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Gwangju International Peace Forum |
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Written by Jiyoung LeeAn
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Wednesday, 30 May 2007 |
Gwangju International Peace Forum
/ East Asian Human Rights Forum 2007 Members of ARENA MAINS Curriculum Development Project, Dessa Quesada, Francis Loh, Mohiuddin Ahmad, Hilmar Farid, and Francis Lee, participated in the event (MAINS is an MA course in SKH University in Korea offered by ARENA and the hosting university).
Three forums were held simultaneously on May 16: “Impunity and Rule of Law,” “Migrant Workers Rights,” and “Network for Democracy Movements in Asia.” ARENA fellows joined the “Network for Democracy Movements in Asia” forum and gave presentations.
Mohiuddin Ahmad, Francis Loh , Francis Lee, Dessa Quesada, and Hilmar Farid  Moderator, Francis Lee The first speaker was Francis Loh who presented “Key Points of Democracy/Democratization in Asia.” He identified the following as an agenda for discursive struggles: constitutional democracy and beyond constitutional democracy (participatory democracy, socio-economic rights, culture of democracy, and regional networking) (Read his paper here: http://www.arenaonline.org/dmdocuments/first-FrancisLoh.doc ) The second presentation by Mohiuddin Ahmad, “Networking Paradigm: Some Key Issues,” rejected the notion that development could be ‘delivered’ from ‘above’ and focused on starting networks from people themselves (Read his paper here: http://www.arenaonline.org/dmdocuments/Second-Mohi.doc )  Second presenter, Mohiuddin Ahmad
The third presenter was Dessa Quesada who expressed her insights in “A Dialogue about Democracy, Regional Cooperation and Questions.” Before beginning her presentation, she asked forum participants to express “democracy” through their bodies as an ice-breaker.
  Participants are expressing “democracy” though their bodies.
In her presentation, Dessa staged a short play presenting her thoughts on democracy and regional cooperation with Francis Lee and Jessica Soto, a MAINS student (You can see her article: http://www.arenaonline.org/dmdocuments/third-dessa.doc ) The final speaker was Hilmar Farid who spoke about the crisis of reformist democracies in the face of neo-liberalism. In addition, he mentioned the limits of liberal participation in tackling the crisis of democracy while highlighting researchers’ roles in formulating new types of democratic inspiration and institutionalization. Photos courtesy of the May 18 Memorial Foundation |
