CALD 2018 Annual Report: Realizing Freedom

R E A L I Z I N G F R E E D O M

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MESSAGES From the outgoing CALD Chairperson, Abhisit Vejjajiva From the incoming CALD Chair Party DPP, Cho Jung-Tai From the CALD Women’s Caucus Chairperson, Jayanthi Devi Balaguru From the CALD Youth Chairperson, Siripa Nan Intavichein

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CALD PROJECTS 7th CALD Party Management Workshop CALD Executive Mission to South Africa CALD Youth Political Academy 2018 CALD 25th Anniversary Events

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SPEECHES A Toast to an Enabler of Freedom, by Abhisit Vejjajiva Less Talk, More Action Needed on Climate Change , by Kiat Sittheeamorn Keeping the Freedom Agenda Alive, by Leni Robredo Geopolitics, Human Rights, and Fundamental Freedoms, by Rosario Manalo Demystifying Technology and Collaborative Governance, by Audrey Tang New Tools and Thinking for the Next 25 Years, by Abhisit Vejjajiva Getting Political Parties Restarted, by Florencio “Butch” Abad IT for the Win, by Han-Seok Ko Towards a Stronger, Better INLW, by Jayanthi Balaguru

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Q & A DJ Nana — Social Media Can Be Positive Audrey Tang — Radicalizing Transparency

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C A L D 2 5 TH A N N I V E R S A R Y H I G H L I G H T S

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MEMBER PARTY HIGHLIGHTS

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RESOLUTIONS

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STATEMENT & LETTERS

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BULLETIN Democracy activists push back against authoritarianism Call for the release detained Philippine Senator de Lima CALD takes to the power of the pen CALD joins liberal meeting in the Caribbean

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SPEAKERS AND SESSION CHAIRS

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MEMBER PARTY PROFILES

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ABOUT CALD

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C H A I R P E R S O N

Listening More & Getting Our Message Across

by Abhisit Vejjajiva

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BY THE time you read this message, the CALD chairmanship would have already revolved from the Democrat Party (DP) of Thailand to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan. We wish the DPP the very best as it leads Asia’s foremost liberal and democratic party network in the next two years. It appears that Liberals and Democrats will continue to face many difficult challenges ahead, so a close-knit network like CALD would remain to be a source of strength and inspiration for many of us who fight to keep the principles of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law alive in our societies.

When DP assumed the CALD chairmanship in November 2016, we recognized the challenges that Liberals and Democrats confront amidst the resurgence or strengthening of populism, illiberalism, authoritarianism, and extremism in Asia and in other parts of the world. For this reason, we set, as CALD’s strategic agenda during our chairmanship, to reinvigorate, relate, and reclaim. We thought that our network should be in the forefront of efforts to reinvigorate liberal values and principles and to relate them to the needs of the people, so that we, as Liberals and Democrats, can reclaim our place as the true champions of the people.

Guided by this strategic vision, CALD participated actively in the drafting of the so-called Andorra Liberal Manifesto in 2017 – a collective effort to

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bring the 1947 Oxford Manifesto that established Liberal International into the 21st century. Our contributions to the Manifesto centred primarily on continuing social and economic injustices, and how these resulted in the rise on various threats to liberalism such as populism, authoritarianism, and terrorism. We also recognized in our discussions that while the market system continues to be the most powerful force for creating prosperity, it does not automatically guarantee a fair distribution of wealth and ensure economic and social justice. Given the glaring disparities in wealth among and within Asian countries, we cannot just turn a blind eye to this limitation of the market economy.

In the past, our perceived indifference to social and economic inequities led to allegations that we were not really concerned about the issues that matter to ordinary people. We were perceived as elitists — as too detached from the bread-and-butter issues that concerned our people on a daily basis. We were also criticized for being inflexible and for being process-oriented, which are oftentimes equated with ineffectiveness. In politics, we know, of course, that perception is reality. Unless we change these perceptions, it would be very difficult for us to connect to the people. Changing popular perception entails learning how to communicate better. Political communication, in turn, relies heavily on emphatic listening.

For this reason, in the past two years, the capacity-building workshops of CALD – on party management, political communication, women, and youth – focused on the need for Liberals and Democrats to listen more to the people, and to convey our messages well. For sure, these have become more difficult in the era of post-truth politics, where fake news and disinformation campaigns proliferate and make the collection, vetting, and processing of information a tedious task. Nonetheless, we need to get our messages across – and they have to resonate.

Otherwise, we would have already lost the battle even before it started.

from establishing CALD’s regional profile, these op-eds are also one of our ways to communicate to the general public the continuing relevance of liberal and democratic principles and values.

As the CALD leadership moves into the capable hands of the DPP, we offer them our steadfast support and cooperation in making liberalism and democracy endure and prosper in Asia and in other parts of the world. The road ahead remains perilous, but as a liberal and an optimist, I am confident we will triumph in the end.

In recent years, Liberals and Democrats appear to be losing the battle for people’s hearts and minds.

The populists have hijacked democracy, and claimed to be the true representatives of the people. In this context, it becomes imperative for us in CALD to make our voices heard, and to reassert that we genuinely work for the people’s interest. We have to convince the people that liberal and democratic principles and values, translated into the right policies, continue to be the best way to achieve a secured and prosperous society. In this regard, CALD launched the Silver Lining Series during its 25th anniversary celebrations in 2018. The series is a collection of opinion pieces that reaffirms our unwavering commitment to democratic governance, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law. Apart

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Collective Actions in Bridging Differences

by Cho Jung-Tai

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IT IS a great honour for the Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan to take up the CALD Chairmanship.

I would like to take this chance to congratulate the outgoing Chair, Hon. Khun Abhisit Vejjajiva, and the Democratic Party of Thailand for doing a great job in promoting democratic and liberal values not only in the Asia Pacific region, but also to other continents in the world.

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As we embark into 2019, we continue to face criticism against liberalism and democracy, while the benefits and achievements these have brought have been undermined. There is widespread dissatisfaction and insecurity that have taken different forms in different countries. Globalization is overshadowed by populism, propelled by current global challenges in technology disruption and digital revolution.

Changes in technology, rise of winner-take-all markets, income inequality — all have played their part in plunging our world into the chaos it is in today.

In the meantime, the risks and uncertainties of climate change are posing other big threats to the global society. The stakes are massive in just about every sector — economics, science, social, and politics. These profound challenges make it more imperative for the liberal community to take leadership, with coordinated and collective actions, to ensure the sustainability of the world we live in.

We also have democracies struggling in the digital age. Authoritarian countries are using censorship and surveillance to restrict citizens from gaining correct information and freedom of speech. Liberals now need to take a more proactive role to counter and prevent online manipulation, protecting data ownership, setting appropriate rules and regulations, and educating the citizens of populist and antidemocratic leaders who often consolidate control over information and suppress dissent.

Looking forward, CALD would need to expand strength and cooperation to address and bridge differences and its members and partners to collectively take concrete actions to bring about significant improvements in building stronger and more inclusive communities in the different continents of the world.

I would like to thank CALD partners and friends, including the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Liberal International and many others in the liberal family with identical values and goals, for their strong support and commitment. Ultimately, we will continue to engage in more dialogues and crafting a realistic and relevant agenda that allow liberals to move on and forward.

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The Work Continues

by Jayanthi Devi Balaguru

THE COUNCIL of Asian Liberals and Democrats was founded to give liberals and democrats in Asia a platform where their issues can be tackled – having found discussions in liberal gatherings wanting in terms of nuance and representativeness.

As the Chair of the CALD Women’s Caucus, I am pleased that in the recent year we have taken concrete and positive steps in order to make CALD Women’s Caucus truly representative in composition and global in terms of outlook. By strengthening cooperation with regional networks particularly the International Network of Liberal Women (INLW), we have made significant contributions in the globalization of liberalism.

It is important that we strengthen the relations with each other and fellow women leaders. We should be able to work together despite our differences. This can only be achieved if we operate in an environment characterized by camaraderie, openness, and mutual respect.

We should do more immersion programmes, exposure trips, even partnerships with grassroots women organizations. We should not remain in our comfort zone, and go above and beyond our capacity to improve the lives of women all over the world.

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Our work, however, is far from over. Given the rise of populism, illiberalism, and authoritarianism all over the world, we now have the more difficult challenge of expanding liberal and democratic values not only within the confines of our organization, but more importantly, to the general population – to the people we serve. For a time after the end of the Cold War, we thought that the great ideological debate had been settled, and liberal democracy had already won universal acceptance. Yet now, more than ever, liberal and democratic values that we hold dear are assailed on all fronts, all over the world. And I believe we all know the implication of that: a less liberal world is detrimental to the cause of women.

Now more than ever, we must continue our challenges to put the organization at the forefront of the struggle for a more democratic, liberal, and gender-equal world.

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Keeping Up with Change

by Siripa Nan Intavichein

IN 2017, the youth arm of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats embarked on a redefined venue for young liberals to convey the message of youth participation in the democratic and liberal struggles of political parties across Asia in an imaginative, inspiring, and innovative way.

This continuous effort of CALD Youth to dance to the tunes of change has led to a growing community of young leaders who are dedicated to progress and development that stream down to their respective communities and fields of profession.

I am Siripa Nan Intevichein, your new CALD Youth Chairperson.

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I came to Indonesia for the second CALD Youth Political Academy (CYPA) as a young member of the Democrat Party of Thailand, representing not only my party, but my entire country. I went home as CALD Youth’s new chair, and for most of my journey so far, I have felt challenged, more than pressured.

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Now, I do not only represent my party in a pool of equally competitive and well-known political personalities, but I represent the whole of young Asian liberals in this continent and beyond.

The youth today is confronted with a lot of challenges. In many instances, the broader society fails to realize the potentials that the youth may bring on the table.

Like in no other era in human history, the youth of today seems to be more aware of their rights, responsibilities, and privileges as citizens of their respective countries, and of the world. We have become more

aware, more responsible, more ambitious, more driven to make a change, and leave our marks.

But we face many problems, among them the lack of employment opportunities, failure to succeed or even enter the academe, family, materialism, negative stereotyping, crimes, pressures of social networking, mental health — primarily, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, et cetera. These problems have increased dramatically, but the awareness has also increased exponentially.

These are the most talked-about issues among today’s youth, thanks to social media. The masks concealing these topics are dropping off, and people are starting to come out, sharing their stories, making empowering remarks.

The youth may need guidance and direction, but the one thing we definitely need now is to be heard. We need to be able to speak up in a more constructive environment to address these issues. We need a society that accepts us and the change we want to bring, even if we do not achieve the perfection many of our elders expect of us.

This March, Thailand will finally get a taste of the elections we have all been craving for in over a decade of military dictatorship. The role of the youth is not to be ignored. Political apathy has long been linked to our country’s young, but we in the NewDem and all of Thailand’s youth have paced ourselves significantly. We put the word ‘change’ to justice, and will not let our democratic journey suffer another delay.

This much-awaited vote could be swayed by young people. Most of us are newly politicized and active in a way rarely seen since the government disabled pro-democracy movements in the ‘70s. Voters from 18 to 35 years old now make up almost a quarter of the electorate of over 50 million and in which seven million are eligible voters for the first time.

This is a great manifestation of how the youth gives importance to democracy: Because for us, it is more than a potential transition to a new administration involving traditional politicians. It is a chance to protest against dictatorship, and is a vital element in defining our future.

In and with CALD Youth, I hope that I will be able to channel these changes, together with the other officers, and the Secretariat.

I am aware about my predecessors’ legacies in CALD Youth, and confidently, I know that the new set of officers, on my watch, will do well.

With the growing population of this arm, I will keep my promise to mainstream our region’s issues to the greater international youth arena, and deepen our ties with the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) and beyond, not only to build smarter and more strategic partnerships, but also to be an asset to these networks.

As we continue to keep up with change, we will cultivate what is already fertile within our potentials so that we can bring out the values of CALD Youth to others, and make them more imaginative, inspired, and innovative.

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7th CALD Party Management Workshop 7-11 JUN

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TAIPEI, TAIWAN

CALD’s opening activity for the year explored lessons drawn from the experiences of member parties, as well as those of South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA). Taking the spotlight were best practices in terms of political management, professionalization of the party, branding, and leadership development.

The workshop participants included CALD member-organization leaders, party managers, and senior staff members involved in party operations, communications, and campaigns. The event was hosted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan.

CALD Executive Mission to South Africa 29 SEPT – 5 OCT

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JOHANNESBURG & CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

Focusing on the theme “Forging South-South Cooperation Among Political Parties,” CALD took a trip to South Africa to see up close just how the Democratic Alliance went from political bottom to becoming the country’s official opposition party. In particular, the CALD delegation looked into DA’s polling, communication, and public-relations operations, as well as other aspects of political-party management.

The mission was hosted by DA, with support by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation Africa.

CALD Youth Political Academy (CYPA) 2018 17-22 OCT

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JAKARTA, SEMARANG, & YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA

Organized in cooperation with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the 2018 CALD Youth Political Academy sought to equip participants with the fundamentals of strategic visioning, effective communication, and innovative change management, which they could then use to craft and implement green policies. CYPA also paved the way for a newly organized and reinforced CALD Youth to serve as a primary training ground for young liberals and promising leaders in Asia.

CALD 25th Anniversary Events 17-21 NOV

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BANGKOK, THAILAND

A five-event celebration was how CALD marked its 25th founding anniversary, with all the activities taking place right where CALD started — Bangkok. Beginning with the CALD 2nd Climate Change Adaptation Seminar, the Council then powered through four other major activities in a span of three days: the 38th CALD Executive Committee Meeting, 8th CALD-ALDE Summit, 25th CALD Anniversary Public Conference, and the 12th CALD General Assembly. The Democrat Party (DP) of Thailand hosted all the activities, which had as an overall theme “Reclaiming Democracy, Rebuilding Society”. The celebration was yet another way CALD showed its belief in the continued process of consolidating democracy, and its determination to help build strong institutions and empower the people.

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7th CALD

Party Management Workshop 7-11 JUNE

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TAIPEI, TAIWAN

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“IF YOU are not telling your story, then who is?”

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That was one of the questions posed by leadership development expert Marike Groenewald at the 7th edition of CALD’s party-management workshop held in June in Taiwan’s capital Taipei. With the workshop’s theme “Best Practice Sharing on Political Management, Branding, and Leadership Development”, CALD had set out to explore the fundamental lessons drawn from the experience of South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance. The DA is a member of Liberal International (LI), in which CALD is a cooperating organization. Groenewald, a former executive director of DA’s Development, Learning, and Training, facilitated the workshop, which was organized with FNF support.

Almost two dozen delegates from 10 CALD member-parties participated in the workshop. Day One had the participants analyzing the visions, strengths, and weaknesses of CALD member-parties, as well as examining as a case study DA’s journey as a political party. Day Two meanwhile concentrated on political branding and included a session on party ‘brand guide’ development. (A brand guide is a document that helps people in the organization to apply the party brand consistently and correctly.) It was at this session when Groenewald posed her question on who was telling the party’s story, as it became apparent that many parties in Asia were still struggling to make their party brand familiar, appealing, and understandable to the public.

Pointed out Groenewald: “You need to be on message, in

volume, over time. Also, remember that if you are not telling a story, you are still telling a story.”

Warwick Chapman quipped in his Zoom session, “The birthplace of innovation is vulnerability.”

Apart from political context and branding, the participants also discussed innovations on political management and becoming a learning organization. Hearing about the experiences of other political parties proved to be very helpful for the participants. Senia Ng, community officer of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, shared, “I learnt a lot from other participants, in particular about the challenges we are facing in this era and what strategies we should take to get through this difficult time.”

Indeed, with liberal and democratic parties feeling vulnerable to attacks from populist and illiberal forces nowadays, the workshop reminded the participants that this is also the time for them to reform. “The reason why we can win now, why we can be better than the opposition party, is because we have devoted our energy to develop young talents,” said Hung Yao-fu, Secretary General of the host party, the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan. “The DPP as a political party has been focusing on empowering youth members and the younger generation. We have put many resources to help them grow and be stronger.”

PARTIC I PANT S CALD SECRETARIAT Arlegue, Celito Casem, Micah Zamora, Paolo

FRIEDRICH NAUMANN FOUNDATION Reinartz, Armin

CAMBODIA NATIONAL RESCUE PARTY Seng, Mardi

INDONESIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF STRUGGLE Nababan, Putra Sitorus, Deddy Yevri

CIVIL WILL GREEN PARTY Bayarkhuu, Amar Tsetsenbaatar, Tsetsenchimeg

LIBERAL PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES Lopez, Ted Sison, Karry

DEMOCRAT PARTY THAILAND Neangjumnong, Soravuth Sooktinthai, Boonyod

NATION AWAKENING PARTY Bawazier, Saleh Ali Sarman, Destinal Armunanto

DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF HONGKONG Ng, Senia

PARTI GERAKAN RAKYAT MALAYSIA Petra, Raja Sara Ling, Chong Siew

DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE PARTY TAIWAN Lo, Chih-Cheng Lu, Jack En-Kuang Lu, Pei-Wen Yang, Li Chen, Yi-An

SINGAPORE DEMOCRATIC PARTY Yee, Wong Souk Hong, Yeo Poh

DA’s journey from being “a party of irrelevants” to being South Africa’s main opposition party, for instance, became a source of inspiration and encouragement for many participants. The party found itself in difficult situations many times, but as its executive director

The historic Grand Hotel Taipei served as the venue of the CALD workshop. The walls of the 66-yearold hotel surely have many stories

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to tell, including the founding of DPP more than 32 years ago, which was why it was included in the participants’ study tour on the workshop’s Day Three. Another significant tour stop was a visit to the National Museum.

7TH CA LD PART Y MAN AGEMENT WOR KSH OP

The tour was a relaxing cap to what many participants described as a fruitful workshop. Remarked Ted Lopez, Training and Operations Deputy Director of the Liberal

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Party of the Philippines: “The Taipei workshop gave me a lot of insights on how we can adjust our programmes and directions.

These would be important in sharpening our focus, particularly in our branding and organizational development.”

RESULTS 1. Formulated a brand guide for the participants’ respective parties 2. Profiled the participants’ strengths and skills in their respective fields to facilitate networking 3. Learned the best practices on political management, branding, and leadership development from the Democratic Alliance party of South Africa

CALD

Executive Mission

to South Africa 29 SEPT – 5 OCT

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JOHANNESBURG & CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

ASIA AND AFRICA are two continents that appear to mirror each other’s issues and problems.

From the role of money in politics to the violation of the principle of checks and balances to expand executive power, these regions in the so-called ‘Global South’ seem to be more connected than what people tend think.

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The Asian delegation, composed of representatives from CALD member-parties in Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, and Hong Kong,

was particularly interested to learn from the journey of the Democratic Alliance (DA), which had progressed from having only 1.6-percent popular support to being South Africa’s main opposition party. And so for nearly a week, the CALD delegation was treated to lectures and talks not only about South African politics, but also on almost everything about DA – its history and operations, from campaign to communications, to marketing and polling. Stopping first at Johannesburg and then on to Cape Town, the delegation also visited the Apartheid Museum and the South African Parliament, and DA’s campaign headquarters, among others.

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For this reason, and in the spirit of ‘South-South Cooperation’, CALD organized a high-level executive mission to South Africa in late September to early October. The CALD delegation was led by no less than CALD Chairperson Abhisit Vejjajiva and CALD Secretary General Kiat Sittheeamorn, who both recognized the benefits of having the two regions learn from each other’s best practices and experiences.

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PARTI C I PANT S CALD SECRETARIAT Arlegue, Celito Zamora, Paolo CAMBODIA NATIONAL RESCUE PARTY Rainsy, Sam DEMOCRAT PARTY THAILAND Sereewatthanawut, Issara Sittheeamorn, Kiat Sooktinthai, Boonyod Vejjajiva, Abhisit DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF HONGKONG Lo, Kin-Hei DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE PARTY TAIWAN Chung, Grace FRIEDRICH NAUMANN FOUNDATION Bannach, Katrin PARTI GERAKAN RAKYAT MALAYSIA Balaguru, Jayanthi Devi

CALD E XECUTI VE M ISSIO N TO SOU TH AFRI CA

SINGAPORE DEMOCRATIC PARTY Chee, Soon Juan

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As told by the party’s officials and insiders themselves, the process that DA underwent was difficult — but not impossible to get through, apparently. Portrayed by the government as the party that “wants to bring apartheid back”, DA countered the divisive politics of race by professionalizing the organization and making good governance the core of the party.

DA invested on setting up its research infrastructure and on organizational/people development so that it could deliver its message effectively. Pointed out DA Chief Strategist and Campaigns Director

Jonathan Moakes: “The party has a strong messaging component based on message discipline, emotional connection and micro-targeting.

We also believe in the principle of repetition and delivering the message over and over again to a target audience.”

Associating DA with good governance has been another key strategy.

Hence, when the party won Western Cape, the objective was to make the province “a springboard for what the DA can do”, said DA Chairperson of the Federal Executive James Selfe. The party also emphasized the role that it plays as political

opposition in ensuring government accountability. Paraphrasing Nelson Mandela, Selfe said, “The opposition should not be despised because it is the mirror where we see ourselves.”

Reflecting on the outcome of the mission, CALD Chairperson Abhisit Vejjajiva observed, “The CALD delegation learned a lot. We have seen how the party values professionalism and innovation in its daily operations. We are elated to learn about the robocalls, nationwide polling, door-to-door campaigning, and the science that the party places in data and information. Indeed, we

are not surprised why the party has gone from strength to strength.”

The CALD delegates and their South African hosts concluded the mission convinced that, as DA Chief Whip in the Parliament John Steenhuisen noted, “the liberal project remains as relevant in our countries today as ever before”.

He added, “It is only the liberal democratic solutions, policies, and approaches that offer a future of hope and prosperity and a ladder of opportunity for our citizens.”

RESULTS 1. Learned the professional and innovative strategies to run a political-party campaign and operation as an opposition 2. Held a bilateral dialogue between the leadership of CALD and the Africa Liberal Network 3. Forged stronger cooperation and partnership with the Democratic Alliance party of South Africa 4. Learned about the best practices of DA-led local governments on environmental and resource issues

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CALD Youth

Political Academy 2018

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17-22 OCT

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JAKARTA, SEMARANG, & YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA

THE FUTURE of today’s youth depends not only on their elders’ actions and decisions, but also on how they themselves handle the present. To this end, CALD Youth wanted to see how it could help its members have a deeper understanding about the relationship between climate change and leadership. And so for 2018, CALD Youth Political Academy went green and more, taking on the theme “The 3 I’s of Leadership: Imagine, Inspire, Innovate, for the Environment”.

Organized in cooperation with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, CYPA edition 2018 took place in late October in three major cities in Indonesia: Jakarta, Semarang, and Yogyakarta. Semarang in particular was chosen because it is one of Asia’s pioneers in climate-change adaptation and resilience and could inspire the CALD Youth delegates into creating green programmes and policies suited to their respective communities.

Over 30 delegates from the CALD network joined the CYPA in Indonesia, with a welcome dinner kicking off the event in Jakarta on 17 October. The next day had the delegates visiting the PDI-P headquarters, as well as the Indonesian House of Representatives. They also had a chance to meet PDI-P Secretary General Hasto Kristiyanto, who noted that the party’s efforts to be up to date with the times have helped it build awareness among the country’s youth.

“PDI-P has dedicated itself to change, innovation, and creativity,” Pak Hasto said. “That’s how we became the most popular party among the millennials. We are the oldest [political] party in the country, and yet we have been the most digital.” This prompted CALD Secretary General Kiat Sittheeamorn, who was part of the CALD delegation, to quip, “We do not have to go far to look for a successful party management, just go to Indonesia, and visit the PDI-P headquarters.”

Day One of the Academy proper had the delegates meeting some of Indonesia’s young entrepreneurs as well. This session was aimed at showing how the youth, with clear vision, effective communication, and innovative approaches, can bring change in a developing nation that is still very traditional in many ways.

By 19 October, the delegates was headed for the port city of Semarang, where for two days they had workshops focused on strategic visioning, effective communication, and sustainable management. Speakers for the session on communication were young leaders and decision makers

PA RT I C I PA N T S CALD SECRETARIAT Angosta, Alden Vincent Frias, Audrie Janolo, Julienne Panday, Francis Miguel CAMBODIA NATIONAL RESCUE PARTY Seng, Mengbunrong Chen, Sokngeng CIVIL WILL GREEN PARTY Narangerel, Altanbayar Altanerdene, Uyanga

DEMOCRAT PARTY THAILAND Vikitsreth, Pornphrom Intavichein, Siripa Nuttasophon, Kobthong

LIBERAL PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES Padilla, Harvey Tomas, Jeremiah

DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF HONGKONG Chu, Leo Chi-Fung, Ted Hui Shum, Daniel

NATIONAL AWAKENING PARTY Habiburrohman, Muhammad

INDONESIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF STRUGGLE Rodiah, Leni Binta, Suci Astuti, Dwi

NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR DEMOCRACY Soe, Wyne Maung PARTI GERAKAN RAKYAT MALAYSIA Fei, Soo Yong Xi, Simpson Goh Kai

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from across Asia who shared how they were able to communicate their ideas and values to the public even as they faced all kinds of challenges. The delegates were then broken up into groups to develop strategies on how to establish, promote, and effectively communicate their visions. Afterwards, they did interactive presentations of their visions.

