Transcript Southeast Asia: Tasks and activities of the Konrad

Southeast Asia: Tasks and activities of the
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung at a national
and international level
Dr. Peter Köppinger
Representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in
The Philippines,
-2 Introduction
Let me start my presentation with the question I had to
answer so many times during my thirteen years with KAS in
Southeast-Asia – the last time was last Sunday in Batangas
Province south of Manila:
Why are you present in Asia?
What are the intentions of KAS?
Are we idealists, looking for a better world?
Are we working for German political and economic profit and
interests?
-3The Asia Concept of KAS provides us with an answer:
• Only if the concepts of democracy, rule of law, social
justice and the respect for human rights will be accepted
and rooted in Asia, our European vision of a human
future will have a chance to be realized in a globalized
world and the legitime interests of German and European
people will be respected.
• That translates into: Yes, we are idealists. We, as
Christian Democrats, believe in the core value of
human dignity. But being idealists we work in the
best interest of the German people. And we believe
that we work also in the best interest of the people
here in the coutries of Southeast Asia.
This, of course, is not new for you as you have been in close touch
with the foundation already in the past.
-4I would like to have one short remark on the approach of the KonradAdenauer-Stiftung in it´s international work:
The KAS is a soft power.
• We do not have instruments to put pressure on decision makers in the
countries, where we work.
• We do not think that we know exactly how to solve problems in these
countries.
• We do not believe in one-to-one transfer of successfull models from
Germany or Europe to these countries.
• And we do not try to design and implement as foreigners blueprints for
the solution of problems in other countries.
What we do is: we work with partners. Political partners, cultural and
religious partners, partners in the academe, in civil society and
economic life.
And we work through dialogue, exchange of knowledge and experience,
joint research, joint piloting, joint capacity building.
-5On this background: How do we design „Democracy Promotion“ at
regional level in the diverse Southeast Asian Context:
Our Basic Problem: The diversity of Southeast Asia creates huge
challenges for a joint regional work
• Buddhist Culture dominating in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos,
Cambodia
• Islam the dominating religion in Malaysia, Brunei,
Indonesia and with relevant minorities in Thailand and the
Philippines
• Confucianism strongly influenced the culture in Vietnam
and Singapore,
• Catholicism and other Christian believes are dominating
the culture in the Philippines and influence relevant
minorities in Indonesia and Vietnam.
-6–
Do they have a joint value basis in human dignity? And
how can core values shared by these religions and beliefs
be translated into the concepts of democracy, rule of law,
social justice and good governance in the different
frameworks?
On top of these religious/cultural diversities we find
different political concepts: Peoples participation as a key
mechanism of governance in modern mass societies is
accepted in all countries. But the practical translation of
this prinicple into government and supervision systems
and mechanisms could not be more different than it is in
the different countries of the region. How do we take this
into account in our regional project approaches?
-7I will introduce to you one example: The project
„Partnership for democratic local governance in
Southeast-Asia“ co-funded by the European Union
The objectives:
• Increase democratic participation and improve governance
on local level all over the region;
• Create a sustainable regional network of local authorities,
local government associations, governance-focused NGOs
and academes on the improvement of democratic local
governance in the region;
• Capacitate Local Government Associations for the support
of their members in improving democratic local
governance through transnational best practice exchange
• Improve the legal and political framework for good local
governance in the countries of the region
-8-
The methodology: The carefully adapted replication of best
practice and success stories between local governments
of five countries in the region in the following thematic
fields:
• peoples participation in local decision making
• Institutional governance in local administrations (which
includes transparency, accountability, accessability,
effectiveness…)
• effective and inclusive public services delivery in
environmentally relevant fields
• transparent and effective public finance and investment
strategies
-9-
Who are the partners and key stakeholders:
• Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung as contractual partner of the
EU
• Local Government Development Foundation (Ph)
• Thai Environment Institute (Th)
• Union of Cities and Local Governments in Asia-Pacific
• 11 Local Government Associations in Cambodia,
Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam
• 16 Pilot Cities/Municipalities/Local Governments in the
five countries
The project started in March 2010 and will be finalized
late in 2012.
