Local Government and Civil Society

(August 3 - 10, 2003)
by Hon. David C. Suarez

A seminar dubbed “Local Government and Civil Society” was held last August three to seven of 2003. It was organized by the International Academy for Leadership, sponsored by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and held at the Theodore Heuss Center at Gummersbach, Germany. The seminar’s aim was to encourage shared identity among its participants in order to gain information on the development of liberalism in different areas of the world and to further the growth of liberalism in these nations.

The seminar was attended by 24 delegates who are all liberals representing their nation. It was apparent that the nations present were mostly developing countries: a number of third world nations and others, newly democratized states. Former communist states like Kosovo, Russia, Serbia and Azerbaijan participated in the seminar. A group from the Americas was also present – these were liberals from Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, Argentina and Costa Rica. Asia was well represented by delegates from Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. Two nations from Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe – joined as well. Finally, Israel, Palestine, Pakistan, India and Nepal completed the delegates of the seminar.

The delegates actively participated in the seminar. Each shared his/her own personal experiences, ideas and opinions on various issues. While the discussion was moderated by the organizers, topics were presented for discussion: decentralization, privatization, civic society, and safe-guarding democracy, to name a few. The common theme among the topics was espousing liberal ideals and principles like open market, rule of law and individual freedom.

The day began with a lecture in the morning and ended with a brief discussion before lunch. The participants were later broken down into groups and given questions related to the morning lecture. They were asked to input their experiences in their own countries; once the task was completed, all groups were obliged to report the results to the entire body. This became a venue for the participants to learn and be informed about how other nations govern themselves and to apply the knowledge they gained to their respective countries.

The exchange of ideas and information from all the participants clearly shows that wherever and whoever you are – whether you are from the Americas, Asia the Middle East, Africa, former communist states – problems among these nations are essentially the same. Through our discussion, we learned that corruption, mass poverty and lack of education rank as the top three problems that plague our countries. Corruption in various forms and different levels of government has led to the hindrance of government’s ability to deliver basic social services to its people. At the same time, it has become a bane to societies struggling to develop, compete and compare with other countries.

Mass poverty and malnutrition create an unproductive and inefficient citizenry. Instead of governments focusing their efforts on creating jobs and businesses for the people, they utilize much of their resources feeding and building infrastructure for the poor. This, in effect, becomes a major economic set back for these countries. Other than that, people clamoring for change, taking to the streets and voicing their disgust and despair may often cause social violence and loss of confidence and morals.

Lack of education, based on our discussion, is the most common problem of each and every country present in the seminar. An uneducated person lacks the knowledge and skills to be beneficial to a community, a society or a country’s growth and development. Based on man’s nature, one must further develop one’s skills. One’s potential for development should be encouraged. All these can only be done through education. Education is a basic need for man. The lack of it goes against nature and against his reason to survive.

The ideas and principles of liberalism give us a starting point to solve all of these social ills. Liberalism provides us with a way of eradicating the problems of nations. Personally, I choose to be a liberal because I believe in two of its fundamental thrusts: the development of the individual and true freedom. Countries do not develop and grow. Individuals make up a society that collectively grows and develops. Yet an individual’s freedom must be respected and honored to attain his or her development, guided by the rule of law.