Opening Remarks: Bambang Harymurti

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Opening Remarks: Steering Committee Member Bambang Harymurti

Bambang Harymurti is editor of Tempo Media in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has covered regional and international news since the early 1980s, working for several journals, including TIME magazine, Media Indonesia Daily, and Tempo Weekly News magazine. He is the recipient of several prestigious fellowships and awards, including an Excellence in Journalism award from the Indonesian Observer Daily in 1997 and the PWI Jawa Timur Pena Award in 2006.

 

Excerpts: In 1955, just 10 years after declaring its independence, Indonesia hosted the famous Asia-Africa Conference, a global meeting designed to liberate people in Asia and Africa from the scourge of colonialization.   I remember ten years later – I was still a little kid of course – I used to look at a special map hanging in my father’s study, showing so many countries that had become independent after the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, which is about two hours’ drive from Jakarta. So it is our dream that our meeting today will become some kind of a déjà vu; that our work in this important assembly will make us much more motivated and effective in working together for the advancement of more democratic global society. It is my dream that ten years from now, our children, and even maybe our grandchildren, can look at a world map in our study room and see that many societies have made gains, they are democratic-like, after the Sixth Assembly of the World movement for Democracy in Jakarta. So, ladies and gentlemen, history is opening its door for us today to leave our mark for the rest generation. Let us work hard, with joy in our hearts, to seize this opportunity.  As our forefathers in [Latin] said, “Carpe diem.”