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CALD Youth also gained new officers when elections were held at the Academy’s 20 October dinner in Semarang. The delegate from the Democrat Party (DP) of Thailand, Siripa Nan Intavichein was elected Chairperson of CALD’s youth wing, while Leo Chu from the Democratic Party of Hong Kong (DPHK) became its Vice Chairperson. Elected as Secretary General and Public Relations Officer of CALD Youth meanwhile were Jeremiah Tomas from the Liberal Party of the Philippines (LP) and Mengbunrong Seng from the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) as the Public Relations Officer, respectively. (The positions of Vice Chairperson and Public Relations Officer at CALD Youth are actually new, with the decision to

add them finalized unanimously and later successfully adopted during the 36th CALD Executive Committee in Bangkok, Thailand.)

On 21 October, the group went to Yogyakarta for a day, visiting the heritage sites of Borobudur and Prambanan temple complexes, as well as witnessing the making of batik up close. But it was not all sightseeing in Yogyakarta, as the delegates took time to have a synthesis session.

His predecessor as CALD Youth Chair and now United Nations Development Programme (Mongolia) Communications Officer Bulgan Bayasgalant was as upbeat about the Academy’s impact on the delegates.

Indeed, the intense workshops had led to a fruitful discussion on what the delegates could do to magnify the ideals of CALD Youth in its journey to becoming a more environmentally sensitive organization.

Hence, they were able to develop and formulate concrete project proposals to start working on for the next two years.

Its new set officers would no doubt help propel these proposals forward.

Enthusiastic and optimistic of what they can do to continue the endeavours that their predecessors have built, the new CALD Youth officials quickly initiated the implementation of a regular online meeting among the CALD Youth officers and its members. This, they said, would create an atmosphere of a more intimate and committed set of liberal youth across the network.

At the same time it would track ideas and developments for future CALD Youth activities.

CALD Program Officer Francis Miguel Panday remarked, “For over

four years of being part of the CALD Secretariat as a project assistant, now a program officer for youth and climate change, I never felt this determined to actually work harder on what the liberal youth can do to bring real change in an imaginative, inspiring, and innovative approach.

CYPA is a special platform where young leaders are trained not just to fish, but to become the big fish themselves.”

RESULTS 1. Trained CALD Youth delegates on strategic visioning, effective communication, and sustainable management 2. Formulated concrete CALD Youth project proposals to carry out in the next two years 3. Elected new set of CALD Youth officers 4. Implemented the regular online meeting among CALD Youth officers 5. Set up a mobilecommunication thread among CALD Youth members to keep track of ideas and developments for future activities 6. Held a meeting between Kiat Sittheeamorn, Secretary General of CALD, and Hasto Kristiyanto, Secretary General of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)

CA LD YO UTH P OLITI CA L ACA DEMY

For sure, though, the highlight of the entire event would have to be the training sessions of the programme, where the participants enhanced their knowledge and skills in leadership to become actual agents of a greener cause. Observed former CALD Youth Chair Ivanpal Grewal: “CYPA was a monumental event for CALD and CALD Youth as we managed to get participants from all corners of Asia. By choosing the environment as a central theme, CYPA will go a long way in creating awareness on the seminal challenge of our lifetime, not only on our localities, but in the region as well.”

She said, “I believe that the main obstacle in tackling environmental issues rests in people’s behaviours.

For several days participating in CYPA, we might have inspired some influential regional youth to become stronger voices that can be further echoed in their respective spheres.”

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CALD 25th

Anniversary Events

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BANGKOK, THAILAND

PASSING THE quarter-century mark should be cause for celebration for any organization, and CALD was obviously happy over turning 25. But with democracy in a global recession and repressive regimes in Asia seemingly tightening their grip on power, CALD decided to turn its 25th anniversary into an occasion for reflection and rethinking.

Focusing on “Reclaiming Democracy, Rebuilding Society”, CALD organized five major events as part of its 25th anniversary commemoration, all of them taking place in the Thai capital of Bangkok, where the Council had been founded in 1993. Acting as host was the Democrat Party (DP) of Thailand.

First up was the 2nd CALD Climate Change Adaptation Seminar on the morning of 18 November. Climate change, after all, has been on CALD’s radar for last decade or so, along with its political concerns. Guided by the experiences of Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea on city development, infrastructure, and mobility, the seminar hoped to promote sustainable urban development and climate-smart policies that CALD member-parties, particularly those that govern local governments, could consider for implementation.

This was premised on the fact that smart cities are key to fighting climate change and that Asia, a fast-developing region characterized by rapid urbanization and population growth, is crucial in this regard. The half-day seminar thus had discussions that tackled two questions in particular: “How climate-smart is Bangkok?” and “How can we make our cities more climate-smart?”

The 38th CALD Executive Committee Meeting was next on the agenda. Held on the afternoon of 18 November, it had CALD members and partners discussing both political and administrative issues on the operation of the Council as a liberal and democratic organization.

The two-day 8 th CALD-ALDE Summit, meantime, took place on 19-20 November and adopted the CALD anniversary theme “Reclaiming Democracy, Rebuilding Society”.

The opening plenary session set the tone for the succeeding discussions, posing this question: “How can liberals and democrats defend and

strengthen democratic institutions and processes amid the scourge of populism, illiberalism, and authoritarianism?”

Philippine Vice President Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Robredo delivered the keynote address. She said in part: “Now more than ever, nations must find solutions together and create spaces for collaboration to face the enemy. Through these avenues, we build a strong community and camaraderie among nations.”

“We have to help other democracies thrive by supporting institutions in our midst: those campaigning for

civil rights, crowds rallying for fair and free elections, groups fighting for freedom of the press and free speech in an age of disinformation and fake news,” she continued. “At this point in time, it is critical that those of us who aim to preserve these tenets of liberalism should restore people’s trust in them. To do that, we must accept its shortcomings — how it has led to a world that has forgotten the sufferings of those who have been left behind by progress. And by accepting these shortfalls, we can finally shift our focus towards the last, the least, and the lost—and make sure that

PA RT I C I PA N T S AFRICA LIBERAL NETWORK Mokgalapa, Stevens ALDE GROUP Baalen, Johannes Van Broucke, Willem Vanden Jäätteenmäka, Anneli Paet, Urmas CALD SECRETARIAT Arlegue, Celito Casem, Micah Coronel, John Frias, Audrie Janolo, Julienne Panday, Francis Miguel Zamora, Paolo

CAMBODIA NATIONAL RESCUE PARTY Chan, Rom Chea, Kimly Chea, Poch Chin, Dara Heang, Sovannara Ith, Makara Khean, Vises Long, Ry Morm, Paula Pech, Roger Sen, David Seng, Mardi Sochua, Mu Sok, Oum Sear Tung, Serei Lee Uong, Chanrithy

CIVIL WILL GREEN PARTY Bayarkhuu, Amar Nyamdavaa, Monsor

DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE PARTY TAIWAN Lo, Chih-Cheng

DEMOCRAT PARTY THAILAND Cheeravinit, Thana Dhnadirek, Rachada Intavichein, Siripa Klampaiboon, Ong-art Leekpai, Chuan Piromya, Kasit Sittheeamorn, Kiat Sooktinthai, Boonyod Vejjajiva, Abhisit Vikitsreth, Panich Vikitsreth, Pornphrom

FUTURE INNOVATIVE THAILAND INSTITUTE Leeahtam, Pisit

DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF HONGKONG Lau, Emily Sin, Chung-kai

INDONESIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF STRUGGLE Setiawan, Hanjaya INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY Ko, Han-Seok LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL Brown, Robert Woodthorpe Kirjas, Emil Minoves, Juli

LIBERAL PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES Abad, Florencio Belmonte, Jose Christopher Carandang, Ramon Pangilinan, Francis Robredo, Maria Leonor Salazar, Joann Sison, Karry

PARTI GERAKAN RAKYAT MALAYSIA Balaguru, Jayanthi Devi Fong, Grace Too Yin Yong, Ng Lip

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Doherty, Ivan Manikas, Peter

RELIAL Gomes, Ricardo

NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR DEMOCRACY Thaw, Phyo Zeya

TAIWAN FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY Yang, Maysing

POLITICAL PARTY FORUM SOUTHEAST ASIA Sachsenroeder, Wolfgang

SINGAPORE DEMOCRATIC PARTY Go, Jaslyn Chee, Soon Juan

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democracy and freedom work for them in equal measure.”

Day One of the summit had two plenary sessions, one on defending democratic institutions from authoritarian encroachments, and the other on restoring integrity and civil discourse in the information space. There was also a democracy café on the state of democracy in Asia and the world, as well as a session on Myanmar’s experience on democratization so far. Rounding up the main-activity lineup for the day were a TED-style talk on innovative ways to advance by using technology and a regional-networks panel on how CALD, the ALDE Party, the Africa Liberal Network (ALN), and Red Liberal America Latina (RELIAL) could strengthen intra-regional and inter-regional networking so that they could better respond to authoritarian encroachments. The day was capped by the 25th CALD Anniversary Gala Dinner that included a tribute to the late CALD Founding Chairperson Surin Pitsuwan.

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Day Two of the summit opened on 20 November with a plenary session on building solidarity with, and learning from, other democrats.

CALD had reasoned in preparation for the summit: “If the autocrats are learning from each other, democrats should also do the same. There are

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surely time-tested, foolproof ways to bring down a dictator that can apply across contexts.” The session thus aimed to identify the best practices in the democrats’ toolkit, as well as specific ways to forge solidarity and partnerships among them.

Other Day Two activities included a lightning talk on innovative ways to fight gender inequality using social media and a look at Taiwan’s journey and its great potential as a democratic model in Asia. As pressure from China continues to constrict Taiwan’s space in the international arena,

the session explored what could be done to support Taiwan.

The CALD 25th Anniversary Public Conference was also held on 20 November. Considering the crucial role played by political parties in a democracy, the conference wanted to bring democracy stakeholders together to address the query: “What can political parties do in both their internal and external relations and processes to better enable them in fulfilling their role in a democracy?”

The day ended with a river cruise in which the summit’s closing ceremonies, the 12th CALD General Assembly, and Farewell Dinner all took place. One of the highlights of the General Assembly was the handover of the CALD leadership from the Democrat Party of Thailand to the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan.

2. Launched the next phase of CALD’s Climate Change Programme on building smart cities in Asia as a way to promote climatechange adaptation 3. Launched the CALD 25th Anniversary commemorative coffee table book Compelled by Duty, Conscripted by Destiny: Portraits of 16 Asian Women at the Frontline of Democratic Struggle

6. Reinforced relations and cooperation with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group 7. Convened the leaders of regional liberal networks from Asia, Europe, America, and Africa 8. Passed CALD Resolution No. 3 S. 2018 expressing alarm on the deteriorating political and humanrights situation in the Asian region 9. Passed CALD Statement No.1 S. 2018 entitled “Hong Kong’s civil liberties under threat, creates chilling effect as Umbrella Movement leaders face trial”

AN NI VERSARY E VENTS

4. Handed over the CALD leadership from the Democrat Party of Thailand to the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan

5. Discussed the CALD activity proposals for 2019

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Khun Abhisit had a caveat, though: “The way they should be communicated and implemented, however, should reflect the most important issues and concerns that our people hold dear.”

1. Discussed and explored ways to combat the pressing concerns in Asia, particularly the increasing threat of authoritarianism, populism, and illiberalism

CALD 25

Overall, CALD’s 25 anniversary events gave their participants a chance to refresh their thoughts and perspectives in the midst of the global political turmoil. At the start of the summit, DP leader and former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva himself had underscored the importance of upholding the values CALD stands for amid threats posed against democracy. He said, “The core liberal and democratic values to which the organization is based on – democracy, human rights, social-market economy, and the rule of law – should continue to be upheld and should remain non-negotiable because they are the best guarantee for peace and prosperity.” th

RESULTS

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A TOA ST TO AN E NABLE R O F FR EE DO M

by Abhisit Vejjajiva, CALD Chairperson

Keynote Address delivered at the 60th Anniversary Celebration of FNF South Africa in Cape Town, South Africa on 4 October.

FNF HAS been an invaluable partner to the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, where I currently serve as chairperson.

Coincidentally, we in CALD are also celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. The decades-long support of FNF to organizations like CALD, and to the cause of freedom all over the world, has, without a doubt, contributed to institutionalizing the values of democracy, human rights, social-market economy, and the rule of law – values that we all share as liberals and democrats.

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It must be remembered that when FNF was founded in 1958, the euphoria surrounding the Allied victory in the Second World War had waned, and liberal and democratic values were being put into question again.

By the mid-1970s, one-third of 32 “working democracies” in 1958 would become authoritarian governments, in what some scholars and analysts called as the “second reverse wave of democratization”. Many of the countries that became authoritarian during this period come from the Global South – Asia, Africa and Latin America – where political instability and economic inequality made the embrace of liberal and democratic values difficult.

It can be surmised that FNF’s founding was a response to the difficult circumstances during that time – the wide-

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spread democratic backsliding, human-rights abuses, and breakdown of the rule of law – particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. That Germany experienced similar circumstances not too long ago, but had firmly set itself to the democratic path within a short period of time, put it in a good position to extend democratic assistance and support to developing countries.

This was especially true at a time when lending such assistance and support was not a priority of the United States, which was operating with a Cold War mindset.

FNF has grown ever since to around 60 countries, which form the core of the work of the regional offices in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central America. Today FNF is being tasked again to respond to the times – to a world that is increasingly being illiberal, populist, and authoritarian.

The U.S.-based nongovernment organization Freedom House stated in its Freedom of the World 2018 Report that “democracy faced its most serious crisis in decades in 2017”, which is also the 12th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. During this period, it added, 113 countries experienced a net decline in political rights and civil liberties, while only 62 saw net improvement.

This recent wave of democratic retreat has been confirmed by

“...we believe that bringing together political parties of liberal and democratic orientation from the two continents would be beneficial so that we can learn from each other’s experiences and best practices.’’

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, which ranks countries based on electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture, and civil liberties. It noted that “(o)verall, 89 of the 167 countries assessed in 2017 received lower scores than they had the year before”, with only 27 improving. It also pointed out that currently, less than five percent of the world population lives in a “full democracy”, while nearly one-third lives under authoritarian rule.

Asia and Africa, like the rest of the world, are also experiencing democratic challenges. In Asia, repressive regimes continued to consolidate their power, while marginalized communities faced dire new threats. For example, in Cambodia, the general elections last July took place without the participation of the main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), its leaders banned from politics in the next five years. The founder and former president of CNRP, Sam Rainsy, is here with us tonight.

We also have delegates here from liberal and democratic political parties in Taiwan and Hong Kong, which are experiencing increasing pressure from Mainland China. Taiwan lost a number of diplomatic allies in the past two years because of this pressure, including the West African state of Burkina Faso. In Africa, it is left with one ally, the Kingdom of Eswatini. In Hong Kong, four pro-democracy lawmakers were expelled from the legislature on the grounds that their oaths of office were “insincere”, making it easier for pro-government forces to pass major legislation and rules changes.

Singapore meanwhile has been governed by one dominant political party for decades now, although the recent experience of Malaysia can point the way forward.

In the Philippines, there appears to be continuing persecution of the political opposition, as seen most recently in attempts to imprison another incumbent opposition senator. And this is happening amidst the extra-judicial killings that accompany the government’s continuing “war on drugs”.

Thailand is preparing for elections in February 2019 after years of military government.

However, the continuing ban on certain political activities puts into question whether political parties can adequately prepare and meaningfully participate in the electoral process.

In Africa, Freedom House reported that while new leaders replaced longtime incumbents in Angola, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, their background in the ruling elite raised doubts about their promises of change.

In Angola, the new president began to dismantle the family-based power structure set up by his predecessor, José Eduardo dos Santos, who served as president for 38 years, but it remained unclear whether the new president would tackle corruption comprehensively or simply consolidate his own control over the levers of power and public wealth.

In Zimbabwe, the dramatic exit of President Robert Mugabe in late 2017 left the future of democracy there uncertain.

While his departure after nearly four decades in office was widely welcomed, his successor was a key member of his repressive regime.

And in the past days, we heard of how the departure of Jacob Zuma and the succession of Cyril Ramaphosa initially brought “Ramaphoria” here in South Africa. Months after, however, this turned into “Ramaphobia”, “Ramarecession”, to even “Ramageddon”.

The comparable experiences of Asia and Africa in recent times bring back memories of our two continents’ long-standing relationship. More than 60 years ago, only a few years before FNF’s founding, 29 Asian and African states met in Bandung, Indonesia for what came to be known as the “Bandung Conference”. The event was organized to discuss the two continents’ path to peace, the role of the Third World in the Cold War, the policies to foster economic development, and the way forward after decolonization.

The organizers of the conference recognized the similarities of Asia and Africa in terms of political, economic, and social issues, and acknowledged that together, they could be a much bigger voice in world politics. The socalled “spirit of Bandung” was claimed to provide the impetus for ‘South-South Cooperation’, a “broad framework for collaboration among countries of the South in the political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technical domains”.

We are here in South Africa in the spirit of ‘South-South Cooperation’, noting the comparable political issues and problems Asia and Africa confront – from the role of money in politics, state capture or kleptocracy, to the violation of the principle of checks and balances to expand executive power.

that bringing together political parties of liberal and democratic orientation from the two continents would be beneficial so that we can learn from each other’s experiences and best practices.

In the past few days, we have been immensely grateful to the Democratic Alliance (DA) for sharing with us their journey to what they are today: South Africa’s main opposition party, and quite possibly, a ruling party in the coming years.

We in CALD have come across the DA’s inspiring journey because of FNF, whose work has continuously expand the opportunities for liberal and democratic political parties and civil-society activists to meet, learn from each other, and support each other.

FNF, therefore, is the enabler of freedom. It is what makes our work in promoting and safeguarding democracy, human rights, social market economy and the rule of law much easier to undertake and more likely to succeed, having benefitted from the opportunities for cooperation that FNF create.

In this day and age when the liberal and democratic values that we hold dear are again under threat, we need the support and assistance of FNF, in the same way that we needed them 60 years ago, and most likely, 60 years hence.

We wish the FNF a great 60th year anniversary. The struggle for, and realization of freedom, as what Nelson Mandela said, is a glorious human achievement.

Thank you so much, FNF, for “letting freedom reign” in Asia, in Africa, and in the rest of the world!

Considering the comparable political context, we believe

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L E SS TALK , M O RE ACTION N E ED ED ON C LI MAT E CHANG E

by Kiat Sittheeamorn, CALD Secretary General

Opening Remarks at the 2nd CALD Climate Change Seminar in Bangkok, Thailand on 18 November

THIS IS the second climate-change orientation seminar organized by CALD. Exactly six years ago, we had the first one here in Bangkok.

That was then the inception of the climate-change programme under CALD, and thereafter, we have had a programme that was also launched in Bangkok in 2011.

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Asia-Pacific is known to be one of the most vulnerable areas in the world in terms of climate-change impact. We have experienced a number of issues: intensifying typhoons, widespread flooding, droughts – these have become the ‘new normal’. When you say ‘new normal’, the “normal” means not knowing what will happen, how serious the situation will be in various parts of the world.

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With climate change, there are believers and non-believers.

Among the believers are those that focus on adaptation that would divert attention away from reducing carbon emissions.

There are also some believers who remain very sceptical about the whole matter. Then you have the non-believers, who think climate change is a hoax.

No need to prepare ourselves for anything. Just go along with it, enjoy the ride whatever it might be. That’s the situation we’re facing today. At least to

the believers, I ask: Can we not work on reducing carbon emissions while trying to adapt to climate change at the same time?

I believe we can do that. I think we have the solution and we are smart enough to deal with it.

Otherwise, the next generation will face difficulties. It’s up to us to work hard and be serious enough to address t h e

issue at this time.

problems before. Adaptation, whether we like it or not, has become a matter of necessity and also survival of the community.

But there are some facts that we have to recognize before we start talking about how to mitigate and adapt to what’s going on.

One fact is that 60 percent of the world’s population live in

“It’s clear that we need to come up with smart solutions to climate-proof our cities.”

Now whether or not the changing weather patterns are linked to climate change, the undeniable reality is that these changes are occurring. They’re happening in many countries, including Thailand. We have unexpected rainfalls, we have floods in the areas that we never had

urban areas – cities — and that figure is only increasing over time. It is expected that by 2050, 70 percent of the world’s population will have to live in cities.

Another fact is that to adapt and address climate-change issues, we may need up to US$3 trillion to US$4 trillion a year. That’s a lot of money. Studies say that

up to 2030, we will need an additional US$1 trillion a year to climate-proof our major cities. Accurate or not, I think it’s within the ballpark if everybody’s implementing climate-proof projects together.

There has also been talk of the United Nations providing seed funding. The idea is that it gets all countries to participate in this programme and they’ll come up with about US$100 billion for a climate fund. One question is, how do we make the best use of this fund?

It’s clear that we need to come up with smart solutions to climate-proof our cities. So, do we have money? If you look at the global GDP, it’s about US$60 trillion worldwide. The global bond market is US$90 billion dollars? And how much money has been used on the climate-change programme? Only US$50 billion has been tapped for all projects related to climate change. Isn’t that something?

It does make one think what one’s attitude would be towards solutions to climate change. Is it the role of only the government to think of those solutions or is it the role of only the United Nations? Or is it the role of everybody? Do we know what to do to combat climate change?

I think we do, now that we have

a lot of technologies that are clean, green, and climate-smart.

But do we implement these?

How do we implement them?

If we have the technology, if we have the money, the solution is to package it right in order to make sure that everybody will play a role and participate in a climate-change programme that makes our country, our community, our cities greener.

I think we should start at how we see climate-change projects.

Are they burdens or are they opportunities? We have to think carefully; we just might come up with a very interesting solution. Here in Asia and most developing countries, we need to continue to invest on climate-smart infrastructure projects. We need US$50 trillion in order to deal with such infrastructure projects worldwide, and US$4 trillion to US$5 tril-

lion a year to continue upgrading existing infrastructure. Based on technology today, it might mean another 20 percent on top of the usual cost to implement those projects instead of conventional type of designs. But that extra 15 to 20 percent means changing an infrastructure into a climate-smart one, which makes it a wise investment. If we have the money and we put it into good use, I believe we might see solutions.

We already have some examples that point to the right direction.

There have been many renewable-energy projects in the past 10 years. Of course we should design projects in such a way that they are bankable and give you reasonable return. Because without reasonable return, we can’t go to the bank and you’ll end up having to use cash all the way and that would limit your

capacity and not put the money that is available among financial institutions in good use. I would argue that if it is designed in such a way that private sector is eager to participate, then we can mobilize the money in the private sector to play a role in climate-change projects.

If you look at investments worldwide, what is the percentage of investment that comes from government’s budget? Only 15 percent; 85 percent comes from the private sector. I would urge you to think as to how we can mobilize on these resources in order to make sure that the needed projects to combat climate change can actually be financially viable and everybody would be able to play a role in them. We also need to think of ways to fully utilize the seed fund from the United Nations. If we use it wisely and turn green proj-

ects that are bankable and viable, then that US$100-billion seed fund would be well-used and the multiple would be unbelievable.

We must go beyond talking about climate change and adaptation. We have to come up with solutions, practical recommendations to governments, to our respective countries, and even to the private sector – insist that it does have a role in all these.

It can mean good business for the private sector and for the country. It can mean a better life, a better world for all of us.

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K E EPI NG T HE F RE E DO M AG E N DA ALIVE

by Maria Leonor Gerona Robredo, Vice President of the Philippines

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WE COME together for this occasion to celebrate the things that bind us: freedom, peace, and democracy. For 25 years now, CALD has fought for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, intensifying its work during these times when all three are under attack from all sides. And what better way to commemorate this than by holding this year’s summit here in Bangkok, where CALD first held its general assembly.

the Philippines in its greatest hour. For days, people filled the streets, and the air teemed with their cries. It was impossible to ignore the sea of protesters with their streamers and banners.

What transpired was fuelled by people’s courage and thirst for freedom—one where guns and tanks were stopped by flowers and rosaries; where women, the youth, and the faithful met the military forces with nothing but interlocked arms and prayers.

As one of the cradles of democracy in Asia, the Philippines knows this fight for freedom all too well. History has seen Filipinos bleed for their struggles and lose their lives because of it—from the Spanish rule hundreds of years ago to the People Power Revolution in 1986.

It was, and is today, one of the hallmarks of people empowerment. Real power had been wielded by the people, in the face of an authoritarian regime bent on retaining its grip on the reins of power. Months after these events unfolded, and when she initially was on her first few months as President, President Aquino spoke before the U.S. Congress. And there, she said, and I quote: “Today, we face the aspirations of a people who had known so much poverty and massive unemployment for the past 14 years and yet offered their lives for the abstraction of democracy. Wherever I went in the campaign, slum area or impoverished village, they came to me with one cry: Democracy!

Not food, although they clearly needed it, but democracy; not work, although they surely wanted it, but democracy.”

It was President Corazon ‘Cory’ Aquino, one of Asia’s most prominent icons of democracy in recent memory, who rallied the Filipino people to the streets in protest of the tyrannical rule of then President Ferdinand Marcos. They dismissed her as merely “the housewife” of the late exiled opposition leader, Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino Jr., who was a liberal, but Cory Aquino fought for her countrymen who could no longer take the abuses of the dictator.

This fight was also a very personal one for me, since in my youth, I had stood with countless others in a bloodless revolution, in which the world witnessed

The Filipino experience of fighting for freedom and restoring its democracy is a story worth

telling, because it offers a story of hope that democracies are worth fighting for. And because we strongly believe that if we listen and give power back to the people we govern, we will finally eradicate suffering among our poor who work hard and long hours and yet end up with nothing. We will finally feed the hungry. We will finally claim the progress our people so deserve.

Today I address you with the same strong resolve and with the same determination, that we never falter in our commitment to democracy, rule of law, and human rights, no matter how the rest of the world may dismiss them now. In fact, we must forge stronger bonds so that we can be better liberals and democrats than ever before, as we confront the many forces that trample on the very freedoms we hold dear.

