Sambutan Presiden RI pada Acara Jakarta International Defense Dialogue, Jakarta, 23 Maret 2011

Rabu, 23 Maret 2011
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SAMBUTAN

PRESIDEN REPUBLIK INDONESIA

PADA ACARA

JAKARTA INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE DIALOGUE (JIDD)

PLENARY HALL, JCC, 23 MARET 2011

 

 

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

His Excellency Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao,

Ministers of Defense,

Chief of the Defense force,

Distinguished participants,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Let me begin by welcoming all of you to Indonesia, and to the first Jakarta International Defense Dialogue. We are honored, to have my good friend Prime Minister of Timor Leste Xanana Gusmao joining us today. I am sure, we will benefit from listening to his words of wisdom.

 

I wish to extend my appreciation to Minister of Defense Purnomo Yusgiantoro, and the Indonesian University of Defense for this important initiative. Thank you also to all our international and Indonesian speakers who are joining us today. I have been impressed to see the special guests, and the line-up of speakers of this Conference. With all these intellectual resources, I trust you will have very productive discussions.

 

This is not an easy time for all of us. The world economy is still struggling to recover from the financial crisis. And international peace and security is going through yet another rough period. We may need to anticipate some turbulence ahead. 

 

Just turn on your television, and you will be bombarded with news about the conflict in Libya, the nuclear fallout from Japan, growing street protests in Arab streets, oil price crossing over US$ 100 mark, a suicide bomb in Afghanistan, the latest act of piracy in Somalia, and refugees from conflict zones. 

 

It seems everything now has security implications, from natural disaster to food supply, from climate change to energy, from human rights to poverty. What this means is that international security is becoming more not less relevant in the 21st century world order, and not just more relevant, but also more complicated.   

 

While the number of inter-state war has declined significantly after the Cold War, there are anecdotal signs that it is potentially rising. Meanwhile, intra-state conflicts, which have been rising considerably to around 44 in the last few decades, despite few cases of peaceful resolution, do not show signs of significant reduction.  We are also seeing persistent acts of terrorism, and the growing capacity of terrorist groups to mutate, adapt and present us with new challenges such as the mail bombs in Indonesia. And as we take a broad sweep of the international arena, we continue to see pockets of regional tensions, flashpoints and occasional incidents. The recent troubles in the Korean Peninsula, remind us that old conflicts remain dangerous, and can continue to erupt at any given moment.   

 

The geopolitical situation remains fluid and will continue to be so. The Cold War is far behind us seems like a generation ago and 9/11 is already a decade old.  The precise features of the new world order is rather amorphous, and it is still without a name. But we already know a power shift is taking place, with new emerging powers coming to the fore, equipped with growing economic, military and diplomatic resources. And the more players come to play, the more the playing field will change. In Asia Pacific, for example, we are in the process of finding "new equilibrium", one that we hope will ensure greater regional stability. Significantly, in the geopolitics of the 21st century, non-state actors will assume much greater role. The media, civil society, NGOs, companies, and individuals, they are all changing the strategic landscape and forcing us to think differently. A small group of people in Wikileaks with anti-establishment agenda, for example, has caused serious difficulties to Governments across the world, with all its attendant political and security implications. 

 

The sources of conflicts around the world now have multiplied. It is no longer due to ideological differences, which was characteristic of the Cold War. It is no longer just confined to territorial and border disputes. It is no longer just about fighting off secessionist rebellions. These days, several sets of issues can spark conflicts.

 

The first is what I would call "diversity issues", where differences over identities and beliefs can sadly turn into conflict and violence.  We are seeing cases, where disputes between religious groups can turn harmonious communities into sworn enemies overnight; and we are seeing rising cases of intolerance in many parts of developed and developing world.   

 

The second is what I would call "governance issues", situations where lack of governance lead to social and economic deprivation, that create political resentments, and in turn fuel conflicts. In many of the countries that are experiencing political turbulence today, there is an element of governance deficit.  This is also true for Indonesia during our crisis in the late 1990's. 

 

And the third is "resources competition" issues, where we see a mismatch between the growing population, and declining basic life supplies available to them.  Next year, world population will reach 7 billion people, and this will rise to 9 billion in 2045. There is absolutely no certainty that we will have enough food, energy and water to provide for them. It is certain that the more we live in a world of plenty and opportunity, the more we will see a world of scarcity and inequity. And we have not found yet an innovative way to overturn this mismatch in a significant way. With these worrying signs in mind, ladies and gentlemen we are called to step up to the plate. But with all the troubles in the world, I also believe that this is a world full of opportunity.  

