Sowing Greens Seeds
in the Asia Pacific
Region
a report back from Kyoto
by Mike Feinstein,
Green Party of California

Asia Pacific Green Network Founding Meeting
February 11th-13th, 2005
Kyoto, Japan

The breadth and depth of the Global Green movement was on display February 11th to 13th in Kyoto, Japan, as the Asia-Pacific Green Network was formally organized into an ongoing network of Greens, from Pakistan to the Pacific, and from Mongolia to the Tasmanian sea.

Just days before the effective start dateof the Kyoto Protocol Treaty on Climate Change, more than 100 Greens gathered from 23 Asian and Pacific nations, along with 300 more from Japan, and Green observers from Europe and the Americas.

The historic meeting united representatives from established Green Parties, as well as Green political groups which are not yet fully fledged political parties, but are involved in electoral politics on some level, or plan to be -- and it followed upon the first Asia Pacific Green Politics Workshop, held in Brisbane, Australia (April 2000), at which the Asia Pacific Green Network was first loosely founded.

The primary aim of Kyoto in 2005 was to now formalize the Asia Pacific Greens Network, with its primary functions to
- facilitate information exchange and networking
- cooperate politically towards implementation of the Global Green Charter
- participate in the Global Greens

Twenty-seven Green parties and organizations from 23 countries were accepted as provisional APGN members, with a formal Membership Panel established to help determine ongoing membership later in the year.

Three Greens were also elected to serve as the APGN's representatives on the 12-member Global Greens Coordination.
- Ms. Margaret Blakers (Australia), 2001 Global Greens conference organizer and current Global Greens Coordination member
- Ms. Satoko Watanabe (Japan) Asia Pacific Greens Kyoto 2005 organizer
- Mr. Solomone Fifita (Tonga, working in Samoa), Pacific Green movement

In an unplanned but welcome occurrence, the Asia Pacific Young Greens Network was also launched during the weekend, and was recognized immediately by the APGN.

The weekend featured a series of issue-based workshops on Saturday at Kyoto Campus Plaza, on social justice, democracy and the environment. These were followed on Saturday night by a march in support of the Kyoto Protocol, and then a festive party.

Several resolutions were passed on Sunday morning, followed by a big group picture taken inside massive Kyoto Station. Japanese Greens then held a major meeting, with the decision taken to form a formal national Green network called Greens Japan, in order to prepare for starting a national Green Party. (Currently on the local level, among the two major Japanese Green electoral movements, the Rainbow and Greens Japan has 120 councilors and Kanagawa Network Movement 34.)

On the global level, the APGN is the fourth such major Green organization across the planet. It follows the creation of the

- European Coordinatation of Green Parties (1984, Liege, Belgium), which then became the European Federation of Green Parties (1993, Majvik, Finland) and then the European Green Party (Rome, 2004)
- Federacion de Partidos Verdes de las Americas/Fedearation of the Green Parties of the Americas (1997, Isla Behla, Brazil), and
- African Green Federation (1998, Nairobi, Kenya)

The APGN proceedings were run professionally and cordially by a Meeting Management Group, consisting of Mr. Kosuke Shimizu (Rainbow and Greens Japan), Ms. Kerrie Tucker (Australian Greens), Mr. Olzod Bum-Yalagch (Mongolia Green Party), Ms. Won J. Byun (Korea Greens), and Ms. Anne Larracas (Phillipine Greens).

APGN Regular Membership

At the same time that the provisional members were approved, a formal Membership Panel was elected to help determine regular membership status, which will occur later in the year.

By May 30th provisional members will have to submit constitution/by-laws, including ratification date, description of organizations membership and activities, recent financial statement and other supporting information. Criteria will include whether an applicant does:

- abide by Global Green Charter
- actively involved in electoral politics (where democratic structures and processes exist;
- welcome and involve women and men as active and equal participants
- be open to all ethnic, religious and other minorities- operate in a democratic and open manner with clear rules and procedures
- be financially honest, open and accountable
- have a significant number of members.

APGN Membership Panel

The APGN Simple Rules tabled on Friday morning contemplated between five and seven members for the Membership Panel. By the 6pm Saturday evening deadline, six candidates had applied. On Sunday morning, the Management Group recommended that since there were six nominees, that the number of seats be six and all be accepted.

There was a request from the floor by the Korean delegation that all seats be voted upon individually. The MMG then recommended that all six stand for election, with a 2/3 vote needed individually on all six.

There were three votes allotted to each country, rather than just one. This wasbecause many Asia Pacific countries do not have a formal Green Party and instead were represented in Kyoto by more than one Green movement group. Having three votes allowed each country to divide up their votes internally.

With 69 votes cast (3 per country, 23 countries), 46 was needed to be elected.The result was:

66 Ms. Miriam Solomon, Australian Greens
65 Ms. Moena Thibral Heiura, Les Verts, Polynesia
61 Mr. Olzod Bum-Yalagch, Mongolian Greens
59 Inwhan Jung, Korea Greens
54 Mr. Suresh Nautiyal, "Earth is a Family", India
47 Mr. Ali Shikh Liaquat, Pakistan Greens

Everyone was elected.

