PEACE-MAKER
Jose de Venecia Jr.
Former Speaker of the House
The 11th General Assembly of the 350-member International Conference of Asian Political Parties, ICAPP, concluded yesterday in the historic city of Istanbul.
We are most thankful to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AK Parti, for graciously hosting our conference.
We regret that we could not fly to Istanbul as our beloved wife Gina and our children advised us against traveling great distances at this time. They explained that long-distance travels increase our risk of getting exposed to Covid, and we are 85 years old.
Turkey is the most prominent of the nations that emerged from the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. It is a nation created by a heroic people led by a visionary warrior and statesman Mustafa Kemal, on whom his people bestowed the surname Ataturk, which means “Father of the Turks.”
Under Ataturk’s leadership (he was president of the Republic from 1923 until 1938), Turkey became the first Muslim country to develop a sense of national identity. Together with Meiji Japan, Turkey also became the early model of modernization for the colonial countries.
Ataturk separated temporal and spiritual powers in Turkey by abolishing, first, the Ottoman sultanate, and then the caliphate, establishing in place a secular, nationalist democracy. Notably, Ataturk gave women the right to share fully in the public culture of the Turkish nation.
Within a generation, Ataturk’s transitional authoritarianism gave way to multi-party politics. The first opposition party came peacefully to power in 1950. Since then, successive governments have worked to strengthen Turkey’s democracy and economy.
Geographically poised between East and West, Turkey bridges the cultural and geopolitical gaps between Europe and Asia.
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When we created and launched the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Manila on September 2000, not many people believed that it would be possible to bring together political parties, governing and opposition and with different ideologies, under one roof and in a common house.
Yet the challenges we took did not deter us from pursuing our modest vision for Asia. Our organization is a small step, a modest beginning of our dream of building one community and one union for Asians.
Today, our ICAPP is composed of some 350 ruling, opposition, and independent political parties from 52 countries in Asia.
Not only have we strengthened our resolve in advancing the causes of peace, security, development, dialogue, understanding and cooperation among countries and peoples in our region. We have also expanded our reach in other continents, with our working partnerships with the political parties of Latin America under the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean (COPPPAL), the Council of African Political Parties (CAPP), as well as various political parties in Europe. We had also begun exploring ways and means of cooperation with the US Democratic and Republican political parties.
We have established various subsidiary groups, namely the Youth Wing, Women’s Wing, Media Forum, Asia Europe Political Forum (AEPF), Asian-Latin American (ICAPP-COPPPAL) Business Council, Asian Cultural Council (ACC), ICAPP Program for Disasters Assistance (IPDA), and the Tourism Promotion and Inter-City Cooperation (TOPIC) Council.
Indeed, we the political parties in Asia have brought to our organization many disparate notions about the world we live in. There are those among us who are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, and there are those who advocate change in society and those who oppose it.
The overarching sentiment that has brought us to ICAPP is our willingness to understand, our openness to listen amid the diversity of our views. For truly, “despite our differences, there are much more that unite us than divide us.” What brings us together is far greater than what may drive us apart.
We are united by our collective desire and capacity to meet humanity’s greatest challenges in the modern age. We are united by the goals that transcend national boundaries as well as interests that are embraced by all.