October 2009
Indonesian Ambassador to Australia, His Excellency Primo Alui Joelianto: 'Interfaith Dialogue: Lessons from Indonesia'
Board members of the Capital Jewish Forum
Jewish community in Canberra
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
A very good afternoon to all of you,
[Thank you Manny, for your warm welcome and kind introduction].
Before I begin, I want to share with you the philosophy behind my name. My staff informed me that some members of this Forum’s Board were curious about the meaning of my name. So I have been instructed by my staff to explain it before I commence my speech!
[Bapak Dubes berkenan menjelaskan arti nama Primo Alui Joelianto]
Let me now begin my speech.
Distinguished guests,
It is indeed an honor and pleasure for me to be here today to address this Forum.
It is a special and unique event for me because I will be the second speaker, if I am not mistaken, since the official establishment of this new Capital Jewish Forum in August this year.
The fact that I will be the speaker from the largest Muslim country in the world who addresses this forum established by the Jewish community will reflect how the dialogue between the two oldest faiths in the world today is working well.
Therefore, today I wish to share with you my view on the importance of interfaith dialogue in promoting harmony, tolerance and peace based on Indonesia’s perspective.
Before all else, I want to thank the board of the Capital Jewish Forum for inviting me today. I fervently hope what I am going to share this afternoon will also promote mutual understanding not only between faiths but in a broader context, our communities.
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Just three weeks ago, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono addressed the faculty and students of HarvardUniversity, in the margins of the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. The President raised his perspective about 9 (nine) imperatives to achieve harmony among civilizations.
I will make sure you all receive a copy of the speech at the end of this forum.
As the anti-thesis of Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations”, President Yudhoyono proposed his view on REINVENTING A NEW WORLD defined by the confluence of civilizations, not by a clash of civilizations.
It is about how the world can fundamentally change and evolve from the way civilizations, religions and cultures interact.
It is based on experience that Indonesia has been through.
Since its independence, Indonesia has had to deal with enormous and diverse challenges that threaten our nation, such as separatist threats, ethnic and religious conflicts, and Islamic insurgencies.
As the world’s largest archipelagic state – consisting of more than seventeen thousand islands stretching for 5,150 km (five thousand, one hundred and fifty kilometers) between the Australian and Asian continental mainlands and dividing the Pacific and Indian Oceans at the Equator – Indonesia presents lots of opportunities as well as challenges.
Additionally, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, with more than 220 (two-hundred and twenty) million people, consisting of hundreds of ethnic groups, with each group having its own distinct language, tradition as well as religion.
It is never an easy task to govern a country with such diverse and large area and population.
But it has been proven throughout the history of our nationhood that we have maintained our unity, we overcome those challenges.
We are not facing the threat of ‘Balkanization’ as ever predicted during tribal insurgencies, and religious conflicts in our country. Instead, today, while some countries are still struggling with their ethnic conflicts, we have successfully resolved the conflicts in Aceh.
Through tough reforms after the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998, followed by progressive transformation, Indonesia is now enjoying a dynamic democracy. No ordinary achievement, considering Indonesia is the world’s third largest democracy, after India and the United States. We have conducted 3 democratic, peaceful, free and fair elections in 1999, 2004 and the recent one this year.
We have also further demonstrated that democracy and Islam cannot only coexist, but also thrive together. In spite of the fact Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia is also recognized as the only country in the world where Islam and other religions can live together in harmony.
In our country, respect for religious traditions is taught from the very beginning, at the elementary level. Moreover, our constitution guarantees freedom of religion for its people, promoting a spirit of religious harmony, national unity and maintenance of law and order. We are also probably the only country in the world where holidays of each religion – Islamic, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian - are designated national holidays.
But off course, we still have a lot of work to do in maintaining peace and dealing with the challenges of our development as well as on-going process of democracy.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me now share our experience in promoting tolerance and harmony within our community and resolving our internal conflicts through interfaith dialog, which is one of the nine imperatives identified by our President.
