By Jose C. De Venecia Jr. Former Philippine Speaker
At the recent launching of the International Association of Parliamentarians (IAPP) Senegal and IAPP Dakar, I said that more than ever, we must also join hands in actively opposing violent extremism and terrorism that have bedevilled a number of countries in our regions.
Our political parties, our parliaments, our governments, our civil society organizations must reject every type of extremist politics and radical movements.
We must isolate and defeat those who espouse intolerance and hatred – those who advocate terrorism, extremism, and bloodshed in the name of ideology and religion.
Inter-faith dialogue
We in the UPF and our colleagues in IAPP and ICAPP have campaigned in the UN General Assembly, in the UN Security Council, in the halls of the UN for an inter-faith, inter-cultural, and inter-civilizational dialogue with our proposal to create an Interfaith Council in the UN or at least a focal point in the Office of the UN Secretary General, at a time when discussion of religion was somewhat taboo within the UN system.
If creating a new council is overly difficult – as some legalists have warned – then, perhaps, we could write an interfaith mandate in the mission order of the Trusteeship Council of the UN which has anyway run out of trust territories to supervise.
We have half-succeeded. There is today our Interfaith Unit in the Office of the UN Secretary-General coordinating Inter-Faith or Inter-Religious Conferences in the UN system and in various parts of the world.
From these “Inter-Faith Dialogues,” we should expect no miracles — except those epiphanies that result from open hearts, the willingness to see the other side’s viewpoint, and a multitude of patience.
Sunni-Shi’ite dialogue
On the raging Sunni-Shiite issues, one cannot discount the magnitude of the barriers that intense doctrinal separation has raised between these two great schools of Islam.
In my earlier letters to Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah and Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, we said, it would be of great relief to our region and the world, if the two leaders of Islam, representing the Sunnis and Shiites, respectively, of the Muslim world, could perhaps meet in Mecca and Medina and bring about the beginnings of reconciliation and the end of violence in the lands of Islam.
It is most difficult, perhaps almost impossible, but more than ever this urgent, absolute necessary meeting between the two leaders of Islam must be set and undertaken and we pray that to some extent if it ever happens, it will succeed for the peace of the region and the world.
Climate change
Then there is global warming, and the ongoing and longer-term threat of climate change.
Against this threat, our organization can become and must become a political force and a moral force for mobilizing peoples and nations—and getting them to act together.
Climate Change has become a clear and present danger to our fragile planet and to the longevity of the human race.
Summit on narcotics
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte has faced some criticism but he has decisively launched an increasingly successful nationwide battle against drug syndicates, including some 4-million drug users, out of a population of 104-million. A number of international leaders are now following his lead.
We urge as well our governments, parliaments, political parties, and civil society organizations to join efforts in an intensified campaign against the narcotics trade which has pillaged the Asian, African, European, North American, Latin American regions, and the global community.
We hope we in ASEAN and the African community can take the lead in launching an international coalition to crush the “Golden Triangle” opium network in Southeast Asia and West Asia and the large-scale opium growing by Afghan farmers led by the drug warlords of Afghanistan.
We in the IAPP, UPF, and ICAPP must also propose and urge the convening of a Global Summit Against Narcotics because their production and distribution are at an alarming rate worldwide including their large-scale penetration of markets in the United States and Europe.
We also urge the European Union and the UN to continue to work together in solving the raging tragedy of thousands of refugees fleeing from the wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa; as well as the suffering and misery of our brother Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar.
Global challenges
Poverty – inequality – extremism – terrorism – climate change – narcotics trade.
We may be certain our organizations will be called upon – collectively and singly – to decide on these threats that confront the global community in our time.
Indeed, there will be a great need for trans-national, trans-cultural groupings like ours – since the problems that face us more and more transcend national, regional and even hemispheric boundaries.
In our memorable conference in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta last year, we declared: “For half a millennium, Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans were peoples to whom things were done.
“Once we in Asia, Latin America and Africa were no more than spectators to the rise and fall of foreign empires.
“Now we have regained command of our own fortunes.
“Now we have laid a foundation for the new chapter of economic and political engagement.
“Now we can and must begin to write our own histories.”