According to a 2018 Freedom House report, democracy faced serious threats this year, as free and fair elections, minority

But a threat to democracy anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere. People’s freedoms are threatened by authoritative powers in many parts of the world. We must have a unified response to the challenges that we face, if we are to protect our world from a scorched-earth existence, where freedom has no value.

Today’s summit is a perfect example of this, as CALD and ALDE — which is from the other side of the globe — are putting their heads together for the most efficacious responses to these problems.

Now more than ever, nations must find solutions together and create spaces for collaboration to face the enemy. Through these avenues, we build a strong community and camaraderie among nations.

We have to help other democracies thrive by supporting institutions in our midst: those campaigning for civil rights,

Or the freedom to choose what food to eat, not be forced to choose which meal to forego because food is too expensive.

Or the freedom to decide how they will earn a living, not be killed without due process, just because they live in the wrong side of town.

This is at the heart of what the Office of the Vice President does in the Philippines: to fight for the rights of those in the fringes of society—from social to economic to gender rights, among others.

We have rejected the notion that the Vice President should sit idle as an alternate leader to the President. Rather, we have embraced the idea of being a working office for all of the days in our six-year term.

We all know the way the world thinks these days. That democracy is too unwieldy.

That a lot of voices in the room become too difficult to manage and when everybody is talking, it takes too long to arrive at a

and justice will prevail. CALD’s Women Caucus had a hand in that, having nominated Senator de Lima this year, so thank you.

The fight for democracy, peace, and freedom is long and arduous and demanding—but this complexity is what makes the fight worth fighting. We are called to be the leaders who will stand in the forefront of these ideals. Leaders who will inspire the next generation of leaders to do the same. Leaders who draw strength through acts of empathy and respect.

We cannot simply utter the core of our beliefs and expect the ordinary citizen to understand where we stand. We must use their language, we must see where they are coming from, and we must speak with one voice.

In a speech during the after-years of her presidency, President Corazon Aquino said that democracy, in the end, is the best system for ordinary people, and I quote: “It is the only one that

“But a threat to democracy anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere… We must have a unified response to the challenges that we face, if we are to protect our world from a scorchedearth existence, where freedom has no value.’’ rights, press freedom, and rule of law—the most basic foundations of a free society—were at risk the world over. The report also says that this year marked the 12th consecutive year of decline in global freedom, with 71 countries falling back in terms of political rights and civil liberties.

Ultimately, the challenge for us today is this: How do we safeguard our democratic institutions at a time when its legitimacy is undermined? How do we keep the freedom agenda alive?

Here in Asia, populist movements and strongmen leadership are expanding. Repressive regimes are taking over, causing marginalized communities to suffer the consequences. When more countries are autocratic, alliances between nations and among people collapse, and, in the long run, shrink economies rather than expand them.

crowds rallying for fair and free elections, groups fighting for freedom of the press and free speech in an age of disinformation and fake news. At this point in time, it is critical that those of us who aim to preserve these tenets of liberalism should restore people’s trust in them.

To do that, we must accept its shortcomings — how it has led to a world that has forgotten the sufferings of those who have been left behind by progress.

And by accepting these shortfalls, we can finally shift our focus towards the last, the least, and the lost—and make sure that democracy and freedom work for them in equal measure.

Because it is true that ultimately, freedom from tyranny or political oppression is not an end in itself, but just a way to provide our people with a life they choose. The freedom to choose where they will live, not be forced to live anywhere.

solution. It is true—the voices can be overwhelming, but isn’t that the beauty of democracy, of our freedom to express our thoughts? Shouldn’t we all have a say in how we ought to be governed? Hence, we must stand alongside freedom fighters, instead of shutting them down or silencing them.

Back home in the Philippines, not even the incarceration can silence our freedom fighters. One of them, Liberal Party Senator Leila de Lima, is currently behind bars for unfounded charges alleging that she is involved in the drug trade. For her dedication and work, a few months ago, she received Liberal International’s Prize for Freedom, unanimously selected by 100 liberals from 32 countries who participated in the LI’s 99th Executive Committee meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa. This is proof that even in confinement, the voice of truth

exalts them and unites them in peace across all the countries of the world. One can believe in a dictatorship; a few in an oligarchy; but only to democracy can the many, in reason, adhere.”

To keep the freedom agenda alive, we have to understand what is at stake: the institutions that ensure a bright future of our people. To speak truth to power, we must first listen with empathy and speak to each one of our people from the heart— responding to their pain, their dreams, their hopes. And in turn, making their pain, their dreams, their hopes, also ours.

May we all be inspired to continue fighting the good fight and standing for the fundamental freedoms of our people, in our firm belief that we are never alone in this dream of making this world a better, freer place.

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GEO PO LITICS , H UMAN RIG HTS , & F U N DAMENTAL F R E ED OMS

by Rosario G. Manalo, Rapporteur, UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

Speech delivered at the CALD 25th Anniversary Conference in Bangkok, Thailand on 19 November

ON THE way from Geneva to Manila last weekend, I chanced upon a wonderful event, media-covered by CNN/BBC. This was the ceremony in Paris in celebration of the Centenary of the 1918 Armistice ending World War I, also popularly remembered as the ‘Great War’.

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Having lived for almost seven years in Paris – a city reputed to be the most beautiful and sophisticated of capital cities in continental Europe — I had the good fortune to witness many yearly ceremonies of this Armistice event.

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These ceremonies have always exulted my senses, bringing ultimate happiness to my heart! And why, you may ask? Because the event is a celebration of the final arrival of peace, the diplomat’s ultimate target, a final realization of a diplomat’s dream.

But the partic-

ular ceremony last weekend gave me a cold shudder — a sense that today some danger could be lurking around the corner, that there is an imminent threat to contemporary peace. To note particularly, the host, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, had stated: “Old demons are resurfacing....let us now vow to prioritize peace over everything.”

Much later in the day, President Macron added eloquently the following most impressive words, obviously addressed to two guests, President Donald Trump, the American President, and President Vladimir Putin of Russia: “Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism.

Nationalism is the betrayal of patriotism. In saying our interest first, whatever happens to the others, you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great, and that which is most important: its moral values.”

At the end of the ceremony, the head of government of a leading state in the heart of the European continent, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, stated: “(Could) we the international community today, establish a sterling example of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights....would we manage that? I fear not!”

“Across the world, as the forces of globalization exacerbate the complexities of national problems, more and more people are seeking comfort in the promises of easy solutions by relatable leaders, rather than the convoluted jargons of bureaucrats and intellectual elites.

And now, I would humbly query: Is peace at risk once more? Are human lives and the fortunes of humanity at stake again as a consequence of the bloated, competing egos and pride of various leaders of the world?

Human rights carry words and concepts with a variety of dimensions governing the existence of humanity. When a Western country says that an individual has a Right to Life, it could well allude to the non-imposition of the death sentence as a penalty.

To people in other parts of the world, like the East, it could refer to the right of a woman to access abortion if her life and health are put at risk by her pregnancy. Yet the Catholic Church – a faith of Western origin – may consider such a move as a violation of the right to life of the foetus.

The fundamental human right on the Freedom of Expression has been interpreted in many Western countries as absolute; but many other countries of the world, could well provide very good situations to overthrow such an assertion. The very concept of nationalism as referred to by President Macron could be the opposite stance of the colonies under imperial powers of long ago, while overthrowing the yoke of the conquistadores.

Perhaps a student of human rights today may well conclude: “The West is the West, and the

East is the East, and never the twain shall meet.” Yet the people of France, the fundamental believers in the dignity of the human person, fought their revolution against the privileged and abusive French aristocracy, but today they declare very clearly: “Vive le difference!” The call is not necessarily limited to the identification of a male or a female person, but to the variety as well, in the way of life of every individual all over the world.

Let us illustrate the various interpretations carried out by people and states in the management of their human rights and democracies in their respective midst: The Philippines

The ideas of an enduring democracy, strong civil society, and respect for human rights animate the Philippines as a nation. This can be gleaned by how we organize our pantheon of national heroes. At the top of this pantheon, we have the celebrated warrior and great plebeian leader of the Philippine independence movement, Andres Bonifacio.

But still, over and above him, we have that great Filipino Renaissance man, Asia’s first liberal, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. The question may be asked: Why Rizal over Bonifacio? Bonifacio’s goals were primarily political: Achieving an

independent Philippines. But Rizal’s goals were humanist; they transcend the political: independence is important, but ensuring that the Filipino is free, that he has freedom of thought and of conscience, and that his dignity and rights are respected – this is a higher, nobler goal.

It is for this reason that the Philippines has played an important role in building the current international consensus that human rights are universal.

This contribution has been recognizedwhen the Philippines was elected as a founding member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, now the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Many of us in my generation of Filipino diplomats took part in shaping the current multilateral regime on human rights, and I am particularly proud of my work – currently for the third term – at the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). After all, I take pride in announcing that I wrote the very first draft of said Convention in 1973, and negotiated it for my people until its fruition in 1979 as CEDAW. The Philippines’ human rights record is not in itself unassailable. The Government strives to align itself with the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights

(1948), but success in this regard rests on strong institutions and favourable socio-economic realities.

From a nation of 30 million at the time it joined the United Nations in 1945, the Philippines is now a nation of more than 100 million. It is on the cusp of either achieving upper middle – income status, or falling into the middle-income trap, depending on how it manages to address the myriad of challenges it currently faces. As the Philippines grows, its problems become much more complex. Unfortunately, socio-economic realities compel people to seek simple solutions to complex problems.

I mention this because the Philippines is not alone. This is a trend. Across the world, as the forces of globalization exacerbate the complexities of national problems, more and more people are seeking comfort in the promises of easy solutions by relatable leaders, rather than the convoluted jargons of bureaucrats and intellectual elites. These easy solutions may at times come into conflict with established universal values, leading to the argument that solving complex problems entails a measure of sacrifice: More development may require less democracy. I believe this is what one means when one talks

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of the rise of illiberalism and the retreat of democracy.

This new trend aggravates a familiar friction in the multilateral space. On one hand, civil-society organizations and some like-minded nations seek the strictest non-contextual application of human rights conventions without due regard to national realities. On the other hand, there are nations that see themselves under siege from self-righteous forces. Some nations are more successful than others in managing international perceptions of their human-rights record.

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The People’s Republic of China

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The case of China is an interesting example. For the past 40 years of Deng Xiaoping’s policy of reform and opening up, China’s development has been phenomenal under the current dispensation. However, we have seen some reversal of these political gains. Party centrality in political and social life is again being stressed, and firm measures taken in the name of social stability have led to credible reports of enforced disappearances and massive internments.

A number of civil-society organizations as well as liberals and democrats around the world are working vigorously to document these alleged abuses and to persuade governments to call on China to respect its human-rights commitments.

Yet during the Universal

“And now, I would humbly query: Is peace at risk once more?”

Periodic Review (UPR) of China’s compliance with is human rights commitments at the UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on 6 November 2018, the majority of the delegations fielded favourable questions and comments that diluted issues related to serious allegations of human-rights violations, particularly those against the Uyghur population in Xinjiang. It was as if China had the same level of compliance with human-rights instruments as Germany.

How did China manage to achieve this success? I would like to posit that China’s success in effectively managing international perception of its human rights record can be attributed to three factors.

First, China’s effective deployment of its sharp power continues to be a deterring factor. In recent years, China has boldly employed coercive measures short of force in expressing disagreements or displeasure with some countries.

China’s diplomatic spat with Norway over the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize for pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo in 2010 is a lingering example. Despite Norway’s repeated explanation that the Nobel Committee autonomously conducts its affairs sans government oversight, China froze its political and economic relations with Oslo, severely affecting salmon trade and eventually

compelling Norway to acquiesce to a one-sided Joint Statement on Normalization of Bilateral Relations in 2016, which affirms China’s parameters for maintaining sound bilateral relations.

Second, China has been dispensing goodwill for other countries in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. China offers diplomatic support for countries – particularly those from the developing world – that find themselves subjects of intense scrutiny at the UNHRC. It has been observed that China’s positive comments during UPRs of other countries have led to reciprocal gestures from those countries.

The Philippines and Myanmar have been recipients of this Chinese goodwill. When a number of critical countries assailed the Philippines’ firm campaign against illegal drugs during the UPR of the Philippines’ human rights record in 2017, Beijing offered firm support for Manila.

China has also been consistently offering similar levels of support for Myanmar in the context of the Rohingya issue.

Third – and this is most important – China has been successful in articulating a compelling

narrative. Beijing consistently argues that human-rights issues are a Western preoccupation – one that is politically-motivated, fraught with biases, and intrusive in sovereign domestic affairs.

This argument has resonated with the sentiments of a considerable number of UN members.

Pakistan and India

Pakistan’s support for China provides an anecdotal example.

Observers have been noting that a number of Pakistani citizens have been entangled in the alleged crackdown in Xinjiang, causing political difficulties for Islamabad. Yet the Pakistani delegation remained silent in Geneva, prompting media speculations that this silence was motivated by Chinese largesse. While I cannot totally discount this link, I submit that Islamabad’s support for Beijing in Geneva is rooted in Pakistani aversion to what some Pakistani diplomats often describe as Western pontifications and double standards.

The Pakistani example reflects a prevailing sentiment across the world. Governments perceive a measure of liberal pontification that intrudes in the sovereign realm – some sort of modern ideological colonialism. This perception has always been there. Even countries like India have been expressing concerns about the politicization of human rights in multilateral

“Liberals and democrats around the world hold the ideas of an enduring democracy, strong civil society, and respect for human rights, very dear to their hearts and beliefs. For the past 70 years, we have built a rulesbased liberal international order that enshrines these values. Yet the success of China’s counter-narrative implies that the universality of these values is slowly eroding.’’ forums: There have always been regular attempts to subject individual countries to intrusive monitoring so as to point out the failure of state mechanisms to protect and promote human rights, leading to some call on the need for the international community to reflect on whether such action had genuinely improved the human-rights situation.

But as anxiety about globalist forces and the trend of illiberalism intensify, so too is this perception enhanced. China understands. China is able to exploit this perception, and ignore questions – legitimate or otherwise – about its human-rights record while at the same time emboldening others to do the same.

I mention China’s success not for anyone to condemn it, but for all of us to reflect on it.

Liberals and democrats around the world hold the ideas of an enduring democracy, strong civil society, and respect for human rights, very dear to their hearts and beliefs. For the past 70 years, we have built a rules-based liberal international order that enshrines these values. Yet the success of China’s counter-narrative implies that the universality of these values is slowly eroding.

Now we need to ask ourselves: Why? And, what are we lovers

of democracy and human rights going to do about this situation?

ASEAN

In ASEAN, it was the Philippines that had initially involved the Association on human-rights principles, issues, and concerns.

I should know it; I chaired the drafting of the ASEAN Charter in 2007, and successfully manoeuvred and negotiated for the existence of Article 14 in the ASEAN Charter. Subsequently, I represented the Philippines from 2009 to 2015 in the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), the agency at the forefront of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedom of the people of ASEAN. In its almost 10 years of existence since its establishment in 2009, AICHR achieved a number of major accomplishments. One of these is the adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) in 2012, which is a comprehensive framework for human-rights cooperation.

This Declaration reflects the commitments of ASEAN to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also expands on current international standards, such as the rights of minorities, the elderly, persons with disabilities, migrant workers, and the vulnerable and marginalized groups.

The Declaration is also unique in its provisions for the Right to Development and the Right to Peace. It also calls for the avoidance of stigma for those suffering from communicable diseases such as HIV. AICHR conducts various studies on thematic issues relating to human rights. Among these are: (1) the Thematic Study on Women Affected by Natural Disasters, (2) on the Right to Life, which focuses on the Rights of Persons Convicted with Death Penalty; (3) on Juvenile Justice; (4) on Legal Aid; (5) on Migration and Human Rights; (6) on the Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation; (7) on the Right to Education and Access to Tertiary Education; and (8) on Right to Peace.

AICHR-Philippines and AICHR-Singapore, in collaboration with Child Rights Coalition Asia and with the support of the Swiss Embassy in Manila, held an ASEAN Dialogue on 25-26 October 2018 in Manila on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and its Related Instruments.

The Dialogue raised the awareness and deepened the understanding by ASEAN about children’s rights. It opened the possibilities of ratifying all of CRC’s Protocols by ASEAN’s 10 member states.

Apart from its engagement within ASEAN, AICHR is also engaged with civil society in the region and the rest of the world.

To date, there are 30 CSOs with Consultative Status with AICHR. Civil society is also greatly involved in the implementation of many of AICHR’s programmes/ activities.

But the foregoing describes only the promotion of human rights in Southeast Asia. Where is the application of the protection of human rights of the people in this region of the world?

With this brief survey, I hope that I have been able to present an objective but brief overview of the state of human rights and democracy in East Asia, in relation to the rest of the world.

I have now returned to my initial home on Human Rights, the Committee of CEDAW, now located in Geneva – after my 10 years of absence. I left it as the last Chairperson to serve it in New York, 2005-2006.

This ends my narrative which I hope demonstrates to you my tireless involvement and endless respect for democracy, human rights, and fundamental freedoms for all.

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D E M YSTIFYING T ECH N OLO G Y & CO L L ABO RATIVE GOVER NANCE

by Audrey Tang, Digital Minister of Taiwan

TED-style talk given at the CALD 25th Anniversary Conference in Bangkok, Thailand on 19 November

FIRST, I want to show you my office, the Social Innovation Lab in Taipei, near the central park. Every Wednesday, I’m there from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

People from all walks of life are welcome to come and talk to me, provided that they agree to have our conversation published on the Internet. This is because, as the digital minister, I work under condition of radical transparency.

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Unlike many people working on democracy in our region, I have always been an optimist.

This strange condition began when I was 15 years old. That was 1996; Taiwan had just had its first presidential election.

I remember talking to my teachers and the principal of my junior high school. I discovered this thing called the “World Wide Web”, which allowed me to write to researchers and work on projects together with them — they didn’t know that I was just 14 years old. When my teachers asked what I needed from them, I said, “I want you to fake the records to the Ministry of Education because I want to jump out of junior high school, launch my own start-up, and start my own education.” Surprisingly, all my teachers went along with this plan.

In this way, I joined the Internet Society, a group that defines the

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laws of the Internet, but the laws are called Requests for Comments (RFCs). We’re a very humble bunch. The Internet at the moment is one of the largest sovereign entities that don’t answer to any other sovereign entities. That is where I learned about political processes, radical transparency, rough consensus, and location independence.

of something that might take away people’s jobs. Visitors to my office are likely to encounter self-driving tricycles that interact with them. These tricycles can help people by carrying their purchases, playing the role of companion animals and accompanying them on walks, or giving them rides. If people don’t like the way the AIs look, they can

t h o s e lessons that I learned when I was 16 years old into the Taiwan administration for the digital transformation. Surprisingly, it’s working, and it’s changing our society.

the appearances — a recent build resembles a cat face and can make eye contact with people.

“The Internet at the moment is one of the largest sovereign entities that don’t answer to any other sovereign Today freely entities.”

I take change

For example, we are building new norms around AI as “assistive intelligences”, instead

In this way, visitors are introduced to the benefits of AI, and robotic devices become less scary. Many devices incorporating AI are developed under the principle of open innovation,

and open-source software also extends access to all. Thus, people learn that changing the social norms regarding intellectual property can enable them to create things of common value together. The new technology therefore provides the public with opportunities to support the fundamental values of Taiwan.

In her inauguration speech two years ago, the president of Taiwan, Dr. Tsai Ing-wen, said something very inspiring. She said that, historically, democracy was viewed as involving a competition between two opposing values. But now, she said, democracy must become a conversation among many different values—hence, the “values of Taiwan”. This is the most defining characteristic of the Taiwanese paradigm of democracy: it is truly pluralistic.

In the last century, the model for democracy was inherently polarizing: for example, those on one side may have focused on the economy and voiced their opinions to the economy minister, while those on the other side focused on the environment and talked to the environment minister.

“Today I take those lessons that I learned ... into the Taiwan administration for the digital transformation.

Surprisingly, it’s working, and it’s changing our society.’’

The ministers were in charge of organizing people, but the invisible line between was the public service, which fielded all concerns and somehow had to make a

judgement that was fair to everybody. That was not always easy.

But in this century, this model is no longer sustainable, for two reasons. First, people don’t need ministers or council members to organize anymore. All they need to do is to use the right hashtag, like #MeToo—tens of thousands of people just organized out of nowhere. So, the ministers’ power in a representative democracy is weakening. Second, more trends are continually emerging, like machine-learning ethics. The government cannot establish a ministry or bureau council for every emerging trend.

Because of this changing situation, the old gov-

ernment model needs to be reinvented. That is why I brought up the Internet governance model, which is called “collaborative governance”.

Asking questions like “Where are the organizers?” and “How do we make judgement calls?” is important in the later stages, but in the first stages we must ask, given our different positions, “Are there some common values?” These would include, for example, the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Given our common values, we must then ask, “How can the government, civil society, and the public sector further advance those common values? And if policy regulations are out of date, can we change those to better reflect our common values?”

This value-based, co-creation leadership is the kind of collaborative governance that I’m working on. In Taiwan, there is a social need to advance some value, but regulations or laws are blocking this from happening. But what if people could apply to break a law or regulation for a year to explore whether an innovation supports the common good of the entire society? For example, could a group take a year to test whether having self-driving tricycles on the road is feasible? After the experimentation period, we would all decide together whether this is a good idea or not. This would prevent regulators and legislators from devising regulations to control things of which they have no first-hand experience.

Everybody could experience an innovation for one year, and then all stakeholders,

including the general public, would make a collective decision together.

Everybody would get a year in which to break the law—with the exception of money laundering and funding terrorists. Everything else would be fair game for a pilot project. People would be empowered to challenge regulations from any ministry, which would make the law itself a co-created product. If the pilot is successful, people can get one extra year for scaling it out or up. At the end, after 60 days of consultation and if people think it’s a good idea, the government is committed to merge it back to our regulatory system.

Now if the idea to be implemented requires a law change, of course the MPs may have to deliberate longer; at most, they could deliberate, for example, four years over automated vehicles. At the same time, they would assist the innovators, including their business models, which can still carry on an essentially regional monopoly. Once the MPs finish deliberating on the laws, the competitors would enter the market. This is a model for an open-innovation system based on the social good.

One reason to adopt such a model is to solve a local problem.

But who gets to define local problems? Well, the local people, of course, so while applying the idea of regional innovation, I personally tour around Taiwan.

On Tuesdays, I travel around Taiwan to talk with people—indigenous people, rural people, even people in faraway locations, like Taitung and Hualien.Wherever I go, I meet with the local people in their natural habitats, so to speak.

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“In Taiwan, broadband is a human right; no matter how remote the place, if the residents don’t have access to 10 megabits per second, it’s our fault.’’

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In Taiwan, broadband is a human right; no matter how remote the place, if the residents don’t have access to 10 megabits per second, it’s our fault. Through teleconference, when I am out in the field, the 12 ministries related to social innovation are in Taipei, in the Social Innovation Lab, and can see through my eyes, what the local people are doing and saying. We connect to regions together in Taipei. In the old days, the Ministry of the Interior would say, “Oh, I have to ask the Ministry of Health.” And the Ministry of Health would say, “Oh, I have to check with the Ministry of Interior.” And the Ministry of Interior would say, “Oh, I have to ask the Ministry of Transportation.” Months would pass with very little happening.

Now, all the ministries are assembled together, and they cannot say that anymore. They have to brainstorm and produce ideas.

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In a year or so, we have resolved more than 100 cases just by having people talking directly during co-creation meetings in the Taipei Social Innovation Lab. We have recently ratified the “Regulation for Participation Offices”. Just like how media offices in every ministry talk to the mainstream journalists and the parliamentary offices talk to the MPs, we now have a team in each ministry that talks to the people they intend to organize through, for example, hashtags, e-petitions, or regional innovation tours. There is a dedicated team to turn the people who complain or who protest into co-chefs in the kitchens, so we can create things together —that is the Participation Offices (PO) network.

When people come up with an innovation, we set up a dedicated place for a demonstration.

When we say “demonstration”, it doesn’t mean “protesting”; instead, it means setting up a “demo”—as in showing people how it is done. Back in March 2014, we conducted a demonstration. At the time, the MPs were refusing to deliberate on the Cross-Straits Services Trade Agreement for constitutional reasons, so we went into the parliament and occupied it for 23 days. We called it the ‘Sunflower Demonstration’. It was not a protest, but a demo: it showed that we can get half a million people on the streets and many more online, and using visual tools to make sure that— unlike other “occupy” strategies, where every day results in more divergence — the ‘Sunflower movement’ can diverge and then converge every day, led by more than 20 NGOs, each talking about a particular aspect of the agreement.

Anyone participating—any of those half a million people on the streets—could use an app to enter a company number or registration name and then find exactly how the service and trade agreement affected him or her, and then bring that information to boost the conversation. It was all livestreamed and recorded so at the end of everyday we had more consensus. At the end of the occupation, we had five very clear points to which the head of parliament then agreed.

In February 2019, the Shalun Green Energy Science City will open in Tainan. From now on, people with experimental ideas need not occupy parliament; they only need to occupy the demo city near the high-speed train station near Tainan to

demonstrate, for example, how self-driving vehicles respond to things like protests on the streets, so we can establish a good norm, a social norm, through a simulation. Then we turn those social norms into code and make sure that when self-driving vehicles are on the streets, they conform to the expectations of society instead of those of a few inventors. At the end of this sandbox experiment, we make a judgement regarding whether people feel it is a good idea or not.

