Indonesia Proves Democracy, Islam Can Coexist, Foreign Minister Says at Global Forum in Poland

Sunday, 4 July 2010

The Jakarta Globe

Indonesia has moved from an authoritarian state to one of the world’s largest democracies, proving Islam and democracy can coexist, the foreign minister has said.

At the 10th meeting of the Community of Democracies, in Krakow, Poland, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said his country “represents the embodiment that democracy, Islam and modernity can go hand in hand.”

More than 10 years after the fall of the Suharto dictatorship, Indonesia had transformed into the world’s third-largest democracy and is proof that “democracy and Islam can go hand in hand,” he added at a global meeting on democracy, also attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Although Indonesia two years ago launched the Bali Democracy Forum, to promote cooperation in the field of democracy and political development among Asian countries, it is attending the global Community of Democracies meeting for the first time.

Indonesia has had four presidents since Suharto resigned in May 1998 in the face of mass street protests and the Asian financial crisis, but only the current leader, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was directly elected.

The country’s economy is among the largest in Southeast Asia, and with China and India, Indonesia was one of just three G-20 members to post economic growth at the height of the global economic crisis in 2009.