ACARA 2nd WORLD PEACE FORUM,DI GRAND BALL ROOM HOTEL SULTAN, JAKARTA, 24 JUNI 2008
SAMBUTAN
PRESIDEN REPUBLIK INDONESIA
PADA
ACARA 2nd WORLD PEACE FORUM
TANGGAL 24 JUNI 2008
DI GRAND BALL ROOM HOTEL SULTAN, JAKARTA
Bismillahirahmannirahiim,
Assalamualaikum warrahmatulalhi wabarakatuh.
Peace be upon us,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am greatly honored and pleased to welcome all of you especially our Forum friends to this 2nd World Peace Forum in Jakarta. Many of you came from distant places to join us in this important dialog. Your presence here demonstrates your concern at the problem of violence all over the world and your love for peace.
Almost two years ago, when we held 1st World Peace Forum, here in Jakarta, we focused on our fundamental unity. We affirmed that we belong to one humanity, and that we have such one destiny and one responsibility. This time, we are going to be very much more specific about that responsibility. This forum has therefore adopted the theme ‘Addressing Facets of Violence, What Can Be Done?’. I cannot think of a theme that is more timely, more relevant and more urgent in the light of the world situation today.
That is why, when Pak Din Samsudin came to ask me to deliver the opening speech for this forum, I accepted without hesitation. It is pleased that I can do to share with you a few considerate thoughts on so important of a topic. And that is also why, I am very much heartened to see so many of you in this gathering. You are among the most effective, advocate of workers of peace the world will ever hear, the world will ever have. To your individual effort, you are already making a difference. Working together, you will now apply your effectiveness many times over. Jakarta is proud to be your host, and the biggest site of your precious deliberation and for organizing this forum I command the Muhamadiyah, the Cheng Ho Multiculture Trust and the Center for Dialog and Cooperation Among Civilization. They all are doing a great service to the cause of peace and the long term welfare of humankind. I have only the biggest admiration for them and for all of you who have dedicated yourself to the cause of peace. It is not an easy cause. The history of humankind has been a long search for peace and yet, peace has remained illusive as a permanent aspect of the human condition.
There are persistent arm conflicts in varous parts of the world up to this very day. And yet peace is by no means a lost cost. Throughout history, there have been efforts for the cause of peace that have achieved various degrees of success. A notable example is the relative peace that the Association of South East Asia Nations or ASEAN has brought about to its ceaseless pursuit of political and economic cooperation in South East Asia. Before ASEAN was founded, the South East Asia region was an economic dead water. War was raging in Indo-China. Indonesia and Malaysia were in a state of confrontation. And all the regional nations were ignorant of one another and had a little trust to one another. But ASEAN changed all that. It cultivated among its member nations the habit of consultation, consensus and mutual accomodation and it succeeded in engaging incooporation with external powers and the basis of a code of ethic and the form of the treaty of enmity and cooperation in South East Asia. Today, the ASEAN region and the rest of East Asia make up one of the most economically dynamic areas in the world largely because the gun has been silent. The record (inaudible) shows that ASEAN (inaudible) its reputation as a peace worker and (inaudible) better among nations and between regions.
Within Indonesia itself, peace made a major breakthrough in recent times until 2005, it appears that the separatist rebellion in Aceh would go on forever. But in the wake of the devastation of natural disaster mainly (inaudible) my administration finally succeeded in persuading the rebels to earnestly negotiate and in record time we concluded a peace agreement. That peace agreement has been faithfully implemented and peace is now holding in Aceh. It promises to be a durable peace that will be attended by the rehabilitation and the rebuilding of Aceh from the devastation of the Tsunami of December 2004. Moreover, the outlook for the social and economic development of the province has never been brighter.
I can therefore confidently say that there is always hope for peace no matter how impossible the situation may appear. This is true in all cases of arm conflicts even though there are supposed to be particularly resistence violence because they have assumed a religious matter. The fact is that none of the world great religion teaches violence and so it occurs to me as its message at various times occurs to you that in many conflicts that are called religious conflcts, the true cause is not really religion. It is often the case that if (inaudible) an arm conflicts involve religion to legitimise, to strengthen and to marshal (inaudible) it cost (inaudible) which at the conflicts meted out to be political, economic, and social. Sometimes, the causes are legitimate political, economic and social grievances but these grievances become so much more powerful when mixed with religious fervour.
There is an explosive mixture. In working its own religion, the other party adopts the same strategy and the result is full blown and protected welfare with the regional causes of the conflict often forgotten or buried in the subconscious of the combatant. In the so-called religious conflicts, where there seem to be no strong underlying political, social and economic factor, then the real causes are very likely to be ignorance and prejudice. Such prejudice is often the result of the promotion of stereotype.
