A unique opportunity for peace

I am bewildered by the turn of events. Is it a miracle or coincidence that the Philippines should be at the center of the bewildering change?

Just a year ago we were a mere patsy of US policy in the region. As a former colony of the US, we were shunted aside and could not be expected to contribute to the making of a strong region.

From that situation we moved to become a leader in the region and carry a heavy responsibility to the strengthening of ASEAN in world affairs. This is thanks to President Duterte’s strong words about the Philippines adopting an independent foreign policy.

Next week when we host the ASEAN summit the Philippines will bring together not only our neighbors in Southeast Asia but also the East Asia Summit which includes other Asia Pacific powers. 

This summit takes place at a critical juncture in world history. 

Since the end of the Second World War an international system of institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization have been built up to prevent a recurrence of the circumstances that created the environment for the Second World War. Today we are faced with a belligerent North Korea and a humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.  Solutions have to be found.

As host of the ASEAN and East Asia Summit, the central message of President Duterte’s inaugural address provides a useful narrative for these developments. “Erosion of faith and trust in government – that is the real problem that confronts us. Resulting therefrom, I see the erosion of the people’s trust in our country’s leaders; the erosion of faith in our judicial system; the erosion of confidence in the capacity of our public servants to make the people’s lives better, safer and healthier,” he said on the eve of the ASEAN meeting in Manila.

That erosion of faith seems to be extending into the international community. According to a survey conducted by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, the top risk to growth for regional economies was rising protectionism. The same survey showed that the top priorities for APEC leaders who met in Vietnam this week were: promoting sustainable, innovative and inclusive growth followed by the emergence of anti-globalization sentiments. 

This comes against the backdrop of rising income inequality in some countries and a sentiment of ‘us first.’ Firstly, we need to disabuse ourselves of the notion that any leader – is accountable to anyone except his own people. We live, like it or not, in a system of nation states – and leaders will do what they think is in their nation’s interest. However, if the end goal is to provide better lives for citizens, that is contingent on having a peaceful environment in which to develop.

As host to ASEAN, we have a critical role to play in bringing nations together in the spirit of a community. This is the very nature of ASEAN – something we can share – in Pilipino we have our bayanihan spirit, in Indonesia and Malaysia there is mushiwara. It is about bringing people together. That sense of community building is critical to achieving our goals as a nation – restoring trust in government not only at home but also in terms of the broader global system. We need to bring that sense of engagement to critical issues facing us – including North Korea. 

Former Speaker Jose de Venecia, ever the diplomat, sent word to this column that he proposed precisely that during his visit to Iran. He proposed that we promote Inter-Cultural Dialogue. 

As the Philippines’ Special Envoy for APEC and Inter-Cultural Dialogue, he proposed a “small composite team of APEC and ASEAN” to journey to Pyongyang to begin to negotiate “a peace that will hopefully endure in the Korean Peninsula.”

This is a unique opportunity for both the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to take up. The two regional groups are meeting one after the other, back-to-back. The APEC meeting was held in Vietnam (Nov. 8-11) and next week the ASEAN meet will take place in the Philippines (Nov. 10-14) for their annual Leaders Meetings. The leaders of the regions should quietly explore in the next two weeks the idea of sending a joint peace mission to the North Korean capital.

He pointed out Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte hopes a new tack could ease the continuous exchange of accusations in the Peninsula and lead to opportunities for a difficult but necessary peace.

De Venecia said he envisioned inter-Korean talks could be at senior or mid-levels, representing perhaps not more than seven parties including key APEC members US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, a representative of ASEAN, and North Korea; progress could be “publicized or unpublicized” with a recess on the eve of the Christmas holidays, and the talks could target preliminary understanding by early next year.

He pointed out there should be a timetable otherwise the talks could be endless as it happened in the old Panmunjom talks. However, while the 1950-1953 South-North Korean conflict ended, “a technical state of war persists until now, with both sides not signing a formal peace treaty,” he said. Today there is continuous, recurrent threat of hostilities, even nuclear war, since North Korea has already developed nuclear weapons with a missile delivery system.

De Venecia said he hoped a meeting of the two Koreas, with nominees from APEC and ASEAN in attendance, could lead to an “eventual peaceful ASEAN Plus 4 configuration.” This would add North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) to the current ASEAN Plus 3, which includes the 10 ASEAN nations plus China, Japan, and South Korea until at some point, in the future, perhaps the two Koreas could consider a “unification” or “confederation.”

De Venecia is founding chairman of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), which includes North Korea’s Korean Workers Party as one of ICAPP’s more than 300 ruling, opposition and independent parties as members. Also, as co-chairman of the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP), he also plans to invite the North Korean Parliament to nominate delegates to the IAPP.

As head of the Philippine Congress’ foreign relations committee, he met with North Korea’s founder then President Kim Il-Sung, grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-Un, finalized North Korean-Philippine diplomatic relations and dispelled as well North Korea’s rumored assistance to the Philippine New People’s Army.

In Kim Il Sung’s mountain retreat, de Venecia asked the North Korean leader if it was true that he planned to attack South Korea, he replied: “If we attack the South, the South will be destroyed. But we in the North will also be destroyed.”