Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo’s Remarks in Jakarta, Indonesia
Transcript
We are honored today with, um exceptionally special guest, a man whose value exceeds his job title and even exceed this whole political achievement. A man of vision. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Secretary of State off United States of America. Mr. Michel Richard Pompeo. Okay, Okay. Thank you for that kind introduction. Uhh ! Selamat Seong to your Uhh Mr. General Secretary it is. Ah, it is wonderful to be here. I have been looking forward to this since the day that we found a date that worked and were able to accept the invitation. It was most gracious of you to invite me here, and I am. I am ecstatic to be part of this event today. I wanna make sure and thank all the people who made this happen. I want to thank and acknowledge the leaders of the Nahdlatul Ulama and the Muhammadiyah those of you who are present. Thank you. A special welcome also to other faith leaders and members of the diplomatic corps who are here. And those who are watching via Livestream is well and of course, a warm hello to the people of Indonesia, from the beaches of Bali to the volcanoes of Sumatra. This is truly an extraordinary nation. I’m confident that’s not a unique statement that you heard that a lot before. It’s a very special place. Uh, for now, of course, we’re all focused on beating the virus that was born in Wuhan. And before I begin, I want to express my condolences to all the Indonesians who have lost their lives there suffered economic hardship as a result of that virus. You should know that the United States of America is with you. And as I told President Widodo today in Foreign Minister read Nomar Sooty, I am very confident that we will emerge stronger because of the very nature of our two countries. It waas almost one year ago. Most when you go to our nation’s more into the passing of the great Muslim scholar, uh, about er, Fendi, Fendi. He gave voice to our shared commitment to democracy, to tolerance and open dialogue. His work, aligned with a deep respect for we often refer to in the Americas as unalienable rights, spent a lot of time as a secretary of state talking about this subject. And I know you hosted a conference just yesterday to discuss the report of the State Department’s Commission on On a Liberal Rights which I created. And I wanna also mentioned in police to say that the chair of the commission, Professor Mary Ann Glendon, is with us today. Mary Ann, thank you for being here. Understand that it was a great day yesterday. Uh, thank you. So we unveiled a report in July of this year, and it created something of a stir. Uh, Secretary State don’t usually spend a lot of time on what critics call on obscure subject, but it’s not obscure, and it shouldn’t be obscuring it can’t be obscure is foundational to human dignity and to freedom. The founding principle the United States is very, very simple. America’s Declaration of Independence affirms that governments exist. Governments exist to secure the rights inherent in every human being. Indeed, as the commission’s report argues, the United States was the first nation founded on a commitment, a deep commitment to universal rights for all human beings. Now the most fundamental of these rights is the right to freedom of conscious, including religious freedom. It’s the basis for the most important conversations about what conscious tells us in about what God demands of each of us. It’s one reason that religious freedom is the very first freedom enumerated in our Constitution in the American Constitution. As an evangelical Christian, my faith informs how I live, how I worked, how I think. And it is exceedingly rare in the scope of human history for a nation to make those promises to its citizens. It is rare for nations even to keep them our respect. America’s respect for God given rights is the defining feature of our national spirit. It’s why America stood tallest among Western democracies and supporting your independence from colonial rule and has been a stalwart supporter of Indonesia’s transition democracy over these past two decades. The fact that our people are the fact that our people embrace freedom and a hold the tradition of tolerance is very special. We should never lose it. We must continue upholding our traditions, and we must do so very actively. We can’t assume our freedoms and our faith will live on. We must stand for what we believe. That’s what I want to talk about today. That’s my message. I’m here. I’m here in Indonesia because I believe that Indonesia shows us the way forward. There is literally no reason that Islam can’t coexist peacefully alongside Christianity or Buddhism. And I know I know this is something that it’s sometimes hard to grasp for those few who twist Islamic teachings to justify violence. In the name of this faith, Indonesian Americans know that this is wrong. We know that peaceful coexistence and mutual respect it is possible. Indeed, Indonesia’s national model, translated into English, is unity amid diversity. Now that’s not so different from America’s, which is out of many one. If you think about, um, they have much in common much that overlaps. Indeed, your constitution from 1945 clearly declares that every person shall be free. Every person shall be free to practice the religion of his or her choice. Thomas