As a multi ethnic and multi religious nation, managing diversity is critical for us. But, democracy has accustomed us to the practice of dialogue and consultation.
It is only through dialogue that humankind can learn to live together peacefully, and stop itself from dangerous divisions.
It is only through dialogue that we can recognize our shared humanity and realize that we are all children of God Almighty.
This is the reason why Indonesia is fostering interfaith and intercultural dialogue at the national, regional and international levels. This has been, and always will be, an integral aspect of our foreign policy.
Numerous interfaith conferences have been held in Indonesia, including conferences among Islamic scholars, religious leaders and inter faith leaders.
Through this kind of dialogue we are able to address intolerance and prejudice as well as on-going problems such as conflicts and tensions.
Many studies have demonstrated the power of interfaith dialogue to address our unstable world marked by divisions, ethnic and religious conflicts, disparities, communal violence, prejudice, misunderstanding, and intolerance.
I agree with the view that in this rapidly changing (21st) twenty-first century, the building of mutual understanding is of critical importance.
As Diana Eck, in David R. Smock’s book, asserts, interfaith dialogue can be the basis for the creation of one world. [I quote] “One world cannot be built on the foundation of the competition and polarization of the superpowers. One world cannot be built on the foundation of science, technology and the media. One world cannot be built on Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Sikh triumphalism. One world cannot be built on the foundation of fear and mutual suspicion…laying the foundations for one World is the most important task of our time. These foundations are not negotiated statements and agreements. These foundations are, rather, in the stockpiling of trust through dialogue and the creation of the relationships that can sustains both agreements and disagreements” [End of quote].
Furthermore, our President has stated that the best dialogues are respectful, honest, open-ended and constructive, intense and solution-oriented. We have implemented these principles of dialogue to resolve religious tensions between Muslims and Christians in Poso and Maluku, which ended with commitment to peaceful reconciliation.
In short, interfaith dialogue has always been about working together to create unity and genuine understanding. By practicing dialogue, we deny a victory to those who would attempt to use religion to divide all of humanity.
For this reason, Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, has been active in promoting and empowering the voice of the moderates.
Distinguished guests,
Since September 11, interfaith dialogues have been booming throughout the world. We see many excellent initiatives have been held with regard to this kind of dialogue. At the international level, we see the United Nations launched the Dialogue Among Civilizations in 2001. Spain and Turkey initiated the Alliance of Civilizations. Recently, Saudi Arabia also hosted the Interfaith Conference at the UN.
In the regional arena, The Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) adopted Interfaith Dialogue to become its central theme. In 2006 (two-thousand and six), Indonesia and Norway launched the Global Inter-Media Dialogue in the aftermath of the cartoon crisis, to promote mutual understanding and tolerance between western and non-western media.
In 2004 (two-thousand and four), Indonesia and Australia co-sponsored the Regional Interfaith Dialogue, which brings together the ASEAN nations, New Zealand, East Timor, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Australia will convene the fifth meeting of this Dialogue in Perth, Australia, this month. This dialogue has been acknowledged as an important measure in fostering mutual understanding, tolerance, cooperation, and harmony between and intra faiths. This year’s focus is preparing young people as the future faith leaders in resolving the challenges of, and developing networks for, regional interfaith dialogue.
So far, the meetings have raised and conducted meaningful discussion about a number of topics that are crucial to promoting understanding amongst faiths, including the importance of education, media, conflict resolution and peace building, and empowering grassroots initiatives to promote interfaith dialogue. The meeting also agreed on the need to follow up the outcomes through a Plan of Action.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We all agree on the importance of interfaith dialogue to our future peace, but the biggest tasks still lie in front of us. Before I conclude my speech, I therefore invite you all consider these very basic questions:
How can we implement and translate the outcomes of all of these multilateral, regional and bilateral interfaith dialogues into our daily lives;
How can we synergize the results from these dialogues, and;
How can we integrate the outcomes into our domestic policy.
