Indonesia, 2004

I am pleased to

congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of

the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session. May I

also pay tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Julian Robert

Hunte of Saint Lucia, for having ably presided over our

deliberations during the previous session of the

General Assembly.

Even as I speak, a magnificent transformation is

being completed on the other side of the globe — in

my country. Many of us in Indonesia have waited all

our lives to witness this historic event: our people

finally rising to take their destiny into their own hands.

Exactly a week ago, some 125 million men and

women trooped to the polling stations and chose the

President and Vice-President who will govern in the

name of 230 million Indonesians. That was the third

national political exercise that we had to carry out —

not just once, but three times — in a period of six

months, the previous two being the parliamentary

elections and the first round of the presidential

elections. All of them were peaceful, fair and

democratic.

Each of them was an enormous operation,

covering some 6,000 islands in an archipelago with an

expanse as wide as Europe’s, and involving millions of

election workers attending to some 575,000 polling

stations. As we coped with the massive logistical

requirements of that undertaking, we were extended

support and assistance by the United Nations and

friendly countries. We are grateful for this.

It will be some time before the official results of

the vote are in. But whoever the new national leaders

of Indonesia may be, they will have a clear and strong

mandate from the people — not from the elite, not

from the party bosses, nor from power brokers or

vested interests — but from the people. This is the

climax of a transition from authoritarian rule to a full-

fledged democracy, a process that began six years ago

in the crucible of the Asian crisis, which devastated our

economy and mangled our socio-political system. We

have thus become the full-fledged democracy that the

founding fathers of our Republic long ago envisioned.

This need for political reform is also felt by other

nations. The Emir of Qatar, speaking as Chairman of

the Group of 77, told this Assembly at its 3rd meeting,

“Political reform and people’s participation in

decision-making are no longer an option but have

become a definite necessity”.

Hence, we are proud of this democracy of ours. It is the

fulfilment of a universal human aspiration, and yet it is

unique to us. It sprang from our native soil, a true child

of our culture. It was not imposed from outside, at

gunpoint. And it put to rest the debate on whether

Islam and democracy can ever mix.

As the country with the largest Muslim

population, Indonesia has proven that Islam can be a

bastion of democracy and social justice. Indeed, our

deep sense of spirituality inspired our people to

resoundingly reject money politics, corruption,

terrorism and all forms of extremism. It was also our

beacon towards reform; and reform has worked for us.

Although the Asian crisis instantly doubled the number

of Indonesians living below the poverty line, we have

since been able to reduce the poverty rate to its pre-

crisis level. We did this by shifting from a

Government-driven poverty-reduction strategy to one

of community empowerment. This effort required

funding of more than US$1 billion, making it one of

the largest such programmes in the world.

Through fiscal controls that dramatically lowered

inflation, we stabilized the prices of essential goods.

Through social safety net programmes, we helped the

poor to weather the crisis. By doing this, we denied the

terrorists what could have been a dangerous mass base.

Since then, consumer confidence has led our

economic growth. With political fears allayed and

investor confidence boosted, we look forward to 4.8

per cent growth this year, and 5.5 per cent next year.

We can now wage a stronger battle against poverty.

By consolidating our efforts to promote the rule

of law, greater respect for human rights and effective

regional autonomy as the main pillars of our reform,

we are confident that we can overcome threats to our

national unity and security, including communal

violence, separatism and terrorism.

We continue to strengthen our relations with all

our neighbours. We have made a fresh start with

Timor-Leste, and we are building a strong relationship.

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We look forward to a future of bilateral peace,

friendship and cooperation.

This does not mean that we have solved all our

problems. We still have to make democracy work for

us some more and to keep it working. This is what 230

million Indonesians devoutly wish, and they deserve no

less. Moreover, no democracy is safe without being

assured of a democratic environment at the global

level. That environment cannot be created by unilateral

action, no matter how mighty and well-intended.

At the global level, democracy can be promoted

only by democratic means, through multilateral

institutions like the United Nations. If, as its detractors

say, the United Nations is not an effective tool of

collective security and development, this is only

because it has been denied the support that it deserves

from its strongest and most influential Members.

But we need the United Nations to give

legitimacy to the necessary use of force in the cause of

collective security. And even the wealthiest nations in

the world cannot bear all the costs of global security.

The privilege and burden of decision-making must be

shared by all.