To gather information from thousands of city residents to determine whether a particular idea is good or not, we direct them to the Pol.is system. It uses AI-powered conversation, an open-source technology, where users find themselves as avatars among their friends and family members, all of whom may have very different responses. We don’t look at numbers, but rather at the diversity of the opinions.

What is important here is that these are not nameless, faceless enemies. These are not trolls.

We conduct troll control by having people crowdsource facts. Now, of course, Taiwan is ranked No. 1 in the world’s Open Data Index, but by Open Data we don’t just mean government open data. We mean open citizen and science data as well.

In the next step, we ask what people feel about the data that we have collected. For the same data, you can feel happy, I can feel angry, she can feel doubtful.

These are all okay, and after a month of feeling, we’d always gather around some feeling that is resonating with everybody.

The best ideas are the ones that resonates positively with the most people. This “feeling stage” is really the innovation,

because too often we just jump to the vote or jump to the ideation stage without checking for each other’s feelings. So an individual receives this Pol.is link via his mobile phone. He sees a fellow citizen’s feeling, and he can press “Agree” or “Disagree”. Once he does that, his avatar will move among people with similar feelings.

The page does not include a reply button to prevent users from attacking one another or posting cat pictures. This forces users to respond by proposing authentic feelings for other people to resonate with. In this phase, users can only contribute; they cannot take anything away from it.

In Taiwan, we run many consultations like this, and we hold ourselves to account and take as agenda the top sentiments that resonate with everybody.

For face-to-face, livestream consultation meetings, people collectively set the agenda. But the only way they can do this is by convincing people from across the aisle.

Social or popular media merely repeat divisive statements again and again, thus exacerbating the conflict. But in Pol.is, users can reflect on each other’s feelings, people are encouraged to discover what they have in common with their neighbours, which typically is more than they had imagined. After each of these exercises, people become inoculated and immune to future disinformation campaigns or divisive PR campaigns because they learn that everyone feels pretty much the same way on the most controversial issues.

We did this for Uber, for Airbnb, and for many challenging cyber economy issues. Through this

process, we can rate innovations not on which side they represent, but on how well they respond to the common values.

Innovations don’t have to come from the government. In Taiwan, we have a thriving civil society of which I am a part: the g0v Movement that supported the communication of the Occupy Movement in 2014. The g0v Movement is a very simple idea. All government website addresses include “gov”, as does Taiwan’s. For example, our legislative branch is “ly.gov.tw”. We have registered as domain name “g0v.tw”. For every government website and service that we find inadequate and imperfect, we don’t have to protest; we just make an alternative website that shows exactly the same information but is more interactive and useful for citizens. So for every single gov.tw address, an individual can change her “o” to “0” on her website browser and get into the “shadow government”, which offers an alternative vision of the same public service.

the official response. This process reduces risk because public servants only have to respond once, instead of responding to 14 phone calls with similar questions. It also lowers the risk of the entire public service being unfairly criticized because their professionalism or lack of it is now seen publicly.

Last week, we just had a lively debate in the parliament about a g0v project called the ‘Airbox’.

Airbox is a simple citizen science project where citizens can measure air quality on their own.

Each Airbox

example, when citizen-scientists told us that they wanted to measure the air quality in the middle of the Taiwan Strait, but it was impossible for them to set up Airboxes there, we responded by mounting the measurement devices in our wind-power stations. It was a win-win for everybody because the citizen-scientists could perform scientific experiments and we got to foster cross-sectoral collaboration.

It’s all open innovation. Anybody can use the software that we contributed free of copyright online. As a result, independent measurement devices have been set up all over the world.

Unless users change the data centre URL, the data gathered by the devices get sent to Taiwan. The Taiwan Academia Sinica now has global-level data for the world’s air quality. We set up the ci.taiwan. gov.tw website to make sure that every citizen-scientist can contribute data into our national super-computing centre. Anyone who wants to write an AI algorithm or update water-quality data can do so, even a junior high school student. We have additional websites for computational intelligence (CI), artificial intelligence (AI), and social innovation (SI).

“We spur social innovation, and we always share it in a noncolonizing way, co-creative way.”

This idea has already spread.

Last week, the g0v Italy just started, so if, say, one goes to budget.g0v.it, one actually goes to the Italian shadow government. We are starting chapters in New York and in Toronto. All these g0v creations, hundreds of them, relinquish our copyright, so if popular ideas get support, then during the next procurement cycle they become the next governments’ websites by changing the “0” back to “o”.

In 2014, Taipei City started using this system as the participation budgeting platform.

By 2016, all 16 municipalities had adopted the system, and by 2017 the national government also used it to publish its 1,300 ministerial projects — including their KPI, spending, budget, and procurement. Every quarterly report is posted for everybody to talk about, and ministries can solicit public comment on a particular project and publish

costs US$100. More than 2,000 people have purchased these small boxes and installed them in their homes and schools. Of course, this seems a threat to the legitimacy of the Ministry of Environment because the government publishes a measurement, but someone’s friends may publish another number, and of course individuals are going to believe their friends’ numbers. In any other East Asian country, I believe this would be seen as a threat to the government’s legitimacy. But in Taiwan, instead of fighting with people, we just join the people.

We worked with our research facility to make more precise, calibrated devices for air – quality measurement systems like these. We also made sure to include places where there was a digital gap and where the citizen-scientists did not go. For

Why do members of civil society trust the government to not change their data when they upload to the CI platform? The answer is because we use blockchain. We use distributor-ledger technology, so they can take a snapchat and put it online. If our super-computing centre changes the number, everybody will know it has been changed.

We use cutting-edge technology to make sure everybody can trust everybody’s numbers. We spur social innovation, and we always share it in a non-colonizing way, co-creative way.

When people ask me what I do as a digital minister, I reply that I work on SDG 17.18, 17.17, and 17.6. This means, respectively,

making sure everybody has the same evidence to talk about something; using technology to make sure that all the different sides can only add, not subtract, from the common data and feelings; and finally, opening up the innovation so everyone can own the appropriate technology instead of being colonized by the technologies.

For the water-quality data, for example, machine-learning researchers developed ways to detect water leakage very quickly—like 10 times quicker than before—using the CI data. Now a team is sharing this knowledge in New Zealand. They didn’t have a water shortage problem there before, but now, because of climate change, they do. But instead of buying technology from a propriety vendor, they just co-create. That is how we contribute to the global sustainable development goals.

Finally, I want to share a poem that I wrote two years ago when I was asked to join the Taiwan Cabinet. I always say I work with the Cabinet, not for the Cabinet.

As a Lagrange point between governments and movements, I wrote a poem to show my vision of the Digital world beyond the ICT world. It goes like this: When we see “Internet of Things,” let’s make it an Internet of beings.

When we see virtual reality, let’s make it a shared reality.

When we see machine-learning, let’s make it collaborative learning.

When we see user experience, let’s make it about human experience.

And whenever we hear that the singularity is near, let us always remember, always keep in mind, that the plurality is here.

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N EW TO O LS & TH I N KING FO R TH E NEXT 2 5 YEAR S

by Abhisit Vejjajiva, CALD Chairperson

Speech delivered at the CALD 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner in Bangkok, Thailand on 19 November

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THANK YOU very much for the very kind introduction. It’s great to be introduced by the founding mother of the organization. I think Butch Abad claims to be one of the founding fathers. I’d like to think of myself, if possible, as the founding son. I was there in the beginning, when I was a lot younger, and I’ve been raised with CALD for the last 25 years.

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I recall that 25 years ago, it was almost unthinkable that we would have a regional organization like this, when many like-minded political parties in the region were simply much occupied with their individual struggles. Yes, we had the optimism following the People’s Revolution in the Philippines in 1986. We here in Thailand also went through the ‘Black May’ events in 1992 where democracy eventually won. Yet even today, around the region, so many of us are still struggling with one-party regimes in various forms, and it seems like the struggle for democracy and liberalism will be left to individual parties in their respective countries.

But it took the vision of some of the leaders in the region, one of whom [Dr. Surin Pitsuwan] we will later pay tribute to tonight, and also of colleagues and friends elsewhere in Asia and the rest of the world to have liberals and democrats in the region join

hands and cooperate and form an organization to help us in our struggle to fight for and protect what we all believe in.

Twenty five years on, it is clear that our struggles continue and that there are still complaints about the lack of progress in many countries.

But we have come a long way. I was asked earlier today exactly what we have achieved, and I think that the very least in all the countries where we have member parties, there is that increase in awareness in democratic values and what democracy means to all the people. And while we face the challenges of authoritarianism in traditional and new forms, many of the member parties have had quite a journey into government — something that maybe 25 years ago would have been quite difficult to imagine. Even in being the recognized opposition, in being a very powerful force that would be recognized at least by the international community.

Let me just quickly suggest a few areas where I feel would be an important direction for the organization.

now a new game. And while we, liberals and democrats, are often proud that we have the right content, the right substance, the right message, we’re not known for communicating those well.

And this kind of expertise is what we need now.

“But in meeting new challenges, we also have to think of the future and have new agenda.”

These are real marks of progress that we should be proud of. But in meeting new challenges, we also have to think of the future and have new agenda.

First, 25 years ago, we thought that the fight was just about the system, getting democracy somehow restored in the country, and then it would take care of itself. That hasn’t happened.

It hasn’t happened in other regions, either, and we know that as political parties, as we continue to fight for power.

But the world has moved on since 25 years ago. The role of marketing and subsequently, the role of digital marketing is

Last month, we had a delegation to South Africa and we were impressed by what we saw.

They had a call centre staffed by 200 people for the party — and these people were not answering phone calls. They were making phone calls to the population and they did this, 200 of them, about 10 hours a day, and they have been doing it for a year and a half in the lead up to the elections they will have next year. And I was puzzled — who are they talking to? I found out that among the people who picked up the phone, about five percent continued the conversation, and the average length of the conversation was actually 40 minutes each. These days, the Liberal Party of the Philippines is engaged in a listening tour, asking basic questions to targeted constituencies. I think they would be surprised at how, given the opportunity, people

really do want to engage and tell us what they want from us.

It’s these kinds of methods and innovations that we need more of. But we also saw what the Democratic Alliance of South Africa have been busy with.

Their people have been doing the work of professional political consultants, services that such consultants usually offer to us at a very high cost. Our friends from South Africa have managed to have their own in-house team that can conduct focus group discussions, as well as do quick calls, surveys, micro-targeting.

Subsequently, they now have the creative means to craft the messages for individual micro-targets.

Well, isn’t it time that CALD and our partners also aspire to offer these kinds of services to member parties? I’m sure CALD has the capacity to do so and it can tap into a number of resources — human resources, people who have worked with CALD over the last 25 years.

That is one thing that I would like you to see the work of CALD evolve into.

Secondly, it’s not just about winning power. It’s also about governing well. And while we would like to feel that we’ve all done that, or we could do that, the fact of the matter is if that were the case, we would be rewarded by the electorate at every election. Clearly, we have not been able to do that. When former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and I both left office, we thought we had done a reasonable job, and we thought we had the facts to prove it.

But we were not rewarded at the ballot boxes. We were not rewarded by the electorate.

And we need to be able to get to get to grips with what it is we are still failing to do. One of the

things I’ve mentioned also today was that now we have to move on from the Liberal Manifesto to some kind of guidelines and handbooks for good public policies. What the principles, what the values that we hold dear, mean in practical terms to improve people’s lives.

We talk about freedom, we talk about rights. Yet as our colleagues from the Philippines will tell you, we could win all the arguments about extrajudicial killings, but the electorate will say, “Do you have the solution to drugs?” We could complain about the populist policies and all the damages that they do, but the electorate will always ask us, “What are you going to do to lift us out of poverty?” I’m sure we have had success cases around the world, policies implemented according to liberal and democratic values and they worked.

But we need to learn from each other more and we need to discuss the more practical issues that will take things forward.

And the third, final thought that I will offer is that we can no longer work alone as political parties. More and more, liberals and democrats have been pushed into being labelled as the Establishment. Even political parties as organizations are now seeing as part of the Establishment that has failed to deliver, that continues to be a disappointment, leading to anger, frustrations, inequalities, and lack of opportunities, and all because they have overlooked the priorities of ordinary people.

We have to admit — whether it’s us, whether it’s our competitors, everybody in the political world — we are suffering from the lack of trust. We need to work with other institutions that can help contribute to the democratic liberal cause: the academe, the NGOs, responsible journalists, and so on. We need to reach out, and perhaps restructure, some of the work that we do as an organization, so we can allow those actors — significant political actors, although they are not calling themselves politicians — to participate in what we do.

And finally, we’re marking the 25th anniversary of CALD with the presence of our colleagues from around the world. I cannot tell you how much we appreciate the time that you’ve taken simply to travel here and also to actively engage with the sessions that we’ve had for today and tomorrow. We need to do more of that and we hope Liberal International as a mother organization would also help facilitate the way we could work with each other along the lines we have discussed earlier.

repeatedly asked, “How do you remain optimistic?” I don’t really have an answer. I’m just afraid that if I lose my optimism, I’d also lose my youth. I’ve been around for decades now, but I’m still trying to be young.

I try to smile despite all the things that have happened.

Because I still believe that we will eventually prove that what we believe in are not Western values, are not values specific to any country, but values that are part of human nature.

That every individual aspires to have freedom and aspires to have opportunity. That every individual has something good in them, something strong in them, and if only given freedom and opportunity, everyone can reach that potential. It is because of that that I remain optimistic and I remain confident that the work we do as an organization, as CALD, as we enter the 26th year, will be valuable to all of us and to all of our peoples, and that we will ultimately win the fight in the political arena.

I have been

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GE T TI N G P OL I TI CAL PA RTI ES R E STARTED

by Florencio Abad, CALD Founding Member and Former Chairperson

Keynote Address given at the CALD 25th Anniversary Public Conference in Bangkok, Thailand on 20 November

I HAVE been asked to share my reflections about what “political parties can do in both their internal and external relations and processes to better enable them to fulfill their role in a democracy”. There is no doubt that there is popular disenchantment with political parties all over the world. This has led to claims that these institutions are headed towards what the CALD programme characterizes as an “inexorable process of decay, decline, and decomposition”.

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I do agree that internal and external relations and processes need our earnest attention. But to do so effectively, I believe, requires us to confront more fundamental issues that are fuelling distrust with mainstream politicians and puts into question their ability to fulfill their role in a democracy.

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Let me state unequivocally, however: in a democracy, political parties are still most suited to unify large portions of the electorate, articulate their disparate interests and viewpoints, and transform their preferences into public policies. They do this by forming themselves into organizations with distinct philosophical or ideological orientation and biases, by agreeing upon and operating within a set of rules and norms, and helping conduct orderly and peaceful electoral competition for power

and the right to govern society.

The more diverse the options are that are available to the citizens, the better for them. This is the essence of democracy.

For those that fail to secure the mandate to govern, their role doesn’t end there. Democracies recognize the critical function of those in the opposition to monitor those in power and hold them accountable.

Because of the critical function they perform in society and with the constant turnover of political leaders, political parties also provide a crucial role as recruitment and training ground for future government functionaries and political leaders.

But today a growing number of citizens around the world are questioning whether political parties can still be trusted to play that role. Worse, disdain for politicians and political parties has been growing: It is intense, widespread, and global. Sadly, this resentment seems to have reached a point where it has become a popular instinct today, even to the point of absurdity, like the election of clowns and comedians in Italy who present themselves as such. In increasing number of countries, it has led to a predisposition to embrace undemocratic alternatives, as the rise of nativist, anti-immigration, and neo-Nazi fringe

parties in Europe or the continuing popularity back home of an unabashed misogynist and an unrepentant human-rights violator who is viewed as an outsider, anti-establishment president, or the ascendance of a non-politician to the Presidency of the most powerful country in the world who has been fact-checked to have lied more than 5,000 times (and further multiplying as we speak) since he took office two years ago.

How did we come to this? Many explanations abound, but a growing point of convergence is the political backlash emanating from the alienation, disempowerment, and dislocation of significant segments of the population and communities around the world today, in both rich and poor countries. These problems are consequences of a relentless pursuit of globalization and rapid technological changes and the economic policies and priorities that flow from these are adopted to facilitate them—deregulation of banks, trickle-down economics that concentrate meagre resources at the centre and with an elite to the neglect of the periphery and their populations, scorn for equality and preference for markets, downsized government on the theory that markets know best, minimal regulation, unimpeded migration to the neglect of

the needs of citizens, tolerance for corporate evasion.

It cannot be denied that the benefits from the free movement of goods, services, and capital across the globe and the development of new technologies have been good to the economy in the aggregate way. They have led to profound, positive changes that are reshaping the ecosystems of work, learning, geopolitics, ethics, and community. Openness and globalism have brought prosperity to many parts of the world and lifting hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people out of poverty.

But there can also be no denying that these same global developments have created shocks that are extremely powerful, like environmental disasters, business closures, displacement of communities, even social conflicts like insurgencies.

They have as a consequence a l s o deepened and

“Democracies recognize the critical function of those in the opposition to monitor those in power and hold them accountable.’’ intensified the problem of inequality and the feeling of being left behind within and between countries.

As Thomas Piketty —a professor at the Paris School of Economics who works on wealth and income inequality — has emphasized, the principal driving force of political discontent today is inequality. In fragile democracies and impoverished countries, these developments have further worsened the helplessness and frustration among sectors and communities already disadvantaged. They have added another layer to unresolved historical and structural imbalances in power and wealth.

The world over, this economic worldview is being challenged by angry populations empowered by social media and other new technologies. They are deeply frustrated with, and resentful of, their politicians and

governments. The middle and lower classes, in particular, resent the fact that politicians and governments have placed the welfare of the wealthy and powerful above theirs, the interest of the global economy ahead of domestic needs. Our situation requires wholly new ways of thinking about and doing politics and governance.

But sadly, the traditional and dominant political parties are not doing that. Worse, they may not even fully appreciate the profound changes that are driving new realities in the social, economic, and political spheres of our life.

Should we be surprised then at people’s growing disenchantment with politicians and political parties when politicians and political parties continue to behave like

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“The revulsion with these economic policies — which parties of the right, centre, and left have brought — is what is driving political discontent among those left behind and pushing them to embrace populist, nativist, anti-immigration, and authoritarian propaganda.’’

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politics-as-usual in the midst of this political turmoil? I think it is time for politicians to come to terms with this crisis and wean themselves away from looking at problems as just left-right bipartite choices—capital vs. labour, the balance between state and market, acceptable and prohibited social norms (like abortion or gay marriage), the national outlook of openness or a preference for looking inwards and embracing nationalism.

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But nowadays these choices just cannot contain or balance many of the new choices that citizens, communities, parties, and corporations need to make to thrive amid all these changes. How do we secure job placements for our youth without being preoccupied with college diplomas? How can universities deliver learning and skills that can lead to enterprise in poor communities? How can infrastructure development link isolated communities to production centres? And way more. We have to accept that the social, economic, and political environment that defines the structures, relations, and processes of political institutions like parties, had drastically changed.

What needs to be done then?

I honestly do not have an answer. There is no conventional wisdom on how to address these issues. It is difficult enough

to characterize the affliction that is undermining political institutions today. But of this I am certain: for politicians and political parties to survive, they must be willing to overhaul their mindsets, methods, and structures to adapt to a new world. We do need to bring the renewal of political parties to the foreground in any discussion of contemporary politics.

Harvard economist Dr. Dani Rodrik presents an interesting perspective, calling on political parties to renew their ties to local communities. Let me quote him: “We need to revisit our economic world view and put the health of our local communities front and centre: stable families, good jobs, strong schools, abundant and safe public places, and pride in local cultures and history— the essential elements of prosperous societies.”

Rodrik adds: “Neither global markets nor the nation-states can adequately supply them, sometimes the market and the state even undermine them.”

For this reason, the community, according to Rodrik, “must be seen as the third pillar of prosperity as important as the other two pillars—the state and the market”.

Rodrik rues the fact that policymakers and bureaucrats have listened more to the corporate

sector in putting “too much emphasis on hyper-globalization and giving insufficient attention to the costs to communities”. He says, “Our economistic worldview that narrowly focuses on consumption and the possibilities created by giving firms the freedom (and if I may add, the incentives) they need to take advantage of new technologies, the division of labour, economies of scale, and mobility has led to economic and social division that has provided a broad backlash resulting in political turmoil.

This suggests economic priorities may not have been entirely appropriate.”

An interesting upcoming book, The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America by Oren Cass, a moderate Republican, explores the same theme: “The reality, which economic models miss, is that consumption is all well and good... but it’s not the basis for a healthy society. Our ability to be productive is much more important to our life satisfaction and to our ability to form and support strong families and communities. And those families and communities are key to raising the next generation.” If political parties are to stay relevant, it is imperative that they locate themselves in the struggle for and be vigorous advocates on the formation of and support

for productive citizens, wherever they maybe, strong families, and vibrant communities.

Cass cites the example of a local factory that closes down due to outsourcing. What is lost, he says, are not just jobs. There is also reduced public spending on goods and services, local government tax revenues fail, so educational and social services take a hit. Then anomie, family breakdowns, opioid addiction, and other social ills follow.

In that situation, the logic of the prevailing economic viewpoint that requires the dislocated to deal with their predicament by moving out and transferring to more prosperous places will not work. Cass explains why.

“Moving away is hard,” he says. “(It) requires strong family and social network, confidence, skill, and resources”—endowments that poor areas have no access to. Cass points to this as “a quintessential example” of burdening those left behind with another layer of problem by asking them to sacrifice some more, while those already doing great don’t even have to make any. Why can’t our economic formula be so oriented that it supports prosperity in all kinds of places?

What these two examples demonstrate is that addressing this growing discontent will require that this perception that

“The solutions are not readily available and a lot of experimentation need to be made.”

the interest and welfare of vulnerable citizens, their communities, and regions, have been sacrificed in favour of the elites, more progressive areas, and the requirements of global business be reversed. This can happen only if politicians are able to craft a narrative that restores the domestic social contract — one where the state and the market recognize the community and its citizens as pillars of prosperity.

The solutions are not readily available and a lot of experimentation need to be made. Some of those that are noteworthy: One, subsidizing wages of newly hired workers in extremely poor areas to put more people into the labour force so that they can develop skills that will enable them to earn non-subsidized wages. Two, innovations developed at universities spread to nearby employers to create new opportunities for livelihood and employment. Three, overhauling immigration policy to attract more people with advanced skills and deploy them in struggling regions.

Of course these are easier said than done. Difficult tradeoffs need to be made. For example: If

progressive tax policies to reduce inequality are unimpeded by the mobility of corporations around the world, are we prepared to force the latter to give way? If industrial policies to diversify developing economies are precluded by WTO rules, are we ready to insist that trade rules must be formed? If foreign investors ask for equal protection to shield them from domestic legal system, can we refuse and say no?

These are but a few of those difficult questions that will likely confront us as policy makers. Such assertions may appear to be inimical to our global standing and expose us to accusations of protectionism and misplaced nationalism. But for as long as such decisions are made in the sense of reducing inequality and promoting social inclusion, restoring robust

domestic economic growth, resolving political conflict, and rewriting a truly liberal democracy, it can well be argued that these choices are still consistent with our aspirations for the truly open and free world economy.

The revulsion with these economic policies — which parties of the right, centre, and left have brought — is what is driving political discontent among those left behind and pushing them to embrace populist, nativist, anti-immigration, and authoritarian propaganda.

The results of the recent midterm elections in the United States – the election of more women legislators, a more diverse House of Representatives, the huge turnout among the young, the strengthening of checks and balances – augur well for representative democracy in that country. I’m not too sure about the prospects back home in our part of the world, however. I would imagine that the impact of such dislocating and inequity-enhancing policies is even more problematic in our region, where the reign of autocratic rulers severely constrains access to social media and precludes any meaningful dialogue

through which popular revulsion may find expression. Where is then the channel for that?

Even in severely flawed democracies such as ours in the Philippines, where dynastic and patronage-drive clans masquerade as political parties mainly to protect and further their business interests, the challenge is as daunting. How do we even begin to start the conversation?

The dilemma is that those in power and ascendant over the mainstream parties may have little appetite for such conversation, while those who appreciate our current global, regional, and national predicament and want to take action – social and political movements, enlightened businessmen and CSOs – are in the margins of the political arena.

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by Han-Seok Ko, Vice President, Institute for Democracy, South Korea

Speech given at the CALD 25th Anniversary Public Conference in Bangkok, Thailand on 20 November

AS A seasoned IT consultant, I have met many CEOs of all kinds of companies. They all ask me what IT can do for them. I ask them back, “What is the most important thing you do for your success?”

Recently, some companies told me that they have such and such data, and wanted to know what they can get from those data. I asked them back, too, “What is your strategic goal for success? How do you define your success?” Once you make clear what you are pursuing, then look for any data that could help you achieve your goal regardless of whether you have those data on hand or not.

I was impressed by Mr. Hans van Baalen’s opening remark yesterday: “Liberals have to win!” Many IT experts tell you that IT can do this and do that, and so on. As a politician, you should ask them if IT can help you and your party gain more supporters among your constituents and win the election.

Yes, politics is all about power.

A political party has to seize the power in order to fulfill its political mission. And if you want to seize the power, you have to make more citizens join in your party’s activities and become your party members and finally vote for the candidates of your party in the election. That is the name of the game.

So, what are the most important activities in your party? I think three of the most important things in a political party are: first, electing the chairman of your party; second, electing the candidate of your party; and third, winning the election.

So please don’t play around some fancy technological toys or use technology to address smaller and non-critical issues. Use whatever technologies that could help you get more supporters on your side, and for your cause.

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Maybe you don’t need fancy technologies, a lot of money, or socalled “big data”.

But what you need is the right technology,

whatever it is, and the right data, whatever they are.

