Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It
is indeed my pleasure to welcome you all to our Pejambon
Coffee. This is the fourth in our series of Pejambon
Cofee. And at the Pejambon
Coffee, not only will we serve you excellent coffee, but also present you with
unique ambiance and pleasant atmosphere.
This
afternoon, we are proud to present you the performance of Wayang
Kulit or Javanese Puppet show. In Javanese culture,
the stories depicted in Wayang Kulit
represent the reality of our life—constant battle between good and evil;
between righteousness and malice. There are indeed sublime messages and lessons
in every aspect of Wayang Kulit
show. All we need to do is to identify the messages, and understand them within
the context of our profession diplomats.
We
have just completed the first half of the show, where evil can sometimes
overpower the rest. We have learned so far that fierce battle between malicious
and benevolent characters brings nothing but uncertainty and suffrage on the
life of many.
In
the real life, as you can see, conflicts and uncertainty surrounding us only
fetch miseries and sufferings to the life of the innocent civilians.
As
we left the year of 2008 and welcomes 2009, the miseries and sufferings of
civilians in the Gaza Strip have casted yet another dark cloud over our world.
It seems today that the powerful can destroy anything it deems necessary –
without any consequence. More than a thousand defenseless civilians have been
killed. More than five thousand wounded. And survivors have been deprived of
their livelihood. Yet, the rest of the world has become a mere spectator.
Indeed,
we have just entered another challenging year.
At
the global level, the world suffered from multi-dimensional crises and its
deadly attendant impacts. These are climate change; energy; food, and;
financial. On the one hand, these crises severely hit Indonesia and other
countries in the region. Yet, on the other, we wish to ensure that our
diplomacy would work well within the concerted international efforts in
resolving these crises.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We
have left 2008 with so many memories, uplifting achievements as well as
unfinished works. The year of 2008 was really a year full of dynamic changes
and transformations in our bilateral, regional, and global environments within
which our diplomacy and foreign policy is operating.
We took note on recent developments of global peace and security: war in Iraq;
political and security stagnation in Afghanistan; the emergence of new centers
of power, and; the U.S. Elections, just to name a few. We have come to
realize more that global multilateralism is imperative if we want to overcome
recent global crises. Through multilateralism, country like Indonesia
will have more voice, and indeed opportunities to play its role as bridge-builder
of many different interests.
Within the regional context, the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) has been transforming itself to become a rule-based organization. The
entering into force of ASEAN Charter on 15 December last year signified the
transformation to finally become an ASEAN Community by 2015. Successful
transformation of ASEAN would ensure the continuity of role ASEAN has been
playing in the driving seat of wider regional integration in East Asia.
Today,
nations of the world are faced with menacing global crises, failure of Doha
Development Agenda, and world-wide anxiety over the return of protectionism.
All these have somehow provided more rationale and impetus for closer regional
integration as an effective policy response.
Within
the bilateral context, our relations with more than 110 countries throughout
2008 showed significant improvements. Our bilateral cooperation with countries
in Latin American region, for instance, showed an increasing trend, especially
in terms of trade, investment, energy and technical cooperation. And building
on a number of strategic partnership agreements that we have signed, Indonesia
is now finalizing various Plans of Action, as well as embarking on new
partnerships with South Africa and Brazil.
We
value highly the strategic importance of our immediate neighbors. With Timor Leste, for instance, we agreed to put to an end on the
allegation of gross human rights violation prior and immediately after the 1999
popular consultation. By jointly adopting “truth and friendship” approach,
Indonesia and Timor Leste have set new precedence of
how two neighbors could settle their past problems and cooperate together for a
better future.
On
the economic front, we enjoyed a relatively stable economic performance
throughout 2008. Despite the global crisis, our economic resilience was
considerably elastic as the economy still grew by 6.2% until the third quarter
of 2008. When the world was faced with severe food crisis, Indonesia did not
suffer from any food shortage. On the contrary, we produced enough food for
everyone, and even scored some surpluses. Therefore, Indonesia is now in a
better position to call for global concerted efforts to deal with the food
crisis.
Our success in combating terrorism has been reflected positively, among others,
in the decision to lift the travel warning on Indonesia by the U.S. Government.
We expect that such decision will be followed by the other countries. This
development will expectedly increase the visit of foreign tourists and
businesspersons to Indonesia. However, the flight ban imposed upon Indonesia by
the European Commission has hampered more visitors, particularly from Europe.
The adoption of the civil aviation law by our Parliament recently, along with
significant improvements on the safety of our civil aviation, should be the
basis for the Commission to revoke the ban immediately.