APGN Representation on the Global Greens Coordination

As one of four Green networks/federations on the globe, the APGN is entitled to three seats on the 12-member Global Green Coordination (GGC). Filling these seats provided the most interesting exercise in democracy for the young APGN.

During Friday's opening session, delegates approved a GGC selectionprocess where
- once nominations came in by the Saturday evening 6pm deadline, the Meeting Management Group would review them and make a recommendation to the delegatesat Sunday morning's vote.
- delegates were then free to accept or reject that recommendation, meaning there had to be a fall-back election process in place. Anticipating this, the Meeting Management Group set up an independent, neutral election sub-committee on Saturday afternoon, to design and conduct theprocess.

Selected were Rachel Siewert, Senator-elect of the Australian Senate and Mike Feinstein of the Green Party of California. The two worked with Kerrie Tucker of Meeting Management Group to ensure a smooth, open and transparent election process.

Ballot papers were prepared in advance using Australia's Optional Preferential Voting system. Voting cards listed the six nominees - Margaret Blakers, BenCyrus Ellorin, Solomone Fifita , Ali Liaguat, Vijay Pratap, Satoko Watanabe. Each country was given three votes to cast, just as with the Membership Panel vote.

The Meeting Management Group's recommendation was to approve Blakers and Watanabe together, first, then separately decide among the other four. As anticipated, delegates chose to vote directly on all six candidates instead, rather than accept the Meeting Management Group's recommendation.

Each nominee then spoke to the plenary session for one minute each. Following that, each country cast their vote, with three votes allotted to each country, rather than just one, just as with the Membership Panel election.

After the first preferences were counted, Blakers was elected. When the surplus support for Blakers was transferred Watanabe cleared the threshold and became representative number two. After eliminating candidates from the bottom of the ranking and transferring their support, Mr. Solomone Fifita (Samoa) was elected on the fifth round. He had also had the third most first-preferences on the first count.

As it turned out, delegates selected the very people the Management Committee recommended - Blakers and Watanabe -- but wanted to do it for themselves, even if the results were going to be the same. As a result of this process, Blakers continues in her role as a primary organizer on the Asia-Pacific and Global Green levels. Blakers has served as APGN rep since the Global Greens were created in 2001. Stepping down after one term each on the GGC were Olzod Bum-Yalagch of the Mongolia Green Party and Chen-Yan Kao, Green Party Taiwan.

Given Blakers and Watanabe's long standing organizing roles in the Asia Pacific region, it was not surprising they were chosen, Fifita was the newcomer. In his one minute speech, he said: "I am Solomone Fifita from Tonga. I am now working in Samoa. I have about 20 years of working experience in the environment and energy areas. During this time I have done various consultancy assignments for UN agencies, the European Union, Asian Development Banks and others. Also during this time, I have studied in the Phillippines and Thailand where I obtained my Master of Science. So I am quite familiar with Asia and working with Asians. I don't talk too much, I get things done on the ground." Fifita also participated strongly in the renewable energy workshp.

In addition to his personal strengths, Fifita benefited from a Pacific Island dynamic in this election. For many in attendance, a key concern was to have representation from the South Pacific, to balance diversity with the larger nations. Pacific Islanders often feel that because Pacific Islands are small, they are often forgotten when merged into regional Asia politics. Yet there are issues specific to their Pacific island environments need to be brought to the attention of the world. Therefore, Pacific Island delegates united around Fifita for the GGC, as well by successfully nominating Moena Thibral (Polynesia) to the APGN Membership Committee. As Fifita reflected afterwards, "this helped make the network really look like one for Asia and the Pacific Islands."

In sum, the election process served to mix experience and new blood, geographic, gender and ethnic diversity. It also reflected the basic, different levels of Green Party development in the region: an established national party (Australia); a country running some candidates, but struggling because of the political/electoral system to launch a national party (Japan); and a Green movement group.


Young Greens

One of the weekend`s most promising -- but unplanned developments -- was the founding of the Asia Pacific Young Greens Network, and its recognition by the APGN. This capped a week filled with young Green energy.

First the weekend before, there was a pre event called "Moegi-Kikaku", organized by young Greens and others of their generation, that brought together more than 70 students and young people to talk about how they can be involved with political activities in their daily life. Among the speakers was 32 year old Kazumi Inamura, a Green Councilor in Hyogo Prefecture. Then on Thursday evening's came the official pre-meeting party, a coffeehouse concert at the Café Independent, hosted by Moegi-Kikaku on Sanjyo-Gokomachi St. in Kyoto's Nakagyo-ku District.

Saturday morning featured the Young Greens Workshop, entitled "Shared Future: Challenges of Asia-Pacific Young Greens." Twenty-one year old Ms. Caroline Ayling (New South Wales, Australia) gave the opening presentation, focusing on turning energy into action. The key, she said was getting Young Greens out in the field, through events, concerts, film screening nights and open mike nights -- rather than just sitting in meetings with their elder peers. She also proposed that Young Greens choose a project - like working in an impoverished village in the Philippines - travel there, stay a while and make a difference.

