People-to-people approaches to peace
HANOI - People-to-people dialogue has emerged as a process of addressing wide-ranging problems, such as terrorism, economic and social inequities, and rights violations, even as many governments have chosen to go to war instead of talking peace. The five-day conference of around 800 peace and economic activists at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) 5 People’s Forum spurred dialogues on three issues: peace and security, economic and social security, and democratization and people’s rights.
Peace and Security
The issue of peace and security has led to in-depth discussions on the enlargement of military alliances of world superpowers and the effects of “preemptive” actions being done against independent nations.
Muslim delegates have warned that the global fight against terrorism has turned into an attack against the Islamic community and further marginalization of their people. Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, president of the Malaysia-based International Movement for a Just World, said, “The ugly face of terrorism is seen in the face of horrified people in the massacre in Russia. Muslims should face up to this because Muslims do not resort to barbaric acts. While we don’t want stereotyping, we should stand up against it.”
The delegates concluded that the war on terrorism of many nations has led to curtailment of rights and freedom in many countries and further justified increases in military expenditures instead of spending money on health, education and human welfare. “In many countries, the escalation of conflicts rooted in social, political, economic, ethnic and religious tensions has led to curtailment of civil liberties and human rights, further undermining people’s efforts to progress toward greater human security and social justice,” said the final statement of the delegates. The delegates agreed to call on their respective governments in Asia and Europe to end their military involvement in Iraq, pointing out that the US government has not justified its attacks against sovereign nations.
Indian peace activist Achin Vanaik said terrorism is a universal problem demanding a universal response based on moral, political and emotional standards. He said the international community has a moral obligation to oppose the US-led war against many nations in the name of antiterrorism efforts that has led to the death of innocent civilians, mostly children, who have outnumbered the casualties of the September 11 attacks.
“You cannot condemn the terrorism of al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001, and then remain silent about the terrorism unleashed by the US government on Afghanistan and Iraq, or condemn suicide bombings by Palestinians and not the brutalities of the Israeli government,” said Vanaik. Vanaik also stressed that governments’ response to acts of terrorism should not be ‘Never again to my people’ but instead ‘Never again to any people’.
Ben Hayes of the London-based State Watch said the war on terrorism being waged by the European governments has resulted in the war on freedom and democracy. “Governments now equate popular protests to terrorism and institutionalized anti-Muslim as war on terrorism,” said Hayes. He said that since the EU adopted antiterrorism measures, there has been an 85 percent increase in the number of Asian people arrested in Europe on suspicion of being terrorists. The European Union has also listed 50 groups and individuals banned to enter the region for security reasons. The Union, he said, would not want to disclose these groups and the listing did not undergo dialogue or consultations with the people.
The Vietnamese government has urged international support for a stop in the wars of aggression and use of weapons that cause multiple and intergenerational disabilities such as Agent Orange or ‘Depleted Uranium’ sprayed by the US military in Vietnamese territories about 30 years ago. Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, former vice president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, said that even if the war against the US has been won by brave people’s soldiers guided by the Communist ideology, millions of Vietnamese adults are tormented by diseases and children die prematurely or live with birth defects.
“We are sincerely keen on striving, together with you, for a world of peace, nonuse of force and absence of threat to use force, respect for independence, sovereignty and equality among nations,” she said. The views and deep pain of Madam Binh, a veteran revolutionary who played a key role in the Vietnamese liberation from the US, was echoed by Hiroshima bombing survivor Murata Tadahiko. Tadahiko, who was five years old when the atomic bomb was dropped over the city of Hiroshima 59 years ago.
The US dropped an atomic bomb for experimental purpose and to prove its superiority over the Soviet Union on the onset of the nuclear age and US-Soviet cold war. It resulted in the death of 118,661 people and injuries to 79,130 others. A total of 3,677people went missing. A deep remorse still reigns in the heart of Tadahiko as he failed to help his sister Sachiko, whose peeled skin from her shoulder down was dangling at the tip of her fingers.
“The memory of my sister’s last moment with her cry, ‘Help me little boy, help me Setsu!’ and the feeling of guilt for leaving her behind has tortured me more and more as time went by. Though I try to tell myself, ‘You were just a little boy and it was impossible to help her,’ my heart is still filled with remorse,” Tadahiko said. As assistant director of the Hiroshima Federation of A-Bomb Sufferers, Tadahiko warned that some 30,000 nuclear weapons are still stockpiled in the world, each a thousand times more destructive than the bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “The Bush administration continues to conduct subcritical nuclear testing and tries to develop mininukes, rushing headlong into a nuclear war,” he averred.
Economic and social security
The delegates also warned that Asian and European economies now resort to transfer of control to the private sector of the essential services that decreases access and increases the vulnerability of millions of women, men and children. Labor restructuring in both regions has transformed workers into flexible, substitutable and disposable commodities. Women workers are the most vulnerable in this environment, the delegates declared.
“The European Union and the World Trade Organization-rooted agricultural policies, subsidies and agreements that favor corporate agribusiness are having severely detrimental effects on the lives and livelihood of millions of small-scale agricultural producers across Asia and Europe,” they said. Filipino delegates, led by economic activist Liddy Nakpil Alejandro, raised the issue of continuing pressure from the foreign creditors World Bank and International Monetary Fund to further cut public spending so that the Philippines can pay its debts.
