Indonesian wisdom has global value

Perhaps the greatest travesty in our small history as the dominant life force on this beautiful world would be if we did not grasp how the ending of the Cold War provided the potential to begin a new awareness of how humans can best work as a group, defined as the entire species.

Perhaps it is time to begin thinking of humanity as an organism if we are to create a better world for our collective future. Man as organism, planet as host.

Earth's increasing need for nuclear energy has the propensity to spawn all manner of threats including the creation and use of nuclear weapons.

If a state creates nuclear energy, harbors or is suspected of harboring nuclear weapons, it needs to agree to be fully open to inspection by a powerful world entity, defined as a two-thirds majority of the United Nations and capable of contributing to an action ready, highly mobile force under the aegis of the United Nations.

Perhaps that august institution could consider such a responsibility, unless there is a more benign solution to be found for the realities of nuclear proliferation, in this sixth decade of the atomic age.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world supported the toppling of Saddam Hussein because of the threat of nuclear weapons and the fear of their use. And just as many people were not happy with the way the situation was handled by the USA. More significantly, would the U.S. want the burden again, if there was a next time, after the disastrous cost in human lives and credibility?

Nations must very quickly begin to refine the definition of how the balance between their own sovereignty and that which is for the greater global good, is going to evolve, post Saddam. Perhaps of all the ideologies that arose in the 19th and 20th centuries, it is Indonesia's Pancasila which provides a path, as a guide for humanity, nationalism, democracy, social justice and religious belief to serve as one, for all, in equilibrium. It is Indonesian wisdom that is global in its vision. And its symbol is the white dove of tolerance.

GREG WARNER Jakarta