The Role of Civil Society in Building a Stronger, More Peaceful World
Address
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State, Secretary of State
Address at Indonesian Civil Society Dinner
Washington, DC
February 18, 2009
We
have been very excited about our trip to Indonesia, and I want to make
sure that all the cameras get in place because – (laughter) – we were
talking about the importance of a free press at our table, and I know
how hard these men and women work. And I always worry when they carry
those big cameras around that they’re going to run into somebody.
Well,
let me start by thanking you for joining us this evening, and to
reiterate the greetings from President Obama, who feels such a special
kinship with the Indonesian people and with a country that influenced
him so deeply as a young boy. He has said many times that his
experiences here have helped to shape his values and his vision of a
world where people of different backgrounds, identities, and faiths
could unite around their common human aspirations. And that certainly is
a message for all peoples and nations to remember now as we confront
the urgent global challenges of this century.
When I was last here 15
years ago, I was privileged not only to visit in Jakarta, but to travel
outside of Jakarta. I remember a visit that I made to a local maternal
health program in Yogyakarta, where mothers took their newborns for
routine medical checkups and other basic health services. Now, the
program wasn’t housed in a clinic or a hospital. In fact, it wasn’t in a
building at all. It was under a tree in the village where the mothers
gathered once a week to meet the health practitioners who came to weigh
the babies, distribute information about nutrition, and offer counseling
about family planning.
I’m often asked as I travel around my own
country, why should the United States or other nations support
development and civil society in other countries than their own; why
should a program offering health services under a tree in a village in
Indonesia matter to people working in a factory in Indiana or Islamabad
or the Ivory Coast? Well, my answer and the answer that you will hear
from the Obama Administration is that building civil society and
providing tangible services to people helps result in stronger nations
that share the goals of security, prosperity, peace and progress.
There
are really three stools on which democracy sits: the government, the
private business sector, and civil society. If one of those legs on that
stool get out of balance, then the whole system does as well. You need a
competent, functioning, non-corrupt government that can deliver
services to their people, democratically-elected so that all people feel
that their voices were heard. You need a private business sector that
is competent, non-corrupt, creating jobs and investing in a country so
that democracy produces the prosperity that people are looking for. And
you need a civil society that exists between the government and the
private sector, very often advocating for changes in both, and
fulfilling the needs of people that cannot be met by the government or
the marketplace alone. Education and healthcare, religion and family all
belong in that space of civil society.
And it’s important in today’s
world, where we face old challenges like intolerance and discrimination
and poverty and despair with new challenges that come from our
interconnectedness that we do all we can to support those three stools.
But tonight, we really want to focus on the role that civil society has
played and will play not only in Indonesia, but in other nations as
well.
Now I will have a lot of government-to-government engagement.
That is our traditional foreign policy approach. And we post ambassadors
in other countries, we send cables to foreign embassies, we hold
bilateral meetings and summits and negotiate agreements and treaties.
And diplomacy will remain very important. But by itself that is not
sufficient to make the kinds of changes we need to meet the challenges
that we face together.
So I hope that one of the messages that I
will be able to leave behind is that the United States will of course
pursue government-to-government engagement. But we want to engage more
with the people of the countries with whom we seek partnerships. I know
very well that in this room, there are people who have advocated and
struggled on behalf of the environment and human rights, on better
education for all children and access to healthcare. That is essential
work in a democracy.
Now the United States may be the oldest
functioning democracy in the world, but we could have a meeting just
like this back home, where people who are struggling for human rights
and education and good governance and healthcare or climate change and
environmental possibilities that would improve our situation, as well as
clean energy, would be equally engaged and just as passionate as all of
you are, because the work of democracy never ends. Even though we’ve
been at it for a long time, I would not tell you that we are by any
means perfect. We have a lot of work still to do ourselves.
We were
talking at our table about elections. When you have an election, some
people win and some people lose. In a new democracy, that is sometimes
hard to accept, because all of a sudden, you believe, well, we have a
democracy, I have a political party, so I have people telling me they’re
for me, therefore I am going to win, and it doesn’t turn out that way.
