1st Executive Council Meeting
Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International
Phnom Penh Accord
December 1, 2010
Phnom Penh
We, the leaders and delegates of the founding political parties and civil society organizations of the Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International (CAPDI), convened on 1st December 2010 for our First Executive Council Meeting in Phnom Penh, capital city of the Kingdom of Cambodia, under the auspices of the Cambodian People’s Party, to elect a set of officers and to draft and adopt by-laws of our organization.
Fortuitously, our inaugural meeting coincided with the 32nd Anniversary (2nd December) of the establishment of a Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation from the Genocidal Regime of the Khmer Rouge.’ This coincidence endowed our own deliberations on civil conflict, political evolution and democratic transition with added seriousness and significance.
OUR REASON AND OUR PURPOSE
Our parties have come together in the realization that never before has the Asia Pacific’s need to develop parties of the center been so urgent and so clear.
We must reject every type of extremist politics in favor of the politics of consultation, compromise and consensus. We must isolate and defeat those who espouse intolerance and hatred – those who advocate terrorism, separatism and conflict in the name of ideology and religion.
We need to prove that piecemeal evolution of the political system – rather than abrupt and violent change – gives representative institutions a better chance to take hold. And we need to restore to our fledgling democracies their meaning and their sense of purpose.
THE HOPES WE SHARE
These we declare to be the foundations of our purpose and our reason for being:
Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International is a grouping to which all Asian political parties and civil-society associations with a centrist orientation may adhere. CAPDI is an instrument of solidarity for the Asia Pacific community – linking our separate countries in economic, cultural, political and mutual security cooperation, while establishing linkages with the other regions of the world.
The hope we share is that CAPDI would evolve into a full-fledged Asia-Pacific centrist association and become a channel for political dialogue between our states, our political parties, civil society and people’s organizations.
As centrist political parties, we see our role as that of helping to broaden and to deepen Asian representative institutions. We believe democracy to be more than just a set of procedures for holding elections and passing laws. We regard democracy as a whole system of political and social beliefs, practices and values.
MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK
We welcome procedural democracy and guarantees of formal entitlements for citizens as a beginning - since we realize representative institutions need time to take firm root. But we believe authentic democracy to be possible only in a State subject completely to the rule of law. We see our central task as that of making democracy in Asia, the Pacific, and the other regions of the world work for everyday people—for the masses of citizens and not just for a privileged few.
REACHING OUT TO OTHER CENTRISTS
We intend to reach out to other centrist groupings: to cooperate fraternally with the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) and the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA); the Latin-American and Caribbean parties; the experienced and emerging political parties of a modernizing Africa; the mature political groupings of the United States and North America; the historic European political parties as well as with other regional organizations, to achieve inter-regional linkages.
We are committed to the intent and the spirit of the United Nations Charter; the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence; and the Ten Bandung Principles that emphasize multi-cultural unity, democracy, good governance, human security, individual rights, freedom, well being, and the rule of law.
COMMITMENT TO PEACE AND SECURITY
We are pledged to seek peace, security, stability and prosperity that will endure in our home continent.
In the context of growing political and economic multi-polarity, we undertake to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every state, and its right to determine its own political, economic and social system.
We are pledged to non-aggression and to non-interference in each other’s internal affair, and to the peaceful settlement of territorial disputes and adherence to treaties and to international law.
We favor arms control, disarmament and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We oppose all forms of extremism, separatism and terrorism.
We are committed to preserving maritime security and support the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (2002) and call on all its parties to observe this covenant faithfully. We also support a peaceful resolution of the issues such as the Iranian nuclear program and the Korean Peninsula, while endorsing all efforts for peace and stability in Afghanistan. We also announce the formation of CAPDI Peace Commission to promote environment of peace, stability and security in Asia by initiating and supporting negotiation and dialogue in various hot spots in the region.
We endorse the efforts of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to accelerate global progress toward the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We subscribe to the Kunming Declaration on Poverty Alleviation that calls for an Asian Anti-Poverty Fund and an Asian Micro-Finance Fund. In consultation with the Latin American and Caribbean political parties, and the African parties, we support debt-swaps for financing MDGs; and the debt-relief initiative that the U.S, the Europeans and Russia have undertaken in the past, and which Russia took note in ICAPP’s Kunming Declaration.
We realize acutely our continuing need to bridge the gap between the few who are rich and the many who are poor—and our need to strengthen the Asian middle class as the leavening element in national and regional society.
We believe our plural societies can learn and profit from their immense diversity. We believe fair, just and patient public policies can mitigate the culture of violence and promote the culture of peace among our peoples.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
We regard protection of the environment as our basic mandate. We realize the earth is not for any generation to treat as it pleases, but is held in trust for posterity. We’re also aware the ecological crisis has become a dire threat to our collective life. And, as always, it is the poorest countries that suffer the most from these ‘natural’ calamities generated by climate change, which may wipe out—in the twinkling of an eye—years of material gains won through patient husbandry, hard work and thrift.
We adopt as our own the Philippine proposal of a ‘debt-for-environment formula’ and a debt-for-equity program to finance the U.N. MDG’s for the 100 highly indebted middle-income countries. It offers creditor states and lending institutions the option of converting up to 50% or parts of the debt-service payments they receive into investor equity in environmental and anti-poverty programs in their debtor countries.
Toward a new economic ideology
Crises have been endemic in both capitalist and socialist systems. The Wall Street meltdown (2008) was a classic failure of unbridled capitalism, as the implosion of the Soviet Union was for totalitarian socialism. We believe a new economic system for the world in common may lie in a synthesis of the best elements of these competing ideologies. The individual enterprise capitalism stimulates – combined with socialism’s compassion for those whom development leaves behind – may well be the basic elements of a new economic ideology that will enable modern societies to escape their cycles of boom-and-bust.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Lastly, we express our deepest gratitude to the Cambodian People’s Party for hosting this First Executive Council Meeting of the Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International, which it graciously hosted even while managing assistance and relief of an accidental tragedy at a traditional national festival. We thank the Royal Government and the Cambodian people for their warm and spontaneous hospitality.
Adopted on December 1, 2010 in the capital city of Phnom Penh under the presence of Samdech Akkha Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen.
Chairman
Hon. Yusuf Kalla
Former Vice-President of Indonesia,
Former Chairman, Golkar Party
President, Indonesian Red Cross
Indonesia
President and Chief Executive
Hon. Jose de Venecia Jr.
Founding Chairman, International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP);
Former Five-time Speaker, Philippine House of Representatives;
Founder, Asian Parliamentary Assembly
Philippines
Senior Vice President
Hon. Sok An
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in Charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers;
Permanent Member of Cambodian People’s Party
Cambodia
Secretary General
Hon. Mushahid Hussain Sayed
Secretary General of Pakistan Muslim League-Q;
Chairman, Pakistan-China Institute;
Member, Commission of Eminent Persons,
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)
Pakistan
Hon. Konstantin Kosachew
Chairman of International Affair Committee of State Duma, United Russian Party;
Deputy Secretary for International Policy,
Presidium of the National Council
Russia
Hon. Keo Puth Reaksmey
Former Deputy Prime Minister;
President of Funcinpec Party
Cambodia
Hon. Chung Eui-yong
Co-Chairman & Secretary-General, International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP);
Former Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Democratic Party
Republic of Korea
Hon. Jiang Mingjun
Director for Climate Change Issues
Director-General of IESCO (International Eco-Safety Cooperative Organization);
Former Executive Director, UN Development and Planning Center
China
Hon. Chua Soi Lek
President, Malaysia-Chinese Association,
Coalition Partner in ruling UMNO alliance
Barisian National
Malaysia
Hon. Theo Sambuaga
Former Member of Parliament
Deputy Chairman of Golkar Party
Indonesia
Hon. Mukhtar Yerman
Head Deputy of Central Office,
A member of the Political Council
Nur Otan Party
Kazakhstan
Hon. Yusuf Kalla
Former Vice-President of Indonesia,
Former Chairman, Golkar Party
President, Indonesian Red Cross
Indonesia
Deputy Secretary General
Hon. Francis Manglapus
Indonesia
Deputy Secretary General and Concurrent Director for Asian Youth
Hon. Suos Yara
Under Secretary of State, Council of Ministers
Cambodia
Hon. Nurhayati Ali-Assegaf
Vice President, Women Parliamentarians Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU);
Vice-Chairperson, Foreign Relations Committee of Indonesia’s ruling
Democratic Party of Indonesia
Indonesia
Hon. Young Jun Kim
President, Global Peace Festival Convention
South Korea-USA
Hon. Raul de Mesa
Chairman, Philippine Bank of Commerce
Philippines
Hon. Chun Sik Lee
President, Alaska Seafood Industries
Korea
Hon. Yasril Anata Baharudin
Former Chairman for International Relations Indonesian Parliament
Golkar Party
Indonesia
Hon. Fernando O. Peña
Vice-President, LAKAS CMD
Philippines
Hon. HEdgardo Castro
Director for International Relations and Strategic Partnerships
Philippines
Hon. Danny Coronacion
First Executive Secretary of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP)
Philippines
Hon. Joey de Venecia III
Director for the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s);
Secretary-General; PDP Laban Party
Philippines
Hon. Kiyoshi Wakamiya
Deputy Executive Director
Director for Coordination, Japanese Political Parties
Japan
Hon. Francesco J. Paco Aziz
Chief Coordinator for Asia-Centrist Democrats International (CDI)
Spain
Hon. Ishikawa Hirotaka
New Komeito Party
Japan
Hon. Sisowath Sirirath
Second Deputy President
Funcinpec Party
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