Topic:
Country: Indonesia
Delegate Name: Ralph (Tag) Dershimer
School: Greenhills
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika – “Unity in diversity”, or, “many, yet one”. Indonesia has long understood the incredible importance of free and fair elections, for many years we knelt at the wrath of colonial powers, but no longer. The Republic of Indonesia, as the fourth-largest nation by population in 2025, is a culturally rich and diverse melting pot of peoples of all kinds and walks of life. We as a nation celebrate our diversity and have long strived for the security of all those who claim this nation as their home, as a member of MIKTA, we are bound to uphold effective global governance. A tremendous part of that means ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity and voice in electing their officials and leaders, regardless of who or how they identify, if they fly the Indonesian banner, their vote matters. Indonesia is dedicated to the understanding of the importance of this matter at this conference, and of protecting it.
The delegate from Indonesia understands that many developing countries struggle in keeping their elections fair, however there are already incredibly sufficient systems and structures in place to support these burgeoning countries in their endeavors to pursue free and fair representation of the peoples. This delegate believes that what work the United Nations is already doing to support these countries is not a system that needs to be reworked or torn down and built anew, merely supported upon and raised up. Successes in places such as recovering Liberia, where the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) played a more than critical role in Liberia’s recovery, facilitating the success of three elections in 2005, 2011, and 2017, overseeing the training of election workers, logistical support in the form of voting materials and road reconstruction, and offering media messages and training to local journalists, culminating in the country’s first peaceful transition of power in over 70 years. This delegate believes strongly that this is the work that should be continued and expanded upon, and that focus need not be set on already developed countries with set and successful systems, that these developed and successful countries should simply be under the pressure to set an example to follow, and uphold the standards and ideals set for free and fair elections. Creating policy that would police or further nitpick systems that have proven to work freely and safely would merely be a pointless expenditure of resources.
Indonesia will strongly support the continued defense of free and fair elections, and understands that these issues affect developing countries most. This is why this delegate believes that support for the further expansion of UN intervention and support of developing countries would be crucial, and would openly support and facilitate the creation of a UN body to take requests from specific member countries, security councils, or general assemblies and streamline the process of investigating and providing support for the protection of untainted elections. This body would allow for the hasty intervention of the United Nations in precarious situations, supporting the security of freedom in member nations.
