A Southeast Asian community

As host of the annual gathering of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this week, Jakarta has had the honor of receiving a great many foreign dignitaries. The series of meetings saw not only the presence of the 10 ASEAN foreign ministers, but also at least 14 ministers from outside the region, including those from major powers like the United States, China, India, Japan, the European Union and Russia. Such is the importance of ASEAN in world diplomacy today that it is now able to bring together this many foreign ministers to one of the ASEAN capitals every year to discuss a wide gamut of issues ranging from economic to political and security cooperation.

The gathering in Jakarta this week has added urgency as this is the first time that the 10 ASEAN foreign ministers have met to follow up on last October's declaration by their leaders, during their summit in Bali, to establish an ASEAN Community by 2020. And 15 years is not a lot of time, especially in view of the European Union's long and difficult journey toward political and economic harmonization.

This is indeed an ambitious undertaking for ASEAN. While the region has seen relative peace for much of the last 10 years, a prerequisite for integration, there are still wide disparities, especially in terms of economic progress and political freedom, among ASEAN member countries. Overcoming these disparities will be ASEAN's greatest challenge in the coming decades, but it is also imperative that the region succeeds in this increasingly competitive and globalized world.

Each ASEAN country in itself has a small voice on the world stage. This goes even for its largest member Indonesia, the world's fourth most populated nation and the country with the world's largest Muslim population. Together, however, the 10 ASEAN members represent a force to reckon with, a voice that the rest of the world cannot afford to ignore.

The presence of more than 14 non-ASEAN foreign ministers in Jakarta this week amounts to an international recognition of ASEAN's importance. The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting on Friday, which winds up this week's gathering, is seen as an exclusive but a useful club for discussing security not just in Southeast Asia, but also the rest of Asia. No wonder that many other countries are continuing to knock on ASEAN's doors for admission to the ARF.

ASEAN's continued role in the future, however, depends on how far and how fast the 10 member countries can promote greater integration. A conscious effort at promoting integration, political and economic as well as social and cultural, could help reduce existing economic and political disparities. That is the principal thinking behind the ASEAN Community concept, which the ASEAN leaders in October further subdivided into the establishment of an ASEAN Security Community, an ASEAN Economic Community and an ASEAN Social and Cultural Community.

Indonesia rightfully used its position as ASEAN chairman for the past year to push some rather bold proposals for implementing the idea of the ASEAN Security Community by coming up with a draft plan of action. Granted, some of these proposals were shot down during the discussion by members who felt uncomfortable with ASEAN moving too far and too fast with political integration. But the present, watered-down, plan of action document, which was endorsed by ASEAN foreign ministers on Wednesday, still represents a major leap forward for the region.

Just as a final note of caution to the ASEAN leaders and ministers involved in promoting greater regional integration, at the end of the day it is the people of Southeast Asia who will be doing the integrating. In other words, success (or failure) as regards the establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2020 to a large extent depends on the participation of the people.

So far, they seem to have been totally excluded from the process. The discourse in the halls and corridors of the Jakarta Convention Center, where the ASEAN meetings have been taking place, seem to be totally disconnected from the lives of people in Jakarta, let alone in Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and other ASEAN capitals. Such disconnection was also widely felt when the ASEAN leaders signed the agreement in Bali last year.

When do the ASEAN governments plan to bring their people into this process of regional integration? Obviously, the answer should be, the sooner, the better. Bringing them on board early would also ensure greater ownership by them, and hence the ultimate success of the project.