CALD General Assembly 2012

“POPULISM can either be a remedy or malady.”

So said Sri Lankan Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem at the CALD General Assembly Conference that was held 8-11 March in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Focusing on the “Populism Challenge to Liberal Democracy,” the conference tackled one of the most controversial issues in the world today: the revival of populism and its implication for democratic governance. But as Hakeem indicated in his keynote speech at the meeting, populism is not that easy to put in a box, and can be highly divisive and contentious issue.

This became evident as early as the first session, when CALD Secretary General Dr. Neric Acosta asked the participants to write a word or phrase they associated with populism. After the responses were categorized as positive, negative or neutral, the results showed that the participants were almost equally divided on the issue. Then again, some were of two minds when it came to populism. For instance, while Sam Rainsy Party’s Saumura Tioulong wrote “Hitler” as the word she associated with populism, she discussed populism in largely positive terms, even claiming that being attuned to the needs and wishes of the people is the “best (feature) of representative of democracy.” For her party, CALD Youth Chairperson Selyna Peiris, by highlighting the role of leadership in populism, arrived at the same conclusion: populism can either be a good or a bad, depending on the intentions or objectives of leaders who head populist movements.

The next two sessions were spent looking at regional or country experiences regarding populism, highlighting in particular the cases of Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Cambodia opposition MP Sam Rainsy discussed the situation in his country, where he said populism  has taken a “brutal, authoritarian form,” with Prime Minister Hun Sen now being the longest ruling dictator in the world. Liberal Party of Sri Lanka’s Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha, meanwhile, took a sub-regional comparative approach by comparing Sri Lankan populism with that of Pakistan and India.

Prof. Francisco Luis Perez, Exposito, a Spanish academic now based in Taiwan, then presented the Latin American case, emphasizing the factors that have led to the revival of populism in the region, such as low levels of education, social inequality, clientelism, weak political parties, corruption, and “Strongman worship.” Jules Maaten of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation Philippine Office wrapped up the Session Three by tackling the themes of contemporary European populism: fear (of Islam, immigrants, refugees), uncertainty and overwhelming complications. (brought by globalization, regionalization) and anti-establishment stance (against the European Union, common currency).

In the fourth session on populism and policy-making, former Foreign Affairs Minister of Thailand Kasit Piromya recalled former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s “dual-track approach of embracing both globalization and localization – and how the latter resulted in many populist policies that proved to be detrimental to the nation’s political and economic development. Choidorj Markhaaj of Mongolia’s Civil Will Party then related the “populist policy marathon” between the two major political parties in his country, and how this affected his party’s ideological position and electoral viability.

The relationship between populism and the media was the focus of Session Five. Perhaps unintentionally echoing his colleagues elsewhere in the world, Sri Lankan newspaper editor Feizal Samath noted, “Sri Lankan politicians have always used the media t promote their agendas, populist or otherwise, some better than the others.” But when Singapore Democratic Party’s Dr. Vincent Wijeysingha reminded the participants of populism should be — “Populism must represent the popular will, rather than pandering to special interests in society” – it was obvious that the special interests included the media, along with those who use the media for their particular interests. Rounding up the session Kasit who discussed how the media and political entrepreneurs could be used to counter populism in Thailand, high-lighting the fact that the media is a dual-edged sword that could be used to advance or hinder populism.

The last session returned to the relationship between populism and democracy and how a symbiotic relationship could be forged between the two. Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan’s Hsieh Huai Hui focused her presentation on her party’s primary system, which, starting 2010, has been based entirely on public polls. Then she put this question on the table: Could such a system be labeled populist or could it be considered as an effective mechanism to gauge electoral success? Bringing up the rear in the session, though, was Gaku Kato of the Democratic Party of Japan, who made his position on the populism-democracy nexus very clear: (Populism) cannot bring any solution for real politics. It only caused the disorder of the society in the long run even though it may help to break though a stagnant situation in the short run.”

And so the CALD General Assembly Conference ended with most participants expressing great interest on populism, but not necessarily agreeing on whether it is positive or negative, remedy or destructive. Yet the mere fact that questions were raised, debates ensued, and interests were awaken are reasons enough to reconsider the conference to be a huge success.

Participants

Cambodia:
Kong Korm
Sam Rainsy
Son Chhay
Samura Tioulong

Indonesia:
Ihsan Yunus

Japan:
Gaku Kato

Malaysia:
Jayanthi Balaguru
Chia Kwang Chye
Ng Lip Yong

Mongolia:
Choidorj Markhaaj

Pakistan:
Chaudhary Usman Ali

Philippines:
Neric Acosta
Jat Caringal

Singapore:
Vincent Cheng
Vincent Wijeysingha

Sri Lanka:
J Caasim
Chandrani
Romesh Fernando
Laxmi
Kamal Nissanka
Newton Peiris
M Ranjan
Shalini Senanayake
Anada Stephen
Rajiva Wijesinha

Taiwan:
Huai-hui Hsieh

Thailand:
Kasit Piromya

Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom:
Jules MAaten
Asit Prueangwet

International Network of Liberal Women:
Christine de Saint Genois

Categorised in: Conferences & Workshops

This post was written by CALD