- 10 Let´s have a look now on Democracy Promotion at national
level in The Philippines
Basic problems: We have only a facade of democracy, high
levels of violence and impunity, 25% of population in absolute
poverty without improvment for decades
Data and figures:
• No. 58 out of 59 countries in GDP per capita and in
Scientific Infrastructure, no. 57 in Education and Basic
Infrastructure in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook
2011
• No. 136 out of 153 countries in the Global Peace Index
2011, down from no. 100 in 2007
• No. 134 out of 170 countries in the Corruption Perception
Index of Transparency International in 2010
• No. 3 world-wide in 2009, 2010 and 2011 in the Impunity
Index Rating of the Committee to Protect Journalists
- 11 How could this happen to a country which was considered
to be the first and freest democracy in Asia,
to be no. 2 behind Japan in it´s economic development in the sixties
of last century?
Here are explanations from two Philippine personalities with highest
reputation in the country – both for their analytical capacities as for
their personal integrity:
„This vicious politics of patronage has allowed few oligarchs and
bosses to rule us from colonial times to post colonial times and their
rule has brought us nothing but a facade of democracy … Democracy
after 1986, failed to lead to the development of a healthy party
structure in the country´s political system.“
Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno (September 2010).
- 12 -
„Oligarchic influence on the highest State organs enables powerful
individuals, families and clans to organize monopolies and cartels,
tilt the rules of competition in their favor and acquire privileged
access to the rents … generated by public investments.“
„Critics have turned to cultural factors for an explanation…But
politics can change a culture and save it from itself…Our problems
merely reflect structural defects in our political institutions. … Our
country still is governed not by laws, not by political institutions but
by political personalities…Because we have no stable political
parties that share an approach to governance, there is no continuity
in our public policies.“
General Jose T. Almonte, Former Security Advisor under
President Ramos (May 2010).
- 13 The answer of KAS to this situation: The project
„Promotion of the establishment of the Centrist Democratic
Movement Federation of the Philippines“
General objective:
To develop a relevant political force which endorses the reform of the political and
socio-economic system in a centrist-democratic orientation as it´s aim for which it
struggles day by day in the parliament, in the broad public and in dialogue with civil
society and the academe.
Specific objectives
(1) to create a living role model of a member based, program-oriented political party
with internal democratic procedures
(2) to provide young citizens with a credible tool to commit themselves for the
improvement of democracy, governance, rule of law and the change of the miserable
life of so many citizens
(3) to create the legal and political framework for a strong multi-party system in order
to brake the oligarchic political-economic combined structure and patronage culture
- 14 -
Approach of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
(1) Support for the nationwide establishment of a Centrist Democratic
Movement (CDM) on (congressional) district, regional, and national level
- eventually turning into a political party as a cristallization point for
Centrist Democrats in different groups and organizations all over the
Philippines
(2) Partnering in the establishment of a „Centrist Democracy Political
Institute“ (CDPI) with the mission of systematically supporting centrist
democratic policies, movements and parties in the Philippines through
capacity building, research, conceptual work and dialogue
(3) Cooperation with Centrist Democrats in all State bodies, institutions
and organizations in order to link them up with each other and to
achieve a critical mass for reform steps in legislation, politics, public
opinion.
- 15 Actual achievements:
(1) CD PoliticaI Institute established and fully operational, with Chief
Justice Puno (ret.) at the top and other public personalities with
highest reputation as members in it´s Advisory Board
(2) CDM established in 10 regional movements with about 900 dues
paying members covering the whole country; National Council of the
Federation operational, establishment of district chapters started 6
weeks ago, (until September 80 out of 230 expected to be
established)
(3) Clear programmatic orientation and strict internal democratic
procedures as fixed in the CDM Statutes are respected and honored
in all bodies of the movement.
(4) The movement is financing it´s core activities out of it´s obligatory
membership dues and from some small donations.
(5) Media reporting about CDM and CDPI has started, local centrist
politicians and first national parliamentarians became members
(6) Political Party reform bill and electoral reform bill under discussion
in the House of Representatives