S P E E C H E S
A Bold Prediction FRANCIS ‘KIKO’ PANGILINAN
cald chairperson chairperson, liberal party of the philippines former philippine senator
Opening remarks at the CALD 30th Anniversary Public Conference held on 9 September in Taipei, Taiwan For this event, we have chosen the theme ‘The Future of Democracy in Asia.’ More specifically, we wanted to address the question: “How can we ensure that the future of Asia is free and democratic?”
and the poor, without doubt, fuel the rise or strengthening of autocrats, populists, and illiberals.
Take the case of the country where I came from -- the Philippines. We used to be the This question grew out of the recognition bastion of democracy and freedom in that the world today is becoming less Southeast and East Asia, having ushfree and democratic. According ered in the third wave of democto Freedom House’s latest ratization in the subregion Freedom in the World through our People Power th Report, 2023 is the 17 Revolution in 1986. That “We wanted consecutive year that bloodless revolution topto address the global freedom and pled the 20-year Marcos question: ‘How democratic governance dictatorship and reincan we ensure have been suffering an stated our democracy. that the future of overall decline. Asia is free and Our restored democracy, democratic?’ ” Ladies and gentlemen, however, seems to have Asia is also reflecting this failed in delivering the sysglobal trend of democratic temic reforms necessary to decline. Actually, in certain make democracy meaningful. subregions of the continent, the For this reason, the Marcoses are breadth and depth of democratic regresback in power in the Philippines, following sion have been much worse compared to the the populist-authoritarian regime of Rodrigo global average. Duterte. In this part of the world, democratic recession has also been accompanied by widening inequalities between and within countries. This potent combination of democratic decline and growing gap between the rich
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While the Philippines is regressing, our neighbor in the north – Taiwan – appears to be on track in consolidating and fortifying its democracy. There remains to be issues and problems, of course, but as a whole, Taiwan’s
democracy stands on solid ground. That is why we from Southeast Asia consider Taiwan as a democratic role model. And we think the People’s Republic of China should do so, too. My dear friends, earlier this year China sanctioned us in CALD for supposedly “promoting Taiwan independence under the guise of academic and research exchanges.” Today we stand here with you, fellow defenders of freedom and democracy, to tell all the autocrats, populists, and illiberals of the world: That we will not cower in the face of authoritarianism; That we will fight for our democratic principles and values; and That we will win in the end. With our passion and commitment, I have no doubt that the future of Asia will be free and democratic. 51