Argentina has transformed itself from, an oppressive dictatorship into an educated democracy, the country's president, Carlos S. Menem, said yesterday.

Speaking to an audience of 550 at the Kennedy School of Government, Menem asked the crowd to pardon his lack of humility in describing his own contributions to Argentina's progress.

"Argentina did not have a destiny and nothing would happen unless we made a 180-degree turn," he said. "We did not realize the world was moving towards integration and we were left like some lonely Robin Hoods down there."

In the speech, "Argentina at the Threshold of the 21st Century: My Vision of My Country and the World," Menem said he faced numerous obstacles in his refashioning of the economic, political and social character of his country.

"I was tortured, and in the midst of that adversity I became stronger," said Menem, who was jailed for five years during the 1970s for holding democratic views.

Menem predicted that an increasingly educated Argentina will advance even farther in the years ahead.

"We are moving ahead in the world of knowledge," Menem said. "The more knowledge, the more power, the more growth."

Pointing to his own experience building democracy, Menem said emphatically that he supported the restoration of the Aristide government in Haiti.

"What is happening in Haiti needs to be supported by the entire world," he said. "We should not have any dialogues with dictatorships--you face them and you pulverize them."

Menem spoke in Spanish, and his remarks were translated into English for the audience.

Some English-speaking members of the audience said the translations were unclear.

But Spanish-speaking members of the audience said they were enthralled by Menem's rhetoric and eloquence. "I was impressed by how casually he approached the problems and how casually he managed the questions," said Norma Vazquez, a Kennedy School student.