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In 2007, the Democratic Party of South Korea (not DPRK of North Korea) introduced the mobile-voting system into party politics for the first time in history. It was an open primary election for the presidential candidate of the party. Every citizen, regardless of party membership, was allowed to register himself or

herself as a primary voter online or by phone call.

Then, on the primary election day, automatic phone calls with pre-recorded messages were made to each and every registered voter, who were then asked which candidate he or she preferred. After listening to the message, the receiver pressed the number of his or her choice.

Some 230,000 voters registered themselves as part of the electoral college and 74 percent of them actually voted with their mobile phone. Meanwhile, only 16 percent of registered offline voters showed up at the voting booth on the primary election day.

After that, every time that we elect our party chairman and elect the presidential candidate, it has become more evident that mobile voting is the most powerful tool to encourage ordinary party members and citizens to actively participate in political processes.

Every time we open our mobile system to promote citizens’ participation in party politics, we see a sizeable increase in new party membership.

Especially after revision of the law on political party in 2016, which allowed party membership registration through mobile phones, there has been a surge of new membership from the first day of the opening of mobile-registration system.

Ordinary citizens and especially younger generation also often feel frustrated of having no influence in party politics, so they tend not to participate in party politics.

However, once they were given an easy and convenient way to influence party politics, they have become very eager to have their voice in politics.

Our party revised its platform to allow setting up various online chapters based on similar working areas, or similar interest, in order to retain those newly-joined party members.

Of course, there are pros and cons of using the mobile-voting system in party politics. Since it is convenient for voter

generation who are familiar with new technology and middle class who can afford expensive smart phones.

Admittedly, there is no one magic medicine that cures all diseases.

While the mobile-voting is a better tool to make decisions on very important and popular agenda, such as who would be in charge of the organization, it is not a good tool for decision-making on not-so-popular issues like economic policies, since the result could be manipulated by a handful participants who have extreme views and are able to organize their followers while the public is not so aware of and interested in the issue.

Also, once we choose our candidate, we have to make him win the election.

“... what you need is the right technology, whatever it is, and the right data, whatever they are.”

Previously, the number of party members was around 260,000.

Then the mobile – registration system opened, resulting in the number of party members reaching over 1.7 million within two years.

Since the current political party system originated in the Industrial Age in the 19th century, the base of a party has been its local chapters.

The majority of members of local chapters are typically party operatives, older citizens, local shop owners, and housewives, because they stay in the local residential areas during the day. Workers and young men are off to downtown for work and study at daytime. Many of them are well educated, but they come home late in weekdays, when they enjoy social and outdoor activities, so operatives of local chapters have had a hard time having access to them.

Every campaign has limited resources such as candidate’s time, money, volunteers, brochures and flyers, and post-mails, and so on. You cannot do handshakes with each and every voter in your electoral district.

You have to use your resources more efficiently and focus on target voters and target neighborhoods.

registration, it can enlarge your party base, so the party can have broader range of constituents across the society. It is also convenient for voting on election day, and thus can increase the voter-turnout ratio, in turn making the internal election results more credible and more solid.

At the same time, however, the system has raised some concerns.

For one, since it records the vote of each voter, there is a potential violation of privacy. Thus, the party now deletes all voting data after the result is published and audited in order to protect personal privacy.

There have been debates as well on how much share of citizens’ mobile vote should be reflected in the total result. In the case of open primary election, no special treatment is given to party members who have been loyal to the party for many years and have contributed their own time and money to the party.

Too, the mobile-voting system may be favourable to the younger

What are target voters?

They are the voters who can make you win or lose the election. Actually there are few voters who swing between two parties. More often than not, what happens is that a voter who supports a certain party or share same values with a certain party does not show up at the polls on election day. We call this kind of supporters the “soft supporters” and your mission is to mobilize them towards the polling booths.

In contrast to the soft supporters are the so-called “base supporters” who show up at the polls for every election, regardless of weather, whoever the party’s candidate is, how busy they are, or how far the polling place is located. It means that they don’t need your campaign to encourage them to vote. The more base supporters living in a neighbourhood, the less necessity for running a campaign there.

Target neighbourhoods are therefore where there are more soft supporters compared to other places. You cannot know who those target voters are, but you can calculate their ratio among total voters in a neighborhood using a

precinct’s historical voting results.

Once these numbers show up on the map in your smart phone, you can set the priority neighbourhoods for campaigns and plan how to navigate your candidate’s speech tour and volunteers’ activities during the campaign period. This can save time and money and produce more favourable outcomes.

I introduced this GIS-based neighbourhood-targeting system in the 2014 parliamentary election in South Korea and helped 21 candidates get elected. I joined the Institute for Democracy in 2017 as a deputy director and helped my party’s standard bearer Mr. Moon Jae-In win the presidential election.

Although this targeting system does not use a fancy and cutting-edge technology, it does provide a candidate valuable information for his campaign strategies.

We also provided on a map data regarding the number of residents of a certain socio-economic group in a neighbourhood. We used census-statistics information that is updated every five years. So if you want to encounter a certain group of people more than others, you can use this map to plan your moves.

Of course a targeting campaign also has its own pros and cons.

The pros: It can mobilize voters who support our party but do not actually vote frequently. It increases overall voter turnout, so it can make democracy stand on a broader base. And sometimes a voter does not vote maybe because he or she does not know your party’s stand regarding a policy area he or she is especially interested in. If you can deliver the message targeted to this special interest, it will increase his or her identification with your party platform.

The cons: the party may give less attention to non-target voters even if they are loyal party members.

And when the target voters receive messages concerning only their special interests, issues concerning the broader public and the rest of society could seem less important in the campaign. Implementing a targeting campaign should thus be carefully managed to promote more common values for the whole society.

The smart use of data and a little bit of technology can make a difference in your party politics and elections.

So please do not ask technology what it can do, but ask yourself what you are really concerned about to ensure your party’s success.

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TOWARD S A STR ONG ER, B E T TER INLW

by Jayanthi Devi Balaguru, INLW President

Acceptance speech at the Liberal International 62nd Congress in Dakar, Senegal on 29 November

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IT IS with great honor that I accept the presidency of the International Network of Liberal Women. It should not escape many of you that as I take the helm in INLW, Liberal International will also soon have a change in leadership. That me, a Malaysian, and Hakima el Haite, a Moroccan, will now be heading INLW and LI, respectively, shows how far we have come, as liberals and democrats, to really globalizing freedom.

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Probably you have heard that the usual critique of global liberal organizations is that they are too “Euro-centric”.

The regional organization where I currently serve as chair of the Women’s Caucus, the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, was founded precisely for this reason – to give liberals and democrats in Asia a platform where their issues can be tackled – having found discussions in liberal gatherings wanting in terms of nuance and representativeness.

I am pleased that the abovementioned criticism no longer holds true. In recent years, INLW, LI, and the International Federation of the Liberal Youth, have taken concrete and positive steps in order to make their respective organizations truly representative in composition and global in terms of outlook. By establishing regional chapters or branches, and by strengthening cooperation with regional networks, these global liberal organizations, particularly the INLW, made significant contributions in the globalization of liberalism.

Our work, however, is far from over. Given the rise of populism, illiberalism, and authoritarianism all over the world, we now have the more difficult challenge of expanding liberal and democratic values not only within the confines of our organization, but more importantly, to the general population – to the common people we serve.

For a time after the end of the

“Now, more than ever, liberal and democratic values that we hold dear are assailed on all fronts, all over the world. And I believe we all know the implication of that: a less liberal world is detrimental to the cause of women.

Cold War, we thought that the great ideological debate had been settled, and liberal democracy had already won universal acceptance. Recent events showed that that was not the case. Now, more than ever, liberal and democratic values that we hold dear are assailed on all fronts, all over the world. And I believe we all know the implication of that: a less liberal world is detrimental to the cause of women.

In this age of populists, illiberal, and authoritarians, INLW’s work is already cut out for us. During my term as INLW President, therefore, I ask all of you to join me in putting the organization at the forefront of the struggle for a more democratic, liberal, and gender-equal world. To do so, I would like to identify my key priorities for the organization during my incumbency.

Put Our House in Order – An organization can only be strong in its external dealings when it is strong internally.

We should examine INLW’s rules and procedures and see whether they are relevant and in line with our liberal and democratic principles and values. Equally important is our relations with each other, fellow women leaders.

Being a small organization, we should be able to work together despite our differences. This can be achieved only if we operate in an environment characterized by camaraderie, openness, and mutual respect.

Go Back to the Basics – Apart from our involvement in international organizations like the United Nations and its attendant institutions (Human Rights Council, Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, etc.), INLW should also be more grounded to the issues and problems that affect women. We should do more immersion programmes, exposure trips, even partnerships with grassroots women organizations.

We should not remain in our comfort zone, and go above and beyond our capacity to improve the lives of women all over the world.

Forge Wider Partnerships – INLW is perceived as closely tied with LI, and there is nothing wrong with that.

That partnership should be maintained and even strengthened. But our world as INLW should not revolve solely around LI. In line with my proposal to go back to the basics, we can forge more, much wider partnerships than those that we have now. Let us assess our strengths, and come up with a checklist of the things that we can realistically offer our prospective partners. Let us use our networks to identify organizations, institutions, and groups that we can work with at the international, regional, national, and local levels. Let us make the INLW a working organization!

in the world that women cannot do?

History is replete with examples of women who made things happen, who followed the uncharted path, who took that difficult step to greatness.

Join me, and together, we can accomplish great things for the INLW and for the cause of women all over the world.

Distinguished ladies, the task at hand may appear daunting.

But tell me: Is there anything

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Social Media Can Be Positive Q&A with DJ Nana SHE IS only in her early 30s, but DJ Nana – as Neang Sovathana is more popularly known in Cambodia — is already among the highest-paid emcees in her country.

Her candidness, impressive general knowledge, and extensive social work have also made her a new and quite unique kind of celebrity in Cambodia’s entertainment industry. In addition, she has introduced a business model — a slick mix of independent yet professionally produced content largely on advice on relationships and supported by advertisements — that is unprecedented in that country.

DJ Nana started out as a social worker for NGOs at the tender age of 14. To this day, she sets aside time for voluntary work on democratization and people empowerment. In 2009, she began working in communications and media and soon gained attention as an ‘agony aunt’ in a local radio talk show, giving advice on various aspects of life, ranging from jobseeking to personal relationships.

She attracted an even larger following after she started her Dj Nana Tips Facebook page in 2013. At the time, her “consulting service” was still largely free of charge. By late 2015, however, she announced that she had shifted from radio to social media as a business venture. Her Facebook page Dj Nana TV, in fact, was being sustained through advertisements even as it had consultation content similar to that of Dj Nana Tips.

DJ Nana was at the CALD 25th Anniversary Conference in Bangkok in November, where she delivered a lightning talk on innovative ways to fight gender inequality using social media. The following Q & A is made up of selected portions from her session at the Conference.

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Why do you have a lot of followers? And how do you relate to them?

I have a two – million reach and that’s a lot [of followers]. [It has grown] only because I talk something about what matters in their lives, so I listen to their life. People in my country see me as their counselor. I give some advice as a young person.

How should we react to harsh comments?

When you share something with half a million views, of course there will be harsh comments.

They want it, but I don’t care. I don’t reply. I don’t comment, but sometimes I post an emoji on that text. But that’s it. I don’t care anything at all. That is number one.

Number two, before I say something, of course — I mean, you have to protect yourself. That is what I learned in internal relations. My father has a master’s degree and a PhD in law. I worked in a foundation before so I know some laws and I know the things that can get you arrested and what I can say to defend myself. I think you also have to identify what kind of comments you want to read and what kinds of comments that you just [need to] ignore or just not reply.

How do we get young people to engage in our cause through social media?

I think one thing I can advise is if you want to use your social media in a way that attracts young people, it has to be user-oriented, and [what] I mean by user-oriented is the way you speak, the way you talk, the way you dress, and the way you relate to your audience.

You have to attract young people and that is through what young people like. They like things entertaining and even the jacket I am wearing it is not a typical jacket — and that is not to say that I don’t like the typical expensive jacket. It is just to say that I have to be able walk in the streets and young people can come and talk to you because they like you as a person.

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Q&A with DJ Nana How can you be authentic to your audience?

I will go to my inbox and read their story, so when the tips that I talk about respond to their own story, it means they are really relating to them 100 percent. The other thing that I can advise is that you really have to identify yourself before you go there — like what kind of public speaker you want to be and what kind of content — because if you mix things up in your page you will not have your own identity. And by having your own identity, you also have a specific audience. Because it is Facebook, you cannot please everyone.

How do you empower women?

So actually posting a beautiful photo, but I think the caption is what matters. Like for example, during my previous post, it is trying to say that you are beautiful in your own way and if you are trying to please the people who hate you, it would never work. So I am trying to motivate women that it is okay to try to be beautiful, and you should be beautiful, but you cannot really change yourself to please people’s eyes. So these tiny, small images that really go into my fans and I try to encourage women to be beautiful but at the same time being beautiful in their own definition, not other people’s definition.

How do you talk about political content?

I am an aggressive person but I don’t have to be aggressive every time in social media. I mean, I can talk about politics without using the word politics at all. For example, I had a mother call in my radio talk show, and her daughter wanted to marry this guy, and he is totally a jerk. “He is not a nice guy, and I don’t want her to marry him” — you know, stuff like that, as a mom. Then she was starting to ask, “What should I do to prevent her from marrying the wrong guy?” Then I started to explain see, but I say, “Do you like democracy?” “Yes, we like democracy.”

And I say, “But if she cannot decide whom she wanted to marry and then you say you like democracy.” So I take very small examples on families and how couples live, for example, in my videos.

I talk about gender balance and having equal decision. In interviews people ask me, “DJ Nana, what kind of men you like and what kind of men you don’t like?” Because many people are interested 48

in these kinds of personal issues. I say I like men who allow me to do whatever I want even if he doesn’t agree. So this is gender decision-making, democracy.

I think my job is not to talk about the issue itself; it is to promote discussion. So to answer your question, I am answering in a personal level so that it doesn’t sound like politics, it doesn’t scare me, it doesn’t scare my fans, but then it has the message people can debate about.

What do you understand about the values of liberalism and democracy? Do you think the young people know and share the same liberal democratic values?

Well, the thing is, when you ask young people about liberal democracy, they will walk away, they will not talk to you. That is one thing for sure.

I don’t know what the definitions are of your values.

I have my own values and I believe in choosing the little opportunity I have in expressing. I mean, you have to allow people to have a definition of values themselves and I think that is why it is important to not ask people for their definition but to ask them to send their own definition.

How do you stay fulfilled in your work as DJ Nana?

I think my job is to fill in the very, very small liberal ideas of having a liberal relationship… In my own capacity, in my own platform, I try to make liberal conversations.

I believe that I have a liberal mind enough to be talking about those liberal issues, but I don’t label it as a “political talk” or “religious talk”. It is not because I don’t think it is a good idea, but because it doesn’t attract audience. Then all the things you say won’t make any point at all if you don’t have an audience. Sometimes I see people doing live videos and they only have two viewers, and I ask, why? I mean, they don’t have enough views. And for me, I talk about Samsung for four minutes then I gain half a million views and in that way if I am able to insert even one small thing, then I am already happy.

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Radicalizing Transparency Q&A with Audrey Tang SHE FOUNDED her own company at the age of 16, despite being a junior high school dropout. Now Audrey Tang is Taiwan’s Digital Minister – and the world’s first transgender minister.

A civic hacker who grew up among Tiananmen exiles, Tang is known for revitalizing the computer languages Perl and Haskell, as well as building the online spreadsheet system EtherCalc in collaboration with VisiCalc co-creator Dan Bricklin. In the public sector, she serves on Taiwan national development council’s open data committee and K-12 curriculum committee. She has also the country’s first e-Rulemaking project. In the private sector, Tang works as a consultant with Apple on computational linguistics, with Oxford University Press on crowd lexicography, and with Socialtext on social interaction design. In the third sector, she actively contributes to Taiwan’s g0v (“gov-zero”), a vibrant community focusing on creating tools for the civil society, with the call to “fork the government”.

Unable to find her way in mainstream education — Tang who reportedly has an IQ of 180 — is mainly self-taught.

Having a knack for computers, she was able to harness the exponential growth of new technologies to advance her education.

CALD was fortunate to have Tang at its 25th Anniversary Conference in Bangkok, where she delivered a TEDstyle talk on innovative ways to advance democracy by using technology. This Q&A was conducted after the conference.

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How do you use technology in shaping policies, and how do they promote the development of people’s lives? Tell us about your office and your role in it.

My role in the cabinet is as Digital Minister. Our office, the PDIS, engages diverse stakeholders to identify and define core problems, generate meaningful challenge statements, and co-create possible solutions for real-life issues.

For example, an e-petitioner in May 2017 said that the tax filing system is “explosively difficult to use” for Mac and Linux users. We responded by saying, “Everybody who complains automatically gets an invitation to our collaboration meeting in the financial information centre.”

After five such workshops, we co-created the tax exporting system of 2018 with a satisfaction rate of 96 percent.

We have summarized this experience in the Government Digital Service Guidelines, to guide all ministries and municipalities to redesign services across the board.

Throughout the year [2018], what has been the most exciting initiative that you and your office worked on, by far?

We helped organize the annual Presidential Hackathon with President Tsai’s office; it’s three months of intense collaboration across sectors.

Many of the 100+ proposals were initiated by public servants. Some found an NPO or a social-sector partner to submit the formal admission, so they can say, “We’re happy to collaborate” — but they probably have helped to draft the proposals in the first place.

We have journalists asking for better data from the government, so they can do evidence-based analysis on flood control; we have Taiwan Water Corporation saying, “We are willing to share our data, so machine-learning experts can help save us time in detecting leakage.”

Instead of monetary prizes, the award is our guarantee to implement the proposal of five winning teams within the public service. The impact extends beyond Taiwan — for example, the “Water Saviour” team continued their work in New Zealand.

After the recent changes in the structure of the Cabinet, what do you feel about the continuity of your office, and what do you think is its advantages to the second half of President Tsai’s term?

As President Tsai Ing-wen said in her inauguration speech: “Before, democracy was a showdown between two opposing values. Now, democracy is a conversation between many diverse values.”

Realizing this conversation and reach common values from opposing sides — that’s precisely what our continued work with the participation officers, social innovators, and youth advisors are all about.

Why do you think you and your ministry won a level of popularity (which is unusual for ministers without portfolio)?

Part of the reason, I think, is that we are determined to guide our work through the principle of intersectionality.

Intersectionality reminds us that we all have some part of us that is vulnerable, that has suffered from social injustice, and that is in the minority.

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Q&A with Audrey Tang Through sharing these personal experiences, people re-emerge with an authentic voice and listen to people who are suffering for a different reason yet feel the same pain. When individual voices can represent themselves authentically, that helps us rethink our own experiences of vulnerability.

As far as I know, empowering people who are suffering is the best way to to scale listening and to safeguard democracy.

You always say that the main thrust of your campaign is “radical transparency”. To what extent is this radical, and how is this okay with the national security of Taiwan, given the prominence of mainland Chinese fabrication of information?

“Radical” here simply means “at the root”, through our protocols for visitors and the directives for online participation and participation officers.

The lack of transparency is the soil of rumours. If you hear bad things spoken about your friend, and you meet that friend every couple of days for basketball or for movies, then there’s no room for rumour to grow.

You just call your friend saying, “Hey, I am hearing this gossip about you” — there’s no room for rumour to grow. Conversely, if there’s a general distrust between people in government, and the government doesn’t practice transparency, then of course there’s room for rumours.

Currently, every ministry is committed within a few hours to give a real-time clarification to rumours. We can offer our policymaking context in an easy-to-access fashion, so that people don’t need to project into partial messages.

Do you agree that your country is facing a potentially fatal threat since China attempts to use your openness to interfere in your social development and on internal politics? Why or why not?

Our main challenge is that we are a new democracy.

Although we have perhaps the most open and innovative society in all of Asia, our first presidential election was only 30 years ago. We’ve had to figure out democracy after three decades of military law and dictatorship. Democracy in Taiwan is only as old as the World Wide Web. People younger than me don’t remember the martial law — they think of things naturally in the collaborative way of open access. But people who are my age or older, who are digital migrants, have to reshape our thinking.

In order to withstand the influence of authoritarian regimes, we are committed to reconcile the previously highly hierarchical culture and language with a new norm — namely, a peer-to-peer, continuous democracy.

In the course of your service as Taiwan’s Digital Minister, how can you say that the government was able to regain the trust of the youth sector using radical transparency?

My theory of change has three pillars:

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1. Location independence — I can choose when and where to work; 2. Voluntary association — I don’t give or take orders; 3. Radical transparency — I don’t touch state secrets and I publish full transcripts or videos of meetings on the Internet.

Taken together, these tools are a kind of virtual reality that enable people to understand what it’s like to be a digital minister.

My office, which is part of the location independence plan, is a social-innovation lab. We placed 12 different ministries into this shared workplace. It creates a social infrastructure that breaks silos, and that’s where new thoughts and ideas emerge.

It’s a co-created social infrastructure with a cafe, a kitchen, and a chef that opens until late every night.

I sit there and listen to people every Wednesday for 12 hours. This infrastructure and social fabric makes innovation not just possible but also fun.

As Laozi said, “To give no trust is to get no trust.”

Trusting our fellow citizens and optimise for fun — that’s how we begin to rebuild trust as a civic capital.

Given both the complexities and sensitivities that you and your office have encountered in the past year, what particular piece of advice would you want to share, especially to the youth — who contribute and benefit, alike, from the digitized media?

Let’s bring “troll-hugging” to the physical world.

Trolls are people who crave attention online because they don’t get sufficient social attention, and so have resorted to upsetting people on the Internet. Whenever people mention my name on social media in a way that tries to provoke my attention, I only respond to the parts that are authentic. Say their post contains 100 words that are all ad hominem attacks and just five words that can be construed as constructive. Then I will reply, carefully, to those five words. This shows people that it’s possible to have long-term, relational conversations.

Trolls previously only had transactional conversations: They upset people; they get attention. It’s like junk food; they wake up the next morning still feeling empty and troll some other people.

Because I carefully reply to the part that is authentic, they learn that only by responding authentically do they get a Minister’s attention. Then I invite them to the social – innovation lab, which is my office hours, every Wednesday from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. As long as they agree to have a transcript published online, anyone can just come and have a talk and give me a hug. In this way, I attract the trolls to reveal their authentic selves and join the process of co-creation.

Having confronted by various types of challenges (e.g. misinformation, fake news, etc.) [which practically manifested in the recent elections], what specific technique or strategy are you looking at in 2019?

Regarding emerging challenges, our main strategy is regulatory co-creation with the civic sector, such as the cofacts project and the Taiwan FactCheck Center.

This is important because, as a government, we can really only change our direction once every year due to budget cycles. We know that the people on the field are actually the best people to bring about innovative solutions.

In 2019, we are committed to expand the regulatory sandbox model — whenever a innovator see any regulations that’s detrimental to the global goals, they can ask for an experiment for one year to amend that rule or regulation, to prove that the new rule works better for everyone involved.

If there is one thing that has motivated or pushed you the most throughout your career, what would it be, and why?

Empathy. Having gone through two puberties does enable my mind to empathize better with people’s experiences. After dropping out of junior high, I also spent quite some time in the indigenous lands, in the first nations of Atayal. That also enables me to be post-gender and look past the mainstream binary system.

These cultural backgrounds can also teach us how to listen to the ecosphere, who cannot vote but can, now, talk through the voices of, for example, the so-called Internet of Things; we can turn it into the Internet of Beings that enables us to empathize with, say, a river.

In the pace that you are in right now, what do you think are the major breakthroughs ahead of your field in the next five years?

In five years, I think governments around the world will recognize that averages and correlations often miss the essential truth. We will see beyond gross domestic product (GDP) index and holistically measure societal prosperity through enlightened indicators.

These new indicators, as envisioned by the council on extended intelligence, will acknowledge the need to measure progress at different levels — individual, community, society — and the importance of better understanding the relationship between each of these levels.

What keeps an Audrey Tang going?

When I put on my VR glasses and look at the earth from the international space station, it becomes apparent that national borders only exist in our own minds — this experience is a manifestation of the overview effect.

As Taiwan’s Digital Minister, I’m committed to empower citizens to participate in this kind of overview effect, particularly around global partnerships for sustainability.

In three words, who is Audrey Tang?

Troll hugger extraordinaire.

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2 5

DEFINING

The conference “Political Dimensions of Globalization; An Asian Perspective” was keynoted by then Philippine Vice President Teofisto Guingona.

Held on 15-20 November in Manila and Subic Bay Freeport, Philippines, the proceedings of the conference became the book, 9-11 and Political Freedom: Asian Perspectives.

The conference, “Asian Political Crisis: Political Responses to the Problem”, was held in Bangkok, Thailand on 18-20 October with then Thai Deputy Prime Minister Bhichai Rattakul.

The conference proceedings became a book, The Political Dimensions of the Asian Crisis.

1998 1 1993

On 10-11 December, CALD held its inaugural General Assembly in Bangkok, Thailand with then Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai and Korean opposition leader Kim Dae-jung gracing the occasion. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, who would later became ASEAN Secretary General, was chosen as the founding chair of CALD. While founded in Bangkok, CALD’s origins can be traced to Sintra, Portugal when Asian legislators from the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand, on the sidelines of the seminar they were attending, came up with the idea of having a forum where liberal and democratic ideas in Asia can be discussed.

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MOMENTS

The inaugural CALD Political Communications Workshop was held in Manila, Philippines on 8-12 April. Since then CALD held eight more workshops in the series, the last one took place in June 2017 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

2001 3 1999

In a move to better institutionalize CALD’s operations, Manila was designated as the permanent secretariat by the CALD Executive Committee it its meeting held on 25-27 November.

