Indonesia: The Challenge of Change

II. Indonesia: The Challenge of Change

II Indonesia: The Challenge of Change Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono My good friend Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong; Excellencies; Ladies and Gentlemen. Dear friends: Thank you, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, for your kind words and for graciously agreeing to chair our session today. We remember you as as an able statesman and a good friend of Indonesia, who did exemplary work carrying the baton from Singapore’s remarkable leader, Lee Kuan Yew. I wish to begin by thanking ISEAS for inviting me to give the Singapore Lecture here today. Since having been elected President, I have given several keynote speeches at different forums, but this is the first time since I received my doctorate degree that anyone has asked me to give a “lecture”. As flattering as this is, I do not feel that I am in a position to lecture to an audience made up of Singapore’s best brains. In fact, Singapore, being the world’s most successful city-state, has a lot to tell the world about the lessons of governance. I stand here today to speak about “the challenge of change for Indonesia”. All of you in Singapore know the meaning of “change” very well. I know of no other country in the world which has changed as 5 rapidly and as frequently as Singapore. In the last few decades, you have transformed this island into a modern city-state, a world-class trading, manufacturing, financial centre, thus making Singapore relevant — relevant to the region, relevant to the world economy. There are many ways to measure “greatness” in a nation, but history tells us that the measure of a country’s greatness lies in its ability to adapt — adapt to changing times, adapt to new challenges, adapt to emerging trends, adapt to new terrains. The examples are all around us. China is the important player that she is today because in the 1970s she changed course, adopted Four Modernizations, opened up to the outside world, and embraced market principles. Vietnam too realized after winning the Vietnam War that her future relevance would depend not on her superb military experience, but on her becoming economically competitive and on integrating herself with the region. The United States is today the world’s only superpower and the world’s largest economy because over the last two centuries she demonstrated an uncanny ability to reinvent herself over and over again. And Chile, which I visited a few months ago while attending the APEC Summit, has rapidly transformed herself in the last decade or so to become one of the most successful recent examples of democratic governance. Different countries adapt differently, but adapt they must. Those who fail to adapt will be swept aside by history. 6 Just look at strong-state Yugoslavia, which is shattered to pieces because her superstructure was no longer able to contain and pacify the disintegrating forces within her borders. Change, therefore, is the essence of adaptability, the hallmark of progress, and for some, the necessary measure of survival. For us in Indonesia too, we cannot escape the necessity to adapt, to change. And this is something that goes a long way back. Our founding fathers learned the concepts of nation-state and nationalism, learned about constitutional government and rule of law, learned about representative democracy, adopted the terminology “Indonesia”, and mixed them all up to create the sovereign Republic of Indonesia. In the 1960s, a new generation of Indonesians discovered a new term — pembangunan, or development — and set in motion a longterm economic progress which in the next three decades would give Indonesia one of the highest growth in the region. And at the end of the twentieth century, another generation of Indonesians began yet another strategic adaptation, by launching reformasi, which effectively set the country on the path of democratic transition. My mission as the sixth President of Indonesia is to advance as far as possible Indonesia’s democracy and reformasi. During the presidential elections last year, a great number of Indonesian voters chanted “change”, and in so doing the voters were expressing their desire to see greater clarity over the direction of the nation. What I promised the Indonesian voters was quite simple: to do my best to make Indonesia more democratic, more peaceful, more just, more 7 prosperous. And I intend to keep that promise. Indonesia is a country that can change in so many different ways. Which is why...