President Jokowi Receives 2022 Global Citizen Award
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo Sunday (11/13) received the Global Citizen Award from the Atlantic Council at the Global Food Security Forum held at Kecak Ballroom, Sofitel Nusa Dua Beach Resort in the resort island Bali.
The Head of State said that the award serves as a motivation to improve participation in solving global issues.
“Thank you for giving me the Global Citizen Award and it will give me and the Indonesian Government a bigger motivation to take a big responsibility and become a part of the global solution,” he said, adding that he never thought of receiving any award as he only carries out his duty with full responsibility that is in line with humanist values.
“It has never crossed my mind that I would receive this prestigious award. All I have been doing is working as well as possible with full responsibility for the values of humanity,” he said.
In addition, as a diverse country consisting of 17,000 islands, 1,340 ethnicities, and 652 local languages, Indonesia has taught values of tolerance, peace, unity, and cooperation. For that reason, President Jokowi said that he always makes time to see the people and the difficulty they face.
“The most difficult challenge is always faced by the grassroots, by poor families, by low-income countries. Therefore, I always work hard to fight for the independence of these people and voice the interest of low-income countries in various fora,” he said.
The President also stressed that the world cannot be built with rivalry and greed. Instead, it must be built with tolerance, cooperation, mutual respect, and mutualism.
The President added that through the spirit of tolerance and cooperation, Indonesia will carry out its duties as the 2022 G20 Presidency and 2023 ASEAN Chair.
“Indonesia’s Presidency at this year’s G20 and Indonesia’s Chairmanship of ASEAN next year was handed over to me. It will be based on those spirits,” he said.
For the record, the Global Citizen Award is an annual event held by the Atlantic Council amidst the UN General Assembly in New York. Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi attended the event organized on September 19 on behalf of President Jokowi to receive the award.
The award is given to global figures who are deemed to have given real contribution to the world, among them are the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the 12th South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The 2022 Global Citizen Award was also given to the Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, CEO of Google and Alphabet Sundar Pichai, as well as actor and UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation Forest Whittaker. (BPMI of Presidential Secretariat/UN) (DH/MMB)