Transition to democracy
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,
It is a great pleasure to be here among you and I should start by thanking you for inviting me. The meetings we had in Taiwan in February and this meeting here demonstrate that the Caucus of Asian Liberal and Democrats is very much alive and kicking. This promises much for the future of liberal values in Asia.
In 1947, Liberal International started bringing together liberal parties from Western Europe and North America. Liberalism, and especially organised liberalism, did not exist in most of the rest of the world. In fact, democracy did not exist in most of the rest of the world.
We have made a lot of progress since then. By now the majority of countries in the world is democratic or is working to establish a democracy. This is reflected in the membership of Liberal International. We have an increasing number of member parties from Latin America, Africa and Asia and of course from the former communist countries in Europe.
Nevertheless, much work remains to be done. There are still massive infringements of human rights in many countries in the world. Free and fair elections are still not commonplace, as many of you in this room know very well. And there are still too many countries where to government plays too big a role in the economy, thus stifling economic development and perpetuating poverty.
Ladies and gentlemen,
On 26-28 October 2000 Liberal International will organise its annual congress in Ottawa, Canada. You will all receive an invitation for this congress soon and I urge you to attend. The meeting is hosted by the Liberal Party of Canada. This party is the largest political force in Canada and currently governing that country. The theme of our congress will be free trade.
Free trade would seem such a simple and logical concept but I'm afraid not everybody feels that way. During the WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle last December a coalition of environmental organisations and trade unions protested against the very concept of free trade. Apparently some of these people seem to think that Western protectionism would benefit Africa and Asia.
The realities, of course, contradict this. In 1947, India's share of global trade was estimated at 1.8%. Today, after 50 years of restrictive trade policies, it is less than half that, per capita income has stagnated at less than $500 and a quarter of the population lives in abject poverty. Those Asian countries that have opened their borders for goods and services have fared a lot better.
In Seattle not only NGOs were to blame. The European Union came to the ministerial meeting with its usual agenda of agricultural protectionism and the United States gave in to the pressure of their trade unions.
All in all, it is certain that we will have a range of very interesting discussions at our congress and I hope you will be there.
Dear Friends,
The theme of this conference is transition to democracy. I would not dare to lecture you on that. By the time I was born, in 1966 in the Netherlands, my country had been a democracy for generations. You, on the other hand, have ample experience of these political processes and I look forward to listening to you and learning. It will also be interesting to hear how, in your opinion, an organisation like Liberal International can make a contribution towards establishing strong democratic systems.
I was pleased to hear that CALD has decided to seek affiliation to Liberal International. I welcome this very much and look forward to closer and more frequent cooperation with you. I also think that some of the member parties of CALD should consider seeking affiliation to Liberal International. Certainly, we will have ample opportunity to discuss these issues in the next few days.
Perhaps I have not spoken enough about Liberal International itself. However, I think that you are familiar with our global liberal family and I will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have now, later in the programme or at some more informal moment.
Finally, I want to thank you again for the kind invitation and I look forward to three very interesting days. Thank you for your attention.
This is the text of a short speech at the opening of a conference of the Asian Caucus of Liberals and Democrats in Jakarta, Indonesia, 12-15 May 2000.
