THE IISS SHANGRI-LA DIALOGUE - 18TH ASIA SECURITY SUMMIT

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International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)          The 18th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue

                             18TH ASIA SECURITY SUMMIT

                       THE IISS SHANGRI-LA DIALOGUE

                                     SIXTH PLENARY SESSION

                                         SUNDAY 2 JUNE 2019

               GENERAL (RETD) RYAMIZARD RYACUDU

                        MINISTER OF DEFENSE, INDONESIA

Provisional Transcript
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)                            The 18th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue

Dr John Chipman, Director-General and Chief Executive, IISS
I would invite those of you here to take your seats for this concluding session of the Shangri-La
Dialogue (SLD). We have the theme Ensuring a Resilient and Stable Region. And the word resilient
has been used a few times by a number of the ministers addressing this SLD. And I think we will
want in this final session to tease out what we mean by the word resilient.

But it is our concluding session, so each of the speakers will have an opportunity to provide, in their
prepared remarks but also in response to questions, their own, as it were, final thoughts on how this
SLD has proceeded. And I hope that all of you in the hall feel free in the conversations that will seek
to inspire after the prepared statements to give your own views about how we should assess this SLD
and the key things that we should conclude on.

And we are really happy that we have, back again at the SLD, General Ryacudu, the Minister of
Defense of Indonesia. It is a delight to receive for his, I think, second time at the SLD but his first time
on this stage, Ron Mark, the Minister of Defence of New Zealand. And of course, we always have the
single honour at this SLD that our host nation, Minister of Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen offers us his
reflections as well, which always help us to pull together the threads of the weekend’s work. It has
been long and hard work but I think it has been invigorating and stimulating. And those are the
attitudes that we want to have as we launch this sixth and concluding plenary session.

So could I first invite General Ryacudu, the Minister of Defense of Indonesia, to address the sixth
plenary? The floor is yours, sir.

General (Retd) Ryamizard Ryacudu, Minister of Defense, Indonesia
Excellency the Honourable Singapore Defence Minister as the host nation, Director-General and Chief
Executive of the IISS Dr John Chipman, dear SLD participants, excellencies, assalamualaikum
warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

It is truly an honour and a pleasure for me to stand before you at the sixth plenary of the SLD 2019
event and to have the opportunity to present views about ensuring a resilient and a stable region.

I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation for the warm welcome and friendly welcome
from the government of Singapore – in this regard, the Minister of Defence of Singapore – and the
organising committee of this Shangri-La Dialogue 2019 event. And it is an honour for me to deliver
my perspective related to the situation in the region.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Indonesia affirms the importance of the forum as a measure to
strengthen productive, interactive communication and dialogue among participants, as well as to
seek common understanding and common grounds that lead to finding common solutions in
addressing our common challenges and impediments that can undermine the peace and stability in
the region.

In the end, this forum is expected to be able to contribute in the making of the different policies
aiming at the realisation, the peace and prosperity for the respective people, as promised by every
leader when they campaign to win the election. The defence minister, as the assistant of our leader,
we have to assist the leader to realise their promise, especially in the field of defence in the region. So
at the same time, this forum can also assist to turn uncertainty into certainty.

Provisional Transcript
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)                          The 18th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a global
miracle. I repeat, ASEAN is a global miracle. It has stood for 52 years and we are always united,
despite [the fact that] we have diversity and fundamental differences ranging from ethnicity, religion,
culture, languages, and geographic location and interest. However, with the spirit of unity of ASEAN,
we keep resolving any differences in peaceful manners and ways, as it is promised, as it is agreed
during the signing of the ASEAN Charter.

Our commendation is a strategic maritime fulcrum in the Indo-Pacific area which stretches from the
North and South China Sea, followed by the North Natuna waters, then goes into the Malacca Strait,
then goes to the south to Sunda Strait and the Indian Ocean. This fulcrum is an international trade
line from the west to the east and north to the south, which is worth not less than US$5.3 trillion each
year and becomes a third of the world’s trade value.

All ASEAN members have a consensus and agree that building security and stability is the
foundation and a key to build prosperity. Without stability and security, it will be difficult for
prosperity to be realised.

The key of the ASEAN unity is our commonalities and similarities of our perspectives and views,
with the basic values containing sincerity, honesty, mutual interest, transparency and openness for
the sake of realising our joint, common goal to realise welfare, prosperity, peace, stability in the area
that becomes our common home.

ASEAN is a concept and also a way, and the key to the stability of the Indo-Pacific region. In ASEAN,
we continue to seek to enlarge our similarities and commonalities and to decrease and minimise the
differences.

