On the first day of Bandung Peace Week, Irfan Amalee as the Co-founder of PeaceGen opened this gave his remarks:
“I would like to express my appreciation to the organizing committee and gratitude for the collaboration between Peace Generation & Initiatives of Change (IofC) Indonesia. The global pandemic teaches us to be more optimistic and to think further on how to repackage methods of promoting peace globally. We are grateful that we can still be creative in this challenging situation. The fact shows that racism spread around the world alongside COVID-19, so we need to work together against racism. During the COVID-19 outbreak, we actively run our programs online, and this makes us able to reach more areas in Indonesia.”
The second speaker was Dewi Safitri Wahab, Senior Advisor to the Foreign Minister on Social Culture & Indonesian Diaspora Empowerment. In her speech about Indonesia’s tradition as a country which preserve the peace, she mentioned 3 major points: (1) Peace is one of the traditions in Indonesia which has been existing since the establishment of Indonesia; (2) Our contribution to the world peace including our roles as an elected member of the UN member security council 2019-2020; (3) synergy and collaboration between government sectors and communities to support our contribution in maintaining peace.
The third speaker was Barbara Lawler, Senior of Initiatives of Change (IofC) Australia. Barbara talked on the relationship between Indonesia and Australia.
She started with the similarities between Indonesia and Australia both countries have enormous diversity in many ways. Then she expressed how Indonesia has modeled as a peace nation and it’s drawn in the 5 principles of the Pancasila: 1. Belief in the One and Only God 2. A just and civilized humanity 3. Unity of Indonesia 4. Democracy led by collective wisdom in consultation/representation 5. Social justice for all the people of Indonesia.
Barbara has been visited 16 times to Indonesia. These visits have taught her so much, has been a blessing on her life and given her so much inspiration through working with young fellows. She shared that she received far more than she give – something to do with heart, mind and spirit power – very alive in Indonesia. The challenges are enormous but so is their passion and commitment to bring change in such creative ways where it is needed. Let’s be the change and peace we want to see in the world, listen deeply and act with integrity.
Habib Chirzin, Former Member of Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights, was the last speaker. Habib shared about his involvement in Human Rights and Peace. Human rights are conducive to peace, and can create peace with human rights protection. Collaboration in peace and development program from NGOs like IofC needs to be expanded.
Yofrina and Hayati
