Asia-Pacific forum has ideal locale in Hawai'i
By Charles E. Morrison
A decade-old organization of top parliamentarians and lawmakers from around the Pacific will meet in Honolulu this weekend — the first time the group has met in the United States.
The 113 delegates from 26 countries are participants in the three-day meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum.
Founded by former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who continues to play the central role as its president, the
forum provides the only regularly scheduled opportunity for leading parliamentarians to discuss regional and global issues.
The U.S. congressional hosts are Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, and Rep. Amo Houghton, R-N.Y. Sixteen other members of Congress will be attending; Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., will be stopping by. The East-West Center is this year's secretariat and meeting organizer.
It is quite fitting that this first U.S. meeting be held in Hawai'i because of our central location and multi-ethnic society, drawing from all parts of the vast Asia-Pacific region. Although much smaller than last year's Asia Development Bank meeting or the previous year's meeting of the Pacific Basin Economic Council business group, the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum also gives credence to Hawai'i's claim to be a premier venue for Asia-Pacific meetings and organizations.
The need for Asia-Pacific cooperation in all its forms has assumed new meaning since the Sept. 11 attacks and the many ongoing challenges the region is facing.
The role and power of national assemblies and their lawmakers are quite different in presidential, parliamentary, socialist and monarchical systems, all of which are represented in the forum. But with the ongoing process of social pluralization and democratization, parliaments everywhere are becoming increasingly important players in debate on and responses to national and global challenges.
Unlike executive bureaucracies, parliaments are typically based on geographical representation and are broadly representative of society as a whole. Thus parliamentarians play a critical role in linking local constituencies with national governments. As prominent public figures, they are also key interpreters and shapers of public views and sentiments. Parliaments generally must enact national laws, but also approve treaties and the legislation and budgets needed to implement treaty commitments.
The substantive agenda for the forum's 10th annual meeting is rich. It was so even before Sept. 11.
Terrorism, long an issue for many other Asia-Pacific countries before Sept. 11 elevated it to the top of the U.S. agenda, will clearly receive special attention and infuse the discussion of all other issues. For example, the global economic downturn, which has placed Asia's recovery from the 1997-98 crisis in jeopardy, has been aggravated by the effects of the terrorist attacks.
Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific, and Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly will share their perspectives on the military and political dimensions of the U.S. response to terrorism and other aspects of U.S. relations with Asia-Pacific nations. Other issues to be explicitly addressed include environmental problems, disaster responses, education and information technology. In these areas, development disparities, often aggravated by the effects of globalization, are widely regarded as causes of social tensions.
Delegates from China and Vietnam — as respective hosts for this past year's meetings of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Shanghai and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional security forum in Hanoi — will be making reports. Developments in East Asian, inter-American, and Pacific island regional cooperation will undoubtedly be addressed. All of these intergovernmental organizations and processes are typically handled by the small groups within the bureaucracies with virtually no involvement by parliamentary bodies. This has limited political and public interest to the detriment of regional cooperation.
An underlying question is how to ensure a more integral and effective involvement of parliamentarians in evolving forms of regional and global relations and cooperation.
The Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum is a start, but unlike the European parliament or the North Atlantic Assembly of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it is not yet fully institutionalized. As the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum ends its first decade with its sessions in Honolulu, its achievement has been its ability to establish itself as a regular institutional forum, thanks to the dedicated efforts of Nakasone and his associates around the region.
Its challenge is to develop a long-term institutional base and strengthen its ability to connect local constituencies with regional and global cooperation processes.
Charles Morrison is president of the East-West Center.