ASEAN also proves its identity as an inclusive community in which it would like to invite all parties
and partners to come together, and that has the same like-minded partner and have the same vision.
Therefore, ASEAN has eight strategic partners known as the ASEAN-Plus. This is what ASEAN
always does.

Ladies and gentlemen, besides being united by the same values and objectives, ASEAN has also never
been separated from various strategic environmental dynamics and challenges, which have an impact
on the emergence of various challenges and threats having the potential to disrupt regional stability.
But we are very optimistic that opportunities are more than challenges.

The ASEAN leaders continue to communicate, meet and continue to discuss how to build and how to
take advantage of opportunities and reduce and eliminate various types of threat. There have been
many different efforts taken to overcome these challenges in several meetings.

In anticipating those threats, ASEAN has a strong area of defence and security architecture which
becomes the deterrence effect for a wide variety of threats trying to infiltrate. ASEAN also agrees and
we have the same point of view in facing threats and challenges. We agree that the threats and
challenges we face in ASEAN are the same and common.

Some similarities and commonalities that reflect the image of the cooperation of partner countries and
ASEAN, among others, is the similarity of potential challenges and shared factual and real threats
comprised of three dimensions of threat; namely, the non-factual threat, because we do not consider

Provisional Transcript
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)                           The 18th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue

other nations as a threat; and we have also our non-traditional threat or factual threat; and also the
other one is non-physical threat, which is the threat of influencing the mindset of the people in the
region.

On this occasion, allow me also to convey the development of the soft-power approach as part of
Indonesian defence strategy. Our Indonesian defence diplomacy has produced optimal and effective
results. It is proven that Indonesia is not enemies with any countries and always promoted
friendship.

And for the factual threat and main threat that we are currently facing, that is starting from terrorism
and the development of radicalism, separatism and armed revolution. We face separatism in
Indonesia, the Philippines as well as southern Thailand; and as well as natural disasters and
environment; and as well as the disease outbreaks, cyber, and drug abuse and trafficking.

The third threat, which is the non-physical threat that is very dangerous at the same time, is the so-
called threat of the mindset of radicalism, with the concept of the caliphate or khilafah driven by the
ISIS group from Syria and Iraq who try to disrupt the stability in the region.

We also need to cooperate to resolve the Rohingya refugee issues, since the mismanagement of the
problem would create another target for the ISIS group’s recruitment. Hence, the role of the United
Nations is also vital in mitigating the issue of Rohingya refugees.

With the use of soft power, this threat continues to work systematically and be structured, as well as
very massive to influence the mindset of our community in the region, especially in the area of
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The threats of terrorism and radicalism that we face today
are the threats of the third generation of terrorists. The special character of the third generation is the
return of the ISIS foreign fighters from the Middle East.

ISIS was only the strength of national militia in Iraq which emerged as a result of internal political
conflict after the fall of the government of Saddam Hussein. Let me reiterate here, and let me
emphasise here, that ISIS is only the fruit of the Iraq and Syria domestic political conflict; that has
nothing to do with religious factors.

The operational and tactics concept of this terrorist group will continue to evolve and have an
evolution and experience change, so that the security forces do not easily detect them. As what
happened in Indonesia recently, where the ISIS group used the new mode of terrorism attacks carried
out by one whole family, which occurred in several places – in Surabaya, Indonesia, East Java and last
month in Sibolga in Sumatra, Indonesia – and several terrorist actions in several regions in Indonesia.

They are not Islam, because the teachings of Islam are always peaceful teachings, which is the so-
called Rahmatan Lil-Alamin. It does not make any sense that a mother can invite her children to
commit suicide. As a mother of her children, she should have the nature and instinct to protect her
children and to maintain the welfare of the children. Like a tiger – they are a very wild animal, but the
tiger even will not kill their children. But the mindset has been influenced that the mother would like
to invite the children to commit suicide. We cannot let this grow in this region.

If it is growing, then maybe in five or ten years from now, it will be very dangerous and damaging for
the world. So we have to solve this issue and this problem together.

Provisional Transcript
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)                          The 18th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue

This perverted and misguided concept of ideology is what we must fight together. Terrorism and
radicalism have torn our trust apart in each other. Terrorism also has the potential to damage the
bonds of brotherhood and the values of tolerance, which is the essence of ASEAN values and culture.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, around
200 million out of 260m. If only around 0.5% become ISIS supporters and sympathisers, it means that
there are about one million people. It is, indeed, a very fantastic amount.

In overcoming radicalism and the ISIS threat, Indonesia adopts the mindset of construction and
strengthening the mindset of our people, for the entire Indonesian people, by instilling and
embedding the value of original, natural culture and national culture that has been in existence since
the past as our identity and our value, and also so as not to be displaced by the ISIS radical ideology.

