ASEAN foreign ministers achieve much, but resolve little<\/p>\n
Meidyatama Soeryodiningrat, The Jakarta Post, Vientiane<\/p>\n
Southeast Asian foreign ministers completed a day of endless
\nmeetings in Vientiane on Saturday, seemingly content in the
\nknowledge that they had achieved much while resolving little.<\/p>\n
The agenda moved swiftly -- as swiftly as the ushers who
\nmanually changed the giant backdrop of the meetings' different
\ndesignations in the main hall of the ICTC venue. Five meetings in
\nall; seven-and-a-half hours of \"oblique speak\" involving the 10
\nASEAN foreign ministers, and, at different junctures, their
\ncounterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and India.<\/p>\n
The talks, a prelude to Monday's two-day annual Association of
\nSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, cruised through the
\nmandatory agenda of discussing already agreed upon documents --
\nunder the glitzy titles of \"action plans\" and \"action programs\".<\/p>\n
These documents will comprise the piece de resistance of the
\nsummit, action plans for the security community and social-
\ncultural communities: the Vientiane Action Program. With the
\nalready-adopted action plan for the economic community, it will
\nestablish targets for creating an ASEAN Community by 2020.<\/p>\n
In official lingo, this means a closely \"intertwined and
\nmutually reinforcing community\" between Brunei, Cambodia,
\nIndonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
\nThailand and Vietnam, aimed at shared peace and prosperity.<\/p>\n
Once a taboo subject within the ASEAN straitjacket of
\n\"nonintervention\", member states have begun to qualify the
\ndiscussion of certain domestic issues that impact on regional
\nsecurity. Issues such as the 1999 East Timor crisis, the 1997
\npolitical crisis in Cambodia, and the suppression of political
\nrights in Myanmar, have challenged ASEAN's usually detached
\nposition on domestic issues.<\/p>\n
It was newly democratic Indonesia that thrust such an agenda
\non the table. Yet, it is Thailand, one of the initial proponents
\nof a review of the once-sacrosanct nonintervention principle,
\nthat is now on the defensive against anyone daring to raise the
\nissue of the recent deaths in Southern Thailand during this
\nsummit.<\/p>\n
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra threatened to walk out
\nof the meetings if the issue was raised within ASEAN. Thai
\nforeign ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow, tactfully
\nmaintained here on Saturday that Thailand was not opposed to
\nexplaining the issue -- but stressed that \"it is not a regional
\nissue, but a domestic one\".<\/p>\n
Another sensitive issue was the dissension to adopt what
\namounts to another headline-grabbing ASEAN initiative.<\/p>\n
On the heels of the two-day summit, ASEAN leaders will also
\nhold the catchy-phrased ASEAN Plus Three Summit, which
\nincorporates leaders from China, Japan and South Korea.<\/p>\n
China and Malaysia seem the most eager to see the meeting
\nevolve into an East Asia Summit. If approved, it would begin next
\nyear in Kuala Lumpur -- which, coincidentally, is also vying to
\nhost the secretariat of this new initiative.<\/p>\n
Most ASEAN countries agree that the Plus Three process should
\nevolve toward a larger East Asia Community. But a few members,
\nnamely Indonesia, have been reluctant to hasten the process while
\nASEAN itself is only now beginning to engage in its own
\ncommunity-building program.<\/p>\n
Indonesia warns that ASEAN could lose its role as the driving
\nforce behind this initiative. Short of an outright rejection, the
\nforeign ministry's director for ASEAN affairs, Marty Natalegawa,
\nsaid Indonesia was \"thinking aloud\" on the need to carefully
\nstudy this proposal. He stressed the need to engage in a
\ncomprehensive process, and not just simple add-ons.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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