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INTRODUCTION
This
conference, celebrating the foundation of the Council of
Asian Liberals and Democrats ten years ago, seeks to explore
important political challenges to the achievement of
economic growth, which is a common aspiration among the
nations throughout the region.
It is an
opportunity to:
As with
earlier CALD conferences, this conference is directed
towards liberal-minded people in pro-democratic political
organizations in Asia, political practitioners, key
government officials, members of parliament, diplomats,
policy-makers, academics, leaders of civil society and media
practitioners. The conference aims to stimulate and help in
the development of common visions for the future of the
region that encompass economic cooperation and prosperity
while safeguarding peace and democracy.
Tuesday,
09 December 2003
19:00 WELCOME
ADDRESSES
H.E. M.R.
Sukhumbhand Paribatra MP
Chairman, CALD
Former Deputy Foreign Minister
Democrat Party, Thailand
M.R.
Sukhumbhand Paribatra, MP for the Democrat Party, took his
oath of office as the new Chairman of the Council of Asian
Liberals and Democrats from outgoing Chairman, Hon. Sam
Rainsy MP of Cambodia, in Seoul, Korea on 30 October 2002.
He served as
the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand
during the administration of Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai
(1997-2001). He is an Associate Professor in the Department
of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science,
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok and between 1987 and 1993,
he also served as the Director of the Institute of Security
and International Relations of the University.
H.E. Banyat Bantadtan MP
Leader of the Democrat Party
Leader of the Opposition, Thailand
Banyat
Bantadtan, a lawyer, entered parliament in 1975 and served
as Deputy Leader of the Democrat Party from 1991 until 2003.
He was elected as the Leader of the Democrat Party after the
retirement of Chuan Leekpai from the party leadership in
April 2003. He was a long-time confidante of former Prime
Minister Chuan Leekpai and became Deputy Prime Minister in
the first Chuan Leekpai government in 1992. He was appointed
as the Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister
during the second Chuan Leekpai government in 2000.
20:30 KEYNOTE
ADDRESS
H.E. Dr.
Bhokin Bhalakula
Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand
Visions of Regional Economic
Cooperation in
Asia
Dr. Bhokin Bhalakula is an accomplished
lawyer and academic. Prior to his post as Deputy Prime
Minister of Thailand, he was Vice President of the Supreme
Administrative Court, Chief of the Public Law Department of
the Faculty of Law of Ramkhamhaeng University, Vice-Rector
for Academic and International Affairs of Ramkhamhaeng
University, Minister attached to the Prime Minister and
Councillor of State.
He received
his Docteur de Troisième Cycle (Droit Public) from
the University of Paris II, his D.E.A. de Droit Public
from the University of Paris II and D.E.A. de
Connaissance du Tiers Monde from the University of Paris
VII.
Wednesday,
10 October 2003
PART
I. REGIONAL ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND
GLOBAL FREE TRADE
09:00 SESSION 1
KEYNOTE
ADDRESS
H.E. Dr. Otto Graff Lambsdorff
Former Minister of Economics,
Germany
Chairman, Friedrich Naumann
Foundation
WTO: Where to go from
Cancun?
Count Otto
Lambsdorff was a member of the German Bundestag from 1972 to
1998 and Minister of the Economy of the Federal Republic of
Germany (1977-1984). He is the Honorary Chairman of the Free
Democratic Party (FDP), where he has been a member since
1951. He is also currently Chairman of the Friedrich Naumann
Foundation.
A lawyer by
training, he has been active in banking and insurance since
1955. During his term as Member of Parliament, he sat in the
Steering Committee of the FDP until 1983 and became the
committee’s Chairman in 1988. He continued to represent FDP
as Chief Economic Spokesman until 1997. Today, he is a
member of the board of trustees of various companies. Count
Lambsdorff was also European Chairman of the Trilateral
Commission from 1991-2001.