Ninety-six per cent of Indonesian people are against the ISIS development. It is also reflected through
the existence of religious organisations, social organisations and youth organisations, and many more
that have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Defense to be ready to fight
against radicalism and ISIS. And for the 4% who have not answered the survey, they must be guided
and guarded so they do not take sides or sympathise with ISIS. In fact, at the same time, in Indonesia,
the amount of ISIS supporters is only about 700 people. However, it should not be allowed, and we
have to resolve it completely and quickly so as not to trouble us in the future.

As the Indonesian Minister of Defense, I have designed the total defence strategy that also includes all
the people of Indonesia through the concept of state defence, or the so-called Bela Negara, which
involves all the elements of the Indonesian people to eradicate terrorism. The awareness of state
defence is based on the cultural values in our five principles as the ideology and foundation of the
Indonesian state and nation.

In the study of John Nye’s book, the title is The Future of Power, it was found that the aspect of armed
physical or military operation in eradicating terrorism is only contributing 1% to resolve the root
cause of terrorism. While the 99% to resolve the problem of radicalism is determined by the effort of
the whole and the involvement of all people through the planting of the awareness with the value of
the state-defence spirit.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, ASEAN also has the powerful resilience and deterrence effect. In ASEAN,
we have about 620m people, and not to mention, the armed-forces personnel and members are about
2.6m. If we put it together, it becomes the most powerful force, and it is like a totality power to
anticipate various threats and challenges. When we are united, there is no single challenge or threat
that can infiltrate ASEAN.

Indonesia is always present with the various concepts of solution. Within the area of defence and
security architecture, Indonesia has offered the Our Eyes initiative, which is the intelligence exchange,
sharing and cooperation. Indonesia is very grateful for the support of all ASEAN and ASEAN-Plus
partners where the Our Eyes cooperation of intelligence exchange and information exchange has been
adopted by ASEAN and the eight partner countries, including the United States, Russia, China,
Australia, India, Japan and South Korea at the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus meeting in
Singapore last year.

Provisional Transcript
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)                           The 18th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue

In ASEAN, we also have three kinds of joint battle. The first one is in the waters of the region, from
the Malacca Strait Patrols, Gulf of Thailand and quite recently is the Sulu waters patrol. The other
Indonesian measure and initiative are done through strengthening the trilateral cooperation platform
with Malaysia, the Philippines, which will be followed with the joint land exercise in Tarakan,
Indonesia next month.

Once again, there are three states of trilateral operation. The first one is the maritime patrol in Sulu
waters that is very fruitful. Previously, the Sulu waters is the stronghold of pirates that try to attack
people for ransoms. Since our joint patrol, the activities of the pirates have reduced very significantly
and almost been eliminated.

And it is continued with the air patrol. And in the future, we will continue and we will conduct the
joint land-forces operation between Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. And if it is needed, we
will crush them and crush the terrorists in the southern Philippines.

The indicator of success for this nation platform of cooperation is the drastic reduction in the
incidence of piracy and acts of terrorism around Sulu waters and sea. In the past three years, there
have been relatively no incidence of piracy, so that the wheel of economy and the sea transportation
lines are relatively safe and controlled.

Ladies and gentlemen, Indonesia, as a part of ASEAN, also continues to observe the dynamics of the
development of a strategic environment, including anticipating the emergence of the strategic-
environment dynamics on the North Korean Peninsula, or the nuclear issue in North Korea, as well as
the South China Sea development. Indonesia really hopes all countries in the region will be united
with the same vision. By having the same vision, we will build a common way of common thinking
and we will build unity and stability.

In response to the situation of the South China Sea, Indonesia, or ASEAN, will bring forward the
concept of peacekeeping by building cooperation and mutual trust. There were some suggestions and
proposals for implementing joint patrols at SLD 2015. The joint-patrol concept is already
implemented in the form of maritime patrol ASEAN–China, which was initiated by Singapore a year
ago, and a joint patrol, US and ASEAN, to be conducted in the following September.

The core of unity is our common sincerity in realising our prosperity for the whole community in the
area, which is based on trust, to keep the trust, then disclosure and transparency, which is based on
our sincerity. And it has to become our principle in the character of the community of ASEAN.

Dr John Chipman, Director-General and Chief Executive, IISS
Thank you very much. I think that is really splendid. Thank you very much. And I think it was very
important for us all here to listen to your describing the particularly difficult challenge that Indonesia
faces to combat extremist ideology and also, at the same time, to deal with the problem of radicalised
individuals who may be returning to Indonesia following experiences in the Middle East. So thank
you for delivering that central message for us.

Provisional Transcript
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