RI pursues world order in diplomacy

RI pursues world order in diplomacy

The following article is based on a paper presented by Foreign
Minister Ali Alatas at the inaugural meeting of the Indonesian
Council on World Affairs in Jakarta on Dec. 2, 1997. This is the
first of two articles.

JAKARTA: Indonesian diplomacy was born and immediately began
to function in the crucible of a revolutionary struggle to defend
and preserve the independence that our founding fathers
proclaimed on Aug. 17, 1945.

Although the circumstances of its birth were frenetic and
turbulent, Indonesian diplomacy nevertheless had a clear
constitutional mandate from the very start.

The Preamble to the 1945 Indonesian Constitution has clearly
prescribed that the newly established Republic of Indonesia shall
"contribute to the realization of a world order based on indepen
dence, abiding peace and social justice."

Accordingly, the Indonesian government has pursued this
objective by developing a foreign policy that is, as then vice
president Mohammad Hatta described it in a speech before
Parliament in 1948, "independent and active."

This means the free exercise of our right to determine our own
views and position on international issues and to initiate or
support those policies and measures that we believe would best
serve the cause of world peace.

Thus, in the more than five decades of its existence, Indo
nesia has taken many initiatives that demonstrated its commitment
to the cause of a new world order of independence, peace and
justice.

Among the most notable were its hosting of the Asian-African
Conference in Bandung in 1955 and the leading role it played in
the founding and first summit meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement
in Belgrade in 1961.

It has participated in most UN peacekeeping operations and
worked with the other Non-Aligned Countries to help many nations
in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean achieve independence.

A leading negotiator in the North-South dialogue in the 1970s,
Indonesia as chairman of NAM from 1992 to 1995 spearheaded a
successful move to revive the process.

A dedicated promoter of South-South cooperation, Indonesia has
carried out all impassioned advocacy on issues that are of
special concern to the developing nations.

It played a pivotal role in the realization of the Convention
on the Law of the Sea of 1982 and has contributed substantively
to international efforts at general disarmament and security.

A founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), Indonesia has played a key role in the Cambodian
peace process, served as facilitator in the negotiations that led
to peace in the Southern Philippines and has initiated a workshop
process on managing potential conflict in the South China Sea.

Indonesia also participates actively in the ASEAN Regional
Forum (ARF), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum
and the Asia-Europe Meeting.

At present, Indonesia holds the chairmanship of the
Organization of Islamic Conference at the ministerial level and
in January will assume chairmanship of the Group of 77.

In pursuing such wide and varied involvements, Indonesia has
been motivated by the ideals and principles enshrined in the
UN Charter and articulated in the Dasa Sila of Bandung as well as
by a keen sense of identification with the nations of the devel
oping world.

But there is also an underlying practical consideration in
these endeavors, for only in a world order of independence,
justice and peace can a developing nation like Indonesia flourish
and fulfill the aspirations of its people for a better life for
themselves and their future generations.

It is therefore clearly to the national interest that such a
new world order evolve and serve as the external environment in
which nations like Indonesia can successfully pursue their social
and economic development goals.

The world has vastly changed since the constitutional mandate
for our foreign policy was laid down more than half a century ago
when the Cold War was just beginning to engulf the world.

The Cold War has ended and the world, now in the grip of rapid
and fundamental change, has entered the era of high technology,
globalization, interdependence and liberalization.

Human civilization itself is going through a long period of
transition characterized by great uncertainty. The political and
economic foundations of international relations that were estab
lished at the end of the World War II have begun to crumble but
the contours of a new international order are not yet discern
ible.

On the international scene both encouraging progress and
distressing setbacks are taking place. The easing of East-West
tensions have opened up new possibilities in disarmament, in the
solution of long-standing conflicts and the pursuit of a global
agenda for peace.

And yet armed conflicts are raging in many parts of the world
and, in spite of disarmament, the killing power of nuclear
weapons in the arsenals of the major powers continue to pose a
threat to all life on earth.

The deeply-rooted inequities and imbalances in the
relationships between the developed and developing world, the
North-South divide, has become the major unresolved issue of our
time. Traditional concepts and approaches to the solution of
global issues are becoming increasingly irrelevant and
international institutions and the ways in which we manage
interstate relations are perceived to be increasingly
ineffective.

The primordial challenge before the international community
today is how to manage the fundamental changes that are now
taking place so that they can lead to the creation of a more
peaceful, just and equitably prosperous international order.

The realization of such an effective system of global
governance will require new ideas, new ways of thinking and new
approaches to the solution of global problems. It will also
entail the reform of existing international institutions that are
no longer relevant to the realities of our time.

When I refer to "global governance," I do not mean world
government, which is still utopian, nor merely to cooperation
among governments through the work of intergovernmental institu
tions.

I mean the sum of all the actions and interactions among all
the actors in international relations, including new ones: non-
governmental organizations such as this forum, parliaments of the
world, transnational corporations, the global markets, research
institutions and the global mass media.

Governments no longer bear the whole burden of governance
although they remain the primary actors. At the global level,
they now have to work with a "global civil society," an
international network of citizens who are increasingly active and
vigorous in expressing their views with regard to international
issues.

I am sure that as participants in this forum, you are aware of
yourselves as members of that global civil society.

Considering these developments, the world has indeed changed
rapidly and profoundly but by no means to such an extent that the
vision of an international order of independence, justice and
peace has lost any of its relevance.

It is true that all but a few of the formerly colonized
nations of the world have already achieved political independence
during the period between 1945 and 1970.

But the concept of independence that the founding fathers of
our Republic put forward has never been confined to the political
dimension but has always also included economic independence: a
nation's inalienable right to develop its own political, social
and economic systems and to maintain and defend its own cultural
identity. The nations of the developing world today are still
waging a struggle to realize and maintain the fullness of their
independence.

Likewise, the concept of peace as an element of a new world
order does not only mean the "absence of war." Indonesia has
always maintained that global peace can never be achieved so long
as the great majority of humankind still languish in poverty and
backwardness.

International peace and security depends as much on social and
economic factors as on traditional military factors. We must
therefore also address the non-military threats to peace and
security such as poverty, underdevelopment, population pressures,
environmental degradation, mass migrations, international
terrorism and illicit drug trafficking.

Whatever peace we achieve will remain fragile without the
realization of another element of the envisioned new world order:
social justice within and among nations.

It is therefore crucial and urgent that we strive to overcome
the discrepancies and inequities in the relations between
developed and developing countries and to eradicate all forms of
coercion and intimidation in interstate relations, especially in
the relations between the strong and weak nations, between the
rich and the poor.

As its mission of helping shape a new international order of
independence, peace and justice remains valid and even urgent in
the light of present-day global realities, Indonesian foreign
policy has found it necessary to maintain a set of broad initia
tives with regard to a number of critical global concerns that
include the following.