 

Actually, this is a mindset that I have tried to instill in my security officials and military officers: don't just be overwhelmed by prognosis of threats, be consumed with exploring new opportunities. Don't be stuck with convention; think outside the box.  Don't just look to the past; create the future.

 

In fact, we do have good reasons to be optimistic in looking at the future:

 

 

The prospect for international peace, therefore, is reasonably good. What we need to do is to continue to clear the path forward for all of us.

 

There are three major areas, where I believe we can do better:

First, is preventing an outbreak of another major international war and regional instability. The 20th century is said to be the bloodiest century. We had TWO world wars, a number of major wars and proxy wars, and reportedly more people died in the 20th century compared to any previous time. We certainly cannot afford to live in yet another century like that. It was also a cruel century that was full of ignorance, hatred, prejudice and division. To achieve a different fate for humanity in the 21st century, we need to continue to nurture stable relations among the major powers; and to harness cooperation between the major powers and the emerging powers. Geopolitical condensation will be a fact of life, but it need not always lead to friction and clash, and can indeed provide imperative for closer cooperation. 

 

In the Korean Peninsula, through the 6-party talks, we saw a good example where by the United States and China, together with Japan, Russia and the two Koreas, work together to achieve common interest in peace. Indeed, now is the time for us to evolve a new culture of peace, revolved around partnerships and cooperation, and a win-win world outlook.  I constantly tell my defense officials, that the more friends and partners we have, the more secure and the stronger we become.  Which is why one new theme in Indonesia's foreign policy is, "a zero", I should say  "a million friends and zero enemy", "a million friends and zero enemy".

 

We have a critical opportunity to advance the art of practice and preventive diplomacy, because preventing conflict is always better than curing it after it breaks out.  We can intensify confidence-building measures, such as what ASEAN and China are trying to do by negotiating a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea. We can build stronger instruments for regional cooperation, which is what ASEAN has done through the ASEAN Charter.  We can strengthen our democracy and rule of law, and respect for international law.   

 

We can work together to de-radicalize extremist and groups, I should say, we can work together to de-radicalize extremist groups and terrorist cells, while also addressing some of its root causes, such as poverty and marginalization. We can promote better education for our people so that nations can embrace open, moderate, and enlightened nationalism. Not the kind of arrogant nationalism and fanaticism, that for ages has pit nations against one another.

 

Secondly, we need to intensify effort to resolve ongoing as well as new conflicts. I realize that many of these conflicts have persisted for a very long time, and seemingly impossible to resolve. the Arab-Israeli conflict is one of them.  

 

But I do believe that every conflict  no matter how difficult can be resolved you just need to come up with the right combination of evolving circumstances, shifting interests, creativity, timing, and luck.  We in Indonesia had to live with a seemingly intractable conflict in Aceh for 30 years, but eventually we found a crack of opportunity, capitalized on it and achieve permanent peace now.   

 

There is a saying that to make peace, we must prepare for war. But I do believe that we must direct all our energy to wage for peace, which can be more difficult than waging for war. We can take some sigh of relief, that in recent years we have been able to slowly build peace one conflict at one time: in Northern Ireland, in Bosnia, in Kosovo, in Sudan.  In Southeast Asia, there has been some progress recently in managing the sensitive border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia.  

 

There is plenty of opportunity for us, to advance conflict resolution methods through mediation, good offices and other means. The emergence of new conflicts means, that we will need to be more creative, in the use of our diplomatic tools.  The demands for peace-keeping forces are likely to grow, and we need to increasingly adapt our forces to that challenge.   

 

Third, we must continue to reform global governance. In the economic world, we have begun to reform the instruments of global governance with the G-20 Summit as the "premier forum for international economic cooperation"; the reforms of the IMF and other financial institutions, and so on. But in the security realm, we are yet to catch up. The United Nations Security Council still reflect a post-World War II picture.

 

This is why we need to improve the architecture of peace. We need to strengthen multilateral  as well as regional security cooperation. I am glad to see the proliferation of strategic partnerships and comprehensive partnerships between nations. This is a positive development that we need to encourage in all regions.  We need to promote closer cooperation between our militaries and our intelligence. We also need to enhance people-to-people contact, because this leads to better understanding between nations, and reduce the space for a clash of nationalism.

 

Distinguished participants,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is what we hope to achieve through the Jakarta International Defense Dialogue. It is a small step to deepen dialogue and enhance cooperation among policy officials and opinion makers in the realm of international security.   

 

Have a productive deliberations, and hope that you will help us all, to attain a more just and peaceful world that we all cherish.   

 

Finally, by saying Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, I declare the 1^st Jakarta International Defense Dialogue 2011 open. I thank you.

 

 

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