Your Majesty, Excellencies and Dear Colleagues,

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we confront the aftermath of a natural disaster so fierce that it has left more than 140 thousand persons dead and missing. Even as gather here today, 12 days after the disaster, the death tolls around the region keep rising. We do not yet have a name for the quake and tsunami that hit our region on 26 December 2004, but we know that it is the most destructive natural disaster in living memory.

Indonesia is no stranger to calamities like this. In 1883, the eruption of Mount Krakatau—which is only a three-hour drive to the West from Jakarta—killed more than 36 thousand people in the coastal towns and villages along the Sunda Strait on Java and Sumatra islands. I remember reading about the great Krakatau explosion in my school days with astonishment, but never in my wildest dream would I imagine that my generation would face a natural disaster so great it would inflict human casualties three times that of Krakatau.

What has deepened the tragedy around the region is the very high death toll among children. Many more were orphaned and must endure a life without the loving care of parents. And there is no way we can describe the grief of parents who lost their children.

The governments concerned, the world community and international organizations and institutions have responded vigorously. More than 30 countries have contributed to help with funds, logistical resources, food, medicine and other assistance. And there are tremendous efforts on the part of civil society worldwide to show solidarity.

Yet, more needs to be done. We need to do them very urgently. And we need to do them collaboratively.

All of us have seen extensive media coverage of the aftermath of the disaster. But I am sure the leaders from the disaster areas will easily testify that what you have seen on the TV screen represents only a small sampling of the painful realities on the ground. What the victims went through staggers our imagination. A week ago, I took a helicopter ride from Banda Aceh to Meulaboh, a distance of about 240 km, and seeing all the communities and villages along the coastline being totally destroyed flat to the ground, with no visible signs of life.

Our response to this unprecedented catastrophe must be equally unprecedented, so that we can immediately put an end to the human suffering and misery that came after. Many today are in danger of dying of disease, hunger and trauma. The death toll must not be allowed to rise any further.

Let us therefore ensure that the emergency relief efforts work effectively and without delay.

That is only the short-term challenge. In the mid and long terms, we face the challenge of rehabilitating human lives and human communities. Infrastructures must be rebuilt and sources of livelihood must be re-established.

The future of those who survived must be secured.

Hence, let us ensure that rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts of the devastated communities start early in a well-planned, coordinated, and transparent manner.

Excellencies and Distinguished Delegates,

This tragedy has been a humbling experience to governments and societies alike. It proves once again that humanity is frail and vulnerable to the forces of our natural environment. And it proves that no nation can survive alone.

Because we are all vulnerable as human beings, we must reach out to one another and join hands in tackling the miseries of the human condition today as well as the challenges of our common, long-term survival.

We in the affected countries must, first of all, strengthen our transnational, multi-sectoral collaboration in addressing the ongoing crisis and in ensuring our preparedness to quickly and effectively deal with similar crises in the future.

This means trans-national coordination of relevant government agencies. It entails mobilizing, on a transnational basis, all sectors of society—including media and civil society—in a common effort at disaster prevention and management. When we speak of a “community of caring societies” in our region, we should be referring to this sort of massive collaboration.

Let us make an intensive review of the existing regional mechanisms for disaster management, strengthen them, give them muscle, and put them to good use.

We have an ASEAN Regional Program on Disaster Management, which commit members of the ASEAN family to develop a regional instrument to coordinate and make easier the movement of assistance across borders.

Let us now translate that commitment into concrete reality.

We have a Plan of Action toward the establishment of an ASEAN Security Community, which provides the use of military forces and logistics for rescue and relief operations.

Let us now give substance to that provision of the Plan by establishing a stand-by mechanism for the instant use of military and civil defense resources to save lives during a disaster.

Given the experience of setting up a tsunami warning system in the Pacific Ocean area, the cost of putting up a similar system on the Indian Ocean rim should be much less. At any rate, as a world community, we should not be counting costs today, so that in the future we will not be counting lives lost.

Let us make the first move to build that system in this Meeting.

For trans-national coordination to be effective, there must be strong national programs and mechanisms to coordinate. This means the gathering and deployment of resources to carry out capacity-building in all vulnerable countries.

Self-reliant as we should like to be, we cannot muster all the necessary resources for emergency relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction. .For all affected countries, the combined costs of rehabilitation and reconstruction will definitely be staggering. In this regard, we truly appreciate the help already received and pledges of support from Governments and peoples all over the world.

We must also ensure that we benefit from the experience of the United Nations in establishing and managing a special emergency fund for emergency relief efforts and for enhancing our preparedness for future disasters.

We must ensure the effective role played by UN offices in the affected countries in coordinating emergency relief efforts. In this regard, there is a need for the UN Secretary-General to appoint a Special Representative to coordinate the efforts of those UN offices.

We must also secure an effective role for the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in our respective national efforts to rehabilitate and reconstruct the cities, villages and the livelihood of people in the disaster areas.

Beyond these measures, the imperative is for us to acquire the habit of working together — in the way we have worked together during this crisis.

When the crisis has passed, let us not go back to business as usual, only to become a solid community again when another disaster strikes.

Starting with this Meeting, let us continue to build on this culture of solidarity and make it permanent.

By habitually working together in the spirit of solidarity, we secure ourselves not only from the fury of natural disasters but also from the folly of human conflict. That, in the long term, is the only way the human race can survive.

I thank you.

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