PRESIDENT ASKS ALL TO CARRY OUT DEMOCRACY

Jakarta, Aug 14 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on all components of the people to consistently carry out the country's democracy which continued to develop after the 1998 reform movement.

The president also urged the people to continue giving respect to the universal and local values so that efforts to create prosperity for the people would not be disturbed.

"We have to assure that the form of democracy we are building should remain to be in line with the universal values of democracy. On the other hand the implementation of democracy should also be in conformity with the local values and with the basic characteristics of our heterogeneous society," Yudhoyono said in his state-of-the nation address before a plenary session of the House of Representatives (DPR) here on Friday.

He said that only with a consistent observance of such values could the people become stronger in building a mature democracy the Indonesian people were now carrying out.

Yudhoyono said that after the 1998 reform movement, all sides had worked hard through a long road to implement a true democracy.

After 10 years of the reform movement, what had appeared was the implementation of a presidential multi-party democratic system, namely a presidential government which was based on complicated multi-party system.

"Such a system, though it constitutes a correction of the democracy adopted by the New Order Government, also posed a heavy challenge," the president said.

Therefore, he said, the government must continue to run effectively amid the various kinds of interest of political parties.

He said that all the nation's components should help build a mature democracy in line with the basic principles of the Constitution.

The president said that democracy should also reinforce the check-and-balance mechanism.

"With democracy which observes the rule of law, guarantees and respects human rights, and guarantees stability and political orderliness, we are sure, God willing, the democracy we are implementing will be in line with the demand for advancement of our civilization," he said.