Address to the International Leadership Conference
Dr. Chung Sik Yong, Regional Chairman, UPF-Asia
Jakarta, Indonesia - December 8, 2012
On behalf of the Universal Peace Federation of Asia, I would like to extend my heartfelt greetings to all the distinguished guests, Ambassadors for Peace, and participants who have come various parts of this great nation.Your presence is really appreciated and makes this conference more inspiring and meaningful. Thank you very much.
The International Leadership Conference series is an essential part of the mission and work of UPF, guided by a vision of building a world of universal peace that goes beyond barriers of race, religion, nationality, and culture.
In carrying out its mission, UPF seeks to establish a new paradigm of leadership and good governance, from the individual level, to the family, society, the nation, and the world. UPF works in collaboration with governments, faith-based organizations, NGOs, and academic institutions, providing a value-based and God-centered vision of peace.
We live at a time of global crisis. Not only a financial crisis, and not only a crisis of ongoing conflict and violence, but more fundamentally, we face a growing moral and spiritual crisis, a crisis that undermines not only individual values and ethics but also the core social institution, the family. Governments, financial institutions, corporations, the United Nations itself, and even many of our religious institutions are in disarray and confusion.
Today, more than ever before, there is a hunger and thirst for a new vision and leadership. This hunger and thirst can be found in the heart of any human being. It doesn’t matter if they are black or white, red or yellow, Muslim or Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, or Confucianist. Every human heart longs for peace and hopes for love and joy. This is our original nature, given to us by God.
To unite the divided human family, we need true peacemakers, leaders who lead a life of true love, who are committed to serving others like parents who serve their children with a heart of love. For the sake of their children, parents are willing to sacrifice their own comfort, rejoicing in their children’s happiness rather than in their own. In this sense, true leadership can be termed 'heart leadership' or ‘parental leadership.' Can you imagine what your nation and the world would be like if all the leaders, be they government, religious, NGO, or business leaders, truly care for their people with a sacrificial heart of love?
For this reason, Father Sun Myung Moon has called on each of us to transform ourselves and to live for the sake of others in accordance with the will of God. First of all, we as leaders have to become individuals whose minds and bodies are united, where there is no discrepancy between our words and deeds, thus earning the trust of the people. Integrity means to hold on to your ideals even under adverse circumstances. President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was a UPF Ambassador for Peace and close friend to Father Moon, testified that Father Moon was a leader of great integrity:
Rev. Moon’s call for peace through religion is something of great nuance and profundity. We are deeply fortunate for the chance to observe his life-long struggle for world peace. We can see how he lives peace so fully in his life. He has endured unspeakable persecution. I know this. This puts us in his debt.
We all aspire to achieve one goal. That goal is to heal the divisions that plague the world and to establish a universal realm of freedom, peace, unity, and happiness for all people.
It is this ideal that guides the UPF in its many peace initiatives, in Africa, in the Balkans, in the Middle East, in Northeast Asia, in South Asia, in the Americas, in the South Caucasus, and in Southeast Asia.
Here in Asia, UPF is playing a key role in peacebuilding. In Thailand, UPF helped initiate a national interfaith council. The UPF Peace Council of Nepal helped facilitate the meeting of government and Maoist forces to negotiate peace in that country, and the UPF Secretary General serves as Minister in the National Government today. In Sri Lanka, UPF has worked to put an end to violence, sponsoring good governance programs, even in the Parliament.
UPF-Indonesia has been spearheading many activities through its Ambassadors for Peace network, especially in the area of character education and youth leadership training. Without the active and wholehearted cooperation of our Ambassadors for Peace, this conference today would not have been possible. Thank you very much for your support!
In the interest of eternal peace, Father Moon initiated the World Peace Marriage Blessing movement in 1960, to promote families of true love, families that go beyond barriers of race, religion, nationality, and culture. In this way, we work to build one family under God, one family at a time.
Recently, with the support of local governments in the southern Philippines and south of Thailand, the ideals of the World Peace Marriage Blessing have helped to heal historical enmity. Just months after we celebrated the World Peace Marriage Blessing festival in Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao, which used to be a hot spot for terrorist activities for decades, this province is now the center for training former militants in peaceful occupations such as computers, accounting, administration, helping them become productive members of society.
Father Moon continually taught about the importance of true love. It is the basis for his vision of peace, leadership, and good governance. As he proclaimed in his Peace Message at the Ritz Carlton in Jakarta on November 25, 2005:
True love is the spirit of public service. It brings the peace that is at the root of happiness. Its essence is to give, to live for the sake of others and for the sake of the whole. True love gives, forgets that it has given, and continues to give without ceasing.
Father Moon always wanted to see the United Nations affirm the highest spiritual values and live for the sake of others, thereby becoming an “Abel UN” or a “Parent UN.” The trademark of an “Abel UN” is not political or of national self interest but service, cooperation, and the promotion of reconciliation and harmony among religious, racial, and ethnic groups, as well as among nations, building one family under God.
This vision represents a new paradigm of leadership and good governance for our world. It is this vision that inspired UPF’s Founder to create a number of programs and associations that foster harmony and cooperation among the nations, peoples, and faith traditions of our world.
Here in Indonesia, I sincerely hope you will work together in establishing this new paradigm of peace, leadership, and good governance so that Indonesia can fulfill its role as a model nation to the rest of the world. As the country with the largest Muslim population, people throughout the world and the Islamic world in particular are looking up to your nation to lead the way towards peace, happiness, and prosperity.
May God bless you, your families, and your nation.