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2003 5 2002

CALD and its activities gained even wider attention when it worked with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs for a workshop on “Political Party Strategies to Combat Corruption” in Bangkok, Thailand on 14-16 January.

The background research for the workshop was published a year after in the book, Political Parties in Asia.

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The Liberal International Asia Conference, a joint project with Liberal International and the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, was held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on 4-6 March. During this occasion, the chairmanship of CALD was transferred from the Democrat Party of Thailand to Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan with Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian serving as the chairperson of CALD, the first (and only) time that an incumbent head of government served as CALD Chairperson.

The LI Women’s Conference and CALD General Assembly was held on 12-15 October in Taipei, Taiwan with the theme “Advancing Women in Politics: The Role of Political Parties.” The event led to the formation of the CALD Women’s Caucus in 2006 with Philippine parliamentarian Henedina “Dina” Abad as founding chairperson.

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2005

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2003

2004

CALD commemorated its 10th Founding Anniversary with a conference in Bangkok, Thailand on 9-12 December with former Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, then Thai Deputy Prime Minister Bhokin Bhalakula, then Thai Foreign Minister and CALD Founding Chairperson Surin Pitsuwan, then Friedrich Naumann Foundation Chairperson Count Otto Graf Lambsdorff and then Liberal International Deputy President Lord John Alderdice.

The first biennial meeting between Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and CALD was held in Brussels, Belgium on 9-12 November, focusing on the social, political, and economic challenges of Europe and Asia. The meeting, which alternated between Europe and Asia, returns to Asia this 2018.

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The inaugural CALD Party Management Workshop was held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 4-7 February. Since then, six more workshops in the series were conducted, the last one took place in Taipei, Taiwan in June 2018. In 2012, the best practices drawn from these workshops were published as the CALD Party Management Handbook entitled Freedom to Organize.

2007 11 2006

The ALDE-CALD-LI Meeting, a gathering of more than a hundred eminent liberal leaders worldwide, was held in ManilaCavite-Tagaytay, Philippines on 21-24 June. The event was keynoted by democracy icon, Former Philippine President Corazon “Cory” Aquino.

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13 2008

The first CALD-Red Liberal de America Latina (RELIAL) Meeting and Liberal Regional Networks Meeting were held in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 17 May under the auspices of the 55th Liberal International Congress. Since then, regional networks meeting has become a regular feature in Liberal International Congresses.

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CALD held its 15th Anniversary Conference in Bangkok, Thailand on 27-30 March with Thai Prime Minister and Democrat Party Leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as keynote speaker. The occasion also marked the entry of former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid or “Gus Dur” as CALD’s third individual member.

CALD co-organized Liberal International’s 57th Congress held in Manila, Philippines on 16-20 June – the first one to be held in Asia.

2009 14

2011 15 2010

The CALD Youth Caucus Workshop in Kaohsiung and Tainan, Taiwan on 17-21 August resulted in the formation of CALD’s youth arm – the Youth Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats or CALD Youth.

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CALD commemorated its 20th Founding Anniversary with memorable celebrations in Manila, Philippines on 8-11 November.

Attended by then Philippine Senate President Franklin Drilon, Liberal International President Hans van Baalen, Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe’s Sir Graham Watson, Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees Jurgen Morlok, and then Secretary General of Community of Democracies Maria Leissner, some of the speeches delivered in the events became part of the commemorative book, 20 Speeches that Define Asian Liberalism and Democracy.

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2013 17 2011

CALD convened in Bangkok, Thailand on 28 November-1 December to launch its multi-year Climate Change Programme through the workshop “Setting CALD’s Climate Change Agenda.”

Follow-up activities resulted in the adoption of CALD Climate Change Statement in 2012, publication of CALD Climate Change Handbook in 2014, and release of CALD Climate Change Educational Video in 2015.

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19 2014

As a follow-up to its previous initiatives on climate change, CALD assembled a delegation for an Observation Trip to Typhoon Haiyan-Devastated Areas in Leyte, Philippines on 1-5 May. The trip was organized as a part of the continuing effort to provide assistance to the victims of the super typhoon, and to promote awareness of climate change impacts. The highlight of the trip was when participants had the chance to visit the beneficiaries of the 30 CALDsponsored transitional shelters.

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DEFINING

Some 200 liberals from all over the world convened in Hong Kong on 7-10 November for the CALD-LI-EFN-FNF Conference on Liberalism. Held while the “umbrella movement” was underway, the event provided the participants with an opportunity to interact and show solidarity with Hong Kong’s vibrant democratic forces. Three years after, CALD Youth returned to Hong Kong for the inaugural CALD Youth Political Academy (CYPA) with “umbrella movement” activists Martin Lee, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law as special guests.

MOMENTS

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H I S TO RY

The CALD Women’s Caucus held a major conference on 10-14 August with around 200 attendees in Taipei, Taiwan and with no less than President Tsai Ing-wen and former Vice President Annette Lu as special guests. The conference led to a follow-up visit of a CALD Women’s Caucus delegation to Manila, Philippines on 31 August to personally convey their support to detained Philippine Senator Leila de Lima.

CALD participated in an Election Observation Mission on 1317 January which witnessed the historic victory of the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen became the first woman to be elected as President of Taiwan.

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2015

2017

2018

CALD, together with International Federation of the Liberal Youth and Liberal International, organized a side-event, “COP 21 and the Liberal Agenda“, on 6 December, during the historic 2015 UN Climate Change Conference or COP 21 Summit in Paris, France.

CALD held a consultative meeting on the Liberal Manifesto on 24-27 February in Bangkok, Thailand, the outcomes of which were submitted to Liberal International for consideration. On 18-21 May, a CALD delegation joined liberals and democrats all over the world for the 70th Anniversary of Liberal International in Andorra.

On 17-21 November, CALD returned to Bangkok, Thailand for its 25th Founding Anniversary which was keynoted by Philippine Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo. CALD chose the theme, “Reclaiming Democracy, Rebuilding Society”, for its 25th founding anniversary based on the belief that the process of consolidating democracy, of making it “the only game in town”, necessitates the building of strong institutions.

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Brave & Confident Taiwan DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE PARTY TAIWAN

On the morning of 1 January 2019, President Tsai Ing-wen delivered a new year’s address at the Presidential Office auditorium. In her remarks, the President stated that the new year 2019 will be a year of striving for economic prosperity, protecting democracy, and safeguarding sovereignty.

In many respects, the central government’s policies in 2018 have laid a good foundation for 2019. One example is that starting today, the minimum wage for laborers will be raised to NT$23,100, and the hourly rate for part-time workers will be raised to NT$150.

We have raised the minimum wage every year for three consecutive years, and formally said goodbye to the NT$22,000 monthly wage that came to represent low wages for young people.

In addition to increasing wages and cutting taxes, we will also take even greater steps to alleviate the public’s financial burdens. For the past two years, the economy has grown, and national tax revenues have exceeded expectations. So I have asked the Executive Yuan to make concrete proposals, making low-income citizens a priority in enjoying the benefits of economic growth.

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THE THEME for our 2019 new year’s flag-raising ceremony is “Brave and Confident–One with the World”.

In a rapidly changing world, Taiwan’s best option is to persevere on the path of democracy, and work together with like-minded people around the globe.

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In 2019, the changes and challenges of international society will be more severe, and more volatile. The U.S.-China trade war will certainly have an impact on Taiwan’s overall economy, industrial development, and financial stability.

Since I took office, I have always placed tremendous importance on changes in the international situation.

As a national leader, my responsibility is to find space for Taiwan to survive and develop in a highly uncertain international environment.

In 2019, my responsibility will be even greater. I have already directed our national security team and all government agencies to carry out all necessary response measures. U.S.-China relations will profoundly influence Taiwan’s economic structure, so we absolutely cannot take this situation lightly.

We do not oppose normal cross-strait interaction.

Even more, we do not oppose cross-strait municipal exchanges. Cross-strait exchanges must be healthy and normal. What the two sides of the strait really need is a pragmatic understanding of the fundamental differences in the values we espouse, our lifestyles, and our political systems.

So here I am calling on China: It must face the reality of the existence of the Republic of China (Taiwan). It must respect the commitment of the 23 million people of Taiwan to freedom and democracy. It must handle cross-strait differences peacefully, on a basis of equality.

And it must be government or government-authorized agencies that engage in negotiations. These “four musts” are the most basic and crucial foundations that will determine whether cross-strait relations develop in a positive direction.

Just a few days ago, the number of foreign visitors to Taiwan in 2018 surpassed 11 million, setting a new record. That shows the love the world has for Taiwan, and Taiwan’s importance to the world. So Taiwan can be confident, and should be.

This is a new year, a year to fight for our livelihoods, a year to protect our democracy, and a year to safeguard our sovereignty. In 2019, I will be working every day to propose economic policies that have an impact that people can really feel, and build all three parts of our security network to protect Taiwan.

Real Change is in Sight LIBERAL PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES

BELIEVING THAT real change lies in the hands of the people, the Liberal Party of the Philippines has opened its membership not only to politicians, but to the people themselves — students, members of the academe, civic leaders, professionals, vendors, employees, and the like.

As of 2018, over 8,000 members have been recruited online, and these newbies in turn have recruited 2,275 more to LP. In October, the party launched ‘Project Makinig (Project Listen)’, a nationwide, technology-driven, door-to-door campaign to listen to the people. Since then the initiative has gained momentum and has seen an increase in the number of volunteers who literally knock on doors of households to engage residents in genuine face-to-face conversations.

We have realized that the old, tired ways will not do and must be discarded. We must be willing to do things differently. We must be willing to try and test new methods never employed before. We must be willing to risk, to dare, to change the way we do things if we are to inspire our citizens to purposeful action.

There will still be problems, but with each new candidate who will win and carry the agenda of the people, a flicker of hope is lit. With each new party member who gets enlightened, empowerment takes place. With each step we take towards justice, equality, and opportunity, positive change becomes more and more in sight.

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For the May 2019 midterm elections, the Liberal Party has forged an alliance with party-list groups, fellow political parties, and civic groups to field eight candidates that the party calls collectively as ‘Otso Diretso (Straight Eight)’.

In trying to answer this question, the party has fundamentally changed with its members and its actions.

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As a political party, the difficult question that LP constantly grapples with is: How can it be relevant to the lives of the people in the midst of all these challenges?

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Whatever the outcome of the elections, however, the Liberal Party will continue to work to make itself relevant to the people, who are confronted day by day by calamities, both natural and manmade: from typhoons, landslides and flooding, to high prices, unemployment, hunger, lack of opportunities, killings, and disrespect for rights.

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Against the odds and armed with conviction, principle, and excellence, the eight candidates will battle it out against the money and resources of some candidates, including those supported by the current administration.

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“Interesting Times” in the Lion City SINGAPORE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

We start with the People’s Action Party (PAP) government, which is already well known for its authoritarian laws. Not contented with that, it dealt basic freedoms with yet another series of assaults. These included an amendment to the Films Act, which gave greater powers to the already powerful Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) and enabled it to enter any premises, including private residential properties, to search and seize evidence (read: “anything”) without a warrant if it suspects that a “party political film” or some other production that authorities deem undesirable is being produced.

As it is, law enforcers already possess great latitude in Singapore. For instance, the Public Order and Safety (Special Powers) Act allows the police to stop anyone, including the media, from taking videos, photos, audio recordings, and even sending text messages during a public event.

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IN 2018 in Singapore, an edgy government tightened its grip on its critics, as well as on broader issues of freedom of speech and expression. The courts refused to fight against unconstitutional actions of the government, while an irregular amendment to an archaic election procedure looks likely to go through.

Excitement in Malaysia trickled down south, but the Singapore Democratic Party ended the year with an obituary for its past chairman.

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Currently, the Singapore government is setting the stage to outlaw what it defines as “fake news”. As part of the preparation, the appointed parliamentary select committee has invited feedback from the citizenry.

During the select committee hearing, however, respondents with dissenting views had their time curtailed or their views censured. Some were even harassed during and beyond the hearing. Historian Thum Ping Tjin was grilled for six hours over his testimony, based on his academic research work at a leading university, which suggested that governments can sometimes also be the

source of “fake news”. Thereafter, Thum was publicly accused of lying about his research and academic credentials, among other things. But this failed to gain traction as Thum’s academic credentials were publicly acknowledged by hundreds of international academics from leading universities the world over.

Even before the fake-news law is enacted, though, government machinery has started clamping down on dissidents. A number of online news sites, individual bloggers, Facebook users, and activists have been charged or sued for all sorts of crime, among them libel and defamation. In May, SDP Vice Chairman John Tan was charged for “scandalizing the judiciary” for a single comment he posted on Facebook. It read, ironically enough: “By charging Jolovan for scandalizing the judiciary, the [Attorney-General’s Chambers] only confirms what he said was true.”

Tan’s post was in reference to an earlier comment by Jolovan Wham, an NGO activist, who was similarly charged. Wham had commented, “Malaysia’s judges are more independent than Singapore’s for cases with political implications.”

Tan and Wham were jointly tried in court and were found guilty in October. They were the first to stand trial under the newly minted Administration of Justice (Protection) Act 2016, which appears to punish the slightest criticism of the judiciary. As of this writing, both men are awaiting sentencing and could face up to three years imprisonment and/or S$100,000 (US$74,000) in fine. Tan has also been dismissed from his job as a psychology and statistics lecturer by his employer who, like many organizations in Singapore, apparently treads in fear of the government.

Next, we look at elections in this city state. Despite its modern appearance, Singapore has a rather archaic election procedure. Voting papers are dropped into opaque boxes, which are then transported to a counting

centre. A proposed amendment to the Parliamentary Elections Act now seeks to provide the Elections Department with the discretion to disregard the vote count for a polling station if the votes in a sealed ballot box is lost or destroyed before the ballots are counted.

Given the supermajority PAP has in Parliament, it is only a matter of time before the amendment will pass— probably in time for the next general election. PAP in the past has consistently refused to have independent election monitors or to have counting on site in the various polling stations.

In the meantime, there is an empty seat in Parliament.

Its former occupant is now President of Singapore, a position that actually wields limited powers. Even so, the PAP government appears to be wary of having alternative views in that office. Carefully crafted rules by the Election Department—which is part of the Prime Minister’s Office—ensured no other contender qualified as candidate for the 2017 presidential election apart from the Prime Minister’s candidate of choice, a PAP Member of Parliament. As a result of her election (or perhaps more accurately, selection), a seat is now unrepresented in the legislature. The Prime Minister, however, refused to call for a by-election to fill the vacant seat as required by the constitution. SDP Assistant Treasurer Wong Souk Yee, who is a constituent of the affected constituency, filed a suit calling for the by-election to be held. In January 2018, the court found for the government in a complex “updating” and “rectifying” of the Constitution to accommodate the legislation. The SDP has appealed the case currently before the Court of Appeal.

eans are now hopeful that a similar change can happen here. SDP thus took the opportunity to continue its call for an opposition cooperation that will help facilitate such a change. The initiative was well received, but much is yet to be done at this juncture.

Sadly, though, SDP stalwart Gandhi Ambalam will no longer be around to see any change. A past chairman of the SDP, Ambalam passed away on 1 November due to cardiac arrest. He was 75. He served as the party’s chair from 2007 to 2011. A former media editor, Ambalam was disenchanted by the constraints imposed by the authoritarian regime. He became a staunch advocate for freedom of the press, speech, and peaceful assembly—a belief for which he willingly went to prison on several occasions.Members of the SDP mourned his demise, and honoured his contribution to the party and, more importantly, to the struggle for democracy in Singapore.

But can things still change? For sure the recent change of government in Malaysia, which saw a once mighty political coalition break apart and a party that had been dominant for decades fall down, has caused quite a stir in the region. And having seen up close the democratic transition of power in their neighbour, many Singapor-

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Key Points for the Restoration of Democracy in 2019 CAMBODIA NATIONAL RESCUE PARTY

Hun Sen is a usurper whose illegitimate and repressive regime is facing international sanctions as announced by the European Union and the US. Just like other tyrants facing international sanctions, Hun Sen is holding the Cambodian people hostage as a means to blackmail the international community into turning a blind eye to his totalitarian drift.

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HUN SEN’S current government is illegitimate after the fake July 2018 election which led Cambodia back to a one-party system as existed before the 1991 Paris Accords. The illegitimacy of the election was decried by the United Nations, the European Union, the US, Japan and Australia. These institutions and countries refused to send observers to monitor a meaningless election organised after the arbitrary dissolution of the only credible opposition party, the CNRP, and the arrest of its president Kem Sokha. Not surprisingly, Hun Sen’s party, the CPP “won” 100% of the parliamentary seats up for grabs.

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Hun Sen’s propaganda is aimed at buying time and trying to confuse the international community by pretending that the situation in Cambodia has returned to normal with the alleged disintegration of the CNRP. Hun Sen claims that Kem Sokha has broken from Sam Rainsy and, as a result, most CNRP supporters have defected to the ruling CPP or decided to join another party. Therefore, according to Hun Sen, the CNRP has become irrelevant and there is no need for the international community to push for a reinstatement of this opposition party (which Hun Sen actually fears the most).

Hun Sen’s allegation about the CNRP disintegrating has proven wrong, as evidenced by the refusal of 90% of the 5,007 CNRP elected commune officials to defect to the ruling CPP in exchange for their keeping their positions, which otherwise would be confiscated from them. The resilience of the CNRP was also reflected

by Hun Sen’s failure to lure the 118 CNRP top officials whom he has previously banned from politics: only two out of the 118 accept to be “rehabilitated” by Hun Sen while the 116 others remain loyal to their party which they want to see reinstated. Sam Rainsy’s recent return to leadership as acting president has probably helped to foil Hun Sen’s strategy to destroy the CNRP from within.

Hun Sen wrongly claims that Kem Sokha is no longer a political prisoner while the CNRP president is still being kept under house arrest. Cambodian law doesn’t allow a pre-trial detention of over 18 months. Since his arrest on 3 September 2017, Kem Sokha has been detained for more than 16 months already, pending a more and more uncertain trial. Hun Sen is therefore pretending that since he was transferred from a jail to his house with strict restrictions on his movements on 10 September 2018, Kem Sokha is no longer a political prisoner. But Hun Sen should know that the international community considered Aung San Suu Kyi a political prisoner when she was under house arrest for 15 years in Burma (where she has never actually been jailed). Similarly, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela was known to have been detained for 27 years, of which 25 years were in jail and the last two years under house arrest.

Hun Sen is holding Kem Sokha hostage and doesn’t want to release him because, through all kinds of intimidation and psychological pressure, he is using Kem Sokha as a tool to try to break the CNRP and to achieve his wishful thinking. But Kem Sokha remains strong and refuses to give in to Hun Sen’s pressure.

Kem Sokha’s case represents the central and weak point of Hun Sen’s repressive policy. It was the arrest of Kem Sokha under the ludicrous charge of treason that served as the pretext to dissolve the CNRP. But, as explained, Hun Sen cannot legally keep Kem Sokha under house arrest beyond March 2019 and he cannot either, in the meantime, organise any credible trial for Kem Sokha for lack of evidence.

1. Immediate and unconditional release of CNRP president Kem Sokha; 2. Dropping of all charges against CNRP officials and activists; 3. Reinstatement of the CNRP as a legal and loyal opposition party; 4. Restitution to the CNRP of all confiscated elected local positions; 5. Holding of new legislative elections with the participation of the CNRP.

Hun Sen must be encouraged to engage in the only logical way to solve Kem Sokha’s case: release the CNRP president from house arrest after dropping all the charges against him. Then, there will be no more grounds for maintaining the dissolution of the CNRP and we can expect a reversal of Hun Sen’s repressive policy. Kem Sokha’s case is the key issue that needs to be resolved first if we want the situation to really start returning to normal.

As pointed out by several international observers and decision makers including Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, a consistent, comprehensive and lasting solution to Cambodia’s political crisis should include the following five points:

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Resolutions Resolution No. 1 S. 2018 Welcomes the peaceful transfer of power in Malaysia after the 9 May 2018 General Elections resulted in the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan’s victory over the ruling Barisan Nasional, which had been in power for the past 61 years, and the implications of this development not only for the country’s democratic development and progress, but also for that of the entire Asian region; and reaffirms CALD’s conviction that the presence of strong opposition political parties, which can competitively contest in free and fair elections, is one of the hallmarks of a true, mature, and functioning democracy. Issued 23 May

Resolution No. 2 S. 2018 Expresses concern, together with Liberal International, on the legitimacy and integrity of Cambodia’s 29 July 2018 polls that are proceeding without the participation of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, the country’s main opposition party; calls for the government to respect and uphold the 1993 Paris Peace Agreement; calls for a swift, transparent, and credible judicial process on the case of CNRP President Kem Sokha, who has been detained since 3 September 2017, and other political prisoners in Cambodia; calls for the reinstatement of CNRP as the main opposition party and for its full and free participation in political activities; and reaffirms CALD’s conviction that the existence of a functioning democratic system and an inclusive government that respects political dissent can provide political parties the platform to competitively contest in free, fair, and transparent elections, and allow the people to vote freely without fear and intimidation. Issued 28 July

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Recognizing the growing threats to freedom in a number of countries in Asia, CALD member-parties agree to continue to work together and support each other, as liberal and democratic political parties, to address the worsening political and human-rights situation in the region by protecting and strengthening democratic values, institutions, and processes; facilitate greater contact and collaboration between political parties and other democratic actors, taking into consideration that such cooperation may be crucial in addressing current threats to freedom; resist the deployment of ‘sharp power’ to disrupt the politics of developed countries or ‘chequebook diplomacy’ to buy the loyalty of developing nations; and reaffirm that the core liberal and democratic values to which CALD is based on – democracy, human rights, social-market economy, and the rule of law – remain the best guarantees peace and prosperity. Issued 19 Nov

Statement & Letters AS CALD’S 25th anniversary-celebration events wound down in Bangkok in late November, nine pro-democracy leaders charged in March 2017 with what could only be described as vague offences were being brought to trial in Hong Kong. The “offences”, for instance, had included things such as “inciting public nuisance” and “inciting people to incite others to cause public nuisance”.

Coincidentally, CALD and its guests had then just spent their few days in Bangkok talking about the challenges affecting democratic institutions and discussing what steps to take to combat the rise of populism, illiberalism, and authoritarianism. It was thus only fitting that the Council issued what would turn out to be its sole statement for 2018 to address the crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, one of China’s Special Administrative Regions.

“CALD is aware that the leaders were arrested and charged two and a half years after Occupy Central and Umbrella Movement ended and could face a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment,” said the Council in its statement dated 20 November. “CALD is deeply concerned on the curtailment of freedom of expression in Hong Kong and the continuing political persecution under the guise of legal charges against people involved in peaceful demonstrations.”

“CALD is calling on the Hong Kong government to drop the charges and respect freedom of expression and freedom of assembly,” it added. “CALD stands firm with all democracy advocates in Asia and the world in defending liberal values and freedom despite the growing threats to freedom and democracy.”

The Chairperson of CALD Women’s Caucus was the next recipient of congratulatory CALD mail after she was elected President of the International Network of Liberal Women. Addressing Datuk Jayanthi Devi Balaguru, CALD wrote, “With your experience and expertise, we are confident that INLW and its partner organizations will reach new heights as you lead the global liberal women to push for greater protection and promotion of gender equality and rights.”

CALD told Datuk Jayanthi as well in its 3 December letter: “Whether inside or outside of government, you have been consistent in your defence of liberal and democratic principles and values, most especially those that pertain to women’s rights and women empowerment....

We are excited over what’s in store for both CALD Women’s Caucus and INLW under your leadership.”

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Another 3 December CALD letter went to Democrat Party (Thailand) stalwart Kiat Sittheeamorn. Khun Kiat, who had just stepped down as CALD Secretary General, had been elected Vice President of Liberal International — and CALD was more than proud. It said in its letter to Khun Kiat: “We are very pleased that through your election, Asia will again be represented in LI’s decision-making body, and that the liberal agenda from our side of the globe will receive the hearing that it deserves within the global liberal network.”

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CALD thanked Khun Kiat as well for his service and leadership as CALD Secretary General in the last two years. It then said, “We trust that your term as LI Vice President will not only promote the profile of liberal and democratic parties, but will also reflect the principles and values that we stand for, and the political realities we confront, in the Asian region.”

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“We are truly encouraged by the determination and hard work of the party leadership, and especially the staff and volunteers who, day and night, contribute their time and effort to achieve a South Africa that is ‘One Nation with One Future built on Freedom, Fairness, Opportunity, and Diversity for All’,” it also said. Wrote CALD further: “With the theme ‘Forging South-South Cooperation Among Political Parties’, there is no doubt our partnership has been established. We are your family in Asia and we hope to continue the cooperation we have started.”

“With your leadership,” CALD told PGRM’s new President, “we trust that Gerakan will be prepared to undertake the necessary reforms that would prepare the party for the 15th General Election.”

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CALD’s official 2018 missives were fortunately triggered by more positive events. Its 10 October letter addressed to South African MP and Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane, for example, was actually to express “our heartfelt gratitude” to DA “for making the CALD Executive Mission to South Africa a success”.

The three other CALD letters for the year, meanwhile, were meant to congratulate particular members of the CALD family for clinching significant posts. On 17 November, CALD wrote to Datuk Dr. Dominic Lau, congratulating him on his election as President of CALD member-organization Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM). It also noted how Gerakan “has always been an active and valued member of CALD” and how it had “transformed positively amidst hardships, struggles, and victories”.