Through propaganda, it is easy enough to create inter-collective causeness of a population instead of a mental picture demonizing any group that is identified as the enemy. Even in a situation that is originally peaceful, prejudice breeds insensitivity, which in turn can lead to violence in forms that are unpredictable. For instance, three years ago, a cartoon in a local newspaper in Europe depicted the Prophet Muhammad Shalallaahu ‘Alaihi wa salam in a despicably irreverent manner. I am sure you know this very well. The cartoon was circulated globally to print media and the Internet and raging many people in the Moslem world, leading to riot and widespread violence and vandalism. That gives us a stark lesson on a particular downside of globalization that religious and cultural insensitivity in one part of the world can have terrible repercussions in another. That lesson is not easy to learn. Early this year, a film (inaudible) on Islam titled Fitnah, was released. It seemed to serve no other purpose but to propagate hatred and racism to incite violence. Naturally, we in the Moslem world, condemn that film but fortunatelly this time, no violence was committed. We responded with judicious restraint.
That, to my mind, finds out the very first step towards effectively addressing the problem of violence: the practice of restraint. We should teach one another the virtue of restraint and then practice what we teach. That restraint is a short term response but the long term we need something more durable. We need to develop a habit of moderation as individual and as members of group. We need to foster a culture that gives a premium to moderation and tolerance. We need to foster such a culture of peace especially among the young because the young today will eventually be the leaders of the human race. And now as well as in the future we need leaders who are skilled in making peace and in making peace work. Our educators are therefore specially called upon to promote that culture of peace among the youth.
When I speak of leaders, I do not refer only to formal national leaders. I refer to everyone in a leadership position in society, in the community and in the family. I also refer to academic leaders and I especially refer to religious leaders. Then there is solid leadership in the cause of peace then its fellow worship for peace can be created and built up. The leaders can achieve this through dialog, through inspiring words and through the (inaudible) of your personal example. We can also put into good use what has been termed the technology of peace. Over the decades, sociologists, political scienticsts and men of various disciplines working in various institutions have developed a great body of knowledge on how to achieve peace and make it durable. This body of practical knowledge which involve dialog and negotiation, confidence building, conflict resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding is often called the technology of peace. This technology of peace has triggered in a way that is crucial to the negotiation that led to peace in Aceh. The same technology is being developed in ASEAN through its drive towards the coming security community. As to the technology of peacekeeping, I am proud to say that Indonesia has considerable experience things to participation in numerous peacekeeping mission under the banner of the United Nations. We are ready to share that experience with others.
Like all technology, the technology of peace will not be sufficiently effective and its benefit will be limited unless it is guided and inspired by positive human values. For most among the values that promote peace are based on moderation, tolerance, accomodation, compromise and mutual respect. In this regard, we all have a great deal to learn. We who make up the community of a nation must learn to be more sensitive and considerate of one another’s values. We who make up the various communities in the human race, need to know and appreciate one another better. We need to respect what others hold as sacred. That means dialog, a kind of dialog that Indonesia has been trying to promote among faith, civilization and culture.
And when we have learned to dialog, to appreciate one another, and respect one another’s values, then we can work together. We can have one another to solve the problem that confront us all. We can have one another to address the political, economic and social grievances that are the root causes of many arms conflicts. Instead of drawing battle lines against one another, we can build communities together and when we can do that, we are well on our way to obtaining durable peace.
For in a situation where social, political and economic grievances have been effectively addressed in a situation where ignorance and prejudice have been banished through dialog and community building, conflict cannot try. Least of all religious conflict, this is true of the world at large of region, nation and neighbourhood. This is over to an individual. It is at that level after all that we must start to address the problem of ignorance and prejudice because that is where the sit of massive violence are planted in the secret chamber at the individual human heart.
Listen to this. It is one of my favourite anecdotes. An old man once told his grandson. A terrible fight is going on inside me - a fight between two worlds. One is evil and represents hate, anger, arrogance, and intolerance. The other is good and represents peace, love, humanity, tolerance, understanding, kindness, empathy, generousity and compassion. This fight is going on inside you, inside every other persons too. The grandson then asked, which world will win? The old man simply replied: the one you feed.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are here in this forum to starve the world of hate in ourselves and in our communities. We are here to feed the world of peace, love and compassion in ourselves and in our communities, in our nation, nations, and the world at large. The challenge before you and this forum is to identify the concrete measures that will obtain that goal. This is an endeavour that is worthy of your best ideas and your deepest wisdom.
Excellencies ladies and gentlemen,
Finally, by saying Bismillahirrahmanrrahiim, I declare the 2nd World Peace Forum open.
Thank you.
Assalaamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuh.
Biro Naskah dan Penerjemahan,
Deputi Mensesneg Bidang Dukungan Kebijakan,
Sekretariat Negara RI