PRESIDENTIAL LECTURE FEATURING BILL GATES,AT PLENARY HALL, JCC, JAKARTA, MAY 9th, 2008

 
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OPENING REMARKS
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
ON
PRESIDENTIAL LECTURE FEATURING BILL GATES,
PLENARY HALL, JCC, JAKARTA
MAY 9th, 2008




Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim,

Assalaamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuh,

Peace be upon us,

Mr. Bill Gates,
Ministers, Ambassadors,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you Ibu Mari Pangestu, for that introduction.

I also wish to extend a very warm welcome to Mr. Bill Gates, who is visiting Indonesia to join the Government Leaders Forum, where he and I will speak later on today. We are honored that you are able to address our Presidential Lecture series, which has been graced by world figures, such as: Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, Sir Nicholas Stern, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, and most recently former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz. Of all our Presidential Lectures, this is certainly the largest with over 2.000 participants. So, do feel at home, Bill, because in this country, you are very much among friends.

I first met Mr. Bill Gates in 2005, during my visit to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmonds. Back then, I was immediately strucked by his humble demeanor, by his energy, by his super-fast computer chip in his brain, and by his vision. I was very pleased to meet him again in my office yesterday, and I must say that 3 years later, he has not aged one day older.

I was particularly impressed with the fact that Mr. Gates has build, in Microsoft campus, an intellectual kingdom where inovation and creativity reign supreme. And I was very proud to see many Indonesians working at Microsoft campus. They are all young, dynamic, bright, all very well paid, I think, and all optimistic about their future. They all told me, they will come home to Indonesia one day to apply your knowledge for our people, and I hope Mr. Gates will make sure that they do come home.

Yesterday, Mr. Gates and I had a very productive discussion. He touched on many issues from education to health, from e-government to software development. We pledged to continue the long-standing cooperations between Microsoft and the Indonesian government. And I stressed the importance of Microsoft’s expanding engagement with our centers of excellence in various universities. Like me, Mr. Gates is also a strong believer in the fast potential of the fertile minds of Indonesians. Surely, we must harness these fertile minds if we are to transform Indonesia into both a vibrant knowledge economy and a sustainable resource-based economy.

For to day, we live in the age of possibility and opportunity. We are seeing ground-braking inventions and technological progress that were unimaginable just decades ago. However, as we step into the 21st century, we encounter three fundamental questions. And how we answer these questions? We are determined the future of our human race.

The first question is how will the world change? We know that the world is becoming smaller, faster, cheaper, better, or as Thomas Friedman recently told me, the world is becoming more flat, more crowded, and hotter. We know that, as my favorite columnist, Fareed Zakaria, said it, that the world will change faster in the next ten years, than it did in the last 100 years, and no one is ready for it. We know that borders are tumbling down and that the world is becoming more interconected and interdependent. But few, if any, of us understand the new shape and directions of this new globalized world. The pace of technological change and innovation is dizzying. It seems that the more the world evolves, the more elusive, and the more confusing it becomes.

The second question is: How do we employ this wondrous advances in technology to resolve the issue of our time: climate change, poverty, corruption, conflict, violence, deadly diseases, natural disasters, mismanagement, social dislocation, and so on? Surely, these technological advances do not stand alone and like preview technological breakthrough, they have the potential to change the cost of human history. The inventions of man-made fire, the wheel, gun powder, steam engine, electricity, the mechanical clock, radios, jet engines, telephones, televisions, computers, digital technology. All these and many more have brought us to where we are today.

For our time, the most important question is: How technology, particularly information and communication technology can be used to fight poverty, to raise the dignity of man the world over. With ICT, we now have the most potent weapons of all to break the vicious cycle of poverty and ignorance. I believe that we are only at the tip of the iceberg, in terms of exploring the use of ICT for development and progress. But to the majority of developing countries around the world, this is a new domaine, a strange territory. There are more and more computers in the districts and villages, but few understand how to usefully harness into better their lives, beyond just playing computer games and chatting on the internet. There is a lot of useful know how and creativity of ICT out there, but they remain scattered and still not develop coherently or evenly to help the poor around the world.

The third question is a point asked in the film Contact, which was written by the famous astronomer, Carl Sagan. The question is: How does humanity overcome this technological adolescence without destroying ourselves? Mind you, this is not a philosophical questions. It very much has real and practical significance to all of us. The human civilization found the wonders of industrial revolution only 200 years ago. And within that very short time-space, industrial activities and deforestation, mostly in the Western world, have caused a serious global warming, the long-term effect of which would be catastrophic to the human race and to the planet earth. And it is only 6 decades ago that man invented the horrific nuclear weapons, the stockpiles of which can destroy our planet a hundred times over.

We must, therefore, develop and promote technologies that ensure progress and survival of the human race. We must promote technology that will sustain, not harm development; that will save, not kill, human lives; that will bring common progress, not marginalization, to world citizens; that will protect, not destroy, planet earth. Most of all, we must promote technology that will reinforce, not loose, our common humanity. ICT has a great role in this, because no other invention has been able to connect citizens of the world as easy, as fast and practical as the internet.

None of these questions have easy answers. This is why I so much look forward to hearing the presentation by Mr. Bill Gates today, which is titled The Second Digital Decade. I can think of no other figure who has had a greater impact on the information revolution than Bill Gates. You have always been a pioneer for progress. I can think of no better figure who has an ability to read and predict the future, perhaps partly, because he has done much to create that future world. Bill Gates also understands how to make technology work for the people. He spent a lot of time talking about this with me and my Ministers yesterday. And Bill is also a strong believer in the power of imagination, which is what he demands from himself and from his employees. As Einstein once said: “imagination is more important than knowledge”. I hope that from your presentation the audience will be able to get a glimpse of Bill Gates’ wonderful imagination and be inspired by it.

I am glad that the audience here includes students and the future generation of Indonesians, who will have to make the next digital decade happen to Indonesia. They are the C-Generation, the Creative Generation, and it is they who will determine the future of Indonesia.

Finally, I would like to thank KADIN for arranging this lecture so effectively. I know a lot of work has been done for this, and I appreciate it.

Bill, I look forward to what will be, I am sure, a very fruitful and rewarding discussion.

I thank you.


Biro Naskah dan Penerjemahan,
Deputi Mensesneg Bidang Dukungan Kebijakan,
Sekretariat Negara RI