10:45 SESSION 2
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
H.E. Jose S. Concepcion Jr.
Former Secretary,
Department
of Trade and Industry, Philippines
Member, ASEAN Business Advisory
Council
Economic
Cooperation in ASEAN
Mr. Jose
Concepcion Jr. is a recognized business leader in the
Philippines and in the region. He served as Philippine
Secretary of Trade and Industry (1986-1991) and is the
Immediate Past President of the ASEAN Chambers of Commerce
and Industry (ASEAN CCI), of which he is a co-founder. He
currently heads a number of major companies in the food and
agri-business sectors. He is also a Member of the
Philippines Section of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council,
Chairman of the ASEAN CCI WTO/Trade Environment Committee
and Vice President of the Non-Aligned Movement Business
Council.
Aside from
his business activities, Mr. Concepcion is also the National
Chairman of the election watch-dog, National Citizens’
Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL). After his post in the
Trade and Industry Department, he has refused any political
appointment, preferring instead to work at the community (Barangay)
level as a Barangay Captain, with the vision of achieving
good governance in these basic units of government, thus,
initiating change from the bottom.
KEYNOTE
ADDRESS
H.E. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan MP
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Democrat Party, Thailand
Economic and Political
Cooperation: Challenges for
Asia
Dr. Surin
Pitsuwan was first elected Member of Parliament in 1986 and
became Secretary to the Speaker of the House of
Representatives that same year. In 1998, he was appointed
Assistant Secretary to the Minister of the Interior. Dr.
Pitsuwan became the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in
the first Chuan Leekpai Government (1992-1995) and was
appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second Chuan
Leekpai Government (1997-2001).
An
accomplished diplomat, he is currently a member of the
Commission of Human Security, the Advisory Board of the
International Commission on Intervention and State
Sovereignty, and the World Commission on the Social
Dimension of Globalization.
13:00
Luncheon Speech:
H.E. Jules Maaten MEP
European Parliament’s Rapporteur on
Relations between EU and Asia
EU and
Asia: Is
there a common future?
Jules Maaten
was elected Member of the European Parliament on 10 June
1999 under the list of the Dutch Liberal Party VVD. He
currently sits on the Committee for the Environment, Public
Health and Consumer Affairs and, since 2002, on the Foreign
Affairs Committee. In 1999, he was elected as Board Member
of the European Liberal Democratic and Reform Party (ELDR).
Since the end of 2001, he served as the leader of the VVD
group in the European Parliament. He is also part of the
parliamentary delegation maintaining relations with the
ASEAN countries including Korea and has been active on EU
foreign policy issues including human rights, shipments of
nuclear material, East Timor, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia,
the International Criminal Court, death penalty and the war
in Chechnya.
Before his
election as MEP, Jules Maaten was Secretary General
(1992-1999) of the world union of liberal parties, the
Liberal International, which is based in London. During that
time, he was involved, among others, in supporting
democratic movements in Asia, Latin America, Africa and
Central and Eastern Europe.
PART II.
SECURITY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES: RESPONDING TO
THE TERRORIST THREAT
14:00 SESSION 3
Prof.
Andrew Tan PhD
Institute of Defence and Strategic
Studies
Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore
The Threat of Terrorism in
Southeast Asia:
Evaluating the Threat and Responses
Dr. Andrew
Tan works at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies
(IDSS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He
holds a PhD from the University of Sydney and a Masters
degree (International Relations) from Cambridge. His
research interests include conflict in Southeast Asia
(terrorism, insurgency, inter-state tensions and force
modernization), and security issues (traditional and
non-traditional) in the Asia Pacific region, and he has
published widely in these areas. He also has had extensive
experience in the private and public sectors, including the
Singapore Administrative Service (Foreign Affairs) and in an
institute of the University of Technology, Sydney, where he
worked for five years.