Well, I’ve had that experience, and I know – (laughter and applause) –
how important it is in a democratic system that you accept the results
of elections and you work continuingly inside of the system, or outside,
to bring about the changes in a peaceful way.
And how also, in a
democracy after an election, you have to find common ground. People may
get elected that you have great differences with or small differences,
but you seek for ways to work together and to build a stronger
democracy. I was the most surprised person in the world when President
Obama asked me to be the Secretary of State. But I knew that it was part
of my commitment to my country and my belief in our shared agenda that
led me to say yes, what an honor and a privilege. (Applause.)
And so
as we chart our new Administration, we are reaching out to the rest of
the world with humility. We know we don’t have all the answers. We
believe strongly in our country and in our values. But we want to find
common ground with likeminded people around the world. When I think
about the challenges that we face – and global climate change is a
perfect example – I think about the need to protect the forests and the
coral reefs of Indonesia. That’s a long way from the United States, but
it is a problem that will affect our children and our children’s
children. Protecting forests and coral reefs in Indonesia helps our
whole planet get healthier.
I’ll be going to South Korea and to China
later this week to talk about how we will all work to change how we
produce energy. So how do we become problem solvers? How do we take
whatever differences we have and realize they are dwarfed by our common
humanity? My husband loves quoting the fact that now we understand the
human genome. Scientists have mapped the chromosomes and all of the
material and what it does to make a human being who we were, and that we
are 99 percent alike. We have differences of skin color and height, of
eye color and hair color. We have differences of religion and ethnicity
and language. But that’s a very small part of who we are compared to the
rest of humanity.
And as I was listening at our table about the
efforts here in Indonesia to continue the tradition of a tolerant,
embracing Islam, I was reminded of how that is one of the most important
contributions that Indonesia can make, not just to the Islamic world,
but to the whole world, to recognize that common humanity. So our hope
is that arising out of this visit, we will find even more ways to work
together. To work together on the environment and clean energy, to work
together on education and healthcare, to promote more exchanges at all
levels of society, to find ways that we can improve our understanding
with each other, and to help support good governance and the rule of
law, free elections, a fair press, religious tolerance and human rights,
as well as the greater participation of us in finding peaceful
resolutions to conflict.
I also have to compliment Indonesia for the
growing role that women are playing at all levels of society. I met with
the Foreign Minister earlier today and there were three women at the
table on the Indonesian side. And a recognition of the role that women
have to play and the opportunities for women to assume leadership
positions as many of you in this room have is another contribution that
Indonesia is making. As I travel around the world over the next years, I
will be saying to people, if you want to know whether Islam, democracy,
modernity, and women’s rights can coexist, go to Indonesia. (Applause.)
So for me, this is a personal delight to be able to return here and
renew some old friendships and make some new friends, to represent my
country, especially with a President who has such personal feelings of
kinship to the people here. I’ve already been asked over and over again,
when is he coming? (Laughter.) Now I know a little bit about the
difficulties of being a president, and I want to share this with you if
you don’t tell anyone. (Laughter.)
Being president is hard. There
are a million problems that come your way. If they were easy problems,
someone else would have solved them. So they end up on the desk of the
President. And the President has to cope with all kinds of pressures and
hardships and challenges. So for a president knowing he can go
somewhere in the world where he is so loved as he is loved in Indonesia,
he may just want to wait until he really needs that visit, and you can –
(laughter) – you can lavish on him all of the love that you are telling
me you feel for him. I will speak with him soon and tell him that he is
well liked and well regarded, and that he should look for the
opportunity to come as soon as his schedule permits.
There is a lot
of work ahead of us. I mean, the successes and changes that have taken
place in Indonesia over the last several years have reverberated widely.
You may think you’re working just to improve the conditions of people
here, but it has implications that will affect the thinking and the
acting of residents in countries very, very far from this place where we
share this dinner tonight. Your persistence, your optimism, your
open-mindedness has already begun to show such fruits. And the
leadership role that Indonesia will be able to play in the world is just
beginning.
So I thank you for not just joining me this evening, but
for what you have done day in and day out over the years to help realize
the dreams and fulfill the vision of what Indonesia truly can become.
Thank you all very much. (Applause.)
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