UN General Assembly
2009

guarantee our collective security. It needs to be more democratic, transparent and accountable. It needs new sources of strength that the developing world and their ancient civilizations can help provide in the same manner as the inclusivity of the G-20. We in Indonesia are great believers in democratic reform, because that is what saved us from being totally crushed by the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Over the years until then, we had focused too much on the market and on our GDP growth and thus neglected our political development. The only way out of the crisis was reform — reform of every aspect of our national life. And so we made the transition from a highly centralized authoritarian regime to a decentralized, more fully democratic system. We reformed our military, our bureaucracy and our justice system. We modernized our economic infrastructure. And since October 2004, the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been consolidating and fine-tuning earlier reforms. Now, having won re-election in only the second direct presidential election in our history, he is ready to