Washington, D.C., Mandarin-Oriental Hotel
November 9, 2005 PROCEEDINGS Intro: Another man who needs very little introduction, the new President of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz. (Applause) Mr. Wolfowitz: Thank you, I am not here in any official capacity. I am here as an old, old friend of the person you are going to honor tonight. Infact I was just doing the mental calculation. I think it will be 20 years this coming April that we first met in a rice paddy in Bali and I consider it an extraordinary honor to be able to introduce to you, Bambang Harymurti who is truly a courageous hero of journalism and I can’t imagine anyone more appropriate for this award. He has many journalistic achievements to his credit, one that I think is probably unusual in journalism, as he was qualified in a final competition for the Indonesian astronaut program to send an Indonesian up on a space shuttle which unfortunately never happened because of the Challenger disaster. But he went after our encounter at the rice paddy, and became an Alfred Friendly Press Fellow, at Harvard where he distinguished himself and not only earned a masters degree but quite a few honors. But if I could just for a very few minutes, just say a couple of the things that were so striking to me about getting to know this man. And, at the heart of it was the really quite ruthless intellectual honesty. He really cared about the truth. The truth was more important to him than a story. I have to tell you as an American Ambassador in what is euphemistically called an autocratic regime, it was invaluable because he was the best source of truth that I knew in that country, and very often in a press that was controlled and unable to say everything they knew – there would be euphemistic references, the general one which was a high cost economy, that meant corruption. But there were more subtle references to members of the first family and usually I would go to Bambang and say well tell me what is the story behind that story and invariably he knew what it was and invariably he could tell it in a kind of 360 degree fashion. He had a point of view, a passionate point of view but he understood many other points of view including, I think its fair to say, understood better than most, how some of the most unpleasant generals in that regime thought, including the ones whose responsibility was to periodically shut down newspapers and cross lines, and I think that’s why Bambang was able so often to talk persuasively to these generals about why the latest article in TEMPO, and TEMPO is an extraordinary journalistic achievement in itself. Started I guess some 30-35 years ago by some enterprising and ultimately very successful Indonesian journalists. He could talk his way and he could talk TEMPO’s way out of innumerable scrapes but I guess eventually his luck and TEMPO's luck ran out in 1992 and a cover story criticizing Suharto’s favorite minister and they were shut down and shut down until the end of the Suharto regime. But that didn’t stop him. Like the Energizer bunny, he kept working for TEMPO, working at journalism, working to try to make sure, that the journalists who had made their living from this great institution found employment, setting up an Internet edition of TEMPO which for some reason the Government I guess felt had only 20,000 circulation, so and was too hard to shut down, remained a great source of information to me when I was in the University. He was fearless in other words and that was what you are honoring him for tonight. For his courage, and it continues to take courage, it takes courage in Indonesia today, unfortunately, to publish editorials criticizing terrorism, to publish editorials criticizing Islamic extremism. But this man, who is a devout Muslim, does that. And does it regularly. Indonesia has some things to boast about, and people like Bambang, and people who have fought for freedom of the press, in Indonesia all those years can take a lot of credit for the fact that its country has past what is often considered to be, a great landmark of democratic development. They have had two free and fair presidential elections – not one but two in a row –so it’s all the more ironic that his greatest courage has been needed under the democratic regime in Indonesia. And he’s had to have been most daring and it comes from a case where he wrote an article criticizing the, what seemed, well, arsonistic vandalism by a crony of very powerful people in the Government. As a result he was brought into court on charges of criminal defamation and inciting to riot. The riot that he incited was the riot when the crony sent his thugs to TEMPO to beat up Bambang and his colleagues. That was the riot and the criminal defamation as far as I can tell was telling the truth. He was convicted but he is fortunately on appeal. I will be happy to join the celebration when that conviction is finally overturned, as it should be. What we are talking about, I think, to think about it fundamentally for a minute here, brings home the fact that the real test of democracy is not really elections but how government protects the rights of its citizens. Our own Declaration of Independence doesn’t speak about elections at all but it does speak about the rights of all human beings to inalienable rights, in particular life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And elections, I think are properly viewed as a mechanism to hold Government accountable, particularly in its most fundamental responsibility, of protecting the rights of its citizens. One of the worst possible ways that the awesome power of governments can be abused, is to take away the freedom of the press. And thereby remove one of the most important mechanisms for ensuring accountability as we say in the development business, for ensuring that Government respects the rights of its citizens. Indeed freedom of expression and freedom of the press are increasingly recognized as critical components of a transparent society, as is the broader notion of civil liberties. In the institution I work in now, in the World Bank, people have begun to realize that you can’t talk about development without taking about accountability and transparency. Which means you really can’t talk about economic development without talking about freedom of the press. As even research now, its encouraging to have social science research, there’s research at the World Bank that shows that freedom of the press is associated with better control of corruption, and where civil liberties are better safe guarded, I quote “the effectiveness of World Bank funded projects is higher” – that’s reassuring! (Applause) But I’d like to end with a quote that’s much more eloquent than anything in our publications and it came from Bambang in his appeal to the court where he said “the World’s train has long raced away from the station where journalistic works are still criminalized. We in Indonesia ought to be included in the carriage of the World’s community’s progress and not left behind at the station of backwardness, one that is more fitting to be displayed in a museum and not as a destination”. And he left the court after his conviction saying “Don’t worry my friends, we will continue the fight for the freedom of the press.” This man is a fighter and we will now see a video that gives you a glimpse of his wonderful career and life.
Video plays. Voice over.
Bambang Harymurti: Ladies and Gentleman, distinguished guests, Paul, thank you very much for your generous introduction. It is too generous. Now I feel grossly inadequate to say anything. I feel I will not live up to the audience expectation now. Unfortunately not giving a speech, an acceptable speech, is not an option available to me tonight. So please bear with me for just a few minutes. And let me start by explaining why I have to express my gratitude to Paul Wolfowitz tonight, who I have known for almost two decades since my time as a cub reporter when he was the Under Secretary of East Asia and Pacific at the State Department and later I was fortunate to know him better when he became US Ambassador to Indonesia. He started his diplomatic duty with a big bang – less than a month in his new position President Reagan paid a working visit to Bali as part of his ‘wind of change’ global trip. Indonesia at that time was considered one of the successful examples of a nation that had opted to follow the economic path created by the so-called ‘Washington Consensus.’ And after his visit, Paul did his own part of creating his own ‘wind of change’ in Indonesia. He initiated a new mantra of political openness among Indonesian political elite and is greatly remembered for his famous farewell speech at the end of his three year stint as Ambassador when he stated that economic liberation has to be followed by political liberation in order for progress into a just and prosperous society. It is still a mystery for me now how Paul managed to do all that without being kicked out by President Suharto, a military General who ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for 32 years. In fact, instead of being accused as a meddling western diplomat, which would be the normal fate of any diplomat behaving in this manner at that time, Paul became the most popular Ambassador in Indonesia, and I believe he’s retained this position today. I want to express my special thanks to Paul because I cannot but admit that I am one of many Indonesians, of many in Indonesia, that is the product of his ‘wind of change.’ I am standing here tonight, receiving this honor, because I followed the path that he introduced me to, almost two decades ago. Paul, thank you and may God bless you. (Applause)
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