Future of ASEAN<\/p>\n
Call it by chance or by design, the flurry of ASEAN meetings
\nstarting on Tuesday will coincide with the final week of the one-
\nmonth long presidential campaign. For incumbent President
\nMegawati Soekarnoputri who is running for re-election, it will be
\nher last chance to steal the limelight from the international
\ncommunity prior to the July 5 presidential election. The event
\nwill undoubtedly benefit her enormously as her four other rivals
\nare left on the sidelines to do their last leg of local
\ncampaigning. Foreign affairs, by definition, is an extension of
\ndomestic events.<\/p>\n
For ordinary Jakartans, the event will only add to the
\nseverity of their city's already chaotic traffic congestion,
\nespecially around the Jakarta Convention Center near the Senayan
\nclover bridge and the Gedung Pancasila in the Foreign Ministry
\ncompound, as local and foreign dignitaries are transported to and
\nfrom the two venues.<\/p>\n
Lest we forget, many of these ASEAN leaders and other high-
\nranking dignitaries were the ones who helped boost Indonesia's
\nimage abroad when they bravely decided to attend the ASEAN summit
\nin Bali two years ago, shortly after the Bali blasts that killed
\n202 people. A friend in need is a friend indeed, as the saying
\ngoes. Our visiting ASEAN guests are nothing less than our true
\nfriends.<\/p>\n
As the chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
\nNations, Indonesia will again be hosting the 37th ASEAN
\nMinisterial Meeting (AMM) from June 29 to 30, followed by a
\nmeeting between ASEAN foreign ministers with the foreign
\nministers of China, Japan and South Korea on July 1. On the same
\nday, counterparts from other countries will meet in the context
\nof Post Ministerial Conferences, which date back to the mid-
\n1970s. On July 2, Indonesia will host the 11th meeting of the
\nASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) attended by representatives from 23
\ncountries in the Asia Pacific region.<\/p>\n
The AMM's theme \"Striving for Full Integration of ASEAN: A
\nProsperous, Caring and Peaceful Community\" is a fitting one to
\nmark the organization's bold aim of creating an ASEAN community
\nby 2020. The AMM will also serve as a spring board to approve the
\nplans of action for the ASEAN Security Community and the ASEAN
\nSocio-Cultural Community, which it is hoped will be endorsed in
\nthe next ASEAN summit in November 2004 in Vientiane.<\/p>\n
Numerous issues will be highlighted in the meetings. Security
\nin the ASEAN region is one of them. The regional grouping is
\ngrappling with the setting up of a security community, an
\nIndonesian idea that had lukewarm support from other ASEAN member
\ncountries last year. There are several questions that need to be
\nanswered. How will member countries address the Straits of
\nMalacca safe-navigation issue following Malaysia and Indonesia's
\nrejection of Singapore's proposal for the U.S. Marines to patrol
\nthe area? A total of 50,000 ships sail through the narrow channel
\nevery year carrying important commodities including oil. How
\nshall the region jointly address the issue of terrorism?<\/p>\n
Although the issue of foreign troops looms large in these
\nquestions, foreign interference is something ASEAN can prevent
\nfrom occurring. If ASEAN member countries are mature enough to
\nstick together, this issue is a timely way to nurture this
\ncloseness in upcoming meetings. It follows that individual ASEAN
\nmembers should abandon the past practice of going their own ways
\nto overcome difficult problems. Singapore, for example, is known
\nto have forged bilateral free trade arrangements with other
\nindustrialized countries.<\/p>\n
Back to foreign troops, those who oppose them should make sure
\nthey can guarantee the security of the Straits of Malacca. This
\nis easier said than done, considering the different levels of
\ndevelopment of each of the 10 member countries, encompassing the
\nthird to the first world. Indonesia, for example, has yet to
\nsecure its part of the straits from rampant piracy. And what of
\nthe insurgency in Aceh? Or the yearly haze hazard from
\nIndonesia's forest fires that dogs its nearest neighbors:
\nSingapore and Malaysia?<\/p>\n
It is clear there is a lot of homework to be done by Indonesia
\nand each of the member countries as there are so many issues to
\ndiscuss. We have yet to mention the democracy issue in Myanmar,
\nthe nuclear crisis in the Korean peninsula or the planned
\nhandover of authority in Iraq, which is certainly likely to pop
\nup in the meetings. And the security issue is only one of the
\nthree pillars needed to build an ASEAN community by 2020. The
\nother two are creating ASEAN as an economic and as a cultural
\ncommunity, each of which is a mammoth task by itself. It is also
\nrelevant to underline the farsighted vision of former Malaysian
\nprime minister Mahathir Mohamad, which was repeated on Monday by
\nPrime Minister Abdullah Ahmad about the formation of the East
\nAsian Community. This is a good topic to explore in the upcoming
\nmeetings.<\/p>\n
ASEAN should get rid of its \"NATO\" (no action, talk only)
\nimage as there has been a lot of achievement in the past. Yet, it
\nshould also prove it is still relevant in this vast and ever-
\nchanging world.<\/p>\n
ASEAN's future challenges will be enormous but the opportunity
\nto prove once again Indonesia can maintain its traditionally
\nstrong leadership in the grouping lies wide open. It is a chance
\ntoo good to miss.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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