Jefferson could not have said it better. And just as the American founders looked to the Western tradition as inspiration for the structure of our free society, your founders to found inspiration in your traditions, your own traditions and established Pancho Villa foundational principles that enshrine the importance of faith in the life of your country, it determined that Indonesia’s embrace of diverse religions, people and cultures would become a core pillar of your country’s success. Flexible, inclusive and tolerant democratic culture that has emerged since the reform. Masi of 1998 has defied the skeptics, the skeptics who believe that Indonesia could only be governed by a strongman restricting the rights of its people. Indonesia has since then, given the whole world a positive model of how different faiths, different ethnic groups you’ve given you’ve created this model, how different faiths and different ethnic groups and political ideologies can coexist peacefully and settle their disagreements through democratic means. This is glorious. And you should know, too, that I accept the core problem. The democracies aren’t perfect. Either. We get it wrong, sometimes do. And as the commission’s report documents, most of American history can be understood as a struggle. A struggle to realize the Declaration of Independence is beautiful promises. But we must always distinguish this is central. We must always distinguish between free and democratic nations that inevitably fall short of their principles and those regimes that rejects the very idea of human rights, the very idea of religious freedom, the very concept of self government as a possibility. The former democracies, the former, can progress the ladder can only oppress. We stand all of us for a tradition of tolerance. I want to say to Certainly your national leadership has played an important role in fostering the harmony that we all seek. But in any free society, it’s a nation’s citizens who ultimately sustain and propagate its core ideals. In that respect, your remarkable organizations, all of you sitting here today have been powerful forces in the defense of unalienable rights, and you helped spur independent. You provided a voice and a conscience for the nation during more than three decades of authoritarian rule, your very own gust or helped lead Indonesia’s transition to democracy. His profoundly humane vision and teachings inspired the birth of the humanitarian Islam movement. His legacy lives on today in the current generation of leaders who in 2000 and 14 launch the Islam News Toria campaign to repudiate Isis hateful and violent brand of Islam, and it lives on in the movement for shared civilisational values as well. Everyday groups like in you on the Muhammadiyah represent tens of millions of Indonesian Muslims who believe in a tradition of tolerance within a thriving democracy. Yeah, I want to remind all of you here today that your work is now Mawr important than ever. Blasphemy accusations which destroy lives, have become more common. Discrimination against non official religions renders their practitioners second class citizens or subject to abuse and deprivation. I know I have great confidence in, um, I know you’ll keep speaking out against such blows to pluralism. I know, too, that you’ll encourage your leaders to strengthen both Indonesia’s proud traditions. And it’s newer democratic institutions. And I know to that you’ll draw on your faith to advocate for the human dignity of your fellow human beings when you know that they’re being mistreated. To that end, think it’s worth taking a moment to consider something else. As a secretary state, I’ve had the incredible privilege to see what happens when Indonesia leads from our work together in a C in the G 20 Security Council. I know that Indonesia has an incredible reach, and potential is a force for good in the region and indeed throughout the entire world. And today I want to urge you, I want you to urge the tame stain actions I asked the Catholic Church’s leaders to do in the Vatican. We need more religious leaders to speak out on behalf of people of all faiths wherever their rights are being violated. We need more religious leaders to be a moral witness. We need more religious leaders to support principles of humanity and justice, as your founders wrote, and as our respect for unavailable rights demands, the Burmese military is violent. Oppression of Rohingya and other minorities is one area where Indonesia has pushed ASEAN to live up to the humanitarian ideals. But we’re progress on justice remains stalled. Likewise, today, the Iranian regime’s persecution of Baha I’s Christians, Sunni Muslims and other minority groups has failed to galvanize. Ah. Proper denunciation from that country’s diplomatic partners are the religious leaders in many Muslim majority countries. But in fact, the gravest threat to future to the future of religious freedom is the Chinese Communist Party’s war against the people of all faiths Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners alike. The atheist Chinese Communist Party has tried to convince the world that it’s brutalization of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang is necessary as a part of its counterterrorism efforts are poverty alleviation depending on which audience that they’re speaking to. But, you know you know, we know. We know