Analysts call for new regional security scheme

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)