The answer depends on all of us, and whether we want to make the confluence of civilizations work, or we choose to allow Huntington’s warning to become a reality.
I thank you.
Jewish community in Canberra
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
A very good afternoon to all of you,
[Thank you Manny, for your warm welcome and kind introduction].
Before I begin, I want to share with you the philosophy behind my name. My staff informed me that some members of this Forum’s Board were curious about the meaning of my name. So I have been instructed by my staff to explain it before I commence my speech!
[Bapak Dubes berkenan menjelaskan arti nama Primo Alui Joelianto]
Let me now begin my speech.
Distinguished guests,
It is indeed an honor and pleasure for me to be here today to address this Forum.
It is a special and unique event for me because I will be the second speaker, if I am not mistaken, since the official establishment of this new Capital Jewish Forum in August this year.
The fact that I will be the speaker from the largest Muslim country in the world who addresses this forum established by the Jewish community will reflect how the dialogue between the two oldest faiths in the world today is working well.
Therefore, today I wish to share with you my view on the importance of interfaith dialogue in promoting harmony, tolerance and peace based on Indonesia’s perspective.
Before all else, I want to thank the board of the Capital Jewish Forum for inviting me today. I fervently hope what I am going to share this afternoon will also promote mutual understanding not only between faiths but in a broader context, our communities.
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Just three weeks ago, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono addressed the faculty and students of HarvardUniversity, in the margins of the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. The President raised his perspective about 9 (nine) imperatives to achieve harmony among civilizations.
I will make sure you all receive a copy of the speech at the end of this forum.
As the anti-thesis of Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations”, President Yudhoyono proposed his view on REINVENTING A NEW WORLD defined by the confluence of civilizations, not by a clash of civilizations.
It is about how the world can fundamentally change and evolve from the way civilizations, religions and cultures interact.
It is based on experience that Indonesia has been through.
Since its independence, Indonesia has had to deal with enormous and diverse challenges that threaten our nation, such as separatist threats, ethnic and religious conflicts, and Islamic insurgencies.
As the world’s largest archipelagic state – consisting of more than seventeen thousand islands stretching for 5,150 km (five thousand, one hundred and fifty kilometers) between the Australian and Asian continental mainlands and dividing the Pacific and Indian Oceans at the Equator – Indonesia presents lots of opportunities as well as challenges.
Additionally, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, with more than 220 (two-hundred and twenty) million people, consisting of hundreds of ethnic groups, with each group having its own distinct language, tradition as well as religion.
It is never an easy task to govern a country with such diverse and large area and population.
But it has been proven throughout the history of our nationhood that we have maintained our unity, we overcome those challenges.
We are not facing the threat of ‘Balkanization’ as ever predicted during tribal insurgencies, and religious conflicts in our country. Instead, today, while some countries are still struggling with their ethnic conflicts, we have successfully resolved the conflicts in Aceh.
Through tough reforms after the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998, followed by progressive transformation, Indonesia is now enjoying a dynamic democracy. No ordinary achievement, considering Indonesia is the world’s third largest democracy, after India and the United States. We have conducted 3 democratic, peaceful, free and fair elections in 1999, 2004 and the recent one this year.
We have also further demonstrated that democracy and Islam cannot only coexist, but also thrive together. In spite of the fact Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia is also recognized as the only country in the world where Islam and other religions can live together in harmony.
In our country, respect for religious traditions is taught from the very beginning, at the elementary level. Moreover, our constitution guarantees freedom of religion for its people, promoting a spirit of religious harmony, national unity and maintenance of law and order. We are also probably the only country in the world where holidays of each religion – Islamic, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian - are designated national holidays.
But off course, we still have a lot of work to do in maintaining peace and dealing with the challenges of our development as well as on-going process of democracy.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me now share our experience in promoting tolerance and harmony within our community and resolving our internal conflicts through interfaith dialog, which is one of the nine imperatives identified by our President.
As a multi ethnic and multi religious nation, managing diversity is critical for us. But, democracy has accustomed us to the practice of dialogue and consultation.