Dr. Tan is a
frequent speaker, both locally and in Australia, Malaysia,
Taiwan, Japan and the US on regional security issues. He
coordinated the Ford Program on Non-Traditional Security
Issues in Southeast Asia, and following September 11,
initiated a New Dimensions of Terrorism project, which
sought to understand the nature of the new terrorism and
what it meant for Southeast Asia.
Mr. Sundeep
Waslekar
President, Strategic Foresight
Group, India
South Asia
and the Threat of Terrorism
Sundeep
Waslekar is the founder of the International Centre for
Peace Initiatives, a civil society organization based in
India that is involved in conflict resolution, and the
President of Initiatives, a think-tank involved in business
and economic policy issues. He received his degree in Master
of Commerce in Industry and Finance from Bombay University
and BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford
University.
Since 1984,
he has engaged in independent research, consulting and
public initiatives for peace, security and economic
cooperation. Mr. Waslekar combines expertise in business
management and economic policy analysis with research and
practical research in conflict resolution and governance.
15:45
SESSION 4
Responding
to the Threat of Terrorism:
Mr. Philips Jusario Vermonte
Center for Strategic and
International Studies
Jakarta, Indonesia
Mr. Philips
J. Vermonte is currently a researcher at the Department of
International Relations of the Centre for Strategic and
International Studies. He is also a visiting lecturer at the
Department of International Relations of Paramudina
University in Jakarta. His research interests include non
traditional security issues, including terrorism and small
arms trafficking, Southeast Asian security issues,
Indonesian defense and foreign policy, and conflict and
democratization studies.
He received
his Master’s degree in International Studies from the
Department of Politics, the University of Adelaide in 2001
under an AUSAID scholarship. He has produced numerous
articles in various newspapers and academic journals, and
has presented papers in many conferences locally and abroad.
H.E.
Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr.
Former President of the Senate
Philippines
A well-known
freedom fighter and politician from the Philippines,
Aquilino Pimentel began his political career by his election
as a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention. After
the declaration of Martial Law in 1972, he became an active
human rights lawyer and oppositionist, who fought for the
restoration of democracy in the country, often leading
public demonstration. In 1980, he was elected Mayor of
Cagayan de Oro City and in 1984, he became a Member of
Parliament.
Upon the
restoration of democracy, he was appointed Minister of Local
Government, as well as Presidential Adviser and Chief
Negotiator to the Muslim rebels. Senator Pimentel is
identified as the author of the landmark Local Government
Code of 1991 that brought decentralization to the
Philippines. In 1998, he was re-elected Senator, where he
continued his fight for electoral reforms and against
corruption and, in 2000, he presided over the Senate
impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada.
Thursday,
11 December 2003
PART
III. AUTONOMY AND MINORITY RIGHTS: RESPONDING TO
THE SEPARATIST THREAT
09:00
SESSION 5
Prof. Yash Ghai PhD
International Consultant on
Constitutional Affairs
Hong Kong University
Ethnicity
and Autonomy
Dr. Yash
Ghai is a Professor of Public Law at the University of Hong
Kong. He has also been a constitutional and legal adviser to
several governments, political parties, international
organizations and non-governmental organizations. His
special interests include public law, human rights law and
developments.
He has
pointed out that “more than any other age, ours is marked by
ethnic conflicts,” the issue of autonomy and identity in
multi-ethnic states being one of the most troubling issues
of our time. The question of autonomy is, therefore, central
to many conflicts today, playing an important and
constructive role in defusing conflicts and reconciling
different communities in multi-ethnic states.
Prof. Asbjørn Eide, Dr. Jur. H.C.
Chair of the
UN Working Group on the Rights of Minorities
University of Oslo, Norway
International Trends in Minority Rights
Asbjørn
Eide is formerly Director and currently Senior Fellow of the
Norwegian Centre of Human Rights, as well as Torgny
Segerstedt Professor at the University of Gothenburg,
Sweden. He is the former Secretary General of the
International Peace Research Association, and author of
numerous books and articles on peace and conflict issues,
and human rights.
