ASEAN foreign ministers look to touch people

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.