Keynote Speech by President of RI at Launching of Strategic Review Journal, Jakarta, 17 July 2012

Selasa, 17 Juli 2012
Di baca 1611 kali

KEYNOTE SPEECH BY

THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

AT THE FORMAL LAUNCH OF STRATEGIC REVIEW JOURNAL

AND THE OPENING OF THE STRATEGIC REVIEW FORUM

IN SHANGRI-LA HOTEL, JAKARTA

17 JULY 2012

 

 

 

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh,

Salam Sejahtera untuk kita semua,

May peace be upon us all,

Dr. Hassan Wirajuda, Editor-in-Chief of Strategic Review,

Distinguished Guest Speakers,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

It gives me great pleasure to be here today, at the First Strategic Review Forum, and the official launching of Strategic Review: The Indonesian Journal of Leadership, Policy and World Affairs.

 

As explained by Dr. Hassan Wirajuda, Strategic Review was soft-launched in August last year. I remember this well, because in that inaugural edition my article, "Indonesia in 2045: A Centennial Journey of Progress" was published. If anybody in this room missed that edition, I am sure that Pak Hassan Wirajuda has copies to spare.

 

Since then, Strategic Review has published four more editions, thus staying true to its original promise of regularity, consistency, and quality.  Strategic Review has also been enriched by the contributions of numerous prominent Indonesian and international political, social, and economic figures.  I have immensely enjoyed reading the excellent articles in these editions. 

 

I hope Strategic Review will continue to bring a world of ideas to Indonesia and also project Indonesia's ideas to the world.  I would also like to use this occasion to encourage Indonesian scholars and intellectuals to write more for national and international journals. For some reasons, Indonesia still falls short in terms of published works in academic journals, and I know we can do better because we have a vibrant intellectual community here in our country.

 

I am also pleased to see very familiar faces among the crowd today, former Timor Leste President and Nobel Laureate Jose Ramos Horta, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and also Malaysian political figure former Deputy Prime Minister, Bapak Anwar Ibrahim. It is a pleasure to meet all of you here in Jakarta.

 

Indeed, your presence, as well as members of the academia, think-tanks, the diplomatic corps, and senior government officials, makes this event a truly auspicious one. For that, I would like also to commend the organizers of this forum, and wish all of you well in your deliberations today.

 

I would like to share some thoughts on the topic of reconciliation and conflict resolutions.  This is something that our special guests here today know much about, and have much to share with us. Reconciliation and conflict resolution is also something that is critical to the stability of nations and to the future of our region. 

 

Here in Indonesia, owing to our particular situation, we have found that the hard work of nation-building and democratic transition constantly involve efforts to resolve conflicts and promote reconciliation. In my years as President, I have found that healing the wounds can be not just the most challenging task, but also the most rewarding. There is no peace, no freedom, no stability, unless we take out the cancerous seeds of conflict and hatred from our society, and replace them with seeds of amity and good will. I do believe that the basic thrust of the human heart is that of love and goodness, and this makes the struggle for peace possible, even in the most difficult situations involving sworn enemies. Indeed, hope is the most powerful weapon to destroy the ills of the world: tyranny, poverty, diseases, extremism, ignorance, and others.

 

Indonesia has been blessed to be where we are today. Our democracy is strong. Our civil society is robust. Our economy is growing reasonably well. Our international position is more solid. And, insya Allah, our future is bright.

 

Some of us may be tempted to take all this for granted, as if this is the way it should always be.  Well, don't. These things did not come easy to us: we earned them.  Since 1999, we have rebuilt our system brick by brick. We made sure every election was done right, and that every vote counts.  We relentlessly pushed for policy reforms.  We overcame every trials and tribulation that stood in our path.  And we sorted out each of our conflicts one by one. 

 

Indeed, our ability to resolve or peacefully manage our internal conflicts has become a yardstick for the maturity of our democracy. We have killed the myth that democracy would lead to the break-up of Indonesia. Indeed, democracy has made Indonesia stronger, better, more peaceful and more united than ever. In all this, reconciliation and conflict resolution have been critical part of our transformational efforts. I do not pretend to know all the answers, but I do have several lessons that I have learned from my years of dealing with conflicts, lessons that I would like to share with you today. 

 

First, I believe, I should say I believe very strongly that every conflict is amenable to peaceful political solution.  This may not be obvious to all conflict situations, but I do believe that this is true. The fact that some conflicts remain unresolved after decades, and even centuries, do not mean that they are permanently irreconcilable. Someday, the right combination of events, interests, generational changes, evolving leaders, and also luck will unlock the situation. Think how long it took to crush apartheid in South Africa. Think how long it took to resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland. Until then, patience combined with determination become necessary. 

