PEMBUKAAN THE NAASP MINISTERIAL MEETING ON CAPACITY BUILDING FOR PALESTINE, DI JAKARTA, 14 JULI 2008
SAMBUTAN
PRESIDEN REPUBLIK INDONESIA
PADA
ACARA PEMBUKAAN THE NAASP MINISTERIAL MEETING
ON CAPACITY BUILDING FOR PALESTINE
TANGGAL 14 JULI 2008
DI ISTANA NEGARA, JAKARTA
Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim,
Assalaamu'alaikum warahmatulalhi wabarakaatuh,
Peace be upon us,
Your Excellency DR. Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority,
The Honourable Speaker of the Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly,
Excellencies Ministers and Ambassadors and Heads of the Delegation,
Heads of the International Organizations,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honour for me to join you at this important event, which marks another high point in special relations and cooperation between the nations of Asia and Africa.
This is a moment imbued with the Bandung Spirit, the spirit that was kindled more than half century ago when the first generation of leaders of our two great continents met on Indonesian soil in the Asia-Africa Conference of 1955. During that historic event, they gave notice to the world that the nations of Asia and Africa stood – as we stand today – for peace, freedom, equality, and justice in international affairs.
In the more than five decades that followed, the world changed radically. A surge of freedom movements relegated colonialism to the dustbin of history. Many new nations of Asia and Africa emerged and achieved sovereignty and independence. Thus, today each of us has found a respected place in the community of nations.
But not everything has changed. The nations in attendance at the Asia-Africa Conference resolved to support the courageous struggle of the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and to establish an independent and sovereign state in their own homeland. That has not changed. Until today, that struggle is being waged. And we the nations of Asia and Africa are still supporting it.
It is a bitter struggle. There are now some four million Palestinian living in distress. They suffer all kinds of violence. The casualty count keeps mounting.
They have to bear with roadblocks and blockades and other restrictions on their freedom of movement. They languish in economic deprivation. Their human rights and their human dignity are violated.
We the nations of Asia and Africa are no strangers to the plight of the Palestinian people. Not too long ago, during the dark of.., I say, during the dark night of the colonialism, we suffered what they are suffering now. We struggled as they are struggling today.
But we have won our political struggle. We have won our freedom and sovereignty and we have moved on to a further struggle – for social and economic development.
For the people of Palestine, however, time might as well have stood still. Since they have not been able to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination, they cannot properly develop their economy and their social institutions. They are relegated to stagnation. The Milennium Development Goals are meaningless numbers to them.
And yet, to their eternal credit, they continue to wage their courageous struggle not only for political freedom and sovereignty but also for normalcy in their social and economic life.
Our collective conscience called upon us 53 years ago to support the struggle of the Palestinian people. Today our conscience calls upon us again to broaden that support and make it more practical, substantial, and durable. We are called upon to help the Palestinian people in more concrete ways.
That is why Palestine had to be on the agenda of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership. And why the Palestinian issue is on top of the Agenda of Political solidarity in the Partnership Plan of Action.
Moreover, the Partnership has called on the international community to ensure the implementation of the Roadmap to Peace that was formulated by the Quartet – the United Nations, the EU, the United States, and Russia – in 2003. We have even crafted a detailed plan in support of the implementation of the Roadmap.
This time, we are not satisfied with expressing sympathy for the Palestinians in their misfortune. South Africa and Indonesia, as co-chairs of the Partnership, an other Asian and African countries, have taken concrete steps to empower the Palestinian people in various fields to prepare them for the eventual establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.
As a logical complement to the Annapolis Peace Conference in 2007, which mandated the attainment of a permanent, just, and peaceful solution to the Palestinian question by the end of 2008, this initiative of the Partnership is aimed at several important purposes.
First, it serves as a catalyst to the peace progress, as it anticipates the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian national state.
Second, it is a building block on which assistance to the Palestinian people will be built up and enhanced.
Third, it helps revive the ties of solidarity among Asian and African countries that was generated in the mid-1950s, this time under the new circumstances of the post-Cold War era of globalization.