that there is no counterterrorism justification for forcing weaker Muslims. Thio eat pork during Ramadan or destroying a Muslim cemetery. There’s no poverty alleviation justification for forced sterilizations. Are taking Children away from their parents to be re education reeducated in state run boarding schools? I know, I know that the Chinese Communist Party’s tried to convince Indonesia’s toe look away. So look away from the torments your fellow Muslims are suffering. I know that these same CCP officials have spun fantastic tales of Happy Wicker’s, eager to discard their ethnic, religious and cultural identities to become more modern and enjoy the benefits of CCP led development. When you when you hear these arguments, I just ask you to do this. Search your hearts, look at the fax, listen to the tales of the survivors and of their families. Think about what you know of how authoritarian governments treat those who resist its rule. There are now dozens, maybe hundreds, of credible academic and research reports documenting what is taking place in Xinjiang. I personally had the chance to hear the stories of that immense human suffering first hand when I met in Kazakhstan with relatives of ethnic Kazakhs that had been held in camps in western China. Their tears tears building my heart first with anger and then with resolve. That meeting underscored to me how precious God given freedoms are and the responsibility that each of us has to defend them. And indeed my faith teaches me the same thing. Teaches me that human beings have a basic dignity because they’re made in God’s image and that is people of faith. We have an obligation to honor that truth by protecting the weak and comforting the afflicted. My holy book teaches me that faith without works is dead. It teaches me that of those to whom much is given, much is expected. I’m sure you know the ways that the Islamic tradition and the Indonesian tradition demand that we speak out and work for justice. Look, I know you’ll do that. I’m excited to have a very robust discussion with the General Secretary on all of these ideas, so I’ll stop here. But I want to remind you that democracy is all have very different cultural heritage. But in spite of that, we have tremendous amount in common. All of our countries have struggled with crises with injustice and threats, both internal and external. But we continue working towards that more perfect union. We all do this because our people have the same yearning for God, given unalienable rights as people everywhere do. Free people of free nations must defend those rights. It is our duty, even as we each do this and is if we do this in our own and often different ways, we should recognize that we have strengthened numbers. We should recognize that we can turn to each other for support in difficult times, and that our cherished rights and values are absolutely worth defending at every moment as the birthright of every people. Many leaders of your organizations have no Billy helped in Tunisia, do that for decades and earned a respected place in Indonesia’s democratic pantheon. I hope that everyone here today will add to this legacy in the days and months and years to come. May God bless you and God bless your democracy. And God bless Indonesia in the United States of America as well. Thank you. Okay. Yes, Excellencies. Thank you very much for such in lighting remarks. Thank you for acknowledging the value of our civilisational aspirations. You know, the civil senseless presence of Islam Ramadan, Allami and Islamist. The source off universal love and compassion The A a civilisational aspiration off Qantas illa, which are, uh correspond. Tow your vision off until the rights. And again thank you for your gracious facing the craziest response to our invitation and your gracious offer for a future working together correspond toe each other. Hopefully, this will be the beginning off. Great. Ah, work that way. Possibly, uh, will be I ableto together. This’ll will be a very important India for for us. And we believe this is the thing that the whole human civilization is really need. Yeah, tohave But, Excellency way have this prolonged of concern about the situation which in the recent years well, some may be longer years that in many parts off Middle East uh, you know, in those parts of it is, um, is gotten falls are confused with religious extremism and violence. What steps can be taken to address that situation? Yeah, it’s Ah, fantastic question. Let me just say again to how much I welcome to your invitation and how glorious it is to be here. look at. I talked today about our two countries and our democracies and our capacity, uh, to protect available rights for all peoples in many of these countries. The Middle East aren’t democracies. Uh, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean that the people of those nations don’t deserve human dignity. And these unable writes in the same way that every human being does. So your question is, what can we do? So, as the secretary of state, we work on the diplomatic component of this right way, try to create less risk from extremism. So that’s our efforts of counterterrorism, our efforts that extend broadly to making sure that there is, ah, a shared set of common understandings between these countries that extremism is simply unacceptable. We’ve made some progress, uh, to try and