Indonesia urges world solidarity to fight poverty

Indonesia urges world solidarity to fight poverty

Ridwan Max Sijabat and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post/Medan

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on Thursday for world
solidarity in fighting poverty to help developing and poor
countries promote sustainable development programs.

Following a display of solidarity from around the world in the
aftermath of the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster that devastated parts
of Indonesia and other countries around the Indian Ocean, all
nations were now challenged to show their commitment to seeking a
global partnership to save the earth from environmental
catastrophe, he said.

"A global partnership is badly needed to fight against the
poverty affecting a majority of the planet's population," Susilo
said in his keynote address to the first summit of the Network of
Regional Governments for Sustainable Development, which is being
attended by more than 1,000 delegates from 43 countries.

"Poverty has made most people unable to improve the quality of
their lives and education, and made their governments unable to
carry out development programs in accordance with the
sustainability concept."

Describing some of the numerous problems plaguing poor
nations, the President said that one out of every five persons on
the planet had to live on a daily income of less than US$1, 80
million people in developing countries were malnourished, 10
million others died of preventable diseases annually, and more
than 150 million children did not receive an education because of
poverty, while one in every five people in the world lacked
access to clean water.

He said the Indonesian government and the country's people had
been impressed by the world's swift response to the tsunami
disaster.

"Almost all nations showed their solidarity with the Indonesian
people by sending humanitarian relief to the disaster victims,
and their armed forces to help the Indonesian Military with
emergency relief operations and to rehabilitate the affected
areas. They also donated a huge amount of money to finance the
planned reconstruction and to resettle the victims," he said.

Susilo said the disaster provided an opportunity for
all nations to come closer and work together to form a global
partnership to cope with the world's problems.

"The tsunami disaster has brought all of us, governments,
businessmen and activists, to gather here and this has not
happened previously. I can even say that it is a global trend in
international relationships," he said.

He said he was impressed by his East Timor counterpart, Xanana
Gusmao, who presented financial assistance donated by the East
Timorese people.

"Bill Clinton along with another former U.S. president, George
Bush Sr., who visited Aceh and Medan recently, told me that one
third of the American people gave donations to Aceh, while
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Singaporean
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have ensured that all nations are
united in overcoming the disaster, and in strengthening bilateral
and multilateral cooperation," Susilo said.

He hailed the Toba Lake Summit as an important forum for the
world's regional governments to share their experiences in
implementing regional autonomy.

"The central government supports the membership of West Java
and North Sumatra in the Network of Regional Governments for
Sustainable Development (NRG4SD) so that they can learn from
developed countries on how to implement regional autonomy.

"We want to ensure that regional autonomy is implemented in
such a way as to create good governance, instead of merely
decentralizing corruption," the President stressed. -- A related
story on Page 4