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Bismillah
Hirrahmanirrahim
President
Xanana Gusmao,
Ministers,
Special
Envoys,
Excellencies,
Ladies
and gentlemen,
Saudara-saudaraku
di seluruh Indonesia,
First of all,
let us all thank these beautiful Acehnese
children for singing that lovely song.
They warmed our hearts.
Ladies and
gentlemen,
My name is
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and I speak on
behalf of Indonesia in welcoming all of you
to Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
I am here to join you to honor the
dead, the living, and to offer
gratitude.
This is a very
special gathering of people of all
nationalities, race, religion, and cultures,
united by tragedy and our common humanity.
In this wide open space on the calm shores
of Ulee Leuh, under the blue sky, we stand
together as God's children.
It was under
the same blue sky, exactly a year, ago that
mother earth unleashed her most destructive
power upon us.
That assault
began with a massive earthquake about 250 km
off Sumatra.
But that earthquake was only a
prelude of a horrific catasthrophe to come.
15 minutes later, three giant killer tsunami
waves, 9 meters in height and moving at
around 250 km per hour, crashed on the
shores of many communities around the Indian
Ocean, destroying everything and drowning
nearly everyone in their path.
Indonesia
suffered the worst loss, here in Aceh and
Nias, with over 200,000 dead and missing.
In Sri Lanka,
31,000 people died, and 4,000 are missing.
India's Southeast coast counted over 8,000
dead, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands
lost over 2,000 people.
Thailand’s
death toll topped 5,300 people, many of them
tourists. Another 2,800 people are
missing.
Other nations
lost their loved ones: Malaysia, the
Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania, Bangladesh,
Myanmar, the Seychelles.
In a matter of
minutes, over 280,000 people perished.
And more than a million people all around
the Indian Ocean became homeless.
We stand here
together today in remembrance of that
suffering, paying respect, once again, to
the good men and women, and all the
children, lost to the sea. We bow our
heads in deep prayers, so that the souls of
our loved ones, found or unfound, buried on
land or at sea, have a proper resting place
at God's side.
But today,
tomorrow, and the day after, will not be
about suffering, because we are here to also
honor those who survived. These sons
and daughters, brothers and sisters,
parents—they all want to rebuild their
lives.
You will see
these tsunami survivors everywhere, here in
Aceh, in Nias, in Phuket, in Phang Na, in
Jaffna, in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu
and Andhra Pradesh, in Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, and in many other stricken areas.
They greet you with smiles, with enthusiasm,
with hope. But their cheerful smiles
masks a steely resolve. We owe them
the same.
There is
Martunis, the seven-year old Acehnese boy
who was lost at sea for twenty-one days,
hanging onto a tree branch. He lived
on bottled water that floated by, and on his
determination to survive.
There is
Malawati, who lost her husband to the
tsunami and was lost at sea for five days.
She could not swim, so she hung onto a tree
trunk all that time, floating in
shark-infested waters.
She too miraculously survived by
sheer will, and by love for her unborn baby,
who also survived by the grace of Allah
Almighty.
And,
of course, there is inner strength in the
children who just performed for us, all made
orphans by the tsunami, all trying to be
children again.
We honor ALL
the tsunami survivors for their strength and
courage. You remind us that life is
beautiful and worth struggling for. We
must honor that struggle. The rest of
your future should be days of hope.
We will need
plenty of that hope given what the tsunami
did to our communities.
Here in Aceh and Nias, roads,
bridges, and buildings disappeared, and
local government ceased to function.
There was no electricity, no phone lines, no
cars, no gasoline. Our logistical
problems seemed insurmountable at times—at
one point, there was only one helicopter
left in all of Aceh. We suffered total
paralysis.
Just cleaning up the debris took
months.
Yet we moved
forward with each day.
In a
catastrophe of this size, it is easy to see
only ruins. But look past the rubble
and you will see progress.
By the roads
that are being built, including one that
will reach Meulaboh, you will see villages slowly
taking shape. You will see markets
brightening up landscapes. You will see
children back at school and new teachers
being trained. You will see miles of
new roads, miles of new sewage pipes.
Ports and
boats are being rebuilt, as are hospitals
and clinics. Farmers are going back to
their fields and gardens. Tens of
thousands are being given training to go
back to work.
And despite
everyone’s fears, we escaped epidemics.
That was not by a stroke of luck.