 

In this spirit, I do believe that the age-old Arab-Israeli conflict will find resolution in the decades of the 21^st century, something which most likely will require a transformational approach to renew the bonds between the Abrahamic religions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

 

Second, every conflict has its own personality.  No two conflicts are alike.  Every conflict has its own character, its own rhythm, its own dynamics, its own idiosyncracies.  So many conflicts linger on, and become worse, because decision makers fail to scratch the surface, and thus could not understand the real essence of the conflict. Knowing the profile of the conflict is the first step in figuring our the right formula to fix it.  

 

In my attempt to understand the conflict, there was always something new that I did not know, and I was always keen to learn more. Every detail, no matter how small, helped my decisions. Every new fact helped my better judgment. The bottom line is that different conflicts require different solutions. We found a good solution to the conflict in Aceh, and the communal conflict in Ambon and Poso. However, these formula were not entirely applicable for Papua, which needed different type of solution. 

 

Third, it is always better to prevent conflict before it happens, than to cure it once it erupts. Preventing conflict before it happens is better, easier, cheaper, safer, faster, and more effective. The horizontal conflict that erupted in Maluku in 1999, for example, caused so many deaths, destruction, and suffering that it would take one generation for the wounds to heal completely.

 

Thus, having the right tools for early detection is critical to Governments, to prevent eruption of violent conflict. Our intelligence must be trained to assess the situation accurately. Our provincial and district leaders must have their ears to the ground, and our police must be ready to act at a moment's notice to prevent violence. Early detection that leads to early prevention can be the difference between life and death, between peace and chaos. 

 

Fourth, reconciliation and conflict resolution requires leadership. The function of leadership is to drive and push a political process, that is usually very difficult to construct and get off the ground. Leadership means having the courage to make difficult decisions, sometimes going against the tyde, and take the risks even if it leads to his or her own downfall.  Without leadership, the peace process will have no energy and no direction, and in the end there no, I should say, will be no peace.

 

When we pursued it, the peace process in Aceh in 2005 after the tsunami, it was not a popular thing to do. Some asked why bother after all previous attempts had failed. But it was necessary thing to do. There was a high risk of failure but we took the odds, because we knew, post-tsunami Aceh could not be rebuilt without peace on the ground. I know that my good friend Jose Ramos Horta and Xanana Gusmao also took their risk when dealing with difficult issues with Indonesia. But in the interest to promote reconciliation, they wisely took the hits and stood their ground, because they knew it was the right thing to do, and the right fight to fight. That is leadership.

 

Fifth, when a conflict cannot be resolved, then manage it.  If the conditions for resolution are absent, do not force it, but keep the conflict contained, manageable, and controllable. There will come a time when the calculus and the dynamics will change, perhaps even the players will change, and when that time comes, make the best of it.  This applies best in the South China Sea, where 6 claimants, 4 of them from ASEAN, are involved in territorial and jurisdictional disputes. It is safe to assume, giveen the extreme complexity of the overlapping claims, that we will not see a diplomatic resolution of the South China Sea disputes in the short term, perhaps even in the medium term. Short of a comprehensive resolution, the claimants must do their best to manage and contain the disputes, to make sure that it does not escalate or worst, lead to the outbreak of military clashes.

 

The countries in the region should help the claimants manage their disputes and keep the temperature low. This is why the work of the ASEAN, China Working Group to produce a meaningful and practicable Code of Conduct in the South China Sea is central, to improving confidence building. It will help enhance strategic predictability and bolster regional stability in a region that desperately need it. 

 

Sixth, in every conflict, there will always be a window of opportunity. This window of opportunity is usually small and momentary, but it can lead to possible solutions. The hard of, I should say the part for leaders is to spot it and not miss it.

 

In Aceh, the window came in the aftermath of the tsunami. In the midst of enormous desperation, we saw an opening for a new peace effort, judging from the psychological previous position of the Acehnese people. Surely, anyone with conscience would have to be more moved by the incredible sufferings in Aceh and respond to peace gesture and this they did. If we had missed that narrow window of opportunity, who knows, Aceh would not be the place it is today, peaceful and rehabilitated.  

 

Seventh, to promote reconciliation and conflict resolution, it is always helpful to adopt a pragmatic, flexible, forward-looking approach. A rigid dogmatic approach is not likely to deliver results. Finding the ingredients for peace takes a lot of listening, and a lot of challenging the old assumptions. When we tried to revive the peace talks in Aceh that finally led to permanent peace, we had an open mind. And we had a change of mindset too. I was convinced that a purely military solution would not deliver peace. I was convinced that a win-win strategy that regards our negotiating counterparts as potential partners for peace would undo the gridlock.