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Democracy activists push back against authoritarianism

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BULLIES MAY now be dominating politics the world over, but liberals and democrats are not about to be pushed around that easily. And so when the Ninth Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy was held from 6 to 9 May in Dakar, Senegal, nearly 400 delegates from around 100 countries were in attendance. Of course CALD was there, represented by its executive director, Celito Arlegue, with the goal of fostering inter-regional, cross-sector partnerships that may help in addressing the surge of authoritarianism, illiberalism, and populism in Asia and in other parts of the world.

The Assembly, which had as theme “Building Strategic Partnerships for Democratic Renewal”, proved to be an important forum for the delegates to assess current democratic challenges, craft responses, and build critically needed strategic partnerships. For sure, with the diversity of participants – civil-society actors, parliamentarians, political-party leaders, academics, policy analysts, media practitioners, and musicians, among others – the discussions were comprehensive, informative, and practical, with great emphasis on innovative strategies and solutions. The mix of people also helped to make the theme of the event a reality – and a very rich one at that. As U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass noted at the Assembly’s opening session, “(R)epressive, authoritarian governments are learning from each other… so democracy activists should do the same.”

CALD, which participated in the working group of parliamentarians and parliamentary and political networks organized by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), agreed on the need “to strengthen and improve collaboration and coordination among the world’s parliamentary associ-

ations and political party groupings to amplify the impact of these groups in advancing democracy and human rights”. In this regard, follow-up activities, as well as mechanisms to facilitate communication and cooperation among these groups, were planned for the months ahead.

“Democracy is in crisis, but the silver lining in all of this is that democracy activists all over the world are coming together to push back against authoritarianism and defend democratic values, institutions and practices,” said CALD’s Arlegue. “To be in the company of hundreds of passionate democracy advocates, even for just a few days, reaffirms our commitment to freedom, reinvigorates our democratic spirit, and prepares us for the bigger battles ahead.”

It was clear to the delegates that complacency especially in these times is not an option. Bass, the first female African-American Speaker of the California Assembly, had also reminded them at the start of the event: “Democracy is a journey, not a destination.”

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Release detained Philippine Senator de Lima, say liberals & human-rights defenders MORE THAN 60 prominent politicians and human-rights activists from across the world, including incumbent members of parliament and former prime ministers, signed a statement on 28 July urging the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte “to release Senator Leila De Lima and drop the fictitious allegations made against her”. The release of the statement coincided with the awarding of the 2018 Liberal International Prize for Freedom to the senator in a ceremony held at the Novotel Hotel in Quezon City, Philippines.

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The Prize for Freedom is awarded annually by LI to honour an individual who has sacrificed significantly for the advancement of human rights and political freedoms. Senator de Lima is only the second Filipino to be bestowed the prestigious award; the first was the late President Corazon ‘Cory’ Aquino, who was recognized in 1987. According to LI, she was chosen for the award for her “exceptional contribution to the advancement of human rights” in the Philippines.

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The ceremony for Senator de Lima was the first time in over a decade that the awarding was held outside of Europe. Around 200 guests joined the event, including key officials of the Liberal Party of the Philippines, CALD, and LI. A staunch critic of President Duterte and especially of the extrajudicial killings or ‘EJKs’ associated with his so-called ‘war against drugs’, de Lima has been in detention since 24 February 2017. She has been charged with drug-trafficking, which she has denied committing. Before her election

as senator in 2016, de Lima served as justice secretary (minister) under the government of Benigno Aquino III, as well head of the Commission of Human Rights during the Arroyo administration.

“I am extremely and unconditionally blessed, so much so that there is no room in my heart for regrets and second thoughts — no room for could-haves, wouldhaves, or should-haves,” said de Lima in a statement read by her eldest son Israel, who along with the senator’s siblings received the award on her behalf. “I am where I am because I did the right thing.”

“We call ourselves defenders of human rights, and we align ourselves with those who are the same”, said Philippine Vice President and LP Chairperson Leni Robredo in her inspirational message delivered at the event. “For Senator Leila, that fight has also been clear as day, that even in detention, she has shaken ground and inspired fellow advocates of the law, here and abroad.”

The rule of law was also the subject of CALD Secretary General Kiat Sittheeamorn’s message of solidarity. Emphasizing the importance of due process in any campaign against drugs, he said, “We are not trying to stop the government from fighting drugs.

We are fighting for the innocent people.” Khun Kiat related that in his country, Thailand, a third of the nearly 3,000 people in the drug war there more than a decade ago were later proven to be innocent.

Prior to the awarding, the international delegation met with the EJK victims’ families, who said that their murdered loved ones were innocent of the charges they were accused of. Many of the family members, among whom were children, were visibly still reeling from the pain brought by their loved ones’ gruesome end, but they were still able to recount the brazen way in which their relatives were killed. Noted LI President Juli Minoves: “We see numbers, but we don’t see those who were left behind… For our next message to the UN, we need to make sure we also reflect the human side of these killings, and not just the idea.”

to the war on drugs. He said, “(It) will be the people, inspired, organized, and mobilized down to the grassroots, who will resist the prevailing darkness brought upon this country. It will be the people who will undo the state of criminal violence and impunity that now covers our land. It will be the people who will raise awareness, who will save all of us, by choosing truth over lies, love over hate, sovereignty over subservience, freedom over tyranny, and the light over the prevailing darkness.”

Senator and LP President Francis ‘Kiko’ Pangilinan, for his part, reaffirmed his conviction that the Filipino people would soon realize the dire state of human rights in the country, particularly in relation 71

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CALD takes to the power of the pen

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CALD HAD set a big task for itself by choosing “Reclaiming Democracy, Rebuilding Society”, as the overall theme for its 25th year of founding, but it faced the challenge partly by coming up with innovative ways to accomplish some of the goals it had set for itself.

Said Arlegue: “We are known in the liberal network, but outside, do they know us? For this reason, we created the ‘Silver Lining’ series, which aims to get prominent liberal leaders to write opinion pieces on the most important issues and have these published on reputable news agencies.”

To popularize and spread liberal perspectives, for instance, CALD convened its leaders to form a writers group to come up with a ‘Silver Lining’ series of opinion pieces. The series title is a nod to the Council’s silver anniversary, as well as indicates CALD’s belief that despite the seemingly continuous assault on liberalism and democracy, opportunities to turn the tide still abound.

He noted that in Pakistan, a movement of musicians was able to help bring about change in politics through music. “Maybe this is the time to introduce our members to creative ways like that,” he added, “and not be confined to rallying or civil disobedience.

There are more creative ways to address the issues of democracy.”

The idea for the Silver Lining pieces was to have select CALD leaders write on pre-assigned topics based their background and expertise. These would then be published in online news outlets in various parts of Asia every month. The series was aimed at not only enabling the public learn more about liberal values, but also at enhancing CALD’s international profile and establishing cooperation with media partners.

CALD Executive Director Celito Arlegue explained that the Council had recognized the need to reach out to the people outside its usual network as part of its plan to “reclaim democracy”.

The ‘Silver Lining’ writers included Abhisit Vejjajiva, chair of CALD and former Prime Minister of Thailand, who wrote about the state of liberal democracy in Asia and what liberals can do about it. His piece, which was published in Bangkok Post, The Online Citizen, The Independent, and Taipei Times, rallied liberals to fight back and be the force for change and progress.

CALD Individual Member and Democratic Party of Hong Kong Founding Chair Martin Lee meanwhile shared his thoughts about China’s promises to Hong Kong and how these will help promote China’s reputation. Lee’s article was published in The South China Morning Post, Rappler, The Nation, and Asia News Network.

The third piece in the series was by embattled Philippine Senator Leila de Lima, who wrote on “how political persecution keeps the ideals of democracy alive”. It was published in the Malaysian Insight, Rappler, The Nation, and Taipei Times.

In March, to commemorate women’s month, Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo shared her programmes to empower women in the Philippines in her article “This is the time for women to shine”.

Malaysia’s Jayanthi Balaguru, CALD Women’s Caucus Chairperson, for her part, contributed “Women and violent extremism” to promote peace, tolerance and respect.

opposition has been silenced under the iron grip of the regime of Prime Minister Hun Sen. In his piece, Sam Rainsy also called on the international community to release all political prisoners and for the Cambodian government to hold a real and inclusive election. His article was published in The Diplomat, The Cambodia Daily, Bangkok Post, and Rappler.

“Without a doubt, our work is much more difficult now,” said Arlegue. “But, at the same time, in every crisis, there is an opportunity – so we look at this particular situation as an opportunity to reflect.” – Paolo Zamora, Programme Manager, CALD Secretariat/Danika Sarion, Project Assistant, FNF Philippines

Singapore Democratic Party Chee Soon Juan in his piece explained why democracy is alive amidst the pattern of illiberalism in Asia. The article was published in The Diplomat, The Jakarta Post, The Nation, and The Online Citizen.

For the International Youth Month of August, CALD Youth Chairperson and Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia member Ivanpal Grewal came up with a piece that asserted that justice, freedom, and equality must remain at the forefront of the liberal youth’s struggles. The article was published in Rappler.

Another Silver Lining writer was Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who wrote about the shrinking democratic space in his country, where the 73

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CALD joins liberal meeting in the Caribbean

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THE CARIBBEAN country of the Dominican Republic is a popular tourist destination, but for a few days in early October, it was the site of a serious gathering: the congress and assembly of the Red Liberal de America Latina or RELIAL, a regional network of more than 30 organizations in around 17 countries.

liberal and democratic values can point the way forward amidst existing crises. It thus thought of bringing together liberals from North America, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, and Asia, aiming to have the delegates learn from each other’s experiences in addressing populism, authoritarianism, and illiberalism.

Held on 11-14 October in the capital, Sto. Domingo, the congress and assembly attracted hundreds of liberals from across the globe, including CALD, represented by Executive Director Celito Arlegue.

The event took place at a time when a number of Latin American countries are experiencing crises – from the rise of far-right populism in Brazil to the widespread human-rights violations in Nicaragua, to the astonishing economic collapse of Venezuela.

RELIAL, however, was inspired by the belief that

At the gathering, the delegates were also reminded of the wise words of respected Latin American liberal and former RELIAL President Ricardo Lopez Murphy: “Political freedom, tolerance, the market economy have been the irreplaceable components of open and successful societies. Their loss is a sufficient sign of the risk of authoritarianism and the lack of respect for human rights, which characterize the most ignoble experiments that have marked human experience.”

CALD, RELIAL, Liberal International, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, International Federation of the Liberal Youth, Alliance for Central America, and Atlas Network each made presentations in an inter-liberal network panel. CALD’s Arlegue discussed in particular the recent successes and challenges of the Asian political-party network.

“The journey of CALD, like that of liberal democracy in Asia, appears to be one step forward, two steps back,” said Arlegue in his intervention.

“Despite this, we continue to press on in advancing our goal of protecting and promoting liberal democratic institutions, processes, and values in the Asian region. We have been doing that in the past 25 years, and we will continue to do so in the next 25 years and more if needed.”

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7th CALD Party Management Workshop

CALD Executive Mission to South Africa

CALD Youth Political Academy 2018

Arlegue, Celito Executive Director Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats

Bergh, Johan van der Chief Research Officer

Anung, Pramono Head Cabinet Secretary, Republic of Indonesia

Raditya, Rama Founder & Ceo Qlue

Aung, Yan Min Consultant, National Environmental Policy (Myanmar) Managing Director, 360ed

Roberto, Roy Joseph Climate Justice Fellow, Climate Tracker Youth Champion for Climate Action, The 2030 Project, Philippines

Chapman, Warwick Executive Director, Democratic Alliance Groenewald, Marike Facilitator and Consultant of Leadership Development Former Executive Director of the Democratic Alliance: Development, Learning Hsu, Chia-ching Deputy Secretary General Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan Hung, Yao-fu Secretary General Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan

Bergman, Darren Treasurer South African Parliament Chapman, Warwick Deputy Campaign Manager Clayton, William DA International Office Coordinator Franklin, Aimee Executive Director of Marketing Georgousaki, Kati FNF Programme Officer Harris, Tim CEO of WESGRO Lewis, Geordin-Hill Member of Parliament

Lo, Chih-Cheng Director, Department of International Affairs Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan

Maimane, Mmusi DA Federal Leader

Reinartz Armin Head of Office, Global Innovation Hub & Greater China Unit Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Hong Kong

Moakes, Jonathan DA Chief Strategist and Campaigns Director

Msimanga, Solly DA Gauteng Premier Candidate

Mokgalapa, Stevens Africa Liberal Network President Ngwenya, Gwen Member of Parliament Selfe, James Chairperson of the Federal Executive Steenhuisen, John DA Chief Whip in National Assembly Wyk, Liana van DA Chief Operations Officer Wyk, Gary van DA Executive Director

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Bayasgalant, Bulgan Former CALD Youth Chair Communications Head, Undp Mongolia Boediono, Danti Operations Manager Impact Hub Jakarta Cahya, Kevin Former Investment Associate East Ventures Cruz, John Tobit President & Co-Founder, Angat Kabataan Local Village Councillor, Philippines Grewal, Ivanpal Chairperson, CALD Youth Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia Kristiyanto, Hasto Secretary General Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle Nugraha, Imantaka Co-Founder, Students for Liberty Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia Peiris, Selyna Former CALD Youth Chair Attorney-At-Law & Business Development Director, Selyn Prihadi, Hendrar Mayor, Semarang City Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle

Setiawan, Hanjaya Secretary of Government Affairs Department Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle Sittheeamorn, Kiat Secretary General, Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats Deputy Leader, Democrat Party, Thailand Sugihtononugroho, Yohanes Ceo & Co-Founder, Crowde Wibisono, Iqbal Dawam Researcher, Centre for Economics and Development Studies (CEDS) Executive Board, Students for Liberty Asia Pacific

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CALD 25th Anniversary Abad, Florencio “Butch” Former CALD Chairperson and CALD Founding Member Former Secretary (Minister), Department of Budget and Management, Philippines Former President, Liberal Party of the Philippines Arlegue, Celito Executive Director, Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats Baalen, Hans van Member of the European Parliament, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group, The Netherlands Balaguru, Jayanthi Devi Chairperson, CALD Women’s Caucus, Malaysia Belmonte, Jose Christopher Secretary General, Liberal Party, Philippines Browne, Robert Woodthorpe Vice President, Liberal International, United Kingdom Carandang, Ramon “Ricky” Former Secretary, Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, Office of the President, Philippines Chee, Soon Juan Secretary General Singapore Democratic Party Cordenillo, Raul Head of Communications and Knowledge Management International IDEA, Philippines & Sweden Dhnadirek, Rachada Vice Chairperson,CALD Women’s Caucus, Thailand

Doherty, Ivan Senior Associate and Director for Political Party Programs, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, USA Go, Jaslyn Singapore Democratic Party, Singapore Gomes, Ricardo President, Red Liberal America Latina, Brazil Jäätteenmäki, Anneli Member of European Parliament, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group, Finland Ko, Han-Seok Vice President, Institute for Democracy, South Korea Kurowski, Charles AcceliCITY 2018 Program Director Leading Cities, USA

Paet, Urmas Member of European Parliament, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group, Estonia Pandia, Jan Ramos Head of Public Affairs, Qlue, Indonesia Pangilinan, Francis “Kiko” President, Liberal Party, Philippines Prathombutr, Passakon Senior Executive Vice President Digital Economy Promotion Agency Ministry of Digital, Economy and Society, Thailand Robredo, Maria Leonor “Leni” Vice President, Philippines Sachsenröder, Wolfgang Political Party Forum Southeast Asia, Germany

Lau, Emily Former Chairperson, Democratic Party, Hong Kong

Seng, Mardi Former Senator Treasurer, Candlelight Party (formerly Sam Rainsy Party), Cambodia

Lo, Chih-cheng Director, Department of International Affairs, Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan

Setiawan, Hanjaya Secretary of Government Affairs Department, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle

Manalo, Rosario Rapporteur, UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Philippines

Sin, Chung-kai Individual Member, Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, Hong Kong

Minoves, Juli President, Liberal International, Andorra Mokgalapa, Stevens President, Africa Liberal Network, South Africa Mu, Sochua Former CALD Women’s Caucus Chairperson, Cambodia

Sittheeamorn, Kiat Deputy Leader, Democrat Party of Thailand Secretary General, Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats Sovathana, Neang Social Media Influencer/ Gender Equality Advocate, Cambodia

Sunthornvut, Isra Secretary General, ASEAN InterParliamentary Assembly, Thailand Tang, Audrey Digital Minister, Taiwan Thaw, Phyo Zeya Member of the Parliament National League for Democracy, Myanmar Vejjajiva, Abhisit Chairperson, Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, Thailand Vikitsreth, Panich Former Deputy Governor of Bangkok & Former Thai Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Democrat Party, Thailand Vikitsreth, Pornphrom Democrat Party, Thailand Vitug, Marites Editor-at-large, Rappler, Philippines Yang, Maysing Founding Member, Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats Ambassador-at-large for Democracy and Human Rights, Taiwan Yang, Yisheng Program Manager ICLEI Kaohsiung Capacity Center, Taiwan Yong, Ng Lip Former Chief of International Relations & Affairs, Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, Malaysia Yong, Thepchai President, Confederation of ASEAN Journalists, Thailand Youm, Omar Chief of the Cabinet, Office of the President, Senegal

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Democrat Party of Thailand

Contact Kiat Sittheamorn Former CALD Secretary General Advisor to Party Leader Panich Vikitsreth Deputy Leader Issara Sereewatthanawut Deputy Secretary General 67 Setsiri Road, Samsannai Phayathai, Bangkok 100400, Thailand +66 0 2270 0036 +66 02279 6086 public@democrat.or.th www.democrat.or.th F DemocratPartyTH T F

The Democrat Party (DP), founded in 1946, is the oldest political party in Thailand, and is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia as well.

Since its inception over 70 years ago, the Democrat Party has held ideologies that oppose all forms of dictatorship, and is committed to the promotion of democracy for the people, and most importantly by the people. The survival and existence of the DP has not come easily. The Party had to go through political struggles throughout its history that has four periods: 1st Period (1946-1967) Party Building, Pro-Democracy and Anti-Dictatorship 2nd Period (1968-1979) Party Rehabilitation and Democracy Promotion 3rd Period (1979-1990) Policy Improvement and Participation in National Administration 4th Period (1991-Present) Leading Party of Opposition and Coalition Government

Introducing the People’s Agenda Throughout its history, the DP has always stood firm on the principles of democracy, freedom, transparency, accountability and public participation. These principles, as stipulated in the Party Guidelines, have guided the Party in the last seven decades, and will continue to guide it for many years and generations to come.

Under the leadership and guidance of Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Executive Committee, DP aims to provide the Thai public with a viable responsible political alternative to the populist political environment that has been permeating the Thai atmosphere since 2001.

Through various schemes and measures implemented since 2008, especially the People’s Agenda, the Party has been able to steer national development toward a new direction. It uses the idea of “policy for the people, and by the people”, which highlights the point that “People must come first”.

guarantee initiative for farming population, debt relief and access to micro-credits, and social and health security scheme had been launched when they were in government.

Leaders Abhisit Vejjajiva Immediate Past Leader Chuti Krairiksh Secretary General

The Party has assured the inclusiveness of its socio-economic policy and measures. Programs such as 15 years of free education, income-

Democratic Progressive Party

Contact Lin Ching-yi Director, Department of International Affairs

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The Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan (DPP) was founded on 28 September 1986 by political, social, and human-rights activists, along with defence lawyers of political prisoners. It was then Martial Law, and Taiwan was under the authoritarian regime of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which had lost the Chinese Civil War.

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10F, No.30 Beiping E.Rd., Taipei, Taiwan T +866 2 23929989 F +866 2 23930342 www.dpp.org.tw F dpptaiwan

Through social and political movements, and participation in elections, the founders of DPP risked their freedom and their lives to champion a democratic Taiwan. Indeed, DPP played an important role in the consolidation of Taiwan’s democracy.

In 2000, DPP captured the presidency. From 2000 to 2008, DPP continued to push for freedom of expression, gender equality, social and transitional justice, judicial impartiality, and democracy. DPP also gained valuable experience and lessons as a young party during its eight years of governance.

In 2014, DPP won Taiwan’s ninein-one elections - the largest local polls in Taiwan’s democratic political history - by a landslide. DPP took 13 out of the 22 cities and counties, including four out of six special municipalities. The election was

DPP’s best poll showing yet since its founding. At that time, more than 70 percent of Taiwan’s population reside in a DPP-governing city or county.

The year 2016 actually marked the 30th anniversary of the party’s founding. Coincidentally, in January 2016, under the leadership of its Chairperson Dr. Tsai Ing-wen, the party won a majority in the LegislativeYuan, clinching 68 of the 113 seats. This was the first time in Taiwan’s political history that the legislature experienced a political transition. Dr. Tsai, DPP’s standard bearer in the elections, and her running mate Dr. Chen Chien-jen meanwhile garnered 6.89 million votes or 56.1 percent of the total.

This meant Dr. Tsai would become Taiwan’s first female president.

In 2017 DPP pushed through many reforms and progressive laws, including pension reform, a forward-looking infrastructure plan, transitional justice acts, and other important policies geared towards a better Taiwan.

In 2018, Taiwan held its nationwide nine-in-one local elections. President Tsai Ing-wen stepped down as DPP chairperson after the party’s landslide defeat. Tsai was temporarily replaced

by Keelung mayor Lin Yu-chang.

Former Executive Yuan Secretary General Cho Jung-tai assumed his tenure as DPP chairman on 9 January 2019. The party will continue to uphold the ideology and spirit it was built on, progressively reform, and take new political developments into account, to ensure the prosperity, peace, and happiness of citizens of Taiwan.

DPP plans to further deepen Taiwan’s democracy and safeguard for the Taiwanese people. Internationally, DPP continues to promote and strengthen the principles of democracy, and advocate for human rights and good governance through close alliances with democratic countries around the world.

DPP is a founding member of CALD and member of Liberal International.

Leaders Cho Jung-tai Chairperson Luo Wen-jia Secretary General

Liberal Party of the Philippines With a history that dates back from its founding in 1946, the Liberal Party of the Philippines is perhaps the most prominent among the few organized political parties in the country.

Contact

Its six-year term from 2010-2016 as the administration party was marked by significant reforms toward greater inclusiveness and economic growth.

It led a pro-active, anti-corruption drive and focused on breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty while maintaining sound macroeconomic fundamentals.

Liberal Party of the Philippines Balay Expo Centro Building, EDSA corner McArthur Avenue, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila

The LP counts among its members four previous Presidents of the Philippines -- President Aquino III, President Elpidio Quirino, President Manuel Roxas and President Diosdado Macapagal.

Two other presidents, Ramon Magsaysay and Ferdinand Marcos, were also once members before moving to other parties.

M +63 917 857 4858 T +63 2 709 3826 T +63 2 709 3817 F +63 2 709 3829 www.liberal.ph F LiberalPartyPhilippines

In a recent move that goes against the tide of Philippine establishment politics, the Liberal Party opened its doors to common citizens --providing a platform for advocacy, discourse, and political engagement

Ariel Tanangonan Acting Director General

for citizens who remain aligned with the values of freedom, justice and communal responsibility. Now, thousands have joined the party, fundamentally transforming it to become a genuine people’s party.

In the days leading to martial law under the Marcos dictatorship, the LP stood for the honor, integrity, and the defense of democracy. Today, we face overwhelming odds and the threat of persecution, as seen in the detention of Liberal Senator Leila de Lima on drug charges that have yet to be clarified or sufficiently supported by evidence. Despite this, the Liberals continue to rise as the voice reason, fairness, and freedom.

Leaders Benigno Aquino III Chairman Emeritus Leni Robredo Chairperson Franklin Drilon Vice Chairperson Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan President Teddy Baguilat Vice President for Internal Affairs Lorenzo Tanada III Vice President for External Affairs Christopher Belmonte Secretary-General Josephine Ramirez-Sato Treasurer

Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia

Contact Jayanthi Balaguru International Liaison to CALD Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia Level 5, PGRM, No. 8 Jalan Pudu, Cheras, 56100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia T +60 3 9287 6868 F +60 3 9287 8866 prgmhq@gmail.com www.gerakan.org.my F partigerakan T @partigerakanrakyatmalaysia

Since it was founded in 1968, the Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM) has experienced growth and strength despite external challenges and internal problems. Through sincere leadership, pragmatic strategies, and non-communal approaches, PGRM obtained mass support. Its quest for an egalitarian, united Malaysia, characterized by racial harmony, social justice, economic equity, political democracy, and cultural diversity, coupled with its sensitivity to the people’s needs and aspirations, are two major factors that contribute in making PGRM a dynamic and resilient political force in Malaysia.

PGRM is a multiracial party and a member of the governing National Front (BN) coalition. It seeks partnership with the people based on the principle that: MALAYSIAN NATIONALISM is the root cause of communalism, extremism, religious fanaticism, and cultural chauvinism.

Despite setbacks in the 12th and 13th General Elections, the party has gone through an extensive transformation, even as it has rebuilt its organization and rebranded its identity to remain relevant in the ever-changing Malaysian political landscape.

PGRM Secretary General Liang Teck-meng, who heads the party’s International Relations Bureau, is committed towards playing a greater and more meaningful role in the international and regional political arena. Besides council meetings, members of the Bureau and members of Gerakan regularly participate in CALD conferences, workshops, and other programmes.

Leaders Dominic Lau National President Oh Tong Keong Deputy President Mah Kah Keong Secretary General

The party is represented in the government and governmentrelated agencies with its president, Mah Siew-keong, as the Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Raymond Tan as the Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah State, Liang Teck Meng as Chairman of the National Water Services Commission (SPAN), and Gooi Hoe-hin as Chairman of the Malaysian Timber Council (MTC).

Gerakan is also represented in the CALD Executive Committee

by CALD Women’s Caucus Chairperson Dato Jayanthi Devi Balaguru and Former CALD Youth Chairperson Ivanpal Singh Grewal.

