Analysts call for new regional security scheme

JAKARTA (JP): The rapid economic growth enjoyed by countries in the Asia-Pacific region calls for a new security arrangement to ensure that the region's growth and development can continue, experts at a seminar said on Wednesday.

Acknowledging the concrete and successful results achieved by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), speakers at the seminar agreed that ASEAN member countries should demonstrate their leadership in facing challenges of a new economic order and trade liberalization.

One of the key speakers, Jusuf Wanandi, chairman of the supervisory board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said ASEAN, whose legitimacy and role has been acknowledged by the world community, has to continue its economic dynamism as well as its role in maintaining regional peace and stability.

Although major countries such as China, Japan, Russia, the United States and India play important roles in maintaining peace and stability in the region, "sometimes ASEAN can also play that role", Wanandi said.

Citing that the end of the Cold War has created a singular global policeman, he called for a new, pragmatic arrangement that would suit the need for regional peace and security considering that "even a reequipped UN is inadequate to solve all problems regarding security," Wanandi said.

ASEAN -- a regional politic and economic grouping comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam -- will expand its membership with the inclusion of Myanmar next year and later Cambodia and Laos.

Sharing Wanandi's view on the need for a new security arrangement, University of Toronto's Director Paul Evans said a hybridized institution such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) has proved to be an effective instrument for dialog and confidence building between ASEAN and its dialog partners.

The engagement of China in the emerging of Southeast Asia and the entrance of south Asian countries such as India and Pakistan is proof of ARF's creative pattern, Evans noted.

Kim Kyung-won, the president of the Seoul-based Institute of Social Sciences, said that countries in North Asia such as Korea could envy ASEAN for the development and cohesion it has achieved despite its members being of different ethnical and cultural backgrounds.

"(While) ASEAN leaders could eat, sing and play golf together, our leaders cannot even shake hands together," Kim said, referring to the division between North and South Korea.

Kim pointed out that the common enemy that may arise in the region is internal insurgences in member countries of ASEAN, rather than military threats from outside. Even so, he added, it is important that China, currently regarded as Asia's superpower, give more assurance to its neighbors that its economic power and military might do not pose a threat to regional peace and stability.

"China should give what Indonesia is able to give to (other) Southeast Asian countries," he said, referring to confidence- building issues.

Fred Bergsten, the last speaker in yesterday's session, said that if ASEAN could offer its free trade scheme to countries outside the association, then it could challenge the other member countries grouped in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to generalize the free trade system.

"It will then emulate the APEC commitment," added Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics in Washington DC. (ego)