ASEAN's new member<\/p>\n
After days of rifts over Cambodia's admission to the
\nAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the grouping's
\nnine leaders eventually reached a compromise on Tuesday by
\nannouncing that the country was to become the association's 10th
\nmember.<\/p>\n
A statement by Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam at
\nthe end of the first day of the ASEAN summit in Hanoi on Tuesday
\nevening cleared up all controversy and clarified conflicting
\nremarks made earlier by ASEAN officials regarding Cambodia's
\nmembership.<\/p>\n
Cam said that all ASEAN leaders, in their speeches at the
\nopening of the summit, welcomed Cambodia's admission so that
\n\"right now Cambodia is a member of ASEAN\", although the admission
\nceremony will not take place for another two to four weeks. It
\ntoo will be in the Vietnamese capital.<\/p>\n
With Cambodia becoming a new member, despite the unceremonious
\nnature of its admission, ASEAN has thus achieved one of the
\nultimate goals envisaged by its founders 31 years ago; namely
\nthat all 10 countries in Southeast Asia should cooperate
\npeacefully and solidly in an organization to ensure regional
\nstability.<\/p>\n
In addition to host Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia ardently
\nsupported Cambodia's admission at the Hanoi summit which ended on
\nWednesday. Phnom Penh would have become a member along with Laos
\nand Myanmar last year had Hun Sen not engineered the violent
\nouster of his copremier, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, less than a
\nmonth before the admission was due to have happened.<\/p>\n
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas had pointed out that
\nthe main criterion for Cambodia's admission was the establishment
\nof a new credible coalition government in Phnom Penh. Cambodia
\nhas fulfilled this and Alatas said that anything beyond it could
\nbe construed as interference in another country's internal
\naffairs. ASEAN's guiding principle is nonintervention in member
\nstates' domestic affairs.<\/p>\n
Other member countries like the Philippines, Singapore, and
\nThailand called for a delay of Cambodia's membership on the
\ngrounds that Phnom Penh had yet to prove its political stability
\nand effective power sharing in the new coalition government,
\nincluding the setting up of a senate and revision of its
\nconstitution.<\/p>\n
This explains why Cambodian strongman and Prime Minister Hun
\nSen wasted no time in thanking Indonesia, which has helped and
\nactively followed Cambodia's political development since the
\nearly 1980s, when it was ravaged by a bloody civil war, when he
\nmet Indonesian President B.J. Habibie on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
ASEAN's decision to admit Cambodia is obviously a triumph for
\nHun Sen whose visit to Hanoi on a state visit and hard work to
\nlobby ASEAN leaders paid off.<\/p>\n
Hun Sen and his administration, however, still have a lot of
\nwork to do to fully meet all ASEAN's membership requirements,
\nsuch as introducing greater trade liberalization and tariff cuts
\nin the next few years while reducing its dependence on customs
\nduties as a source of income.<\/p>\n
For leaders of the regional grouping, the issue rightly
\ndismissed speculation that there was a growing split between
\nthem. The fact that they reached a consensus on Cambodia shows
\ntheir solidarity in facing crucial problems in the region. This
\nshould convince the international community that, despite their
\ndifferences on a variety of issues, they are still as united as a
\nsolid.<\/p>\n
In this context, it is high time for ASEAN to reconsider its
\nnonintervention policy and begin to adopt a new approach of
\nconstructive intervention. The new approach, proposed by some
\nmembers countries last year, would strengthen cooperation and
\nconfidence, especially during hard times when each member's
\nfrankness and transparency would be needed to the full to resolve
\npolitical and economic problems in Southeast Asia.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/aseans-new-member-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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