develop a model for Middle East peace that we think is grabbing hold in the region, We think that will reduce the risk of extremism is well on. Then, Finally, um, I’d be happy to be in one of those countries giving having the same conversation today that we’re having, uh, while they come from backgrounds that are deeply different cultures and traditions that are deeply different from America’s or from Indonesia’s. Uh, I’m confident that they have a shared set of understandings about these rights is well, and so we have an obligation when we’re in those places to talk about them to share with them. Uh, why it is we believe this and why it is that we ask every nation to respect those rights. And when we do that, I am confident you’ll see leaders of conscience come together, and the people in those countries come together to demand that their governments secure those rights for them as well. I’ve seen real progress towards this. We have a long way to go in many parts of the world, for sure. The struggle continues, but it is a struggle that is worthy and noble, and I’m thrilled to be here today. Toe, Continue the conversation toe, articulate why it is. The United States believes that we should be at the center of having this conversation every place that we go. Thank you, sir. Well, we have also some questions that are submitted to me from the audience. This question is from Christopher Nugroho, battery General secretary off the Roman Catholic Youth Organization here in Indonesia. Uhh ! You would stand up. This is the guy, Christopher Nugroho. He asked, What rule do you see for Indonesia and its mass Islamic organizations, like now the Ulama and Muhammadiyah and supporting religious freedoms throughout the world? Well, I talked about a little bit. My remarks You’ve already demonstrated your capacity to impact nations. You’re consistent. Message your capacity to share the central understandings with the people here in Indonesia have led this country to the place that is You’ve been an important component of that. But two other thoughts One This struggle for the protection of these rights is forever. Process on dso Aziz, You make steps along the way and it’s in Indonesia does and other countries in the region that you’re urging, uh, join in this way. Uh, don’t ever back off. Stay strong. Continue to talk about this. Continue to build on the things that you have done because the risk of backsliding is very riel. Authoritarian regimes can pop up in places that no one would expect to them. And as I said in my remarks, it is the people of these nations that demanding that these governments secure the rights that will ultimately, and that’s what these organizations do, their people banding together to demand that nations respect these fundamental human rights that each of us is entitled to do. Good. So, Theo. Now the next question is from Mrs Angela Marini. He’s she is the chair or another dilemma. It’s eight million members of young woman’s movement. Uh, as the lady there she asked last week, You sign the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which was co sponsored by the Republic off Indonesia and the U. S. Government. What is it that united our two governments in support of this declaration? Yeah, you know, this was really, um, from America’s perspective important. We were thrilled to have Indonesia signed it, as well as several dozen several dozen other countries. Uh, if you go read what’s in that consensus declaration? Culture Geneva Consensus declaration. It’s simply acknowledges what we’ve been speaking about this set of rights. It protects, uh, the unborn we’ve seen. We’ve seen this even in international organizations, were there actively hostile to some of the basic human rights that we’ve been speaking about here today. Indeed, we have the U. N Human Rights Commission that doesn’t always get it right on these things that we care about so deeply. And so this Geneva consensus, which I hope many other nations will join in the months ahead, simply was a declaration of the very ideas that we’ve been speaking about that are available. Rights commission spoke to and the way that the international community must join hands to assist people in demanding that their governments respect the set of rights. If you if you read it, it’s a very, I think, very elegant. It was a group effort by many, many countries all across the world in an important moment, I think, in history where a group of countries came together to say that, um as we together work inside of international organizations, we will never walk away from these fundamental protections for humanity and for human dignity. Thank you, sir. A question. Okay. A question from our coast here. Lamba, chairman off education, Islamic student movement or a P M I. I. It’s a large student movement actually related to another problem also, and he asked. In recent months, several Arab states have signed peace agreements with Israel. You are in close contact with these conformance. How do you end these Arab states plan to address the needs and aspirations off the Palestinian people. Uh huh. Where is the young man here? Who asked Angus or London? You. Very nice. Thank you. Was your school back? Our schools back open. We gotta get everybody back in class in America. Uh, Professor Glendon would concur. Get the kids back in school. Uh, look, we think what we have done with