CALD sends delegation to 3rd ASEAN People’s Assembly in Manila; Calls for Steps Towards Burma’s Transition to Democracy and Peaceful Resolution to the Post Elections Political Crisis in Cambodia

(September 24, 2003/ Manila, Philippines) For the second time, the Council of Asian Liberals & Democrats (CALD) sent an official delegation to the 3^rd ASEAN People’s Assembly (APA) in Manila, Philippines from September 25 to 27, 2003. APA is a project of the ASEAN Institutes for Strategic and International Studies.

An ASEAN Community of Caring Societies, APA 2003 was a general meeting of civil society groups from the ten member-states of ASEAN. More than 200 delegates attended this year’s assembly at the EDSA Shangri-la Hotel. As a people’s assembly, APA was aimed at serving as a vessel for articulating and conveying the people’s views and interests outside of the formal political channels. APA 2003 was organized not only as a follow up of the first two assemblies in 2000 and 2003, the 3^rd APA hoped to generate a set of people-oriented principles of governance as well as an action agenda for ASEAN as embodied in the APA Declaration.

CALD also held an Executive Committee meeting at the nearby Richmonde Hotel before the opening of APA. It unanimously passed two resolutions, which were presented to the APA, as follows:

(1)        CALD Resolution No. 3, S. 2003  welcoming the efforts of the international community to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders; appreciating the expression of concern by ASEAN at its Foreign Ministers Meeting in Phnom Penh regarding the situation in Burma; noting the efforts of individual ASEAN leaders, especially  the recent initiative by the current ASEAN Chair, Indonesia, to secure change in Burma; and urging ASEAN to actively pursue the necessary commitment by the SPDC to implement a step by step transition to democracy.

The CALD delegation was headed by its Chair, M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, MP, who also spoke in the plenary session which discussed the theme. Mr. Paribatra was the keynote speaker of the 2^nd APA in Bali, Indonesia held last August 30 to September 1, 2002. The other members of the delegation are Mr. Sonn Chhay, MP, of the Sam Rainsy Party; Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha, President of the Liberal Party of Sri Lanka; Mr. Chua Peng Song of the Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia; Mr. David Taw of the National Council of the Union of Burma; Ms. Huai-Hui Hsieh of the Democratic Progressive Party of Thailand and Mr. Gandhi Ambalam of the Singapore Democratic Party. Congressmen Florencio Abad and Nereus Acosta of the Liberal Party of the Philippines also attended some of the sessions and the Execom. Another member of the CALD Executive Committee, MP Ong Ard of the Democrat Party of Thailand who was there as part of Forum Asia, also joined the CALD delegation in some of its activities.

Aside from the CALD Chair, other speakers include Cambodian Parliamentarian Son Chhay who presented the ASEAN People’s Declaration for Cambodia and Philippine Representative Neric Acosta who presented the CALD resolution regarding Burma.

(2)        CALD Resolution No. 4, S. 2004 condemning any attempt by any party to use force in resolving the political impasse and appeals to all the political parties to arrive at a compromise in accordance with the Constitution; and urging His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk to bring his influence to bear upon the present political process to promote national reconciliation that is based on mutual respect, the rule of law and the will of the Cambodian people.

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This post was written by CALD