Asia Times: ASEAN's makeover



	July 24, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

ASEAN's makeover
By Isagani de Castro

SINGAPORE - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has begun a period of rebuilding and self-assessment following its expansion in recent years and signs of some recovery from Asia's financial crisis.

Emboldened by a belief that it has weathered the worst of the region's financial and economic storm, ASEAN leaders on Friday took turns calling on the 32-year-old group to reassert itself amid criticism that it had become irrelevant.

While ASEAN has survived recent trials, "we cannot pretend that all is well or that there were no disagreements or new challenges," Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said in opening the meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Singapore. "The first step in dealing with any problem is to recognize that it exists," he added. He expressed the hope that the group would "begin a process of honest reappraisal" in Singapore.

A review of its direction is what tops the agenda of ASEAN ministers at a "retreat" they are holding Friday at the Sentosa Island resort. "In order to keep up with the changing environment, ASEAN will need to rethink and reinvent," said Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan in his speech Friday.

"ASEAN will not fail. It cannot be allowed to fail," Goh said, amid criticism that the region's main diplomatic grouping had not done much to address problems ranging from Asia's economic crisis to common woes like the haze that covers parts of the region.

In politics, ASEAN came under fire for trumpeting its expansion to include countries like Burma and Cambodia, but failing to narrow the gap between those nations and its better-off members. Burma is often seen as a weak spot, for various reasons. There remains no clear change there two years after ASEAN admitted Rangoon. ASEAN included Burma pursuant to the logic that constructive engagement would help forge a political settlement between the junta and the opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Though ASEAN has thus far reprimanded itself rather gently, activists in Asia are more blunt. "Instead of trying to impress potential investors with light and sound, ASEAN must first address the festering human problems in the region, including Burma," argued Debbie Stothard, coordinator of the Thailand-based Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (Altsean). "Selectively using 'non-interference' as a convenient excuse for inaction is unacceptable," she added.

Singapore, the current chair of ASEAN, has stressed the need for the entity to undergo a period of rebuilding now that all 10 countries in Southeast Asia are part of a single community.

"We acknowledge that the crisis has affected ASEAN's reputation. An expanded ASEAN will present new and uncharted problems," said a draft of the joint communique to be issued Saturday. "We are strengthening our foundations and setting the stage for the emergence of a stronger ASEAN."

ASEAN's diminished clout in recent years has led to calls, made by Thailand and the Philippines, for greater frankness within the group that studiously avoids criticizing its own members. Likewise, critics began questioning whether ASEAN should adopt more binding rules to try to achieve faster results, instead of just going by its traditional consensual style.

Malaysia, however, continues to have reservations about this. In his remarks, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said ASEAN should be cautious in "discarding its modus operandi" of consensus and consultation. "We should not accept [ways] which are alien to our national psyche and hurtful to our national objectives," he said.

Still, an ASEAN diplomat said, "the time has come for ASEAN to adopt more legally-binding agreements since many ASEAN decisions are just memoranda of understanding." In the past, there was an initiative to have a treaty on economic cooperation, but this was never finalized. Even the ASEAN Free Trade Area, when it was approved in 1993, was "less than a legally-binding instrument," he said.

Outside the discussion halls, however, activists say ASEAN's preoccupation should be more with issues like human rights - long a subject Southeast Asian governments are wary of discussing for fear of offending each other and drawing attention to their own rights controversies.

"Fear and intimidation are not at all consistent with the accountability and transparency rhetoric used by ASEAN leaders," said Singapore oppositionist Chee Soon Juan.

On Thursday, ASEAN senior officials met with human rights experts from different countries in the region, called the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism. The rights experts want the group to have a declaration on human rights for the region, but progress has been slow despite several meetings within ASEAN circles. They also want a mechanism on human rights in the region, plus a rights unit within ASEAN.

Carlos Medina, secretary general of the working group, said: "Without a declaration on human rights, there is no legal basis for a regional mechanism on human rights."

A Filipino official at the meeting said ASEAN wants to move at "a pace comfortable to the slowest members." It remains to be seen whether that speed will be adequate for Asia's needs.

(Inter Press Service)

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