A battered ASEAN struggles for credibility<\/p>\n
By Dean Yates<\/p>\n
HANOI (Reuters): As Southeast Asian leaders fly into Hanoi on
\nMonday for an annual summit many leave behind shattered economies
\nand a growing tide of desperation as millions sink back into
\npoverty.<\/p>\n
With members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
\n(ASEAN) preoccupied with their own financial and social woes,
\nanalysts said the overriding impression was of an ASEAN adrift,
\nincapable of drawing up a decisive revival plan.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend ASEAN ministers promised so-called \"bold
\nmeasures\" would be implemented to remedy the immediate crisis but
\ndetails have been sketchy.<\/p>\n
Discord over when Cambodia should enter the group only
\nheightened perceptions ASEAN had lost cohesion, analysts said.<\/p>\n
Many thought the economic crisis -- which is expected to focus
\nhigh on the agenda during the Dec. 15-16 summit -- was ASEAN's
\nsternest test since its founding in 1967.<\/p>\n
Some also lashed ASEAN for not breaking from its core aim of
\ntrade reform to tackle issues such as the controversial admission
\nlast year of Myanmar and its military junta, which has strained
\nthe group's ties with the West.<\/p>\n
Christopher Lingle, author of The Rise and Decline of the
\nAsian Century and a Hong Kong-based independent corporate
\nconsultant, questioned the validity of the organization.<\/p>\n
\"It seems to me ASEAN has outlived its usefulness and there is
\nno longer a need for such a structure,\" he told Reuters.<\/p>\n
\"Free trade is so firmly embedded in the policies of most
\nASEAN nations, and this notion was really its only effective
\ncomponent. ASEAN is not capable of being supportive or critical
\nof political structures in partner countries so I see this as
\nmore confirmation ASEAN is a moribund institution.\"<\/p>\n
ASEAN unites almost 500 million people from Brunei, Indonesia,
\nLaos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
\nVietnam -- nations that may be neighbors but which range from
\ndemocracies to military dictatorships.<\/p>\n
Despite the differences, ASEAN has forged many links,
\nsomething reinforced in hundreds of meetings held each year.<\/p>\n
However, that image of cooperation has been bruised by public
\nbickering this year, most notably spats between Malaysia and its
\nneighbors Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Harold Crouch, of the Australian National University in
\nCanberra, said people had questioned the validity of ASEAN before
\nbut that this did not mean it had lost relevance.<\/p>\n
\"The ties between ASEAN countries have enabled the development
\nof infrastructure for settling disputes and this remains a
\nfunction of ASEAN even if it is failing to confront certain
\ncrisis. It doesn't mean the organization is useless.\"<\/p>\n
One Western diplomat with long experience in ASEAN said the
\ngrouping appeared to be losing coherence amid the crippling
\neconomic crisis but the basic need for its existence remained.<\/p>\n
Those who questioned the validity of ASEAN ignored the logic
\nthat the grouping was more relevant than ever, he said.<\/p>\n
\"In these circumstances, when you have such economic woes, it
\nis all the more reason to have ASEAN around,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Alison Broinowski, a visiting fellow at the Faculty of Asian
\nStudies at the Australian National University, said a
\ngenerational struggle for ASEAN's soul was being waged by the old
\nclique and new leaders such as Thai Foreign Minister Surin
\nPitsuwan.<\/p>\n
ASEAN had to reinvent itself by tackling political issues or
\nrisk seeing its credibility further eroded, she added.<\/p>\n
Indeed, debate has emerged in the past six months over the
\nhallowed principle of non-interference in the affairs of member
\nstates, with the youthful Surin backed by the Philippines
\nchampioning a flexible approach to sensitive ASEAN matters.<\/p>\n
Analysts agreed the non-interference issue -- which has not
\nsurfaced at pre-summit meetings in Hanoi -- had to be addressed
\nto dispel perceptions it provided a cloak for authoritarianism
\nand human rights abuses.<\/p>\n
Donald Crone, professor of Politics and International
\nRelations at Scripps College in California, said the focus now on
\nsensitive issues should be how much debate and about what.<\/p>\n
\"In my view economic, ecological and other such functional
\nissues are on the agenda; political reform is not. Overall, I
\nview the modest degree of fractiousness as a healthy sign of the
\ngrowing maturity of ASEAN,\" he told Reuters.<\/p>",
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