ASEAN partners encourage regional self-reliance<\/p>\n
MANILA (AP): Apprehensive over desperate poverty and social
\nunrest from the year-long financial crisis, Southeast Asian
\ncountries found at the end of talks yesterday with the United
\nStates, Europe and other rich nations that the limit on bailouts
\nmay have been reached.<\/p>\n
Japan and Western powers pressed for more self-reliance in
\nmaking not only financial, but political reform in meetings this
\npast week with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.<\/p>\n
Formed in 1967 to prevent the spread of war in the region,
\nASEAN made a start toward dealing with a new kind of danger by
\nadopting Thailand's proposal for a forum on how to help people
\nsuffering from the economic crisis.<\/p>\n
\"From now on the threat to security in the region will
\nprobably come in another form,\" Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan
\nof Thailand told a news conference. \"Millions of our people will
\nprobably slide back into poverty. Millions will lose their jobs.\"<\/p>\n
Desperation \"could lead to violent rebellion and insecurity in
\nthe entire region,\" he said. But the proposal seemed to imply
\nthat donor countries would be counted on to fund the social
\nsafety nets.<\/p>\n
Conference chairman Domingo Siazon, the Philippine foreign
\naffairs secretary, said the United States should increase its
\nshare of funding for the International Monetary Fund. The IMF's
\nreserves have been depleted by bailouts of several Asian nations
\nin the past year. The Clinton administration's request for $18
\nbillion for the IMF has been languishing in Congress for months.<\/p>\n
But the financial crisis \"is not going to be resolved by aid
\nalone,\" U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said
\nyesterday. The European Union, Japan and other donors such as
\nAustralia, New Zealand and Canada were also reticent in
\nresponding to ASEAN's request for more aid, seed money and
\ninvestment in educational and social development programs.<\/p>\n
The dialog ended with foreign ministers from outside Southeast
\nAsia focusing on the right of free travel and free association
\nfor Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi; and warning all
\npolitical parties in Cambodia to abide by the results of recent
\nelections or face a continued cutoff of development assistance.<\/p>\n
Whether any common ground was reached is debatable.<\/p>\n
As the ASEAN conference ended, Myanmar's Foreign Minister Ohn
\nGyaw sat at a press conference with his Western colleagues and
\nsaid simply that their request for U.S. and Japanese envoys to
\nmeet Suu Kyi was unnecessary and had been denied.<\/p>\n
In Cambodia, the supporters of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who
\nrefused to accept the results of 1993 elections and staged a coup
\nlast year against his rival, declared victory before the ballots
\nof the latest election had been counted.<\/p>\n
Although some ASEAN countries say they are disappointed in
\nMyanmar's slowness to arrest drug traffickers, negotiate with the
\nopposition and open the economy during its first year of
\nmembership in the group, none of the Southeast Asians joined the
\nUnited States and other powers in the public demands for prompt
\nhuman rights actions.<\/p>\n
\"We would not do it in the way the West would prefer to,\" with
\nsanctions and isolation, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas
\ntold reporters. \"We would do it in the Southeast Asian way. We
\nwill talk with one another very frankly, but we will talk with
\nMyanmar very quietly.\"<\/p>\n
In a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Manila
\nyesterday, Albright had criticized a long-held tenet of autocrats
\nin Asia: that citizens must have rice in their stomachs before
\nthey can be given political freedoms.<\/p>\n
\"Democracies are better able to adjust than regimes which are
\nautocratic,\" she said.<\/p>\n
But ASEAN's new chairman, Singapore Foreign Minister Shanmugam
\nJayakumar would be the first to disagree. His party has retained
\nauthoritarian power for 33 years in one of the most prosperous
\nstates in Asia.<\/p>\n
Related stories on Page 4,5,12<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/asean-partners-encourage-regional-self-reliance-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }