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100 Years of Peace By Mars W. Mosqueda Jr., TheWorldJournal.com 
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PRINT VERSION Philippine House Speaker Jose de Venecia, during a speech in Chongqing, China, asked the Asian parliament leaders to initiate what is seen as an instrument to defeat poverty and avert ruinous military confrontations in the world's largest continent - "100 years of peace". De Venecia, a major advocate of Asian economic and political integration, said peace in the region still stalked by poverty will create the Asian middle class, a major factor in the fight against poverty. The Philippine leader spoke on the night former Chinese Premier Li Peng, now president of the Chinese Parliament, was unanimously elected president of the Asian Parliaments for Peace (APP) at its third general assembly here. De Venecia was elected vice president, virtually assuring him of election to next year's presidency of the AAP, according to Prince Ranarridh of Cambodia, the outgoing AAP president. The APP, composed of 43 nations, is now emerging as the largest and most influential group of parliamentarians in Asia, encompassing East Asia, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia up to Turkey. Interviewed later by newsmen, De Venecia said the AAP will eventually invite Australia and New Zealand as members in the overall vision of Asian integration "so they will not feel isolated and outflanked in the South Pacific." De Venecia and Li Peng were the only speakers on the final day of the assembly at a farewell dinner tendered for the delegates in this 3,000-year-old industrial city of 31 million people on the banks of the Yangtze River. Turkey, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and the People's Republic of Korea are the newest members of association, bringing its full membership to 43." In his speech, De Venecia said creation of ASEAN plus Three - China, Japan, and South Korea - must now be expedited. This, he said, will lead to ASEAN's merger with SAARC which includes India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhuttan, Sri Lanka, and Sikkim. The House leader said East Asia must eventually integrate with Central Asia and West Asia all the way to the Bosporus as part of what he called "long-term large-scale political and economic integration of Asia" culminating in a final Asian community or an Asian Union. "Europe did it in 49 years, step by step," De Venecia said. He reiterated his call for the creation of an ASEAN Parliament and said the Philippine House of Representatives has already sent a team of scholars to study the European model, including the processes involved in its creation. The committee's findings will be submitted by the House delegation in next September's ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization conference scheduled in Hanoi, Vietnam. © April 24, 2002 |
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