H.E. Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, Former Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Former Chairman of Golkar Party, and Chairman of the Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International,
H.E. José de Venecia, Former President of the National Assembly of the Philippines, President and Chief Executive of Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International and Founder of ICAPP,
H.E. Thaksin Shinawatra, Former Prime Minister of Kingdom of Thailand,
H.E Mashahid Hussain Sayed, Secretary General of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q and the Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Today, it is my great pleasure and privilege to deliver remarks at the conferment of decorations on our great friends who come from all parts of Asia. This morning, Excellencies, Ladies, and Gentlemen have indeed learnt a lot from our wise and experienced speakers who have devoted many years of their career in politics, public services, national conciliation, peace, political stability, development and prosperity in the region.
What stand out is that the speakers not only serve the needs of their particular country, but also have long vision and strong commitment to building a society with peace, development, harmony and prosperity which is based on the principle of understanding, indiscrimination and acceptance and respect of pluralities of culture, custom, tradition, religion and philosophy of each nation and individual. Indeed, this relation, friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance aim at building an “Asian community” that relies on a comprehensive economic development, reflecting our desire to make a glorious “Asia century”.
To respond to the speakers’ strong commitment to this long vision and contribution to our pursuit of this dream, the Board of Directors of the Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International and the Royal Government of Cambodian have decided confer decorations as a thanksgiving.
During the tenure of our distinguished speakers, we observed a lot of change in their particular country, in Asia and the world. The world nowadays is unbelievably different from the world of few decades ago. Moreover, it is still hard to believe we are now moving toward “Asia Century”.
Indeed, the speakers’ career path differs from each other, ranging from law and business, to political party, armed force and media. Sometime your political current had strong influence and gained strong support from the public in your country. Sometime the support base weakened or was cracked down by armed forces. However, you earned respect both from inside the country and international arena during the last stage of your political career.
Based on the bravery and achievements of our speakers so far, the Board of directors of Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International would like to confer the decorations as our respect and admiration to the followings:
H.E. Thaksin Shinawatra, Former Prime Minister of Kingdom of Thailand,
H.E. Thongloun Sisoulith, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of People’s Democratic Republic of Loa, Head of Foreign relation Committee of Lao People’s Revolutionary Party,
H.E Noppadon Pattama, former Foreign Minister of Kingdom of Thailand,
H.E. Reynato Puno, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
In this great opportunity with the presence of Excellencies in this country to attend today’s conference which is organized by the Central Asia Pacific Democrats International and Royal Academy of Cambodia, on behalf of the government and people of Cambodia, I would like to convey my respect to all friends who have made splendid contribution to Cambodia’s effort to achieve national reconciliation, peace and development, and recognition in international arena, therefore please allow us to confer decorations on:
H. E. Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, former Vice President of Indonesia, former Chairman of the Golkar Party and the Chairman of CAPDI
H.E José de Venecia, former Head of House of Representatives of the Philippines, President and Chief Executive of the Central Asia Pacific Democrats International and founding chairman of ICAPP
H. E. Mashahid Hussain Sayed, Secretary General of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q and Secretary General of the Central Asia Pacific Democrats International
H.E. Dato Seri Shahidan Bin Kassim
H.E. Yasril Ananta Baharuddin
H.E. Iskandar Mandji
I wish your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen happiness, healthiness and success. I hope your stay in this Angkor kingdom will be a pleasant, relaxed and memorable experience.