REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Democratic transition in a country helped its people find efforts to resolve conflicts and promote reconciliation, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said here on Tuesday. "In our particular situation, we have found that hard work in building the nation and advancing democratic transition always involves efforts to resolve conflicts and promote reconciliation," said Yudhoyono in the launch of Strategic Review Journal and Strategic Review Forum in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Yudhoyono said reconciliation and conflict resolution were critical parts of the efforts in carrying out transformation that influenced the stability and the future of the country. "The fact that some conflicts remain unresolved for decades, or for centuries, does not mean that they are permanently irreconcilable. The right combination of time, interest, change of generation and of leaders as well as luck factor will one day resolve the problem," he said.
In the forum, three Asian statesmen, Thai Thaksin Shinawatra, Malaysian Anwar Ibrahim and Timor Leste Jose Ramos Horta, shared their experience in fighting for democracy in their own countries. They talked about reconciliation and democracy development in their home countries, as well as their efforts in creating good governance.
The ouster prime minister Thaksin said that reconciliation was about forgiveness. He hoped people in Thailand, including its constitutional court, could move forward to create democratic manners.