<<Back

Statement By H.E. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
President of the Republic of Indonesia
At the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the
60th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

Bismillaah Hirrahmaanirrahiim

Mr. President

I came here to speak for 220 million Indonesian as their directly elected President.

I also carry the message of 4.6 billion people of Asia and Africa represented in the New Asian-African Strategic partnership that was formed in Jakarta last April.

And I wish to convey to you the commitment of the Asia-Pacific region, through the Jakarta Declaration, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on behalf of their more than two billion people. For them, I intend to speak of security, development, human rights and UN Reform.

When I say development, I mean the challenge of poverty. Poverty is a killer. Eight million human being most of them in Asia and Africa die every year because they are too poor to live.

To stop this killer, we must attain the Millennium Development Goals. We must form a global partnership for development. We must faithfully carry out the outcome of major UN conferences on development. Financing for development must flow. Exports of developing countries must gain access to market in a rule-based International trading system. The developing countries must achieve good governance, fight corruption, make efficient use of their limited resources, and plan and carry out appropriate development strategies.

For their part, developed countries must fulfill their commitment to a genuine and mutually beneficial global partnership for development. As to global security, we need a reformed Security Council with a membership that is reflective of global realities. The Asia-Pacific region, home to more than half of the human race and cradle of ancient civilizations and religion, should have more seats on the Council.

New Permanent Member should be chosen on the basis of a set of appropriate criteria. We must do away with the right of veto, which often paralyze the Council. We need a disarmament and non-proliferation regime that leads to the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. But we must encourage the Peaceful use of nuclear energy for development.

We need a Peace-building Commission that works in coordination with both the security Council and the ECOSOC – under mandate of the General Assembly. We need a consensus on the responsibility to protect people from genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. To this end, force should be used only when all other means have failed. In the fight against terrorism, we must develop an effective International cooperation to deal with this threat. No human right may be sacrificed. We must also find and deal with its root cause.

We in Indonesia believe that Interfaith dialogue and empowering the moderate can reduce violent radicalism. We need to empower the Economic and Social Council so that it can effectively review and coordinate international cooperation in development. The projected Human Rights Council should be a subsidiary body to the General Assembly. It must be free of politicization and double standards. No effort at UN reform is complete unless it affirms and brings into reality the central roll of the General Assembly as the main body of the United Nations.

Indonesia will continue to support any efforts to strengthen and revitalize the effectiveness of the UN In facing the new challenge. In this regard, Indonesia urges that the UN reform should be made in a comprehensive, step by step and sustainable manner. Basically, reforming the United Nation is no different than reforming a nation. It is all about working for democracy so that democracy will work for us. In the process, change must be as democratic as possible.

We are experiencing this in Indonesia. We face many challenges, but we are grateful that reforms and democratization are working. We are reconstructing our economy. We are creating Jobs to reduce the number of our poor. Committed to good governance, we are winning the fight against corruption. We are building the peace in Aceh.

If we succeed in reforming ourselves, in attaining democracy and good governance as individual nation and as an International organization, the world will change.

But in order to achieve this world of peace, justice and equitable prosperity, and If we want to reform the United Nations, we must have the will and the spirit, the necessary consensus and the commitment to work together.

 

<<Back