Democratic development is not only an arduous and long-term process, it’s also fragile and reversible. Still, the opening plenary of the World Movement for Democracy’s 6th Assembly heard, recent history shows that civil society movements can make the transition from opposition to governance, overcoming apparently insurmountable odds and inevitable setbacks, from authoritarian crackdowns to shattering natural disasters.

France’s foreign minister addressed the meeting by videolink, but even Bernard Kouchner, one of the world’s most charismatic politicians, couldn’t compete with the impact of jailed human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis addressing the assembly from his prison in Kazakhstan and prompting an standing ovation of solidarity from the 600 delegates.

Recent events in Kyrgyzstan confirm that democracy is about more than removing autocratic rulers, former Canadian premier Kim Campbell told this week’s international gathering of democracy advocates.

“You do the difficult work which democracy demands,” she told the Jakarta conference, building the rule of law and institutions essential to consolidating democracy.

A case in point is Indonesia, now the world’s third-largest democracy, but Bambang Harymurti, Editor-in-Chief of the Tempo weekly news magazine, is not complacent. “My country twice went astray,” as democracy gave way to authoritarian rule, the prominent journalist and human rights activist told delegates.

A strange blend of sadness and celebration marked the start of the World Movement for Democracy’s 6th Assembly in Jakarta today – poignancy over the tragic plane crash in Poland which robbed the democracy movement of several major figures sat uneasily with the vibrancy of such a diverse, cross-cultural gathering of 600 participants from over 100 nations.

The plane cashed as the delegation was en route to Russia to commemorate the massacre of 22,000 Polish prisoners at Katyn in April 1940 by Stalin’s secret police in the nearby Katyn forest.

Many of the victims were from the Solidarnosc generation that brought democracy to Poland, noted democracy activist Alicja Derkowska, a member of the World Movement’s steering committee.

President Lech Kaczynski was a veteran of the anti-communist opposition in the 1970s, and a prominent activist in the Solidarity trade union in 1980, acting as a leading negotiator in the round table talks that ushered in the end of communist rule in 1989. The dead also included Anna Walentynowicz, whose dismissal from the Lenin Shipyard in August 1980 was the catalyst for the strike in Gdansk that led to the formation of Poland’s anti-communist Solidarity movement.

World Movement delegates also mourned the loss of key activists from the international democracy movement, including Janusz Kurtyka, head of the Institute for National Remembrance (IPN) and Under Secretary of State Mariusz Handzlik, one of the first participants of an internship funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (through the National Forum Foundation) following the 1989 revolution.

Polish education minister Krzysztof Stanowski, a former head of the Education for Democracy Foundation, told the Jakarta delegates that the crash also claimed 90-year-old Ryszard Kaczorowski, a former president-in-exile, who provided a lifeline to the exiled government from the days of Nazi and Soviet occupation.  

Building solidarity is an important part of the World Movement’s work. Our objective is to facilitate international solidarity among Assembly participants. Also, the Assembly provides an opportunity to make new connections to build possible collaboration.

Please share highlights from the workshops you attended.

• Post any statements or letters to build international solidarity for your initiatives.
• Share your experiences at building solidarity at the Assembly.
• Share your tools for solidarity building.

The Rt. Honorable Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada and Chair of the World Movement’s Steering Committee opens the Assembly on 11 April. Other speakers include Bambang Harymurti of Tempo International Media and also a World Movement Steering Committee member,  and Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia. Following a theme of the contribution of youth to the democracy movement, youth activists Esraa Rashid of Egypt, Tapera Kapuya of Zimbabwe, and Hans Tippenhauer of Haiti speak about the incredible dedication and strength that youth have shown in their struggle to bring democracy to their respective countries.