The structural adjustment policies being imposed by these foreign lending institutions have led to a fiscal crisis in the Philippines that is expected to worsen in the next two years. These expense-cutting measures include reduced public spending, fewer services to the poor, increased user fees and privatization of services and utilities. “Many of these are illegitimate debts that even cause greater destruction to human lives, and the people should not be liable to pay for these loans,” said Alejandro.
Economic activist Walden Bello said the Philippines should be strong enough to face the fiscal crisis “head on” if it does not want to lose the battle. “The Philippine government should push for the centrality of debt restructuring and get the support of the European governments in ASEM,” said Bello.
The influential European Union would be helpful to the Philippines in negotiating with the foreign creditors like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, he said. “We call on all ASEM governments to position food safety, sovereign and access at the center of their agricultural policies in order to achieve food security for all. ASEM should ensure the end of agricultural dumping through trade-distorting export subsidies that affect small farmers’ livelihood in both regions,” stated the declaration.
Democratization and people’s rights
It must be a pain so grave that two nationals from Burma have experienced when they were forced to alter their nationalities just to be able to voice their people’s repression in the ASEM People’s Forum. Wearing a participant’s ID as a Canadian national, Harn Yawnghwe, director of the Euro-Burma Office, traveled to Hanoi to participate in the ASEM forum to call for international support for an end to the repression of the military regime.
Thin Thin Aung, secretary general of the Women’s League of Burma who traveled here as an Indian national, attended ASEM People’s Forum to gather signatures to retain the European Union position to refuse Burma’s military regime in the ASEM forum that could legitimize the dictatorship of the military government. “We urge the EU and ASEAN leaders to demand that the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) start a process of political reform, which must include the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo and all political prisoners before the ASEM Summit in October,” said Aung.
He said the European Union, which has been initially opposed to Burma’s entry to ASEM, should stick to its condition to the Burma military regime’s SPDC to release first Suu Kyi before Burma can be recognized in the ASEM. “The European Union should be a lot stronger in putting pressure on Burma’s military regime to release first Suu Kyi before it can join the ASEM,” said Yawnghwe in an interview here on Wednesday.
He added that the European Union, which agreed to accept Burma to join the ASEM Summit to be held here in October, is more concerned on the trade benefits from his country instead of helping it promote human rights and freedom. EU, which earlier opposed Burma’s inclusion to the ASEM, softened its stand to accept the politically troubled nation at the downgraded level of foreign minister instead of the Prime Minister. But this does not help the people of Burma who continue to suffer various rights abuses ranging from rape to torture and massacre.
“It [inclusion of Burma in ASEM] does not solve any problem of Burma. The effect of this to the people of Burma is that the military regime has gained international prestige and recognition despite its continued repression against the people,” he said. Debbie Stothard, coordinator of the Alternative ASEAN (Association of the Southeast Asian Nations) in Burma, said that since the inclusion of Burma in the ASEAN in 1997, the situation in that country insofar as rights abuses are concerned has worsened.
“The problem is that these two organizations, ASEM and ASEAN, turn a blind eye on the lack of legitimacy of the military regime to govern because they are more concerned on investments,” said Stothard in an interview here. She said that in 1995 Suu Kyi was freed, but in 1997, when Burma was included in ASEAN, the democratic leader was again placed under house arrest. Stothard said that despite continued lobbying with the ASEAN foreign ministers to help them stop the repression by the military regime, no sanctions have been imposed at the regional level. Meanwhile, the ASEM process, which encourages political dialogue, gave the activists time and opportunity to ponder on the relevance of their beliefs.
A member of the hardline Vietnamese Communist Party said democratization in many Asian neighbors has posed serious challenges to their Maoist principles and prompted them to ‘listen and talk to the people. Parliamentarian Ton Nu Thi Ninh, a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam, said there is now a wide rethinking of their Maoist principles as to whether they can still address the needs of the Vietnamese people. “When you are in power like the Communist Party of Vietnam, the temptation is to talk down and to devise a process, which is democracy in the making,” said Ninh. Besides being a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Madam Ninh is the ambassador to the European Union.
Ninh said the Communist principle of ‘doing good for the people’ may no longer be effective when the party does not listen to the changing needs of the people at the grass roots. Ninh added that the meetings with the ethnic minorities in the highlands of Vietnam resulted in the realization that party leaders should listen to the people. Ninh also disclosed that party members engage in many debates on whether Vietnam should now democratize. “The members of the Communist Party are now trying to pursue these challenges in trying to build democracy and people’s rights,” said Ninh.
However, she explained that Vietnam would not go on “the fashionable shift” to popular beliefs. “The Vietnamese people and the Communist Party also want democracy but want to do it their own way,” said Ninh.
Filipino rights activist Joel Rocamora said leftist groups in the Philippines that always criticize policies of the government should also democratize their ranks. “The Philippine political groups cannot talk about democracy without inner party democracy. We cannot continue to stay outside of the state and criticize it without doing anything to scale the heights of state power,” said Rocamora.
The delegates said ASEM economies should develop a dialogue between Asia and European governments on the role of participatory local governments in promoting sustainable development and democratic services in practice.
The ASEM People’s Forum delegates from Asia and Europe agreed that the repressive impact of the war on terrorism, globalization and unfair trade policies, as well as the political turmoil in Cambodia and Burma should spur them to continue to unite toward achieving a just and peaceful world.
By Estralla Torres - ABS CBN News - September 12, 2004
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