Singapore - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) which was created during the Cold War era has one most important achievement since its inception 40 years ago -- keeping the region at peace.
Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo said Asean, which some had dismissed as being a mere talk shop, had managed to foster peace in the region in the last four decades, thus enabling it to concentrate its energies on economic development.
"Peace should never be taken for granted. We have only to look at other regions in the world to know how rare and precious it is," he said at an Asean Day reception here to celebrate Asean's 41st anniversary tomorrow.
Yeo said Asean had built a framework within which its members were able to work more closely together and resolve disputes.
He said its members had many problems but without Asean these problems "will have a sharper edge and be more difficult to overcome".
He added that just recently the Asean foreign ministers helped to ease tensions at the Cambodia-Thailand border even though the risk of a flare-up remained high.
The minister said many crises, such as the financial crisis, the tsunami and cyclone disasters that its members experienced were overcome by Asean and in fact, had made the associationstronger.
Yeo agreed that Asean had a lot of meetings, more than 600 a year, but he said these meetings were important because they facilitated cooperation in the region.
He said they not only created a growing common economic space but also promoted great trust and understanding among leaders, ministers, parliamentarians, officials, businessmen, academics, artists and many others including students.
The minister said that for the Asean community to be built, the people in the region must increasingly internalise a sense of Asean citizenship. "ASEAN has to be build both top down and bottom up'" Yeo said, adding that it was important that more people knew that Asean was there working on their behalf.
He said Asean must pay particular attention to the young as it was important that each succeeding generation felt more for Asean than the preceding generation.
In conjunction with the celebration, Yeo launched a collection of drawings by children from all the Asean countries, entitled "What Makes Me Happy" which was initiated by Singaporean artist Peter Zhuo.
Present at the reception were diplomats from Asean countries, including Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore Datuk N. Parameswaran. By Zakaria Abdul Wahab
Source: www.bernama.com.my (August 07, 2008)
