- How difficult was your decision to hold a referendum in East Timor which eventually led to its independence? What were the principles that were guiding you? How can a politician decide what to do with a territory that wants to secede? Was it a unique case or should every request to separate be satisfied?

- The basic principles that were guiding me were about fulfilling three following aspects. First of all, I was guided by the universal values of human rights balanced by human responsibility. Second, it was important to me that the real power belongs to the people notwithstanding their heritage, culture, religion, social class and social standing. The third factor was that every decision made must be based and compatible to the constitution.
The decision about the referendum of East Timor had been based on the above mentioned basic principles. Since East Timor, a former Portuguese Colony, was never include in the struggle for independence of the former Dutch colony “Nederland’s Indien” or now called “Indonesia”, my decision to hold a referendum in East Timor was correct.
Any decision made by a politician in similar circumstances must fulfill the above mentioned three basic principles and their derivatives.

- Your legacy is also about stopping the discrimination of the non-native Indonesians. How important is the ethnic factor today in your opinion? How should politicians handle it? On the one hand, ethnic belonging is becoming more and more important for people themselves, for their identity, but on the other hand it can lead to inter-ethnic clashes and discrimination. How can we take the best from the ethnicity leaving the worst behind?

- In a globalized well-informed world today any society will and has to increase the quality of its civilization. This can only be achieved if the productivity of its people is high and makes them strong in any “global competition”. Hence the productivity of a renewable human resource is very depending on first, culture, second religion or beliefs, and third science & technology. There must be no discrimination in ethnicity. The ethnic majority must care for the ethnic minority and the ethnic minority must not terrorize its rights and both must try to avoid inter-ethnic clashes and discriminations.
The most important factor is the peoples’ awareness of the fact that they belong to a peaceful, prosperous, humane, cultivated, pluralistic civil society which is not limited to a certain ethnicity. In order to get this awareness transparency we should provide and maintain high quality of objective information about peoples’ independence and freedom.

- You travel a lot and meet many people from political and academic circles. What are the most important challenges to the democracy today?

- The most important challenges to democracy today are to implement peacefully in an accelerated evolution the three basic principles mentioned above and to care about the productivity and competiveness which are necessary for increasing the quality of the civilization.

- Can you, please, share your impressions about the sections of the conference? How interesting were the discussions? What did you like most? Do you think Global Policy Forum is an important event?

- All three sections - “Democratic institutions in multiethnic societies”, “The rich and the poor, where is justice?”, “Global security and local conflicts” – focus on nowadays issues. I suggest that these sections should become “Standard Section” of the Global Policy Forum and be kept in every coming meeting in Yaroslavl.
The discussions were interesting, but sometimes too short. I also wish there was enough time for summaries or conclusions. I was only participating in Section 1, even if I was interested in topics and issues covered by all three sections.


By Yulia Netesova

Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie

is third President of The Republic of Indonesia (1998-1999). He is a member of the Board of Founders of the Muslim World League (Rabithah ‘Alam Islami) since 2001 and a member of Inter-Action Council (IAC) since 2000.
Before joining politics B.J. Habibie had a successful career in aircraft industry in Germany. He returned home in 1974, when President Soeharto asked him to come back. In the following years B.J. Habibie held several government positions, including Minister of State for Research and Technology and Vice President. After severe economic crisis which also led to crisis of confidence in Indonesia President Soeharto announced his resignation had to step down in May 1998, and on the same day B.J. Habibie took the oath of office as President.
President B. J. Habibie held the Presidential post for 518 days in which during that time under his leadership, Indonesia succeeded not only in conducting the first free and fair General Elections on June 7, 1999 but also succeeded in bringing about significant changes towards stabilizing, democratizing, and reforming Indonesia.
Prof. Habibie has 18 National and 16 International medals and decorations, including ‘Grand Officer de la Legion D’honneur’ – the highest award from the French Government for his contribution to industrial development in Indonesia in 1997, ‘Edward Warner Award’ presented by Executive Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 1994. He also received ‘Doctor of Science Honoris Causa from the Cranfield Institute of Technology, UK.
Until now, he still acts as President of Islamic International Forum for Science, Technology and Human Resources Development (IIFTIHAR) since 1997, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Habibie Center (THC) since 1999, Honorary Chairman of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals Association (ICMI) since 2000, and Member of Inter-Action Council (IAC) since 2000.
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