‘The quintessential Asian’

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — In this country that is a showcase of “unity in diversity,” former five-time Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives Jose de Venecia Jr.  called for the building of an Asian community on the strength of  its diversity, not just its commonality.

Speaking at the 8th general assembly of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties at the Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theater here, ICAPP founding chairman De Venecia said that out of the “clash of cultures” and differences, Asians “must reinterpret our traditions to embrace pluralism in culture and in society.”

“We must learn to create space for alternative faiths,” stressed the former Speaker, who was hailed as the “quintessential Mr. Asia” during the conference by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.

“We in ICAPP should encourage the renewal and mobilization of diplomacy at various levels, respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, put the world at ease and enable all of us to concentrate on our basic work of building our Asian community,” De Venecia, who founded ICAPP in Manila in 2000, said in his well-applauded speech. Over 300 representatives from 32 countries and 75 political parties throughout Asia, a good number representing women, attended the four-day conference.

De Venecia cited Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa for “putting an end to the protracted and bloody conflict with the Tamil minority, achieving GDP growth of between seven and eight percent while promoting peace and reconciliation” among Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians in Sri Lanka’s pluralist society.

President Rajapaksa, for his part, urged Asian nations to unite to combat external threats to the sovereignty of the region. “We must come together to combat the threats posed by organized international crime, drug trafficking, human smuggling, money laundering and terrorism and its funding.”

Also present during the ICAPP 8th General Assembly was Maldives President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.

‘Wonder Women’

The assembly also featured the second meeting of the ICAPP’s Women’s Wing, which saw women power from all over Asia in full force. Among those who addressed the assembly were Philippine congresswoman Gina de Venecia of Pangasinan, Sri Lankan member of Parliament Sudarshani Fernandopulle, Azerbaijani member of Parliament Malahat Ibrahimqizi, member of the Islamic Parliament of Iran Fatemeh Rahbar, Nepali former Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala, Meryem Goka of Turkey’s AK Parti, the Korean National Assembly’s Yoon Myung-hee, among others.

Each showed the great strides taken by women in Asia, even as they raised concerns about issues still stunting women’s rights.

Mrs. De Venecia said she found it significant that the assembly of women was taking place in Sri Lanka, “the first country in the world that elected a woman to the highest position of authority and made the trailblazing Sirimavo Bandaranaike the first female head of government in modern history.”

She also pointed out that just like Sri Lanka, the Philippines has had women presidents in the last 28 years, the late Corazon Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

She added, “Interestingly, the 16th Congress of the Philippines has the biggest number of lady legislators in history. As president of the 79-strong Association of Women Legislators, I say we are achieving a sense of balance with our menfolk, in the passage of measures that range from gender equality to issues of promotion of peace, and preservation of our country’s democratic institutions.”

But since much more needs to be done, Mrs. De Venecia proposed the creation of a Ministry or Department of Women in the 52 states of Asia and in other countries in the world.

“This ministry or department would be dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women at the national and local levels, and focus on women’s special concerns in politics and economic and social development,” she said, a standout in her magenta embroidered Filipiniana dress.

Mrs. De Venecia, who built 15 regional centers for the rehabilitation of abused and marginalized women and four regional centers for street children while her husband was Speaker, said the direct participation of women in national and local movements “will add flesh and blood” to many endeavors.

Women, she says, have an instinct for what the people need most.

 “For hungry children must be fed, the sick child nursed back to health; and leaking roofs cannot wait for the rain to stop. And these things even an unlettered mother knows more closely than the greatest statesmen,” she pointed out.

The Philippine delegation to the conference included Centrist Democratic Party of the Philippines president Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and the National People Coalition’s regional chairman Mark Cojuangco, a former member of the House of Representatives.

They all did the Philippines proud in Sri Lanka.

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