Next came Impressive presentations by Young Korean Greens Ms. Won-Jung Byun and Mr. Chang-Lim Lee, utilizing Power Point to tell about their organizing activities, including demonstrating against the Iraq War and the sending of Korean troops. Young Korean Greens, they said, are building community through activism - reading, eating and meeting together, having discussions on politics and getting out in the streets.

Other Young Greens making presentations were Mr. Hemanta Luintel (Nepal), Mr. Rior Santos (Philippines) and Mr. Ali Shikh Liquat (Pakistan). Also heard was 32 year old observer Mr. Leonardo Alvarez, a former national Green legislator from the Partido Verde Ecologista de México, who told about the success of young Mexican Greens running for office, and how the Greens are increasingly perceived as a young person's party in his country.

The workshop was chaired by 26 year old Ai Nonoue a Green City Councilor in Takatsuki-city, Osaka. Representing the organization ‘Rainbow and Greens", Nonoue is one of three Greens in their 20s - all women - elected to city councils across Japan. Another sixteen Green Councilors are in their 30s, including five women.

Later in the day, with the leadership of several others as well - Kazumi Inamura and Sumiko Iwasaki (Japan), Dulgun (Mongolia), Rachael Ruegg (New Zealand), and Calvin Wen (Taiwan), the Young Greens voted to form a formal network, create an email list and seek recognition from the APGN on Sunday morning, which they received. "It is the organizers hope", said Iwasaki, "that since APYGN was founded, it will strengthen not only the international network between Asia Pacific Young Greens, but also the domestic network within the Young Greens in each country."

Resolutions

On Sunday morning, delegates also passed resolutions on climate change and renewable energy, peace and security, minority rights and participatory democracy, indigenous peoples' rights and culture, and on decreasing waste.

Delegates also suppored resolutions freeing kidnapped Colombian Greens' presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt and her colleague Clara Rojas, supporting a World Heritage Site for areas of New Caledonia, and saving Tasmania's old growth forests from destruction for paper mills in Japan.

They also passed two resolutions specifically related to Taiwan - to oppose the projects of the Eighth Oil Refinery Plant and the Formosa Steel Plant in Yunling County, Taiwan, and to dismantle chinese missiles aimed at Taiwan.


APGN in the Global Greens Context

Back in 1989, Green Parties were organized almost exclusively in Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and a few countries in the Americas (Brazil, Canada, Mexico, U.S.). Since then, Green Parties have spread across the globe, appearing today in almost 90 countries.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Green growth has been most prevalent over the last five to eight years, leading to the founding of the APGN in 2000 and its formalizing in 2005.

Of the four Global Green federation/networks around the globe, the APGN is the only one that explicitly provides full membership for both Green political parties and Green political movements that are not yet full political parties. This reflects the nature of the Green movement in the Asia-Pacific region, where the number of Green Parties is growing, but where there are also many countries in which there is not yet a formal Green political party. A similar situation exists in Africa, where several African Green groups are also not yet fully-fledged political parties either, but are recognized nevertheless, even though the by-laws do not call it out as such.

Today the Green Party is the largest political party on the globe, based upon the number of countries in which it exists. The Greens continue to grow across the globe, across cultural differences and despite legal and political challenges, suggesting there is a common response growing to the unsustainability of our lifestyle as a species.

Kyoto 2005 Organizing Committee

With much thanks, the Organizing Committee of Asia Pacific Greens Kyoto Meeting 2005 should go acknowledged:

Satoko Watanabe (Kagawa Prefectural MP) (Co-Spokesperson of the Rainbow and Greens Japan )
Kiyoshi Matsuya (Shizuoka Prefectural MP) (Co-Spokesperson of the Rainbow and Greens Japan )
Kosuke Shimizu (International Coordinator of the Rainbow and Greens Japan )
Shuji Imamoto (Policy Advisor of the Rainbow and Greens Japan )
Assisted by Margaret Blakers, Australian Greens and Eva Goes, Green Forum Foundation (Sweden).
Dozens of Japanese Greens also served as valued volunteers all weekend long.

Related Symposium: From Bonn to Kyoto towards China

As with many international Green Party gatherings, there is an associated Green educational event. This one was called International Symposium "Renewable Enery 2005: From Bonn to Kyoto towards China 2005."

Jointly organized by the Heinrich Boell Foundation (Germany) and Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (Japan), it was held earlier on opening day also at the Kyoto International Community House, with particular help from Boell Foundation members Heike Loschmann (Director, Thailand and South-East Asia Regional Office), Mrs. Barbara Unmuessig, (Executive Co-director) and Mr. Klaus Linsenmeier (Head of International Relations) and Jorg Haas (Desk officer for Ecology and Sustainable Development, Berlin office).

Among the speakers was Jürgen Maier, now of the Citizens United for Renewable Energy and Sustainability (CURES). Meier played a key role in early Green Party history, as he was International Secretary of the West German Greens between 1987 and 1991, a time which (in addition to their success domestically) Die Grünen played a leading role internationally among Green Parties.

Meier's participation - and the presence of the the entire Symposium - itself was a living example of the connection between the Green movement and the Green Party, between Green issues and Green politics. As was the entire weekend itself.