the president’s vision for peace and the Abraham accords as a component of that, uh, enhances the capacity for the Palestinian people Toe have a state in the way that we laid out in the vision for peace and to make the lives better for people all across the middle. Police, certainly including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the Palestinians living there. Uh, there are some who think these air at odds that somehow, uh, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and now Sudan, uh, acknowledging that Israel has the right to exist and it’s the Jewish homeland and opening up economic ties and diplomatic relationships that that’s somehow takes away from the capacity for the Palestinians to get what they ought to be accorded. We think just the opposite We believe that this now sets the conditions, uh, inconsistent with what President Trump laid down to the vision for peace for the Palestinians to enter into a conversation, to deliver good outcomes for the Palestinian people. If you if you go back to the vision for peace that some time ago now way laid out a path towards a two state solution, we offered riel economic benefits and, uh, assistance for the people living in the West Bank. We think it is the basis for an intelligent, important set of conversations, and we think the Abraham accords sets the conditions were, uh, Arab states have now recognized that Israel has this right to exist. We hope the Palestinians will acknowledge that in the same way, the same fundamental way, and so that this conversation could begin to be had for an awfully long time. And I’ll finish with this that for an awfully long time There was this idea that somehow the Palestinian stead of veto, which would prevent any conversation about state stability and peace Middle East way, didn’t accept that premise. We believe that we could push back against extreme um, you can push back against terrorism you could build out diplomatic relationships between, uh, Israel and Arab states and at the same time work diligently to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians were hard at that. We hope the Palestinian leadership will find a way to join us in that conversation. Thank you. Now, the next question is from the chairman off. Hindus use organization. Uh, there the person and he asked, How can America and Indonesia work together to ensure that universal principle off you, D h r become a lift reality and not beer words on paper that in many parts of the world are simply ignored? Yeah, So it’s a fantastic and fundamentally important question. I I spoke to the fact that not only our declaration of independence in our Constitution but the universal Declaration of Human Rights as well were aspirational documents that doesn’t let any of us off the hook way need to deliver on those commitments. And we need to call out those who are rejecting those fundamental ideas. If you if you take just the 30 minutes Or maybe if you read like me 45 minutes to go, read the work that Professor Glenn did in her commission did. On my behalf, uh, you’ll see lots of discussion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its history and why it mattered. But it also acknowledges that the human rights tradition is in crisis in the 21st century that there became a nun mooring from these rights traditions that I think the human rights community has at risk of losing its way and way talk about it. The reason I asked this available Rights Commission to do its work was to take the American tradition and ground American foreign policy to re embrace the history of the American rights tradition. When you go read our report, you’ll see that we acknowledge and I heard Professor Glendon and you’re both talking about this. Indonesia has a different tradition upon which it bases that human rights. But if you see where they come together, you see the rights. They are remarkably, remarkably similar, and that’s what we speak to. So the obligation that we all have is to do farm or than talking. It is to build on institutions that will protect these rights. It is to call out those institutions that reject these rights, and it’s to praise and thank individuals who engage in this important work to build out a community that respects the most fundamental rights that every human being is entitled to. That air laid out not only in the traditions of Indonesia and the United States, but you can see so clearly in the 1940 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well. Oh, thank you very much, Excellency. And now the chairman. Off, grab and move. The answer Will will present Thio black off a plaque off acknowledgement from the organization toe the report off the commission on other Liberal right, Thank you very much. Crack and promote Answer is created this plague in honor off your visit It’s reads as air to the civilization Aspiration off Islam Ramadan Ill Allah mean Ban Gasela in the 1940 five Constitution, Rock and mutants or the Nando de la Lama young adult movement acknowledges and shares the experience and express in the report off the commission on unlikable. Right. Hence we stand ready to strive alongside people off goodwill off every faith and nation toe forced on the emergence off truly just and harmonious world order founded upon respect from the equal right and dignity off every human being. Thank you for your time people doing please