Let me begin by stating
how much I welcome and support the theme of this
year’s sixty-second session of the General Assembly,
which is “Responding to climate change”.
I stand here representing the good people of
Indonesia, who are very eager to welcome
representatives to the Bali conference in December this
year. When they come to our country, they will see a
great nation whose multi-ethnic and multi-religious
people live in harmony with one another and in
harmony with mother Earth, the way they have for
thousands of years.
Indonesia is a country that has felt and suffered
the effects of climate change. In recent years, we have
been hit by a series of natural disasters in the form of
floods, drought, forest fires, El Niño, tsunamis and
earthquakes. The issue of climate change has made us
see interdependence in a completely new light. When it
comes to global warming, we are much more
interdependent than we thought in terms of the causes,
symptoms and solutions.
We must uphold the principle of common and
differentiated responsibilities and respective
capabilities, but there is always room for every
country, every community and every individual to be
more flexible, more innovative and more inclusive.
A persistent theme in our discussions on climate
change yesterday was the need for urgency, which
means the need for action and the need to think outside
the box. I count myself as an optimist who sees today a
larger window of opportunity to strike a global
consensus to tackle global warming.
We will have that chance in Bali. The Bali
conference must yield a new road map on climate
change, and that new road map must spell out what
must be done by both the developed and the developing
worlds to save humankind and its planet from the
looming tragedy of climate change. It must link the
solution to the problem of climate change with
sustainable development the conquest of poverty. It
must produce an outcome and timeline that will be
more comprehensive and more ambitious in achieving
its practical objective of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
We developing countries must protect our natural
resources while using them wisely for development.
Among the most valuable of our natural resources are
our forests. From them, we extract economic wealth;
through them, we store an immense volume of carbon
that would otherwise pollute the atmosphere.
On that basis, yesterday Indonesia took the
initiative of launching a special leaders’ meeting of
tropical rainforest countries. At that meeting, we
leaders of the countries having custody of a great
portion of the world’s rainforests decided to intensify
our cooperation in forest conservation and
reforestation.
We also believe that countries that seek to
enhance their carbon sinks through forestation,
afforestation and avoided deforestation should be
given incentives and rewarded fairly for doing so.
Throughout our deliberations on climate change,
let us always keep an eye on the requirements of
development. That means we must not lose sight of the
imperative to conquer poverty as a basic problem of
the human condition.
In Indonesia we have a national dream, which is
reflected in our 1945 Constitution. We dream that we
and our future generations can enjoy the blessings of
peace, freedom, justice and prosperity. And we dream
of seeing to it that the same blessings are enjoyed by
the rest of humankind. Poverty can kill that dream.
That is why the new Indonesia of today is fully
dedicated to the fight against poverty. For that purpose,
our national economic policy is focused on the
development of rural areas, where the vast majority of
our people live and where they wage a daily struggle
against the ravages of poverty. That is why we are so
intent on making the national business climate friendly
and attractive to foreign direct investment, so that jobs
will be created for our millions of unemployed people.
That is why we are so intent on eradicating the taint of
corruption from our society. And that is why our
foreign policy addresses the need for a truly
functioning global partnership for development,
because only such a partnership can ultimately conquer
the basic problem of poverty.
Peace in the Middle East is crucial to long-term
global stability. But there can be no peace in the
Middle East unless there is justice, especially justice
for the Palestinian people. A divided Palestinian nation
cannot secure justice. Hamas and Fatah must therefore
engage in dialogue and reconcile their agendas. The
Arab initiative must catalyse political change in the
region.
Indonesia has a long history of participating in
United Nations peacekeeping operations that dates
back to the Suez conflict, in 1956. We are taking part
in the operation in Lebanon today. We are determined
to maintain that proud tradition of involvement in
global concerns. That, I believe, is what humankind
needs most today, namely, the involvement of
everyone. There must be a global partnership at work.
Developed and developing countries must work
together with a greater sense of partnership and of
urgency.
Therefore, to solve the problem of climate change
the Bali Conference must set the stage for a genuine
partnership between developed and developing
countries and all other stakeholders. Developed
countries must extend support while developing
countries strive to protect and enhance their
environment and its biodiversity. They must lighten the
burden of developing countries in carrying out that
immense task through incentives and the transfer of
environmentally sound technology.
While developing countries are in hot pursuit of
their Millennium Development Goals, the developed
world can greatly help ensure the success of the Doha
Development Round. Developed countries must ensure
sufficient flows of financing for development through
foreign direct investment and official development
assistance. They must facilitate the transfer of
technology for development.
We in the developing world, on the other hand,
must prudently manage our natural and human
resources. We must practise good governance. We must
fight corruption at all levels so that our resources will
not be wasted. We must see to it that the human rights
of our citizens are promoted and protected.
No partnership works without teamwork, and no
teamwork is possible without constant effective
communication. That means dialogue. After all,
dialogue is the best way to exercise soft power.
Dialogue and soft power can greatly advance the cause
of disarmament and non-proliferation. Dialogue and
soft power have helped resolve various intra-State
conflicts including in Aceh, where two years ago we
reached a peaceful political settlement that
permanently ended the conflict. Dialogue and soft
power can also be a major instrument in addressing the
root causes of terrorism.
That is why I am a firm advocate of dialogue
among faiths, cultures and civilizations. I urge that the
dialogue in the Alliance of Civilizations be fully
integrated into the work of the United Nations. Sincere
dialogue can lead to the formation of an effective
global partnership on climate change, which is also a
partnership for sustainable development. I look
forward to such a dialogue taking place at the Bali
Conference this coming December. That will be a
vitally important dialogue, for it can set off a chain of
events that will lead to the fulfilment of the dream of
billions for a safer, better life. It will certainly add
sheen to the national dream of Indonesia our
common dream for a better world of peace, social
justice and equitably shared prosperity.