 

A win-win solution ensures that all the players in a conflict have a stake in the success of the peace deal, because they will have lots to gain from its success, and more to loose from its failure. This is how the calculus of conflict can be changed. With that outlook, the GAM negotiators finally dropped their objective for separation from Indonesia, and in turn, we gave them political and procedural concessions that sealed the peace deal permanently. By this time, I should say, fortunately, trust had already developed between the two sides.

 

This leads to my eighth point: the most critical thing to achieve in a peace deal is trust building between actors in conflict.  In the Aceh negotiations, there was a critical time, a turning point, when the negotiating actually began listening to one another, rather than talking pass one another. This emergence of trust and confidence carried the negotiations a long way. It broke walls, and allowed them take greater risks. And even until today, the negotiating partners remain friends. 

 

Trust, of course, did not come with words only. We have to make good on our promises on the ground, pulling our troops to an agreed level, allowing international observers, and other strategic moves. The GAM side also did this, especially by calling their fighters to come out and rejoin society. Our ability to deliver both our commitments enhanced our mutual trust and made the peace stronger. 

 

I believe it is also this emergence of trust between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein, something which she has publicly acknowledged, that has made democratic developments in Myanmar more hopeful these days.  This trust, which did not exist before, became a powerful force driving positive change and optimism in Myanmar, and we all hope that they continue to harness it and spread it.

 

Finally, the ninth point, it must be said that the only thing more important than making peace is keeping it. There are too many examples in history, where a hard won peace crumbled because the stake-holders became complacent afterwards. Peace-building requires systemic, long term efforts. And it must be comprehensive, involving political, legal, economic, social, and cultural measures. Ultimately, peace building requires sustainable political will by the leadership. The difference between a good peace building and a poor one is the difference between a short-lived peace and a long lasting one.

 

Reconciliation and conflict resolution is a powerful force. A few weeks ago, in May, I had the privilege to visit Dili to attend the 10^th Anniversary of Restoration of Timor Leste's Independence. It was a truly memorable occasion, not just because of the impressive official ceremonies, but because of the public affection that I witnessed. As President of Indonesia, everywhere I went, I was warmly greeted with smiling faces and welcoming chants by the people of Timor Leste. I was so deeply touched by this massive gesture of friendship and kindness shown to me, and by extension, to Indonesia. It was then that I realized this the people of Timor Leste, like us in Indonesia, wanted to build a future, not stuck and burdened by the past. This is what we both deserve: a future of peaceful partnership and common prosperity. And that is the power of reconciliation.

 

In reflections, I have confidence that other conflicts around the world have their own cycles, and thus, at one point they will reach their solutions. In this regard, I do hope that the democratic transition process that is sweeping the Middle East and North Africa will transform the region into full-fledge democracies.  At the same time, we need to further nurture the transition process, by ways of supporting nation-building and reconciliation.

 

In the case of Syria, I believe that we must find a solution to the on-going conflict.  The international community cannot stay idle as innocent victims continue to fall. I have been in close communications with Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on this, and I have proposed several recommendations to him along the lines of the solution of the Lebanon-Israel conflict. In 2006, I took ahead a similar consultation with then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the Lebanon crisis.

 

For our part, Indonesia will continue our active contribution towards international peace and security, as we have done so in the past. In the 1990s, we assisted the peaceful resolution of conflicts in southern Philippines, and Indonesia was the first country to be able to engage all the claimants in the South China Sea and all ASEAN states in an informal track-two process. More recently, we are playing a role in facilitating talks on the Thai-Cambodia border disputes, and we actively supported the democratic transformation in Myanmar, and we continue to do so.

 

A contribution to international peace is the central tenet of the Indonesian Constitution.  This is what our diplomacy is all about. I hope that the Strategic Review, and the First Strategic Review Forum, would continue to support and expand the message of peace and hope that underlies Indonesia's nationhood.   

 

Finally, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

I would like to once again congratulate Dr. Hassan Wirajuda, Dr. Juwono Sudarsono, Minister Gita Wirjawan, General Agus Widjojo and all those who have worked hard to realize this dream to publish a journal with a global outreach.

 

And by reciting Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, I hereby declare the First Strategic Review Forum opened, and I also wish to officially launch Strategic Review.  May Allah SWT guide us in our future endeavors.

 

Thank you.

 

Wassalamu'alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

 

 

Asisten Deputi Naskah dan Penerjemahan,

Deputi Bidang Dukungan Kebijakan,

Kementerian Sekretariat Negara RI