Nurturing a fledgling democracy

Nurturing a fledgling democracy

The following article is based on address to the Indonesian
Council on World Affairs by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General
in Jakarta on Feb. 16, 2000. This is the first of two articles.

JAKARTA: The Asian financial crisis was neither Asian nor
financial. But it was a crisis. As you know better than anyone,
its impact was far more than financial. As people everywhere
know, it went far beyond Asia. The rest of the world is therefore
all the more impressed and inspired by what Indonesia is doing
and has done already -- to overcome it.

Under difficult circumstances and in a short space of time,
you have made significant progress in restoring macroeconomic
stability, advancing structural reforms, and assuring food
security. Of course, economic development has been a priority
since the birth of your nation. But in the past two years,
because you have understood that people are the most precious
resource of any nation, this work has taken on new dimensions.

You have understood that economic and social recovery cannot
take hold without a system based on transparency, accountability
and the rule of law. And so you are carrying out economic reform
in tandem with political, legal and institutional reform.

You have opted for a foreign policy built not on competition
with your neighbors, not on confrontation with the rest of the
world, but on cooperation and friendship. You have championed
non-alignment and South-South cooperation. You have set an
example to other developing countries.

We have seen what Indonesia is capable of in the field of
regional cooperation. We have witnessed it in the indispensable
strength and direction you have given to the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since its inception -- something
indeed that made ASEAN possible.

Today, ASEAN is not only a well-functioning, indispensable
reality in the region. It is a real force to be reckoned with far
beyond the region. It is also a trusted partner of the United
Nations in the field of development. I hope that in the field of
peace and security, too, we will see the beginnings of closer
cooperation between ASEAN and the UN.

In the United Nations, Indonesia's leadership and engagement
give voice not only to this nation, but to the interests of all
developing nations. Last month your able Permanent Representative
to the UN, Makarim Wibisono, was elected President of the
Economic and Social Council for the year 2000.

And last year, you crossed a new milestone. Thanks to last
year's free and peaceful general election -- which, I am pleased
to recall, the UN Development Program helped you organize -- you
now have a government with a broad popular mandate. Your
political parties have shown wisdom and a spirit of statesmanlike
compromise. This should now make it possible for their leaders to
focus on an agenda of long-term stability, economic recovery and
democracy. We all have a stake in this and we all want you to
succeed.

Already, political reform has opened the door to a free and
vibrant press. Civil society is becoming increasingly active and
effective. Parliament has grown more assertive.

The challenge now for Indonesia, its people and its friends --
including the United Nations -- is to build on the democratic
institutions that have so gloriously emerged, so that they grow
stronger tomorrow.

No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy.
Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a
lifetime. As your foreign minister has rightly noted, democracy
is a habit that we need to cultivate consciously in ourselves.
That is how we build enduring political, economic and social
institutions. That is how we develop government that is
answerable to citizens, and citizenry that is fully engaged in
decisions that affect their country's future.

Strong institutions, underpinned by the will of the people and
the rule of law, are crucial at all times and in all countries,
but perhaps never more so than here and now, at this decisive
time in Indonesia's history; a time when freedom and openness is
bringing to the forefront a wide range of challenges. These
challenges are not new in themselves but many of them are made
more difficult by the fact that, in the past, they were
disregarded, dismissed or dealt with as purely security issues.

These challenges are many and various, and they all compete
for the government's urgent attention. The country is suddenly
faced with myriad political and social demands, all of which seem
to require immediate answers. And of course you know that there
are no ready-made solutions.

Among these challenges, probably none seems more threatening
than the issue of separatism. It may well feel to some of you as
if Indonesia's very existence is under attack from covert forces
which believe the country is too large, and want to break it up.
But in fact, your case is not unique at all.