He has been
a member, since 1981, of the United Nations Sub-Commission
on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of
Minorities, is the Chair of the United Nations Working Group
on the Rights of Minorities, and was special rapporteur on
the right to food as a human right. He is also a member of
the Advisory Committee on the European Framework Convention
for the Protection of National Minorities.
11:00 SESSION
6
Responding to the Threat of Separatism:
H.E.
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Agus Widjojo
Former
Deputy Speaker of the
People’s Consultative Assembly, Indonesia
Lt. Gen.
(Ret.) Agus Widjojo graduated from the Indonesian Armed
Forces Academy in 1970. He attained the degree of Master of
Arts and Sciences from the US Army Command and General Staff
College in 1988 and Master of Science in National Security
from the US National Defense University in 1994. He received
his Master’s degree in Public Administration from George
Washington University. He has served with the Indonesian
Delegation to the ICCS Vietnam in 1973 and the Indonesian
Battalion of the UN Emergency Forces to Sinai, Middle East
in 1975. He held various field assignments while in service
with the Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) units,
reaching the rank of Colonel as Commander of the 17th
Airborne Brigade. He was the Commandant of the Defense Force
Command and Staff College, and also served as Assistant for
Strategic Planning and Budgeting, Senior Adviser on
Political and Security Affairs, and Chief of Staff for
Territorial Affairs to the Commanding General of TNI. He
served tours of duty in East Timor and Irian Jaya. He has
written a wide range of articles including, most recently,
South East Asian Views Towards Security and Strategic
Relations in the Asia Pacific Region (2001).
He was
Deputy Speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR),
representing the Military and National Police Faction, until
his retirement in March 2003. He is now a Senior Fellow of
the Centre for Strategic and International Studies,
Indonesia and a Visiting Senior Fellow of the Institute of
Defense and Strategic Studies, Singapore.
H.E. Ravi
Karunanayake MP
Minister of Commerce and Consumer
Affairs
Sri Lanka
Ravindra
Karunanayake is professional qualified as a Chartered
Management Accountant and made his mark in the corporate
world as Director and CEO of more than 30 companies. In
1994, he was the youngest Member of Parliament appointed to
the 10th Parliament of Sri Lanka from the
National List. He went on to be elected to the 11th
Parliament in the year 2000. In December 2001, he was
appointed Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
Ravi
has been a member of the parliamentary committees, which
drafted the Constitution for the Republic of Sri Lanka and
the legislative and regulatory framework relating to Media.
While in the opposition, he served as a consultative member
to the Ministries of Defence, Finance and Planning, Foreign
Affairs, Port Development Rehabilitation and Construction,
and as a Member of COPE (Committee on Public Enterprise).
H.E. Austin
Fernando MP
Special Advisor to the Prime
Minister on
Defence Affairs, Sri Lanka
Austin
Fernando, until recently, held the position of Secretary for
the Ministry of Defence in Sri Lanka, where he played a
major role in the resolution of the twenty-year ethnic
conflict in the country. He has been closely involved in the
rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in the Northern
and Eastern provinces of the country, especially in
coordinating such activities with the military.
Before
joining the Government of Sri Lanka, Mr. Fernando was
employed as an Executive Director at a prestigious
consultancy firm, Resource Development Consultants Ltd. In
this capacity, he played a leading role in numerous
development projects in Sri Lanka and abroad. He is a senior
professional with a combination of experiences gained in the
private sector and during his career of over 25 years in
public service. He has been Secretary to several Ministries,
most recently Defence and is currently Special Advisor on
Defence to the Prime Minister.
PART
IV. BREAKING OUT OF THE CONFLICT TRAP:
ECONOMIC GROWTH AND REGIONAL
COOPERATION
14:45 SESSION
7
Mr. V.L.
