It is high time for us to come together and work to promote the core, shared values of our civilization and religions, such as tolerance, selflessness, generosity, harmony, and peace. Therefore, I welcome the initiative of the Center for Shared Civilizational Values and Nahdlatul Ulama — supported by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia — in organizing the ASEAN IIDC… This conference confirms our determination to take action to promote the shared civilizational and cultural values so vital to ASEAN’s future.
~ Venerable Dr. Thich Due Thien, Member of Parliament and Vice President and Secretary General of the Executive Council of Vietnam Buddhist Sangha
Remarks by Venerable Dr. Thich Due Thien
Delivered to the inaugural ASEAN Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue Conference
Jakarta, 7 August 2023
Your excellencies, venerable brothers, distinguished professors, scholars, ladies and gentlemen.
Allow me to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude, on behalf of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, to the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and Nahdlatul Ulama.
I would also like to thank Dr. Timothy Samuel Shah — Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Center for Shared Civilizational Values — for inviting me to address the ASEAN Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue Conference (ASEAN IIDC). I sincerely hope that this conference is crowned with great success.
I am so pleased to be here in Jakarta today, among brothers and sisters from across ASEAN. I feel the same love and attachment as I would were I among family.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: the world is experiencing numerous political and security upheavals, which are evolving in a complex and unpredictable manner. We face non-traditional security risks, wars, terrorism, and ethnic and religious conflicts in many parts of the world.
Multiple crises from the environment, ecology, and climate change to inequality, poverty, and pandemic have been changing every aspect of our lives and traditions.
This reality requires coordination among Southeast Asian nations at every level, especially in the field of interreligious and intercultural dialogue. It is high time for us to come together and work to promote the core, shared values of our civilization and religions, such as tolerance, selflessness, generosity, harmony, and peace.
Statue of Guanyin Chuan De inside the Bai Dinh Pagoda
Therefore, I welcome the initiative of the Center for Shared Civilizational Values and Nahdlatul Ulama — supported by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia — in organizing the ASEAN IIDC with the theme “ASEAN Shared Civilizational Values: Building an Epicentrum of Harmony to Foster Peace, Security, and Economic Prosperity.” This conference confirms our determination to take action to promote the shared civilizational and cultural values so vital to ASEAN’s future.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: Vietnam is a Southeast Asian nation with a long tradition of multi-ethnic and multi-religious tolerance. Each of the 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam have religions and beliefs associated with their economic, cultural, and social conditions.
Religious life in Vietnam is diverse and vibrant, and around 95 percent of the population practice some form of religious belief.
All major world religions are practiced in Vietnam, which has made great strides in ensuring equality and harmony among the followers of different faiths by promoting human rights in general and the right to freedom of belief in particular.
Religions contribute to many aspects of social life in Vietnam, and religious believers live side-by-side in a spirit of mutual understanding and dialogue, while preserving harmony between — and accepting the differences of — the diverse elements that play a dominant role in society.
The Vietnam Buddhist Sangha has always been proactive in promoting mutual understanding, increasing tolerance, and conducting dialogue in a spirit of respect with those who hold different religious beliefs.
Based upon our experience in Vietnam, I would humbly like to make the following suggestions.
Firstly: governments and religious leaders should work together to promote cooperation, dialogue, and information-sharing mechanisms. This will help to develop the mutual understanding, shared interests, and respect necessary to find solutions to conflicts and other global challenges.
Secondly: we should rediscover the principle of unity within diversity and ensure that it plays a central role within ASEAN. Shared civilizational values, cultural pluralism, and peace should be promoted through interreligious and intercultural dialogue, as well as other activities and joint documents.
In conclusion, I would once again like to reiterate on behalf of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha that we highly appreciate the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and Nahdlatul Ulama for their initiative to promote intercultural and interreligious dialogue across ASEAN.
Thank you very much.
Ha Long Bay. Photo credit: Disdero