KL presses for action on East Asian Community<\/p>\n
M.Jegathesan, Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi made a strong
\npush on Monday for early action on launching an East Asian
\nCommunity to face up to the threats and opportunities of an
\nexpanded Europe and the free trade area of the Americas.<\/p>\n
Abdullah told the second East Asia Congress here the time had
\nnow come for the realization of an idea first proposed by his
\npredecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, more than 13 years ago. The idea
\nwas dropped amid strong opposition from the United States.<\/p>\n
\"We in the region have dallied long enough. It is now time to
\ntake the process of building our East Asian Community to new
\nheights and in new directions,\" he said in an opening address to
\nsome 800 government officials, businessmen and academics from
\naround the region.<\/p>\n
Abdullah warned that it would take \"at least two generations
\nfor East Asia to reach the European benchmark ... (so) the sooner
\nwe start in all earnestness the better\".<\/p>\n
East Asia -- basically the 10 countries of the Association of
\nSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Japan, China and South Korea
\n-- could \"work together to ensure that an expanded Europe and the
\nfree trade area of the Americas will not be a threat but an
\nopportunity for us,\" he said.<\/p>\n
At the same time, \"we must ensure the strongest productive
\nrelations with key countries outside East Asia such as the United
\nStates, Saudi Arabia, India, the United Kingdom, France, Germany
\nand Australia\".<\/p>\n
The United States is the biggest foreign investor in ASEAN,
\nwhich comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
\nMyanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
Southeast Asia is also America's third largest export market
\nworth about US$50 billion, more than twice the value of its
\nexports to China.<\/p>\n
China and ASEAN have already reached a basic consensus that
\nwould create the world's biggest trade zone, grouping 1.7 billion
\nconsumers with a combined gross domestic product of $2 trillion.<\/p>\n
ASEAN hopes to have its own free trade area beginning 2010 and
\na European-style single market 10 years later.<\/p>\n
Abdullah said the idea of an East Asian Community had passed
\nthrough the three stages identified by German philosopher
\nSchopenhauer for all great ideas in history -- first it was
\nridiculed, second it was violently opposed and now it was
\naccepted as self-evident.<\/p>\n
ASEAN had already \"been able to work as one of the most
\nsuccessful regional conflict reduction, peacemaking and
\nfriendship-building machines in the history of the modern world,\"
\nsecond only to the European Union, he said.<\/p>\n
Abdullah listed six \"cardinal imperatives\" for a broader East
\nAsian Community. It should be: \"Egalitarian and democratic;
\nomnidirectional and embracing, turning its back on no one; caring
\nand mutually beneficial; committed to global empowerment; devoted
\nto economic prosperity; obsessive about regional peace and
\nfriendship.\"<\/p>\n
Noting that the proposed members of the community already hold
\nan annual summit as ASEAN+3, he suggested that at a future
\nmeeting they could produce a \"Concord of East Asia\" as a symbolic
\nlaying down of a major milestone towards the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n
Abdullah also suggested the creation of an Asian or East Asian
\nMonetary Fund, which would supplement and not supplant the
\nInternational Monetary Fund, in the same way the Asian
\nDevelopment Bank did not challenge the World Bank in Washington.<\/p>\n
An Asian Monetary Fund was first proposed by Japan in 1997
\nafter the region was thrown into economic turmoil but the idea
\nwas also withdrawn after strong US opposition. Many regional
\nleaders had supported Japan, which later refined the idea to
\ncomplementing IMF loans through a regional currency support
\nmechanism.<\/p>",
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