Singapore - government leaders met in Singapore last week to sign the historic Asean Charter _ making the 40-year-old association a rule-based legal entity with enhanced responsibility _ the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Burma continued to cast a long, dark shadow.
Unlike the crackdown in 1988, images and stories of the crackdown in Asean`s backyard spread rapidly, and daily, across the globe via the Internet. Apart from strong words of rebuke primarily from Singapore and the Philippines, Asean did nothing else.
The United Nations stepped in by sending special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to try to stem the heavy hand of the Burmese government and to urge talks on national reconciliation.
Worst still, at the last minute Burma was able to block an invitation by Singapore to have Mr Gambari brief the Asean leaders and dialogue partners on his visits to Burma.
An event that was to have been a cause for celebration and hope raises again question marks about the role of Asean, not only whether it could ever deal with the isolated, military junta in Burma, but also whether it could adjust fast enough to meet other political, economic and social challenges in the future.
Clearly how Asean deals with these challenges ultimately rests with its members. But for the next five years, a key figure expected to help manage the work and activities of Asean _ and to act as its spokesman _ is its new secretary-general, former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan.
Responding to criticism about how Asean responded to the crisis in Burma, Mr Surin believes Asean governments will have to evolve in different ways to reach ``standards of governance, transparency, participation and decision making``.
``I still don`t think we can directly impose these, but we need to evolve and that`s why the principles of democracy, constitutionality and human rights are mentioned in the charter. Those are major general principles to be abided by, but each member must have its own way to achieve those goals. In general I think we need to have more efficient governance across the entire region and a more transparent, participatory process of decision making,`` Mr Surin said.
Already the Philippines has made its stance and expectations clear.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo told Burma`s Thein Sein during a one-on-one meeting on Tuesday: ``The expectation of the Philippines is that if Myanmar signs the charter, it is committed to returning to the path of democracy and releasing Aung San Suu Kyi.
``Until the Philippine congress sees that happen, it would have extreme difficulty in ratifying the... charter,`` Ms Arroyo said in the meeting before the Asean summit.
Certainly Mr Surin, a former academic and politician with extensive grassroots and NGO contacts at regional levels, is likely to face pressure from these quarters to use his office to advance change toward greater transparency, democracy and human rights. And he recognises this, but notes that the pressure on member states is even greater.
``The pressure will be coming from outside, and pressure from inside from some members to nudge along the rest will be increased. That will play a very important role to push the region toward openness,`` he said.
``But again, to have a charter and to agree to establish a human rights agency is already a reflection of accommodation to the pressures from inside and outside.``
The secretary-general believes that if Asean can respond to external and internal expectations as a group and produce a charter as a form of regional commitment, then there`s room to work.
But ``slowly, incrementally, step by step. There will be dynamics of push and pull. You cannot impose; you can encourage. We started off with tremendous diversity and that diversity still exists``.
Mr Surin said that the international environment had changed. When he was foreign minister 10 years ago he pushed for Asean to adopt ``constructive engagement`` with Burma. Even then, he got only partial support within the group.
``Ten years ago what I tried to do was too ambitious, probably alien to the region. Now I think the region has come around and evolved and agree that we have to manage things together _ the issue of democracy, the environment, human rights, opening our markets to each other,`` he said.
``So I think the atmosphere has transformed. I don`t think you need to push too hard, or need to argue too much in order to deliver the message. I think it is accepted and recognised.``
What Asean needs to do, he said, is ensure that our diversity does not become a ``structural defect that will restrain the region from becoming one dynamic organisation``.
The Burma issue has certainly stolen the limelight from the three core pillars of the Asean charter _ the creation of economic, political-security and socio-cultural communities by 2015.
``These communities are designed to be the three pillars for the Asean community and each pillar will have its own agenda. It will have its own programmes and projects that all Asean countries are committed to engage in and cooperate to achieve a higher level of integration among ourselves,`` Mr Surin said.
He said there is no question Asean ``needs to get its house in order`` in various aspects, and described the charter`s goals as ``very ambitious``.
Yet at the same time, apart from the high expectations of Asean from the global community, there is readiness to support Asean to achieve these goals from its dialogue partners, international organisations, civil society and academics.
The economic blueprint aims to remove substantially all restrictions on trade in services within four industries, including air transport, health care and tourism, by 2010. Trade barriers in logistics services are expected to be removed by 2013, while all other services industries will be opened two years later.
The secretary-general said services is a crucial issue because it involves the mobility of people.
``To be fully integrated we have to open the employment market to each other. It is still restrictive,`` he said.
On trade, achievements to date have been ``pretty good``, but the issue of non-tariff barriers has been difficult to manage.
Apart from competition among member countries, pressure from China and India is forcing Asean to act.
``You have heard that China and India are sucking the oxygen of investment away from Asean,`` Mr Surin said. ``This is a very, very serious matter. So either Asean puts its house in order, making sure its 570 million people become one unified, attractive market, or it goes into the future as divided and disorganised. It will not make us attractive or give us any bargaining power compared to China and India.``
As far as the political-security pillar is concerned, Mr Surin believes the Asean Regional Forum is the proper vehicle for Asean security. The plan was to start with confidence building, learning about each other, exchanging information about each other`s defence development and weapons systems. Then the objective of preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution was raised and discussed.
Mr Surin says that to go from confidence building to preventive diplomacy means ``you need to have a very high level of confidence in each other so that you can cooperate to reduce the chance for violent conflicts between states``.
``Asean will have to work more on confidence building in order to lead it to a higher level of trust among Asean members. But we are working at it,`` he said.
For the secretary-general, the third pillar _ the socio-cultural community _ is not only the most exciting but a pillar that could make or break Asean.
In 40 years, the socio-cultural community ``has not been given much attention and resources``. But this is the area where you can create an Asean identity, a sense of belonging for all its people.
``I think it is most exciting because you bring Asean to the people. You bring Asean organisations to the grassroots. In the last 40 years Asean has achieved a lot in terms of policy coordination on many issues _ education, environment, scientific cooperation. technological development, health, transport and even market liberalisation,`` he said.
``But the people don`t feel concrete benefits from Asean, partly because Asean has not been beating its own drum and member governments have not put the brand of Asean on programmes agreed to at the Asean level.
``We have not seen much of the Asean fingerprint, the Asean logo. We have to do a lot more. And this is an area where the media is extremely crucial. This is an area where educational institutions will be extremely important, as well as NGOs, civil society and professional groups. The whole spectrum of Asean society will be given space and have to contribute,`` Mr Surin said.
``If this last pillar fails, the other two will also fail. But if this last pillar succeeds it will contribute to the development of the other two communities. So it is very, very critical. The next phase of Asean will depend on the establishment of the socio-cultural community. It will make or break Asean,`` he said.
``The nuts and bolts of the Asean community will still be economic because that`s what will deliver cheaper goods, better goods, more efficient transport of goods and products, mobility of people to work in each area. It`s the economic community that will be the nuts and bolts of integration, but it cannot be sustained if people do not feel they belong, if they do not feel ownership and if they cannot participate and benefit,``Mr Surin said.
Source: www.bangkokpost.com (26 November 2007)