Elliott
Co-author, ‘Breaking the Conflict
Trap:
Civil War
and Development Policy,’
United States
Civil
Conflict and Development Policy
V.L.
Elliott is a co-author of the World Bank report, Breaking
the Conflict Trap. He is an economist, who has been
involved in the study of internal wars and instability since
the 1960s. Mr. Elliott spent much of his professional career
in the United States government, serving in the Executive
Offices of the President, the Departments of State and
Energy, the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental
Relations and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
His final government assignment was as Senior Policy Advisor
for the USAID Administrator’s Conflict Task Force. There, he
was the United States delegate to the OECD/DAC’s Informal
Working Group on Conflict, Peace and Development Cooperation
from 2000-2002.
Mr. Elliot
has participated in leading collective conflict research
communities and is currently assisting the Social Science
R3esearch Council on the economic study of civil wars and
instability. Mr. Elliot is working on a book tentatively
entitled, Cooperative order, Collective Violence: Why
Rational Men Rebel, a history of how economists have
thought about why cooperation breaks down with societies,
how order erodes and why a society moves into collective,
violent conflict.
16:00 SESSION 8
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
H.E. Lord John Alderdice
Deputy President, Liberal
International
Speaker of the Northern Ireland
Assembly,
United Kingdom
Liberalism
and Conflict Resolution
Lord John
Alderdice, a psychiatrist, joined the Alliance Party of
Northern Ireland in 1978 and became its Leader in 1987. He
led the party through the Multi-Party talks, which produced
the Good Friday agreement, seeking to address relationships
within Northern Ireland, between Northern Ireland and the
Republic. In 1998, he elected as a member of Belfast East
for the new Northern Ireland Assembly, which led to his
subsequent resignation as Leader of the Alliance Party and
his immediate appointment as Speaker of the Northern Ireland
Assembly.
He believes
in the importance of regional networks, such as the European
Union, for implementing concepts of conflict resolution in
an increasingly interdependent and globalized world. A
committed internationalist, he is currently Vice President
of the European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party (ELDR)
and Deputy President of Liberal International, the worldwide
federation of some 90 liberal political parties.
Friday,
12 December 2003
PART
V. VISIONS AND PROSPECTS FOR DEMOCRACY IN ASIA
SESSION 9
09:00 KEYNOTE
ADDRESS
H.E. Chuan Leekpai MP
Former Prime Minister of Thailand
Political Challenges for
Democracy in
Asia:
the Vision of CALD
Chuan
Leekpai is a lawyer from Trang province in the south of
Thailand. He began his political career in 1969 as
representative for Trang, a seat that he continues to hold.
He held many ministerial positions from 1975 onwards and
became Leader of the Democrat Party in 1992. He first became
Prime Minister of Thailand through the elections of 1992,
when the Democrat Party and other parties that had opposed
the military in the political crisis of May 1992 won with a
narrow majority. In the election of May 1995, the Democrat
Party was, however, defeated. But after the elections of
November 1997, at the height of the 1997 Asian Financial
Crisis, the Democrat Party formed a new coalition government
led by Chuan Leekpai, which led to his re-appointment as
Prime Minister, the very first time that this had happened
to an elected Thai Prime Minister.
In the
elections of January 2001, the Democrat Party was defeated
and Chuan Leekpai became the Leader of the Opposition. On
April 2003, he retired from that position and the leadership
of the party.
10:15 SESSION 10
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES
Building an Asian Democratic
Tradition:
H.E. Senator Franklin M. Drilon
President of the
Senate
Philippines
Franklin M.
Drilon left his law practice in 1986 to join the government
of President Corazon Aquino and served subsequently in
various executive positions under President Aquino and
President Fidel Ramos.