Fourth, it serves as a conduit for all parties wishing to contribute to peace and progress in Palestine and the rest of the Middle East.
And fifth, it creates a new type of multilateralism among developing countries, which can become, I should say which can become, a new moral force for the shaping of a more just and more equitable international order.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The international community must work together in concert to realize the goal of an independent, viable Palestinian state in the very near future. This is why I commend the work of the Paris Conference in December last year, which succeeded in securing pledges from donor countries in the amount of USD$ 7.4 billion for Palestine. We also appreciate the work of the Berlin Conference last month in June, attended also by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, which aimed to strengthen Palestine’s security and legal sectors. We must ensure a constructive synergy between all these positive initiatives to help Palestine and promote peace in the Middle-East.
I have no doubt that we can accomplish much through our initiative. Over the decades after we gained independence, we grappled with the problems of political and socioeconomic development. We went through a long and painful learning curve but in the process we gained valuable knowledge of what works and what does not. Each of us gained a unique set of experiences and insights. Each of us gained a unique set of expertise.
That means that each of us has something valuable to share with the Palestinian people in the framework of capacity building.
In this regard, I am pleased to tell you that here, in our midst, are ten Palestinian diplomats and government officials who have come to Jakarta to take part in a “Diplomatic Training for Palestinian Diplomats†now being conducted by the Center for Education and Training of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia. This training programme is one of a set of activities that the Government of Indonesia will carry out as a capacity building effort for Palestine in the next five years.
May I now ask our Palestinian brothers and sisters who are taking this training course to raise and be recognized by the delegations.
These Palestinian brothers and sisters who are taking this training course to rise and be recognized by the delegations.
These Palestinian brothers and sisters of ours had to travel many miles and had to endure a harrowing series of security checks before they could board a flight to Jakarta. That speaks highly of their dedication to their profession, to international cooperation and to the Palestinian national struggle.
Once again let us show our admiration for their courage and devotion by giving them a big hand. Thank you very much.
In this light, Ladies and Gentlemen, it may be relevant to recall that we Indonesians won our independence as much by the bravery of our freedom fighters as by the skill and dedication of our diplomats. The diplomatic training programme is therefore our way of sharing with the Palestinian people the legacy of Indonesia’s first generation of diplomats.
This is the kind of sharing that enriches both the giver and the receiver – the kind of sharing that we are all capable of, no matter how modest our financial resources. This is sustainable sharing.
That is why we are thinking of capacity building projects that are to be carried out for at least five years. And that is why we are going to measure the success of this Conference not in terms of money raised but in terms of the number of individual Palestinians benefited.
I am therefore optimistic that the contributions generated in this Conference will be concrete and forthcoming and will benefit as many as 10,000 Palestinians. And those 10,000 Palestinians will be a force for freedom and positive change. I am pleased to announce that Indonesia pledges to provide assistance to 1,000 Palestinians in this project.
They will build Palestine’s political, economic, and social institutions and ensure that the future Palestinian state will be viable and enduring. They will help build peace in the Middle East and contribute to the shaping of a better world.
That is all in line with the ultimate goal envisaged the Partnership’s Declaration of 2005: to establish an Asian-African region at peace with itself and with the world at large. It will be a region working together in harmony as a concert of nations that is non-exclusive, bonded in dynamic partnership, and inspired by its rich historical ties and cultural heritage.
I therefore have only the fondest expectations of the outcome of this Conference. Beyond the results of this Conference, I have the finest anticipation of an eventual State of Palestine within secure borders and at peace with itself and all its neighbours. It will be a Palestinian State that endures because it has been prepared, through your contributions, to overcome all the challenges that it will face.
By then the dream of political freedom for Asia and Africa that was articulated at the Asian-African Conference of 1955 in Bandung shall have been – at last – completely fulfilled.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Finally, by saying Bismillaahirrahmaanirahiim, I take great pleasure in declaring this Conference open.
Thank you.
Wassalaamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuh.
Biro Naskah dan Penerjemahan,
Deputi Mensesneg Bidang Dukungan Kebijakan,
Sekretariat Negara RI