Despite the many difficult challenges, I am however pleased that 2008 was
a good year for our diplomacy. We improved, strengthened, and deepened our
diplomatic relations at all levels—bilateral, regional, and global
multilateral. On the eve of 2009, we ended our term as non-permanent member of
the UN Security Council. During our terms in the Security Council, Indonesia
has successfully placed itself as a bridge and consensus builder.
Indonesia
never failed to ensure that all members fully comply with fundamental
international principles, in particular, respects for national sovereignty and
territorial integrity. Therefore, Indonesia consistently rejected unilateral
separatism as demonstrated in the cases of Kosovo and Southern Ossetia. The two
cases proved to be detrimental to the general norms of inter-state relations.
Likewise,
we also opposed any idea to create new international norms through the Security
Council that contradict existing international norms and conventions. This has
been clearly demonstrated in Indonesia position on the case of piracy in
Somalia, which has the potentials to erode the United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).
On
the Iran’s nuclear issue, Indonesia always consistently referred to the Report
of IAEA—the most credible and competent international agency to assess Iran’s
compliance in its nuclear development. We believe that dialog and peaceful
negotiation are the best way to resolve the nuclear issue.
Following
the successful Bali Conference in 2007, Indonesia now serves in the Troika+1 to
ensure that we can achieve our targets set out in the Bali Roadmap. Indonesia
was also engaged in the discussion of mitigating global challenges among others
in the Hokkaido Summit 8+8, and the G-20 Summit in Washington D.C. In addition,
we participated at the OIC Summit, ASEM Summit, ASEAN+3 Summit, and APEC
Summit—the last three primarily discussed the global economic crisis.
Towards
the end of 2008, we have put extra efforts at the regional level to overcome
global financial crisis. Through the Chiang Mai Initiative, 13 countries in the
region agreed to pledge funds amounting US$ 80 billion through bilateral swap
arrangement.
Our
diplomatic activities of last year were concluded by Indonesia’s initiative to
launch Bali Democracy Forum. This event was strategic and historic because for
the first time, governments in Asia placed democracy in their strategic agenda
through exchange of experiences and best practices. Indonesia has established
the Institute for Peace and Democracy to follow up the recommendations of the
Bali Democracy Forum.
In
short, suffice to say that throughout 2008, we managed to freely operate our
active and independent foreign policy without any restraints. As we nurtured
mutual cooperation and friendship with both developing and developed nations,
we practiced well what we call as multi-directions foreign policy.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We
foresee that the world in 2009 will remain engulfed by prolonged armed
conflicts. There will be old conflicts like in the Palestine, newer ones in
Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on-going civil wars in Congo, Somalia, and
Darfur.
On the economic front, the threats of global financial crisis will still be
with us, and may seem to trigger global economic recession—even depression.
Most likely, we will feel the real stun of the crisis by mid-2009. Anticipating
this, Indonesia appeals that we remain committed to free trade and avoid
protectionism. On our part, Indonesia will continue to strengthen its economic
cooperation with traditional partners, while continues to improve our ties with
our non-traditional markets, such as Russia, East European Countries, Latin
America, and Africa.
As
a follow up to the enactment of ASEAN Charter, Indonesia commits to focus its
time and energy on the groundwork preparation of ASEAN infrastructure. That
includes the finalization of the Blueprints of the ASEAN Political and Security
Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community with clear agenda and
timelines; finalization of the Terms of Reference of the ASEAN Human Rights
Body, and the strengthening of ASEAN Secretariat. And after a brief delay,
ASEAN Summit will be finally held in Thailand by end of February 2009.
For
Indonesia, the year 2009 is also the year of elections. Elections represent
maturity in our democracy and a process of change and continuity for the next
five years. Successful elections will certainly strengthen and further
consolidate our democracy.
As
a nation, we will ensure that our elections are free, fair, democratic, and
peaceful.
Remaining
faithful to a free and active foreign policy, Indonesia will continue to play a
constructive role in world affairs and building bridges of cooperation and
partnership to all directions. It is our constitutional mandate to participate
actively in maintaining a world order based on independence, lasting peace and
social justice.
Indeed,
a world order based on independence, lasting peace and social justice is
something that can alleviate the miseries and sufferings of the people of
Palestine – and people all over the world.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I
am not trying to tell you the end story of our Wayang
Kulit show this afternoon. I will let the puppet
master—or dalang—to finish his work.
At
the very least, I will leave you with a thought that as diplomats we should
always strive for a just peace in the wake of perpetual struggle between good
and evil in our life time. Thank you
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