President Chen Shui-bian (
Amid hearty welcomes from the all-powerful ruler of this oil-rich Sultanate, the two-day informal leaders' summit began yesterday, but the timing was perhaps less than ideal as many leaders of the 21 member economies under APEC's umbrella are facing political instability and transition back at home.
US President Bill Clinton, for one, was perhaps the frankest among these political leaders about problems at home as he opened his speech yesterday at the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) summit, the private-sector arm of APEC, with the outcome of the US presidential election still hanging in the balance.
"As you know, this has been a rather interesting week in the US," Clinton said, squeezing out a rather embarrassing smile.
"And as a result, I did not arrive here until late last night. One of the things I think we have learned is that we should all be very careful about making predictions about the future," Clinton continued.
"But I know I can safely predict that this will be my last APEC summit," Clinton said, who inaugurated the APEC summit in Seattle in 1993.
"I just don't know who will be here next year," said Clinton, laughing and scratching his head.
Philippine President Joseph Estrada was perhaps less fortunate than many of his counterparts as the call for him to step down voluntarily reached international proportions when local media reported yesterday that an electronic petition campaign had been launched to urge protesters online to take their cause to APEC.
The eLagda.com electronic signature campaign urges online users to send an email to the APEC secretariat to "appeal their cause" to the international community.
"We should put internal and external pressures on Mr Estrada to resign," campaign proponent Romano was quoted as saying.
But mingling with his counterparts from the region, Estrada looked poised during the summit, unaffected by troubles at home.
But the Philippines and US are not alone. Peru President Alberto Kenyo Fujimori has agreed to step down because of a scandal surrounding his spy chief. The governments in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are facing crises to various degrees.
A Peruvian participant in the APEC meeting, who refused to be named, admitted that Fujimori faced an embarrassing situation at home.
"The general election is going to be held on April 8, in which he won't run," the source said, adding that the scandal had "in certain ways" led to his withdrawal from the upcoming election.
"The guy has been there for a long time, and he can't be 100 percent popular. Maybe he looked Asian, and people identified Asian people as being responsible and hard-working, so that was an advantage to him 10 years ago when he first ran," the source added.
But when asked if these domestic troubles would shadow the summit, participants remained tight-lipped.
"APEC is an economic forum to promote trade and so forth. What's going on in these individual countries in political terms is indeed their own business. APEC is not a political forum," the Peruvian source said.
Alexander P. Losyukov, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, said the summit would be left unaffected.
"I think these events happen all the time here and there, and they are not directly related to the situation in the region. I don't think it would be correct to link those things," Losyukov told the Taipei Times.
The leaders will deliver the annual declarations today centering on APEC's intention to ease barriers to trade and to share the benefits of the new economy among various members before heading for home. But whether these statements will have an impact or remain unnoticed by a majority of the public in the region is another story.
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