It is only through dialogue that humankind can learn to live together peacefully, and stop itself from dangerous divisions.
It is only through dialogue that we can recognize our shared humanity and realize that we are all children of God Almighty.
This is the reason why Indonesia is fostering interfaith and intercultural dialogue at the national, regional and international levels. This has been, and always will be, an integral aspect of our foreign policy.
Numerous interfaith conferences have been held in Indonesia, including conferences among Islamic scholars, religious leaders and inter faith leaders.
Through this kind of dialogue we are able to address intolerance and prejudice as well as on-going problems such as conflicts and tensions.
Many studies have demonstrated the power of interfaith dialogue to address our unstable world marked by divisions, ethnic and religious conflicts, disparities, communal violence, prejudice, misunderstanding, and intolerance.
I agree with the view that in this rapidly changing (21st) twenty-first century, the building of mutual understanding is of critical importance.
As Diana Eck, in David R. Smock’s book, asserts, interfaith dialogue can be the basis for the creation of one world. [I quote] “One world cannot be built on the foundation of the competition and polarization of the superpowers. One world cannot be built on the foundation of science, technology and the media. One world cannot be built on Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Sikh triumphalism. One world cannot be built on the foundation of fear and mutual suspicion…laying the foundations for one World is the most important task of our time. These foundations are not negotiated statements and agreements. These foundations are, rather, in the stockpiling of trust through dialogue and the creation of the relationships that can sustains both agreements and disagreements” [End of quote].
Furthermore, our President has stated that the best dialogues are respectful, honest, open-ended and constructive, intense and solution-oriented. We have implemented these principles of dialogue to resolve religious tensions between Muslims and Christians in Poso and Maluku, which ended with commitment to peaceful reconciliation.
In short, interfaith dialogue has always been about working together to create unity and genuine understanding. By practicing dialogue, we deny a victory to those who would attempt to use religion to divide all of humanity.
For this reason, Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, has been active in promoting and empowering the voice of the moderates.
Distinguished guests,
Since September 11, interfaith dialogues have been booming throughout the world. We see many excellent initiatives have been held with regard to this kind of dialogue. At the international level, we see the United Nations launched the Dialogue Among Civilizations in 2001. Spain and Turkey initiated the Alliance of Civilizations. Recently, Saudi Arabia also hosted the Interfaith Conference at the UN.
In the regional arena, The Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) adopted Interfaith Dialogue to become its central theme. In 2006 (two-thousand and six), Indonesia and Norway launched the Global Inter-Media Dialogue in the aftermath of the cartoon crisis, to promote mutual understanding and tolerance between western and non-western media.
In 2004 (two-thousand and four), Indonesia and Australia co-sponsored the Regional Interfaith Dialogue, which brings together the ASEAN nations, New Zealand, East Timor, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Australia will convene the fifth meeting of this Dialogue in Perth, Australia, this month. This dialogue has been acknowledged as an important measure in fostering mutual understanding, tolerance, cooperation, and harmony between and intra faiths. This year’s focus is preparing young people as the future faith leaders in resolving the challenges of, and developing networks for, regional interfaith dialogue.
So far, the meetings have raised and conducted meaningful discussion about a number of topics that are crucial to promoting understanding amongst faiths, including the importance of education, media, conflict resolution and peace building, and empowering grassroots initiatives to promote interfaith dialogue. The meeting also agreed on the need to follow up the outcomes through a Plan of Action.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We all agree on the importance of interfaith dialogue to our future peace, but the biggest tasks still lie in front of us. Before I conclude my speech, I therefore invite you all consider these very basic questions:
How can we implement and translate the outcomes of all of these multilateral, regional and bilateral interfaith dialogues into our daily lives;
How can we synergize the results from these dialogues, and;
How can we integrate the outcomes into our domestic policy.
The answer depends on all of us, and whether we want to make the confluence of civilizations work, or we choose to allow Huntington’s warning to become a reality.
I thank you.
