PRESIDENT CALLS FOR GLOBAL CONSCIENCE TO MAINTAIN WORLD HARMONY

Boston, Sept 29 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has stressed the importance for the world to foster global conscience, which he said imperative for maintaining harmony among civilizations.

In his lectures at Harvard University here on Tuesday, President Yudhoyono disclosed nine imperatives which he said were important for the world harmony and civilizations. One of the imperatives is the need to foster global conscience.

" So these are my NINE imperatives for harmony among civilizations that I offer to you today. They will require a great deal of hard work. It will take the work of generations and decades. And it will require patience, perseverance, partnership and lots of thinking outside the box," he said.

Describing the need for nurturing global conscience, the president explained what happened with tsunami waves that crushed Aceh in Indonesia in 2004.

"It is not easy to describe this, but this is what I saw in Aceh during the tsunami tragedy. On 26 December 2004, giant tsunami waves crashed Aceh and Nias, and 200,000 people perished in half an hour. The whole nation was in grief., he said.

But in this tragedy, he said, one also found humanity. "The whole world wept, and offered helping hands. Americans, Australians, Singaporeans, Chinese, Mexicans, Indians, Turks and other international volunteers worked hand in hand to help the Acehnese. I realized then there exists a powerful global conscience", he said.

He said that one would think, that the enormous pain of World War 2 would usher in a new dawn of world peace. That was why the United Nations was formed. But the human race ended up with many more wars.

Yudhoyono said that one would think the threat of the nuclear holocaust was enough to trigger nuclear disarmament, but the world saw more countries developing nuclear weapons.

"The question now is whether climate change would be able to foster a new global conscience. We are still not sure that it will. But a 'global conscience' could well help transcend whatever civilization, religious and cultural divides that has faced humanity," he said.

Eighteen years after the end of the Cold War ended, ten years into the 21st Century, he said, the world found itself at a crucial crossroads. "In front of us may be the most progressive century mankind has ever known, a century where, as Fareed Zakaria says, more things will change in the next 10 years than in the past 100 years. It can be the century of possibility and opportunity," he added.