013 for a near seven-fold increase since 1990.

In South-East Asia, that positive geopolitical

development has allowed us to develop stronger

cooperation and to develop the region’s architecture.

It led to the establishment of the East Asia Summit, a

vision for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

(ASEAN) community, a progressive ASEAN Charter,

a more active ASEAN Regional Forum and other

institutions. And Indonesia has also been able to develop

strategic partnerships with all the major Powers as well

as with many emerging Powers.

Today I see that the international community

is concerned about the danger of the old Cold War

returning. Major-Power relations are worsening,

fuelled by mutual suspicion. Relationships that were

previously stable and cooperative are now marked by

volatility and tension. That benefits no one, and we

should therefore not let it become permanent. The

major Powers — indeed, all of us — have an obligation

to work together to resolve the major issues of our time.

To mention only a few, we must end the suffering of

the Palestinians in Gaza and the rest of the occupied

territory and deliver the still elusive two-State solution.

We must resolve the conflict in Ukraine that is now

upsetting relations between Russia and the West. And

we must find an effective and durable solution to the

ongoing conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

To do all of this, there must be mutual

accommodation. There must be a forward-looking

attitude that embraces a win-win predisposition

rather than a zero-sum attitude. Diplomacy must take

precedence. The deficit of trust must be transformed

into strategic opportunities and confidence-building.

It is not enough just to call for peaceful coexistence.

That is so twentieth century. Here in the twenty-first

century, we need much more than conditions in which

world Powers merely peacefully coexist. We need those

Powers to work passionately together in order to foster

strategic cooperation and to tackle global issues. They

must begin to turn the trust deficit into a new strategic

trust not only among themselves but also with emerging

Powers and with all nations of the United Nations. Is

that possible? I would say a resolute yes, for that is

what has transpired in South-East Asia. In the second

half of the 1960s, South-East Asian nations were poor,

divided and insecure, threatened by a war raging in

their neighbourhood and ignorant of one another after

centuries of separation during the colonial past.

The establishment of the Association of Southeast

Asian Nations enabled countries in the region to form

the habit of dialogue and consultation with one another

and to learn to trust one another. Today, we can proudly

say that the once-divided 10 South-East Asian nations

now belong to ASEAN-10. Together, they are all drivers

of regional affairs and masters of their own destiny. A

number of sensitive inter-State and intra-State conflicts

have been peacefully resolved. Those that remain are

being addressed through dialogue and negotiation.

Economic interdependence has become the norm of the

day.

Moreover, South-East Asia is on the verge of

becoming a true community. We regard that as the apex

of strategic trust, which we believe can be replicated

everywhere. The culture of peace and coexistence

that we are trying to attain in Indonesia and in the

ASEAN region is clearly the antidote to the poison

of fundamentalist prejudice and deep intolerance, as

practised by a terrorist group in Iraq and Syria that

falsely defines itself as the Islamic State. The ideology

of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant not only

betrays the true teaching of Islam as a religion of peace

but also harms and seriously upsets the Islamic Ummah

throughout the world.

It has been a great privilege to forge closer bonds

between Indonesia and all nations represented in this

great assembly, the United Nations. As I look back,

I must admit that there remain many challenges that

Indonesia must resolve. Some of our efforts are already

on the right track. In a world desperately grappling

with climate change, we are progressively and boldly

applying a moratorium on deforestation — our

important contribution to reducing carbon emission. In

a world of economic uncertainty, we have increased our

national income per capita by 400 per cent within just

a short decade.

In a world witnessing rising extremism, Indonesia

continues to hold firm to the values of freedom,

tolerance, moderation and multiculturalism, which

form the basis of our nationhood. In a world still

burdened by insurgencies, we have managed to find

a permanent peaceful political solution to end the

30-year conflict in Aceh province. In a world marked

by turbulent transitions in the Middle East, time and

again we have shown to our people and to the world

that, in Indonesia, democracy, Islam, modernity and

human rights go together.

In a world often stigmatized by the past, Indonesia

has opened a entire new chapter of peaceful relations

with Timor-Leste on the basis on equality and mutual

respect. In a world where territorial disputes often

erupt into open conflicts, Indonesia has continued to

peacefully resolve, one by one, the overlapping maritime

borders with Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore and

other nations.

The Indonesian and South-East Asian experiences

underscore the dawn of a new age of globalism for the

twenty-first century — a world that openly embraces

change as opposed to being intimidated by it. What the

world so desperately needs today is a pioneering spirit:

the boldness to break old boundaries and to create new

frontiers. Given that spirit, I believe that humankind

can overcome the challenge of climate change, conquer

poverty, eradicate social injustice, hasten the global

economic recovery and create a culture of peace among

all religions, including the Abrahamic faiths. In that

spirit, we can, hopefully, end the cycle of violence,

hatred, fear and humiliation that has made so many

conflicts around the world seem intractable for decades

and centuries.

In saying that, I am neither a Utopian nor a blind

idealist in understanding international relations.

However, I believe that, with a strong commitment and

political will, we can make the impossible possible. As

we say in Indonesia, where there is a will, there is a

way. We must drive the frontiers of nationalism into

a new globalism, where we can devise solutions to

national, regional and global issues at the same time.

We must achieve a new globalism, where no nation is

left behind and no nation dominates and where rights

are protected and responsibilities are met. In the world

of a new globalism, wars are unthinkable. In the first

place, wars are fought because nations play a zero-

sum game, where the winners take all and the losers

weep — the game of us against them, which the “us”

must win and the “them” must lose. Winners today are

losers tomorrow.

Let me conclude by saying that now is the time for

all of us to start the serious business of building a new

world of peace, prosperity and justice and of making

everybody a winner by creating and nurturing the new

all-inclusive “we” that leaves no one behind.