ASEAN foreign ministers look to touch people
By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat
BANGKOK (JP): Homecomings always spark introspection. Therefore, when the ASEAN ministers gather here on Monday at the grouping's birthplace, they must navigate between the high political debates of nonintervention and labor to commit to outreach programs which touch its people, forging them as a true concert of nations.
The annual foreign ministers two-day meeting, held this year at the birthplace of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), looks set to resume the debate over the maturity of the 33-year-old grouping to further convert its enshrined principle of nonintervention.
With several states, Indonesia being the latest convert, swept by the wave of democratization and open societies, not to mention the greater influence of nonstate actors, officials must show it is making progress in accommodating these changes but without upsetting the carefully built political cohesion.
Reeling from the effects of a debilitating economic crisis, ASEAN officials now also recognize that they must look within to recapture their dented self-esteem by forging a real ASEAN identity among its people.
Greater people-to-people focus is set to be the theme of this year's ASEAN retreat, a new vehicle for frank dialog among the 10 foreign ministers of the grouping -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The two-day meeting from Monday precedes ASEAN talks through to July 29 with China, Japan and South Korea and wider bilateral and regional security discussions bringing in the United States, Russia and the European Union among others.
North Korea will join for the first time as a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum, meaning the consultative security grouping will represent 37 countries.
Indonesia Director General for ASEAN Cooperation Adian Silalahi told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview that the ministers would be trying to "look at the social aspects of matters. More people to people".
"This includes the promotion of ASEAN," he said.
"There's still a view that ASEAN matters are only something which concern officials," he remarked, adding that "establishing a regional identity in the midst of globalization is also important".
Among the aspects of the "comprehensive development" agenda which will be looked at during the retreat are outreach programs which stress social development, human resources, public participation, good governance and cooperation in translational issues.
Talks on Indonesia's ethnic conflicts, cross-border trafficking in drugs and people and security will be highlighted in the annual meeting.
Enhancing economic integration is another subject, particularly with the pressing need to reduce the economic disparity between member states to avoid a "two-tiered" ASEAN.
For the past four years, ASEAN's principle of nonintervention has increasingly come under attack. In the last two years Thailand and the Philippines have been the strongest advocates of a review of this policy to allow member states to bring up another's domestic issue if it has cross-border implications.
The idea of "flexible engagement" may again be discussed, however, it is too much to expect a deviation from the now- accepted term of "enhanced interaction".
Indonesia, the big brother of the grouping, was expected to begin swaying slightly in support of a review. However, escalating domestic problems and anxiety over possible western intervention is likely to forestall such a development.
In fact, Indonesia seems eager to use the gathering to enhance the nonintervention rule, thereby getting a regional consensus that no one can interfere in its domestic problems no matter how bloody the situation gets.
One development which could have far-reaching implications is the formal establishment of an ad hoc body called the ASEAN Troika, proposed by Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai last year.
This body, whose mechanism is being drafted at the current meeting, could be the middle way for ASEAN to address regional issues of peace and stability stemming from a domestic situation, without compromising the nonintervention issue.
Such a troika also set a precedent when ASEAN formed one to address the Cambodia crisis in 1997.
ASEAN officials told the Post that the current drafted proposal, if accepted, would mean the troika could be established under consensus to address urgent political and security situations.
To proponents of the nonintervention principle it would also be acceptable as the troika would not be a decision-making body and would work directly under the ASEAN foreign ministers.