Hence, we must empower the United Nations to

serve as the effective tool of multilateralism that it was

always meant to be. We must reform the United

Nations comprehensively, including the Security

Council, by making it more democratic, in terms of

procedure and representation, in order to reflect today’s

geographical realities.

In this regard, it may be recalled that Australia

last year proposed the inclusion of Indonesia as a

permanent member on the Council. We appreciate

Australia’s position. It has greatly encouraged us. As

the world’s third largest pluralistic democracy, the

fourth most populous country, the world’s largest

Muslim nation, a country of tremendous cultural

diversity and a member with a track record of serving

in various peace initiatives of the United Nations,

Indonesia has an important global constituency on the

Council.

Indonesia has served in more than 30

peacekeeping missions, starting with the very first, in

the Middle East in 1957. Today, Indonesian soldiers

and military observers are deployed in peacekeeping

missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

Sierra Leone, Liberia and Georgia. As a founding

member and active player of the Non-Aligned

Movement, the Group of 77, the Group of 15, the

Developing Eight and the Organization of the Islamic

Conference, our commitment to the promotion of

international peace and understanding is self-evident.

Indonesia has made key contributions to the

peaceful resolution of conflicts in its region, notably in

Cambodia and southern Philippines. It continues to

actively build peace and stability in the region.

A developing world striving not only for social

and economic progress but also for democratization

must have a voice on the Security Council. Moderate

Islam must have a voice on the Council. Indonesia

would be that voice. And that voice will insist — as we

now insist — that the fight against terrorism, like the

related fight against poverty, can be won. This is not to

deny that terrorists are still capable of wreaking havoc

on our societies. Just two weeks ago, they struck again

in the heart of Jakarta, killing nine innocent civilians

and wounding 150 others. We in Indonesia condemn

this act of inhuman savagery, mourn the loss of

innocent life and share the pain and anger of the

wounded and the bereaved families. But we are by no

means intimidated. We will bring the perpetrators to

justice as we have always done after every terrorist

attack.

Our faith remains firm that the fight against terror

can be won. The world can be made immensely safer.

But the global coalition to defeat terrorism must be

inclusive. It must be multilateral and democratic. It

must empower the moderates of the world. And it must

address the root causes of terrorism: the grievances and

the poignant sense of injustice that drive human beings

to such depths of despair that they would carry out the

most heinous acts of mass murder and destruction. It

must address grievances due to a poverty that is the

offshoot of social and economic inequity, the affronts

of tyranny and corruption, and the failure of States to

deliver a standard of living that befits human dignity.

Included are grievances due to political oppression,

such as the aggression and brutalities that the

Palestinian people continue to suffer in the hands of the

occupying Power.

For the coalition that would fight terrorism and

poverty to be truly multilateral and democratic, it must

include the regional organizations, which are

envisioned in the United Nations Charter as the pillars

of global multilateralism.

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The United Nations itself, in extending assistance

and services to countries all over the world, needs

support at the regional level. This is why we in the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are

striving to develop a robust partnership with the world

Organization. We are confident that this partnership

will prosper, as ASEAN evolves into a true community

by the year 2020. As a security community, we will

assume full responsibility for our security and political

stability. As an economic and sociocultural community,

we will be a stronger force for development and social

integration in the Asia-Pacific region.

Together with our counterparts in two continents,

we are building a bridge of cooperation across the

Indian Ocean to form a partnership for development. A

summit of Asian and African nations will formally

establish this strategic partnership in April 2005 in

Jakarta.

At the same time, the summit will pay tribute to a

watershed event in the cause of equitable international

relations. Thus, we will observe the Golden Jubilee of

the Asian-African Conference held in Bandung in

1955. Moreover, ASEAN is networking in all

directions, with its counterparts in the rest of the Asia-

Pacific region, in Latin America and in Europe. We

expect this network of regional organizations, in

partnership with the United Nations, to be the ultimate

form of multilateralism. This network can also help

advance a global democratic agenda. To this end, Asia

can make a significant contribution.

Today Asia is certainly in the midst of a

democratic flowering. A series of successful

democratic elections in various Asian countries in

recent months has been hailed worldwide as a political

miracle that may be of deeper significance than the

short-lived Asian economic miracle a decade ago.

But democracy is never a miracle — never a gift,

nor something imposed. It is always hard-earned and

often the fruit of many sacrifices. And its ultimate

worth depends entirely upon us, the people — on

whether we have the political maturity, the wisdom and

the courage to make it work and make it endure. We in

Indonesia are devoutly committed to that end.