That was due to sheer hard work.
And with the
establishment of a Rehabilitation and
Reconstruction Agency, the rebuilding of
Aceh and Nias is being carried out with
dignity, transparency and strong community
involvement.
Please join me in commending Dr.
Kuntoro Mangkusubroto and all the staff of
the BRR for all their dedication and
perspiration in the rebuilding of Aceh and
Nias.
Our
reconstruction efforts are far from over.
We have to provide new homes for the
hundreds of thousands of homeless.
We are moving as fast as we can,
building more than five-thousand houses
every month.
There
is still much more to be done: we need to
stimulate the economy and provide jobs.
We need to get entrepreneurs back on their
feet. We need to meet the needs of not
just the cities, but the outlying villages
too.
Yet,
mark my words: we have the energy, the
commitment, and the will to make all this
happen. We greet 2006 with confidence
and resolve. We will rebuild Aceh and
Nias, and we will rebuild it back better.
Ladies and
gentlemen,
I believe that
one of the most significant impacts of the
tsunami was how it brought global citizens
together. Never before did a
natural disaster bring out so much
compassion, goodwill and generosity.
In Indonesia,
the whole nation wept, and everyone, rich or
poor, sent food and funds to their brothers
and sisters in Aceh and Nias, and thousands
volunteered for relief work.
But it made a
huge difference that the world came to our
aid.
Forty-four
countries sent military personnel and
assistance, forming the largest military
operation for humanitarian relief since
World War II. NGOs and donors made
record financial contributions—in all, we
have $ 9 billion dollars pledged to the
reconstruction effort. Citizens from
Dili to Ankara, London to Mexico City, Los
Angeles to Melbourne, Beijing to Tehran, and
many more places, all got into the act of
caring and contributing, prompting a
phenomenal trend in world affairs.
Their
compassion cut across religious, racial, and
cultural lines, uniting them in global
solidarity.
This
morning, we have in our midst
representatives of many nations who are part
of this global solidarity.
Through you, we express our gratitude to all
our friends around the world for your
support.
We know your support was genuine and
came from the heart, and for that we are
eternally grateful.
My
appeal to you is to keep this flame of
goodwill alive.
Do not let it fizzle. The
friendships, the confidence building, the
networks, the know-how—all these things
that you shared together during the
emergency relief is a valuable asset that we
must nurture. The compassion many of
you have shown is testament to what humanity
can achieve.
The
tsunami has produced the seeds of
unprecedented global solidarity : this time,
it helped tsunami victims, but I believe we
can continue to nurture this rare global
compassion and goodwill to address other
global concerns, and bring greater peace and
prosperity for humanity.
What a great legacy that would be,
don’t you agree ?
After all,
here in Aceh, we already have an example of
how a new hope for peace can emerge out of
the ruins of destruction.
On August 15th
of this year, the Indonesian government
signed a historic peace deal with the
leaders of the Free Aceh Movement.
That peace deal ended 3 decades of
bloody conflict in Aceh.
It gave the Acehnese a golden chance
to start a new life of dignity and
reconciliation under a special autonomy,
within a united Indonesia.
Let
it be known from hereon that the future of
Aceh is not a future of blood and tears, but
a future of sweat and
Ladies and
gentlemen,
You know, not
far from here, we plan to erect a monument
to the tsunami, which will be built around a
grounded ship at Punge, about 4 km from
here.
But if you
look closely, there are tsunami monuments
all around you.
I call them “living monuments”,
and these living monuments are stronger than
steel or concrete walls.
Your
presence today is one of these monuments—a
monument to solidarity.
The children
playing at the beach again, laughing and
smiling—they are another living
monument—a monument to hope and
resilience.
The fishermen
going back to sea again—they are monuments
to perseverance.
There are
living monuments to courage amongst the
families who are being reunited, and amongst
the homeless moving into new homes.
There are
living monuments to vibrant spirituality in
the mosques throughout Aceh and the churches
in Nias.
And there is a
living monument to peace in the silence of
guns throughout Aceh.
So, as they
say in Indonesia, "out of darkness,
comes brightness". The tsunami
cast a fatal blow on our shores. But
it is no match for a greater force that we
call the human spirit.
That spirit to live, to survive, and
to love, continues.
That spirit
will live amongst us today, tomorrow, and
the days after.
Insya
Allah, Insya Allah !!
I
thank you.
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