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President Bambang Yudhoyono
Distinguished Colleagues
Ladies and Gentlemen
I would like to thank you very much indeed, Mr.
President, for your kind invitation to join you
again this year.
In Brunei Darussalam, we greatly appreciate the
respect it accords to our country and it is an
honour and a pleasure to be here in Bali again.
May I also add my warm greetings to our
co-chairman, Prime Minister Hatoyama and express
my appreciation for Japan's great contribution
to lasting friendship and goodwill throughout
our region.
The Forum is only a year old. But I think it is
starting to offer something very special in
regional and even international affairs. Our
gathering here is very special. As you said last
year, Mr. President, we have a chance to come
together on behalf of our people not to debate,
dictate or negotiate but to share our feelings
and experiences as companions in the world we
share. In this spirit, I thank all our friends
from this region and beyond. Their presence here
inspires us. Their words and thoughts unite us
in common purpose.
Mr. President,
Our regional association, ASEAN, has ten members
and ten very different systems of government.
This is the result of many things. There is the
history and geography of our region and the
influence of events and forces from outside our
region. There is the structure of our societies.
And most importantly, there are our customs,
faiths and traditions. All these, of course,
have been well explained by historians,
political scientists and economists. But, at the
end of it all, one simple fact remains. We are
what history has made us.
In that sense, our efforts in Brunei today are
directed far less at the past than at the
increasingly urgent present. This is a task that
is both exciting and disturbing. It is exciting
because of the bright new future that we could
be opening up.
It is disturbing because there are also
challenges that are neither clear nor bright.
They are dark. They are dim. They are felt
rather than known. They challenge our
traditional way of life, our religious life, our
family life, our community life, our social
relations. They are felt by our people who often
worry about the impact of the internet, the
television and the influence of new ideas and
new values. It can all lead to fear for
security, whether it be economic, personal,
financial, or environmental.
In the face of all this, we believe that our
generation of leadership in all walks of life
has one overriding responsibility. That is to
give our people confidence and trust. Here, I
mean the confidence that their most cherished
values are not under threat. The confidence that
the absolutes that shape their family and
community lives will not disappear.
The confidence that respect, faith, social
stability, and goodwill towards each other are
enduring. And by trust, I mean the trust that
their government will not allow the modern world
to destroy all this and the trust that they will
be well-prepared, educated, and equipped to see
globalization as something to be embraced and
welcomed.
That broadly represents our approach to the
Brunei we see emerging today. Just as the world
around us is changing at an astonishing pace, so
is our society and so are our people. There is a
lesson from this, Mr. President. It is made
clear almost every day. It tells us that we,
ourselves, must become like good teachers. We
must listen as well as instruct. We must be
constantly assessing and re-assessing.
This, Mr. President, is why our regional
association is so important to us. It is central
to our efforts to adjust to the new world of the
21st Century, Mr. President and its often severe
demands. We have a crucial target for a level of
regional integration never thought possible
twenty years ago. This is now only five years
away.
It demands that we work together. It demands
that we listen to each other. It tells us that
we have to speak the language of our farmers,
planters and fishermen, our businessmen and
women, our community leaders and our young
people. In other words, we must be alongside
those who are watching the modern world from
deep inside it and are wondering whether they
will be buried under its weight.
Those are our thoughts in Brunei, Mr. President.
We still have great pride in our history, our
traditions and our way of life. It is our
inheritance and we cherish it. But, just as we
inherited our own past, so will our children and
grandchildren inherit theirs.
And we are increasingly aware that this is our
immediate responsibility. The past is what it
is. The future will be the same. Only the
present is changeable. That is what we are now
engaged in. Its official names are “education”,
“health care”, “food security”, “economic
diversification” and so on. But, in spirit, we
believe it is the essence of the political
values that we are privileged to share at this
Forum.
So, I thank you once again, Mr. President, for
the kindness and hospitality so generously given
by your government and people. Thank you.
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