RI's pledge to fight terrorism assured

Hasan Wirajuda, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta

We gather here tonight right after the bitter commemoration of the hideous terrorist attack on the United States last year. A tragedy that should not have happened in a civilized world and therefore, we must harness our efforts earnestly in order to prevent it from recurring anywhere in the world.

As a global coalition, let us round up the terrorists and bring them to justice. Let us destroy their cells and their networks and deny them their ill-gotten financial and other resources. Let us see to it that there are no safe havens anywhere for any of them.

But at the end of the day we still must ferret out the root causes of terrorism and eradicate these totally. And let us not be surprised if these causes turn out to be the ancient and familiar adversaries of human civilization.

These include poverty and all its attendants: Ignorance, prejudice, hunger and disease, and a sense of helplessness -- all of which breed a common sense of injustice, a sense of oppression, hatred and desperation, alienation from society as well as fanaticism. There seems to be something in these realities of the human condition that trigger an irrational spark in the human mind and makes a person take to a life of crime by practicing terrorism.

These factors certainly have something to do with a steadily spreading culture of violence all over the world, as nations, groups and individuals resort to violence for the solution of their problems.

They do have relevance to the thirst for democracy and for the liberation of the human potential that it promises, and these are precisely the global challenges that are being addressed by the Millennium Declaration, the Johannesburg Agenda, the United Nations Agenda for Development and its prequel, the Agenda for Peace. They are the very problems to which the work of the United Nations would be the solution, the challenges and concerns that make up the broad human agenda.

I do believe, however, that in the long run our most effective measures against international terrorism are those in the realm of social and economic development. Through a program of social safety nets we aim to protect the vulnerable segments of our society from the effects of the downside of globalization.

I am here in Washington DC to nurture long-standing relations between Indonesia and the United States. The message is simple: Indonesia's democracy and reforms are on track and progressing steadily. And I passionately believe, as do millions of Indonesians, that the best of Indonesia is yet to come.

The economy is but one example: Our efforts at stabilizing the economy have been well rewarded with a steady strengthening of the rupiah and a lowering of interest rates. We have a stable balance of payments and our foreign exchange reserves are sufficient to meet payments of imports and maturing debts. We are confident that we can make an orderly exit from International Monetary Fund tutelage next year and thereby improve our sovereign rating.

We will need this economic recovery to bolster our democratic transition and wide-ranging reforms.

In our endeavors to reform our national political system, we took a large and bold step recently when our People's Consultative Assembly endorsed several amendments to our Constitution: The adoption of a system of direct popular election of the President and Vice President; the adoption of a bicameral system of legislature; and the abolition by 2004 of the 38 appointed seats reserved for the military in the legislature.

With the military out of the legislature and out of politics, it can concentrate on serving as a professional force that is the main component of the country's national defense. The police, already effectively separated from the military, will keep enhancing its role as the guardian of the peace and public order as well as enforcer of the law.

Another significant development was the abortive attempt by certain groups to call for the adoption of the sharia or Islamic law for Indonesian Muslims. I think this decision is of greater importance than it appears and deserves a more thorough appraisal.

Indeed, the recent interest in Indonesia's political Islam obscures the fact that Islamic radicalism has been part of modern-day Indonesia since the early days of our independence. Yet, decade after decade, radical Islam has never succeeded in elbowing the millions of moderate, tolerant and devout muslims who form the mainstream of Islam in Indonesia.

Keep in mind that even the advocates of sharia were not using force or violence to achieve their political ends, and, like the democratic era of 1945, they were allowed to carry their advocacy into the legislature. This is clear proof that in Indonesia even the most fervent Muslims can shun terrorism.

We are fully aware that in some international circles, Indonesia has been faulted as less than fully enthusiastic in playing a role in the global fight against terror on the basis of a mistaken perception that it is lenient with radical Muslim groups. Yes, there are groups of Indonesian Muslims who would be happy to see Indonesia become a theocracy and due to our determination to uphold democracy, these groups have been allowed to march in the streets, clamoring for the enshrinement of the sharia in our legal system.

As usual, the march of a small but vocal group will get a great deal of media coverage, while the commendable works of the silent majority are taken for granted and go unnoticed. Compared to their number in the thousands to the 32 million members of the Nahdlatul Ulama and the 29 million members of the Muhammadiyah, both of which are organizations of moderate Muslims, the radicals constitute a small minority, if not a miniscule.

There have been suggestions that the government should arrest personalities associated with these small vociferous groups, but in our democracy arrests can only be made on the basis of specific evidence. Indonesians do not want to return to the past where the regime security apparatus can detain people at will.

Indeed, President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell have acknowledged Indonesia's quiet support in the campaign against international terrorism as having helped the region and the world a safer place. From them we have received strong encouragement to continue confronting the forces of terror in our own way. And the way we have chosen is the way of democracy and the rule of law.

In the context of today's Indonesia, it is of critical importance that we strike a balance between democracy, respect for human rights and our security needs. This balance is relevant not just in the efforts to combat international terrorism but also in dealing with security challenges emanating from internal armed opposition groups, such as the separatist movements in the provinces of Aceh and Papua, and the highly disruptive communal strife in the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku.

On the problem of Aceh, the government is ready and willing to resume negotiations with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) provided it is clear that we are not negotiating its separation from Indonesia and that the GAM has ceased resorting to terrorist tactics. We reserve our sovereign rights to continue to uphold the law solely with the purpose of restoring security and public order in the province and normalize its socio-cultural and economic life.

The above is abridged from the Minister's address to a gathering held by the United States-Indonesia Society (USINDO) on Sept. 12 in Washington D.C.