During the
1995 Senatorial campaign, Drilon ran on the slogan “Kontra
sa Krimen, Justice Agad,” a reminder of how, as Justice
Secretary, he spearheaded the crusade to bring to the bar of
justice the seemingly high and mighty. The people believed
in his cause, and elected him Senator. Immediately after his
election, Senator Drilon filed various measures designed to
speed up the trial of cases in the courts and strengthen the
free legal services to the poor. He also drafted other bills
for the benefit of the working class, on banking, housing,
and electoral reforms, to name a few. A former member of the
National Unification Commission, Senator Drilon now sits as
adviser to the government panel in the peace talks between
the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the
National Democratic Front/Communist Party of the
Philippines/New People’s Army (GRP-NDF/CPP/NPA).
H.E. Sam Rainsy MP
President, Sam Rainsy Party and
Leader of the Opposition, Cambodia
Sam Rainsy,
trained in business and economics and with extensive
experience in investment banking, was a founding member of
the FUNCINPEC party and was Finance Minister in the
coalition government that emerged in Cambodia after the
UN-supervised elections in 1993. His high profile views on
corruption, however, led to his dismissal from that post in
October 1994. In 1995, he formed the Khmer Nation Party,
which was forced, in early 1998, to change its name to the
Sam Rainsy Party in order to fight the 1998 elections, where
he was re-elected to Parliament and became Leader of the
Opposition. Sam Rainsy has a reputation for being a fearless
fighter against authoritarianism, corruption and abuse of
power. In the recent elections of July 2003, the Sam Rainsy
Party garnered the second largest number of votes.
The Sam
Rainsy Party became a member of CALD in 1999 and Sam Rainsy
chaired CALD from 2000 to 2002.
H.E. Marzuki Darusman
Former Attorney General, Indonesia
Marzuki
Darusman has a law degree from the University of
Parahyangan-Bandung. He was a Member of Parliament
representing GOLKAR (the Functional Group) from 1972 to
1992, where he was identified as a key leader of the
reformist bloc. He served as Deputy Secretary for Economics
and Finance of the faction, Vice Chairman of Committee for
Foreign Affairs, Defence, Security, Information and member
of the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,
Geneva.
He served as
Indonesia’s Attorney General under President Abdurachman
Wahid after the historic 1999 election until the fall of the
Wahid government in July 2001. A well-known human rights
advocate, having earned much respect and admiration for
establishing the credibility and independence of the Human
Rights Commission in Indonesia during the Suharto era, he is
currently one of the Chairmen of the Golkar Party in-charge
of human rights, judicial affairs and the environment, and
the Co-Chairman of the Regional Working Group for an ASEAN
Human Rights Mechanism.
12:00
SESSION 11
H.E. Anand Panyarachun
Former Prime Minister of Thailand
Chairman, “The United Nations
High-Level
Panel on Threats, Challenges and
Change”
‘Tasks and
Challenges of the United Nations
High-Level Panel on Threats,
Challenges and Change’
Anand
Panyarachun enjoyed a successful twenty-three year career in
Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during which he
served as Thailand’s Ambassador to the United Nations,
Canada, the United States and Germany.
He was Prime
Minister of Thailand twice and won the admiration of the
Thai people for he is seen as uniquely able to sustain the
momentum for reform and democracy in Thailand in a time of
crisis and military. While Prime Minister in 1991, he
proposed the establishment of the ASEAN Free Trade Area,
with the objective of eliminating trade barriers among ASEAN
members to promote greater economic efficiency, productivity
and competitiveness.
Following
his tenure as Prime Minister, he continues to dedicate his
life to public service and has served at the Chairman of the
Drafting Committee of the Constitution Drafting Assembly in
1997. His efforts there resulted in the adoption of a new
national Constitution for Thailand, a significant milestone
in the development of Thailand’s system of parliamentary
democracy. He was recently appointed by UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan to head the UN’s important new high level panel
on ‘Threats, Challenges and Change.’
12:45 CLOSING
CEREMONY
H.E. M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra MP
Chairman, CALD
Former Deputy Foreign Minister
Democrat Party, Thailand
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