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Asian, African lawmakers gather to share ideas on development, Palestine
Indonesian lawmakers will meet on Thursday with their counterparts from Asia and Africa in a conference held to discuss the role of legislative bodies in strengthening strategic cooperation among countries from the two continents
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ndonesian lawmakers will meet on Thursday with their counterparts from Asia and Africa in a conference held to discuss the role of legislative bodies in strengthening strategic cooperation among countries from the two continents.
Taking place in the Senayan legislative complex in South Jakarta, the Asia-Africa Parliamentary Conference is being held on the sidelines of the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference, which kicked off on Sunday and is set to conclude on Friday.
Golkar Party lawmaker Meutya Hafid, who is also a deputy chief of the House of Representatives' Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Body (BKSAP), said that, as of Wednesday, over 100 lawmakers representing 34 countries had confirmed their attendance at the conference, which would be opened by President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo.
'The speakers of several countries' parliaments, including Bahrain, Laos, Sudan and Libya, are among those who have confirmed their attendance,' she told The Jakarta Post.
According to the conference's website, the event will hold three separate sessions, discussing, consecutively, the role of legislative-body cooperation in promoting the post-2015 global development agenda; the future of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership (NAASP); and the issue of Palestinian independence.
House Speaker Setya Novanto said the conference would also draft and issue the so-called Asian African Parliamentary Declaration, which will summarize the participants' commitment to the issues discussed.
'The declaration will include, among other things, support for the recognition of Palestine as an independent and sovereign country in its own land as a form of solidarity between Asian and African countries,' he said.
In an earlier press conference, Democratic Party lawmaker and BKSAP chief Nurhayati Ali Assegaf said the Palestinian issue would be brought up to show lawmakers' commitment to supporting Palestine's efforts to gain full independence.
'Sixty years ago, the issue of Palestinian independence was discussed during the first conference. Now, we want to see Palestine gain its independence, as this [anti-colonialism] is mandated in the Preamble to our Constitution,' she said.
Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who currently leads the Seoul-based intergovernmental organization the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), is also scheduled to serve as keynote speaker in the conference's first session, which will be chaired by Nurhayati.
The conference's second and final session, meanwhile, will be chaired by House deputy speakers Fadli Zon and Fahri Hamzah, respectively.
Thursday's conference will be the first of its kind, according to the lawmakers.
Indonesian legislators, according to Meutya, also expect that the conference will pave the way for the establishment of a permanent Asian-African parliamentary forum in the immediate future.
'In many Asian and African countries, parliamentary bodies and executive power work hand-in-hand with each other. So, we have to make sure that the government's foreign affairs policies receive support from the legislature,' she said.
'Government support for Palestine, for example, should also be endorsed by the House to secure a stronger legitimacy.'
