ASEAN set to steer more activist course<\/p>\n
By Bill Tarrant<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): A newly enlarged Association of
\nSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is preparing to steer a more
\nactivist course wielding economic and political clout, analysts
\nand officials said at the weekend.<\/p>\n
Winding up its 30th anniversary meeting last Friday, ASEAN
\ndecided to resume a mediation mission to help bring peace to
\ntroubled Cambodia and to take collective action to defend their
\ncurrencies from assault by money traders.<\/p>\n
Mahathir Mohamad, prime minister of ASEAN member Malaysia,
\nlaunched a stinging attack on currency speculators and said
\noutsiders should keep out of the region's business.<\/p>\n
A government-run newspaper in Sri Lanka hailed him as a
\n\"Godsend\" for the Third World and Asia in standing up to the
\nWest.<\/p>\n
Myanmar and Laos last week joined ASEAN, which also includes
\nIndonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
\nVietnam.<\/p>\n
Cambodia was supposed to have been admitted as well. But
\nCambodian strongman Hun Sen's overthrow of First Prime Minister
\nPrince Norodom Ranariddh earlier this month plunged the country
\ninto turmoil, putting its entry on hold.<\/p>\n
ASEAN, which has long been involved in diplomatic efforts to
\nsettle a two-decade civil war in Cambodia, said it would send a
\nmediation mission to Phnom Penh once it gets \"reconfirmation\"
\nthat Hun Sen would really welcome the group's help.<\/p>\n
And ASEAN's Western trade partners are urging the group to
\nmake good on its promise to prod new member Myanmar along the
\nroad to democracy.<\/p>\n
\"Myanmar's problems are now ASEAN's problems,\" U.S. Secretary
\nof State Madeleine Albright said in a recent speech in Los
\nAngeles.<\/p>\n
Getting involved in the internal matters of members would have
\nbeen unthinkable for ASEAN up until recently. A cornerstone
\npolicy of the group has been to avoid interference in each
\nother's affairs.<\/p>\n
But intellectuals and diplomats in the region say ASEAN is
\nevolving in that direction of more intervention.<\/p>\n
Deputy Malaysian Foreign Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said the
\ntime has come for ASEAN to consider \"the idea of constructive
\ninterventions\" and cited Myanmar as an example.<\/p>\n
ASEAN has now nearly doubled its membership since the original
\nfive came together in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War, when
\ninsurgencies, ethnic strife and ideological divisions were rife
\nin the region.<\/p>\n
All of the original five held deep suspicions about each other
\nin a Cold War environment in which both the United States and the
\nSoviet Union were trying to line up allies.<\/p>\n
The 10 countries of Southeast Asia -- including Cambodia,
\nwhich remains an observer in ASEAN -- have a combined population
\nof nearly half a billion people and the group's combined gross
\ndomestic product of $600 billion ranks behind only Japan and
\nChina in Asia.<\/p>\n
ASEAN is creating a free trade area over the next decade
\nencompassing a geographic area bigger than the United States and
\nmore populous than Europe.<\/p>\n
ASEAN's Secretary General Ajit Singh told reporters that the
\ngoal of cutting tariffs to between zero and five percent in
\ninter-ASEAN trade would largely be realized by 2000, three years
\nahead of schedule.<\/p>\n
The addition of new members and the rapid development of some
\nof the world's fastest growing economies is undoubtedly giving
\nASEAN new heft in the diplomatic arena.<\/p>\n
But whether the disparate group of governments wants to
\nintegrate in a more legally binding way, following the model of
\nthe European Union, is highly doubtful, analysts said.<\/p>\n
ASEAN members rarely sign legally binding agreements. They
\nnever vote but discuss an issue until a position is found
\nacceptable to all. Agreements are more likely to be worked out on
\na golf course than in a conference room.<\/p>\n
\"In most meetings, the strongest expression of minority
\nreservations is often 'I go along with the consensus',\" ASEAN's
\nnewly-elected Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino told a
\nconference of academics and diplomats.<\/p>\n
The enlargement of ASEAN to nine members would make consensus
\nbuilding more difficult, officials at the meetings said.<\/p>\n
The induction of poor and much less developed countries such
\nas Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, also has the potential of
\ncreating a two-tier membership of rich and poor nations within
\nthe group, they said.<\/p>\n
\"Some commentators have expressed the fear that ASEAN's
\nenlargement will widen the perceived division between mainland
\nand maritime Southeast Asia,\" Severino said.<\/p>\n
The freer flow of goods, services and capital throughout the
\nregion as the free trade area comes into being would have to be
\naccompanied by a similar free flow of labor, analysts said.<\/p>\n
That has proven to be a sensitive subject in a region where
\nborders were flashpoints for insurgencies 30 years ago. Even
\ntoday, Thailand has been a reluctant host to Myanmar and
\nCambodian refugees.<\/p>\n
\"The movement of labor has been managed much less forthrightly
\nand skillfully and rationally than that of goods, services and
\ncapital,\" Severino said.<\/p>\n
The growing scarcity of resources such as food, fuel and fish
\ncould create new problems in the future. Cross-border pollution,
\nnarcotics trafficking and sea piracy are other challenges
\nconfronting ASEAN in the future, diplomats and analysts said.<\/p>",
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