CALD Adopts Statement on ASEAN Community in Parallel ASEAN Conference

The Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), which convened on 24-27 April 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the conference, “Regional Integration in Asia: What Can We Expect from the ASEAN Community?”, adopted a statement summarizing its stance on this regional project. The statement, composed of three sections corresponding to ASEAN’s political-security, economic, and socio-cultural pillars, was a product of intense discussions and deliberations amongst representatives of CALD member-parties, partners and conference resource persons. See here the full text of CALD Statement on ASEAN Community.

The host party, Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM), received the statement on behalf of the 2015 ASEAN Chair, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. PGRM President Mah Siew Keong, MP, who serves as Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Department, would ensure that the statement reach the 2015 ASEAN Chair.

Mah also delivered the conference’s keynote address, where he emphasized the importance of innovation in realizing the ASEAN Community. “To create a truly great common market, we need to harmonise how we promote innovation and create an eco-system for this innovation… We also need to push for a single ASEAN- wide eco-system for new ideas to thrive”, Mah said.

A panel discussion in Wawasan Open University officially commenced the conference on 24 April, followed by a welcome dinner hosted by PGRM. In the morning of the following day, the CALD Executive Committee Meeting took place where CALD member-parties discussed the pertinent issues and concerns relating to the organization.

In the afternoon of the same day, the conference proper started with the opening session, followed by Session I: Intergovernmentalism vs. Supranationalism: Comparing ASEAN with other Regional Projects and Session II: The ASEAN Political-Security Community: Diversity in Democracy? In his opening speech, Mr. Jules Maaten, Country Director of Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) Philippines Office, said: “ASEAN could be much better than what it is now. But if ASEAN wasn’t there, it should now be invented, especially given the self-assertion of China and globalization.”

On April 26, two sessions were held: Session III: The ASEAN Economic Community: Progress and Impediments and Session IV: The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community: Towards an ASEAN Identity? Commenting on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), Mr. Wan Saiful Wan Jan of Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) said: “Integration and liberalisation via AEC will help the region to grow.

But there are challenges towards integration. Unfortunately not many people are actually working to address these challenges.” He then proposed how organizations like CALD and Economic Freedom Network (EFN) could work together to respond to these challenges.

“The lessons learned from the implementation of the Community Blueprints offer valuable guidance on the vision and direction setting for our Community beyond 2015”, said Philippine Special Representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) Ambassador Rosario Manalo. “With issues increasingly becoming more complex and cross-cutting, the next phase in our Community-building milestone should see closer interaction and cooperation among the three Community pillars”, she added.