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NUSA DUA, Indonesia: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened the second Bali Democracy Forum on Thursday with a call for more equitable growth after the global financial crisis.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and senior officials from more than 20 countries attended the start of the two-day gathering at a luxury beachside resort on the tourist island of Bali.
Under the broad theme of "promoting synergy between democracy and development in Asia", the two-day forum is the second in an initiative launched last year by the Indonesian government.
In his keynote address, Yudhoyono said that as the world clawed its way out of financial turmoil, economies had to restructure in a way that protected the "poor and weak".
"The crisis has forced the world to conduct restructuring that is more democratic. One of the consequences (of the crisis) is the surge in demand for more inclusive growth," he said.
He said representative, accountable government would be "hollow" without development.
"Many have the opinion that democracy is not the ultimate objective. The ultimate objective of democracy as well as development is creating prosperity for the people," he said.
Hatoyama said elections this year in India, Indonesia and Japan testified to the health of democracy in the region.
But he said challenges remained in countries like China, Myanmar and North Korea.
On China, he said there were "great expectations" that Beijing would "continue to make progress as a responsible power on the issues of democracy and human rights".
He said Japan would "continue to encourage rather than impose" democratic change in Myanmar, and called for the junta to ensure elections scheduled for next year are held with the "blessing of the international community".
Japan would continue to work through the six-party talks - which also group the two Koreas, Russia, China and the US - to encourage Pyongyang to "join the trend" in Asia for greater openness and democracy.
Yudhoyono and Hatoyama held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the forum and signed agreements on Japanese loans for infrastructure development, earthquake relief and climate change mitigation efforts, officials said.
Hundreds of police were on hand to secure the forum, which took place a day after anti-corruption protests across Indonesia in response to a series of scandals which have damaged the credibility of Yudhoyono's government.
Yudhoyono warned the protests could be hijacked by hidden forces bent on ousting him from power. Critics dismissed his comments as "paranoid".
Photographs of Yudhoyono were torched in the country's second largest city, Surabaya, and in Palu where up to 2,000 protesters gathered on Wednesday.
In the capital Jakarta, thousands rallied outside the presidential palace, which was blocked off by razor wire with hundreds of police standing guard.
A decade after the fall of the Suharto dictatorship, Indonesia remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world despite Yudhoyono's election promises to improve governance and the rule of law.
The Bali Democracy Forum is intended to provide an "open framework" for dialogue where countries like communist China and military-ruled Myanmar can participate without fear of censure.
- AFP/yb
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