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Singapore Democratic Party

Contact Jufri Salim Organising Secretary Jaslyn Go International Liaison to CALD Singapore Democratic Party 3 Ang Mo Kio Street 62, #02-30, Link@AMK, Singapore M +65 9488 0198 T +65 6456 4531 sdp@yoursdp.org www.yoursdp.org F yoursdp T @yourSDP

The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) was constituted in 1980.

It believes in, and is working towards, restoring human, civil, and political rights in Singapore; fostering a vibrant and dynamic society based on pluralism and diversity; cultivating a transparent and accountable political system; establishing an economic system based on free competition and equal opportunity for all; removing all policies and practices that discriminate against the less fortunate, women, and minorities, and cooperating with democratic parties and organizations in Asia to achieve peace and sustainable development in the region.

The Central Executive Committee (CEC) governs the party with Prof.

Paul Tambyah as chairman and Dr. Chee Soon Juan its secretary general.

Leaders

Party leaders and members have had to endure a series of government-orchestrated court cases, and even imprisonment, for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly in the recent past.

Chee Soon Juan Secretary General

Paul Tambyah Chairman

In the past two general elections, the party was seen to be the most “improved” opposition party, in terms of making the largest gain in the share of votes among opposition parties.

The SDP is widely recognized as the party in Singapore to be the most adept in using the Internet to bypass the state-controlled media in the city state. It uses blogging, political videos, and social media to reach out to the people. It is the first opposition in Singapore to have a youth wing (Young Democrats).

Cambodia National Rescue Party Cambodian National Rescue Party is an electoral alliance between the two main democratic opposition parties, the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party. It was founded in mid-2012 for the purpose of running together in the 2013 elections.

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Cambodia National Rescue Party House #576, National Road N2, Sangkat Chakangres Leu, Khan Mean Chey, Phnom Penh, Cambodia T +855 012 90 5775 T +855 012 92 5171 info@cnrp7.org www.cnrp7.org F CNRParty

The party principles and values: are the rule of law and democracy, with social merit and harmonization, as well as mutual respect of interest in international The party believes in the strengthening of freedom and human rights, institution of free and fair elections, and “rescue, serve, protect.”

After the 2013 elections, it became the second largest party in Cambodia, accounting to 55 seats out of the 123 seats in parliament.

In the June 2017 commune elections, CNRP received 43.83 percent of the votes cast versus 50.76 percent of the

ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

Leaders

As CNRP’s electoral momentum threatened the ruling party ahead of the 2018 parliamentary elections, court cases, widely perceived as politically motivated, were filed against its leaders, resulting in the continuing exile of Sam Rainsy and the imprisonment of Kem Sokha.

Sam Rainsy Acting President

In November 2017, the CNRP was dissolved by Cambodia’s high court with its 118 leaders banned from politics for 5 years. Despite this major setback, these former CNRP leaders are still exerting all their efforts, particularly by appealing to the international community, to bring Cambodia back to the democratic path.

Kem Sokha President

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) came into existence as a result of the people’s struggle against the efforts of the New Order regime to hold onto power.

The year 1999 was a milestone for the party, which emerged as the winner of the general election and thus put an end to Suharto’s regime.

The sudden victory initiated a long and hard work of consolidation in the organization, from national level down to the community level.

Contact Hanjaya Setiawan Secretary of Government Affairs Department International Liaison to CALD PDI Perjuangan Jl. P. Diponegoro No. 58, Menteng, Jakarta Pusat 10310, Indonesia T +62 21 3909925 T +62 21 3900715 hanjaya@pdiperjuangan.id www.pdiperjuangan.id F DPP.PDI.Perjuangan T @pdi_perjuangan

The party’s ideology is based on Pancasila (Five Principles) that was first articulated by Indonesian nationalist leader Sukarno in a speech he gave on 1 June 1945. It is derived from the old indigenous Indonesian philosophy and way of life. Pancasila reflects Indonesian nationalism, humanity and internationalism, democracy, social justice, and belief in one God. Our founding father, Ir. Sukarno, once said, “Indonesian nationalism is a nationalism that grows and flourishes in the garden of internationalism.” It is impossible to separate nationalism and internationalism; one needs the other.

PDI Perjuangan thus understands the importance of international relations.

We will continue to develop and strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation among countries.

As the vanguard force that raises Pancasila’s banners high, PDI Perjuangan faces constant challenges on becoming the uniting power of Indonesia. PDI Perjuangan is always at the forefront in supporting social diversity, pluralism, and human

rights in Indonesia. We believe that equality among citizens is the basic foundation of unity in diversity.

In the current Indonesian democracy, PDI Perjuangan plays its role to fulfill people and state sovereignty by strengthening democratic institutions, mechanisms, and political practices. PDI Perjuangan also aims for a self-sufficient economy in the globalized era to bring prosperity and social welfare to the people. A nationalist party, PDI Perjuangan maintains a political stance of pluralism, humanity, democracy, and social welfare.

After 10 years as an opposition party, PDI Perjuangan had its political comeback in 2014. It was during 2014 that PDI Perjuangan won around 19 percent of the votes in the parliamentary elections held that April, making it the biggest party in the legislature. Three months later, PDI Perjuangan’s Joko Widodo won the presidential polls, clinching more than 53 percent of the votes; his rival Prabowo Subianto, by comparison, garnered just less than 47 percent.

In April 2015, PDI Perjuangan held its 4th Party Congress in Bali.

Her Excellency Madame Megawati Soekarnoputri was re-elected as party General Chairperson.

The congress also solidified the party’s decision to become a major supporter and partner to the current government. In addition, the party restructured the organization in 34 provinces, over 550 regencies/ cities, more than 6,000 subdistricts, and down to tens of thousands at the village/community level.

At the moment, PDI Perjuangan is preparing for the upcoming local elections in 2018, and general elections together with presidential election in 2019. Currently the party has five ministers, 109 members of the national parlaiment, more than 250 occupying the post of governor or mayor or regent, and more than 3,000 members of local parliaments. These have given the party substantial strength, and with the spirit of gotong royong, PDI Perjuangan is sure to gain victory in 2018, as well as in 2019.

PDI Perjuangan is not merely an electoral party, it is an ideological party. The biggest challenge that the party faces is to make Pancasila our living and working ideology, or something we practice in our daily life. For us victory is only a stepping stone towards our ultimate goal: a just and prosperous society, in a united yet diverse Indonesia.

Leaders Megawati Soekarnoputri General Chairperson Hasto Kristiyanto Secretary General

Civil Will Green Party of Mongolia

Contact Monsor Nyamdavaa International Liaison to CALD Civil Will Green Party of Mongolia Freedom Square Orange Plaza – 606 P.O Box – 90 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia T +97611319006 F +97611319006 nyamdavaa.monsor@ gmail.com

The Civil Will Party (CWP) the precursor of the current Civil Will Green Party (CWGP) was established on March 9, 2000 when Oyun Sanjaasuren was elected as the Chairman and Z. Narmandakh as the Secretary General. The party won their first seat in the parliamentary election that same year. In 2005, the CWP strengthened its activities by establishing the Civil Will Youth Wing and soon after this the CWP also structured the party to have their own senior, women youth and student organizations.

In January 2006, the special session of the Fourth National Convention announced that it would work as the opposition in the Parliament. In 2009, the party formed a coalition with the Democratic Party for the presidential election which resulted in victory. Elbegdorj Tsakhia was elected president of Mongolia.

The CWGP consists of the following organizations: the National Convention which is gathered once in every four years; the National Committee which consists of 200 members gathered annually; the Political Council with 36 members gathered on monthly; and the Monitoring Council consisting of 5 members.

The main executive organization of the party is the Secretariat under the direct management of the Secretary General.

Leader Gankhuyag Chair man

The municipal branches of the party operate at the grassroots level. There are 6 policy committees within the party that and Finance, Education, Science and Culture, Legal Activities, Foreign Relations and Security.

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Indonesia’s Nation Awakening Party

Contact Hesbul Bahar International Liaison to CALD Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) Jl. Raden Saleh No. 9, Central Jakarta, Indonesia T +62 21 314 5238 F +62 21 314 5329 dpp@pkb.or.id www.pkb.or.id F dpp.pkb T @DPP_PKB

The Nation Awakening Party or Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) was founded on 23 July 1998 in the Ciganjur, South Jakarta at the residence of KH. Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesia’s first democratically elected president.

Wahid was also the head of the Council of Scholars, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, in which its members, the nahdliyyin, formed the party’s base support.

The five key leaders who were instrumental during the party inception were KH. Munasir Ali, KH Ilyas Ruchiyat, KH. Abdurrahman Wahid, KH. A. Musthofa Bisri and KH. Muhith Muzadi.

PKB’s vision are: 1) to realize the desired ideals of independence of the Republic of Indonesia as stated in the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution; 2) to realize a just and prosperous society; and 3) to establish democratic, clean and honourable national politics.

The mission of party includes: Religious Sector: To increase piety to the Almighty God by serving the society, nation and state; Political Affairs: To maintain the Unitary of the Republic of Indonesia; To uphold the sovereignty of the people; To realize a clean, reliable, democratic government; To implement national development for the prosperity of the people; To carry out an independent and active foreign policy and develop foreign cooperation to create a world of lasting peace that is also equitable, and prosperous;

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Economic Sector: To uphold and to develop the economic life of people fairly and democratically; Legal Affairs: To establish and develop a civilized state law that is able to protect all its citizens; To affirm human rights and social justice; Social and Cultural Affairs: To endeavor in building an advanced culture and modernity while maintaining the nation’s identity for the sake of elevating the dignity of the nation; Educational Sector: To strive to improve the quality of the human resources to be of noble character, independent, skilled, professional, and critical towards the surrounding social environment ; To seek the establishment of a national education system that is welfare-oriented, affordable, and sustainable; and Defense: To build awareness of the obligation of every citizen to participate in the national defense effort; To encourage the establishment of community of self-defense against treatment that creates a feeling of insecurity, from either individuals or certain institutions in society.

The coalition has 338 seats in Parliament, with 109 seats from PDI P, 91 seats from Golkar, 47 seats from PKB, 39 seats from PPP, 36 seats from Nasdem and 16 seats from Hanura.

Four PKB leaders have been appointed ministers in the Jokowi government. M. Hanif Dhakiri is serving in the Ministry of Manpower, Imam Nahrawi in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs, Prof. Muhammad Nasir in the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education and Eko Pitro Sandjojo in the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged regions and Transmigration.

Leaders A. Muhaimin Iskandar General Chairman M. Hanif Dhakiri General Secretary

The PKB is part of the Coalition Indonesia Superb (KIH), a group of political parties that supported the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla election campaign in 2014. Aside from PKB, the other members the coalition were the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI P), Nation Democratic Party (Nasdem), while others including the United Development Party (PPP) and Party of the Fuctional Groups (Golkar).

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T +95 1 555 156 info.nldburma@gmail.com

The National League for Democracy (NLD) is a Burmese political party founded on 27 September 1988. The NLD was formed in the aftermath of the 8888 Uprising, a series of protests in favour of democracy which took place in In August 8, 1998 and was ended when the military took control of the country through a coup.

The party won a substantial parliamentary majority in the 1990 Burmese general election. However, the ruling military junta refused to recognize the result. On May 2010, the party was declared illegal by the junta after refusing to register for the elections in November 2010. The

following year, NLD announced its intention to be a political party in order to contend future elections and on December 2011, Burma’s Union Election Commission approved their application for registration. In the 2012 by-elections, NLD won 43 seats out of the 44 seats it contested.

The party advocates a non-violent movement towards multi-party democracy in Burma, which had been under military rule from 1962 to 2011. Furthermore, the party supports human rights (including broad-based freedom of speech), the rule of law, and national reconciliation.

In 2015, NLD won overwhelmingly in landmark general elections that saw a clear transfer of power from the military government to a civilian government. It is now the ruling party in Myanmar, with its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi serving as State Counsellor.

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Abdurraham Wahid Abdurrahman Wahid served as the fourth president of the world’s most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, from 1999-2001. He was an important figure among religious groups and political movements during the restoration of freedom and democratic rights after 32 years of the Suharto dictatorship.

More popularly known as “Gus Dur,” he showed fellow Indonesians his lifetime commitment to public

service and the promotion of liberal democracy and staunchly defended human rights, ethnic minorities, and Indonesia’s secular tradition. Wahid headed the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation.

President Soeharto. He became the Chairman of its Advisory Council and its official presidential candidate in 1999. Though dominated by NU members, Wahid promoted PKB as a party that is non-sectarian and open to all members of society.

Wahid passed away in 2009.

His position as a moral leader was transformed, however, when he and his supporters formed the National Awakening Party (PKB) following the dramatic fall of

Martin C. M. Lee Martin C.M. Lee (Lee Chu Ming) is the founding chairman (1994 – 2002) of the Democratic Party, which is one of the largest and most popular political parties in Hong Kong. Prior to the founding of the Democratic Party in October 1994, Lee was chairman of the United Democrats of Hong Kong — Hong Kong’s first political party that won the first-ever democratic elections to the territory’s Legislative Council in 1991.

Since its establishment, the Democratic Party has committed efforts to advancing democracy and safeguarding human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong. In 2008, the Democratic Party merged with another pandemocratic party The Frontier, and further strengthened its political influence in Hong Kong. Lee was also a popularly elected Legislative Councillor from 1985 to 2008.

Contact 704A, Admiralty Centre, Tower I, 18 Harcourt Road, Central, Hong Kong T F

+852 2529 0864 +852 2864 2829 oml@martinlee.org.hk www.martinlee.org.hk

Chung-Kai Sin

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Chung-Kai Sin is the Director of International Affairs and previously the Deputy Chairman of the Democratic Party. He was an elected Legislative Councillor of Hong Kong serving a term of 4 years from Oct 2012 to Sep 2016. He has served as a member of the Central Committee of Democratic Party of Hong Kong since the party was founded in 1994.

Authority from 2001 to 2009 and a board of director Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited from 1999 to 2009. He served as an elected representative at all three tiers of the Government – Legislative Council, Regional Council (abolished by the HKSAR Government in 1999) from 1988 to 1994 and the Kwai Tsing District Council from 1985 to 2003.

Sin served as a Member of Legislative Council from 1995 – 1997 representing New Territories South and 1998 to 2008 representing the Information Technology Sector. Sin has a long public service record. Sin served as a member of the Housing

Born and educated in Hong Kong, Sin obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Hong Kong in 1982 and his Master in Business Administration degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1997. Chung Kai

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is a life and fellow member of the Hong Kong Computer Society.

Mr. Chung-Kai Sin is married to Yvonne Ying Yee Chan. They have two sons Clement and Ryan who are studying in the US. Contact 4/F, Hanley House, 778 Nathan Road, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong T +852 2397 7033 F +852 2397 8998 cksin@sinchungkai.org.hk www.sinchungkai.org.hk

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Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi is the State Counsellor of Myanmar in charge of the Foreign Ministry, Energy Ministry, and the Ministry of Education. She is currently serving as the Chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD). In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against oppression and her fight to attain democracy and human rights in her country.

“The Lady” has spent most of her life committed to the people of Burma’s struggle for justice, freedom, and democracy. Much of the last two decades has seen her locked up, but in 2010, she was released from house arrest. In 2012, she contested a byelection and won a seat in parliament.

In 2015, NLD won by landslide, paving the way for her appointment as Myanmar’s State Counsellor.

Contact contact@nldburma.org

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Friedrich Naumann Foundation The Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF) is an independent, nonprofit, nongovernmental foundation committed to promoting the value of freedom worldwide. FNF seeks to promote this core liberal value by working to strengthen: human rights and the rule of law, liberal participatory democracy, and a free market economy.

Funded by the German parliament, the Foundation supports a wide range of activities in 65 different countries.

Its partners include parliaments, political parties, universities, think

tanks, research institutions, NGOs, the media, business associations, and community organizations.

Its key tasks are civic education, policy dialogue, and consultancy to help find liberal solutions for the problems facing our societies.

FNF has worked in partnership with CALD since 1993. They have collaborated to organize conferences, meetings, networking opportunities, and publications designed to further policy dialogue and cooperation among likeminded Asian political parties.

Contact 29 BBC Tower, 25th Floor, Sukhumvit 63 Road, Bangkok 10110 Thailand T +662 365 0570 T +662 365 0567 F +662 714 8384 contact@fnst.org www.fnfasia.org

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party is the party for liberal democrat values in Europe. Together with its liberal member parties across the European continent the ALDE Party is translating the principle of freedom into politics, economics and all other areas of our societies.

It provides an increasingly vital link between citizens and the EU institutions and is continuously growing in size and significance.

Formerly the European Liberal Democrat and Reform (ELDR) party, on 10 November 2012 at the Congress in Dublin, European Liberal Democrat delegates voted overwhelmingly to change the name of the party to Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) Party to strengthen links with the European Parliamentary group.

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The ALDE Party consists of 60 member parties and thousands of individual members from countries across Europe. Liberal Democrats created their European political family in 1976 in view of the first European elections and in 1993 was established as a true transnational political party.

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Leaders and key figures Hans van Baalen was elected President of the European Liberal Democrats for a two-year mandate on 21 November 2015 at the Congress in Budapest, Hungary.

The ALDE Party brings together Members of the European Parliament from among its member parties. Together with the MEPs from the European Democratic Party they form the third largest political force, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group, which is led by Guy Verhofstadt MEP. Eight EU Prime Ministers belong to ALDE Party member parties: • Andrej Babiš, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic • Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg • Miro Cerar, Prime Minister of Slovenia • Charles Michel, Prime Minister of Belgium • Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark • Jüri Ratas, Prime Minister of Estonia • Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of The Netherlands • Juha Sipilä, Prime Minister of Finland Five European Commissioners represent liberal democrats: • Andrus Ansip, Vice President and Commissioner for Digital Single Market • Violeta Bulc, Commissioner for Transport • Cecilia Malmström, Commissioner for Trade • Margarethe Vestager, Commissioner for Competition • Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality

Mission Statement In 60 years of European integration, the European Union has served us well in achieving peace, stability and prosperity. The EU has promoted and extended to half a billion people the four freedoms: the free movement of people, services, capital and goods across borders.

We want the Union to play a key leadership role in tackling today’s and tomorrows global challenges.

• We strengthen the Liberal Democrat movement in the EU and throughout Europe; • We assist Liberal Democrat politicians across Europe to become better acquainted and to define a common political vision; • We draw up and adopt a common manifesto for the European Parliament elections.

Contact ALDE Party Rue d’Idalie 11 – box 2 1050 Brussels, Belgium T F

+32 2 237 0140 +32 2 231 1907 info@aldeparty.eu www.aldeparty.eu

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament brings together MEPs from liberal and democratic parties across the European Union.

The members share share the common values and promote an open-minded and forward-looking approach to European Union politics.

ALDE stands for individual liberty, a free and dynamic business culture, economic and social solidarity,

sustainability in taking actions, protection of the environment and respect and tolerance for cultural, religious and linguistic diversity.

Contact European Parliament, Rue Wiertz, B – 1047 Brussels, Belgium T F

+32 2 284 2111 +32 2 230 2485 aldegroup@europarl.europa.eu www.alde.eu

Liberal International Liberal International is the world federation of liberal political parties.

Founded in 1947, it has become the pre-eminent network for promoting liberalism, strengthening liberal parties, and promoting liberal democracy around the world. There are a number of common principles that unite all liberal parties from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe: human rights, free and fair elections, multiparty democracy, social justice, tolerance, social market economy, free trade, environmental sustainability, and a strong sense of

international solidarity. Although there is diversity among liberal parties owing to the application of these principles in different national circumstances, all LI members adhere to the organization’s manifesto.

Contact 1 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2HD T F

+44 20 7839 5905 +44 20 7925 2685 all@liberal-international.org www.liberal-international.org

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) is a nonprofit organization working to strengthen and expand democracy worldwide. Calling on a global network of volunteer experts, NDI provides practical assistance to civic and political leaders advancing democratic values, practices, and institutions.

NDI works with democrats in

every region of the world to build political and civic organizations, safeguard elections, and to promote citizen participation, openness, and accountability in government.

Contact 455 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 8th Floor Washington, DC 20001 T +1 202 728 5500 F +1 202 728 5520 www.ndi.org

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Taiwan Foundation for Democracy Taiwan’s peaceful transition to democracy is not only a historical accomplishment for its 23 million people, but a landmark in the worldwide spread of democracy.

Only after years of struggle and effort could this transformation take place. We must never forget this history, for it shapes the cornerstone of our continued commitment to the principles of democracy and human rights.

The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) was established with an inter-related, two-tracked mission in mind. Domestically, the TFD strives to play a positive role in consolidating Taiwan’s democracy and fortifying its commitment to human rights; internationally, the Foundation hopes to become a strong link in the global democratic network, joining forces with related organizations around the world. Through the years, Taiwan has received valuable long-term assistance and stalwart support

from the international community, and it is now time to repay that community for all of its efforts.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy project in 2002.

After much research and careful evaluation, the Ministry integrated the required resources from many sectors of society. In January 2003, the Ministry obtained the support of all political parties to pass the budget for the Foundation in the legislature. The TFD formally came into being on 17 June 2003, with its first meeting of the Board of Trustees and Supervisory Board.

At that meeting, Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng was elected its first chairman. According to its by-laws, the TFD is governed by a total of 15 trustees and five supervisors, representing political parties, the government, academia, nongovernmental organizations, and the business sector.

Contact No.4, Alley 17, Lane 147, Section 3, Sinyi Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan T +886 2 2708 0100 F +886 2 2708 1148 www.tfd.org.tw

Africa Liberal Network Launched in June 2003, the Africa Liberal Network (ALN) is a network of African Liberal Democratic political parties and is an associated organisation of Liberal International, the political family to which Liberal Democratic parties belong.

Through our work with member parties, the ALN aims to spread Liberal values across the African continent by: 1. Championing Liberal policy solutions to Africa’s challenges.

All members of the network are bound by a policy stating that they exist to ensure the freedom and dignity of all people through establishing political and civil rights, ensuring basic freedoms and the rule of law, supporting democratic governance based on free and fair elections with peaceful transition, ensuring religious, gender and minority rights, fighting corruption and establishing free market economies.

Contact Democratic Alliance National Head Office P.O Box 1475 Cape Town 8000 Republic of South Africa T +27 021 465 1431 F +27 021 466 8394 nangamso.kwinana@africaliberalnetwork.org www.africaliberalnetwork.org

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2. Capacitating Liberal Democratic member parties with the skills they need to win elections and run governments based on Liberal values.

3. Providing a platform for likeminded Liberals in Africa to network and share information, experience, skills, and ideas.

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Liberal Network for Latin America RELIAL (Red Liberal de América Latina), the Liberal Network of Latin America, is a Latin America-wide network of currently 52 civil society organizations, political parties, think tanks, and research-institutes.

RELIAL is forming the institutional frame for leaders and opinion makers, academics, intellectuals, business people, and personalities from

the region who share and profess the ideas of individual freedom, limited government, the market economy, the rule of law, and a free democratic system in the continent

Contact Cerrada de la Cerca Nº 82 Col. San Angel Inn México DF 01060 T +5255 5550 1039 F +5255 5550 6223 info@relial.org www.relial.org

The Council for Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) was inaugurated in Bangkok in 1993, with the support of then Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai and South Korea’s Kim Dae-Jung. CALD, which offers a unique platform for dialogue and cooperation, is the only regional alliance of liberal and democratic political parties in Asia.

CALD was formed out of the recognition of leaders of like-minded political parties in Asia of the need for a dynamic forum promoting discussion and exchange of ideas regarding trends and challenges affecting democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the region. The chair parties of CALD since its inception to the present have been the Democrat Party of Thailand or DP (1993 – 1995, 2002-2004, 2016-2018), the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan or DPP (1995-1997, 2004-2005, 2018-present), the Liberal Party of the Philippines or LP (1997-1999, 2005-2007), the Singapore Democratic Party or SDP (2007-2010), the Liberal Party of Sri Lanka or LPSL (1999-2000, 2010-2012), the Sam Rainsy Party/ Cambodia National Rescue Party (2000-2002, 2012-2014), and the Civil Green Party of Mongolia (2014-2016).

The other members of CALD are the Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Nation Awakening Party (PKB) of Indonesia, while the Hong Kong legislators Martin Lee and Sin Chung-kai are individual members. In 2010, CALD bestowed honorary individual membership to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The National League for Democracy (NLD) of Burma is an observer party.

Through CALD, political parties, groups, and individuals have a continuing discussion on the developments occurring in the various countries of the region. The aim is to assess the possibilities for liberal solutions to problems facing Asian democracies.

Accordingly, CALD organizes network meetings including those with its partners (Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Liberal International, Alliance for Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs), international conferences on vital issues affecting the region, and regular workshops on communication, political management, and women in politics. It also sends missions for various advocacies, sponsors internship programs in its secretariat, as well as maintains a website, a social network group account and a weekly electronic newsletter.

Abhisit Vejjajiva CALD Chair Kiat Sittheeamorn CALD Secretary General Unit 410, La Fuerza Plaza 2, 2241 Don Chino Roces Avenue corner Sabio St., 1231 Makati City, Philippines Telephone +63 2 819 6071 Mobile +63 998 576 0877 Facsimile +63 2 819 6055 info@cald.org www.cald.org asianliberals @asianliberals @asianliberals

CALD SECRETARIAT Celito Arlegue Executive Director Paolo Antonio Zamora Program Manager Francis Miguel Panday Program Officer Audrie Semeona Frias Administrative & Project Officer Mari Julienne Janolo Communications Officer R

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EDITOR C.C. Balgos LAY-OUT & ART DIRECTION Michael A. Gadi