ASEAN heads refocus on economy

ASEAN heads refocus on economy

MANILA: The new presidents of the most politically turbulent states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines and President Megawati Soekarnoputri of Indonesia -- followed one another in visiting their Southeast Asian neighbors recently.

President Arroyo visited Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. President Megawati visited Manila, then went to Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia.

Both leaders were warmly received by their older ASEAN colleagues as they followed a tradition among ASEAN leaders to give priority to visiting their neighbors and establishing personal ties with other leaders of the region.

The visits were seen in the region as a fresh attempt to strengthen economic ties and revitalize the ASEAN after the 1997 Asian financial crisis which battered the regional economies.

In Kuala Lumpur, President Arroyo mended economic and political fences with Malaysia, and in Brunei, she made a pitch for the revival of the East Asia Growth Area that embraces Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines after it went moribund as a result of the financial meltdown as well as the political turbulence that attended the accession to power of Arroyo and Megawati.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is an old hand in the ASEAN, having ruled Malaysia for more than a decade.

In Malaysia, Arroyo picked up the shreds of Malaysian- Philippine relations with new cooperation arrangements over border crossing.

Her statement at the end of her Kuala Lumpur visit saying that she was not ruling out the option of imposing capital controls to halt the depreciation of the peso relative to the US dollar must have pleased Mahathir.

President Megawati's visit to Manila reaffirmed the close relations between Manila and Jakarta anchored on the fraternal ties between President Sukarno and President Arroyo in the early days of regional cooperation of the post-colonial period.

President Megawati and President Arroyo came to power under very similar circumstances. Both took power after a period of domestic turbulence.

Megawati was elected president after Indonesia's highest state body, the constituent assembly, removed President Abdurrahman Wahid following an impeachment vote. Arroyo succeeded President Joseph Estrada, following an aborted impeachment trial.

Their visits, however, highlighted the economic problems of the Philippines and Indonesia, and allowed them to present their efforts to rebuild their countries' economies.

Megawati's Cabinet appointments have been favorably received in the region as a step toward restoring political stability in Indonesia. Arroyo was able to project the larger economic picture during her visits, setting aside the domestic turmoil over legislative investigations of the alleged involvement of Sen. Panfilo Lacson in money laundering, drug trafficking, murder and other high crimes.

One salutary outcome of Megawati's visit to Singapore was the announcement that Indonesia and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have signed an agreement that would pave the way for the release of a US$400 million loan tranche that the IMF had withheld because of differences with the Wahid government over its reform agenda.

Also in Singapore, Megawati and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong agreed to discuss all "issues of importance" in a "quiet and informal way."

Outside Manila and Jakarta, the view is different. The press in the region does not focus on the scandals in Manila or the problems of leadership change in Jakarta.

There's hardly a mention of the scandals in Manila, and the view from outside makes the Filipinos appear like they have a penchant for self-laceration in the political arena.

The refreshing aspect of giving primacy to economic concerns over their domestic turbulence is that it projects to the world outside a picture of ASEAN leaders again coming together to find ways of reviving their economies as they confront the reality of a slowdown in the advanced Western economies which are their main export markets.

For instance, almost forgotten on account of its obsession with domestic political squabbles is that the Philippine economy is holding up well despite the contraction of advanced economies and in fact a modest growth is forecast for the year 2001.

The signs in the region indicate that domestic turmoil is not being allowed to pull down efforts by its new leaders to revitalize their national agenda.

It's time to separate the economy from the conflict of adversarial politics.

-- Philippine Daily Inquirer