ASEAN 'must unite to fight money woes'

By Dwi Atmanta and Kornelius Purba

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): President Soeharto called on members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) yesterday to establish a common safety network system to deal with possible monetary upheavals in the future.

Addressing the opening of the 18th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) general assembly here yesterday the President said no single country in the region has been immune to the currency onslaught that has been affecting the region.

"The monetary upheavals that have hit our region have made us aware of the importance of cooperation between and among nations," Soeharto said without elaborating.

Recent attacks on local currencies in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and even Singapore have sharply damaged economies. Thailand, for instance, was forced to seek emergency aid from the International Monetary Fund after the baht drastically dropped against the U.S. dollar.

The Philippines had to devalue its peso, and Indonesia tightened its monetary policy in fighting the rupiah's sharp decline.

In another part of his speech, the President praised AIPO for its role in the last 20 years in dealing with external criticism allegedly launched to undermine the interest of people in the region.

"AIPO has always been trying to support ASEAN's progress in dealing with global issues such as human rights, democracy, the environment and labor," he said.

He reiterated his hope that the admission of Laos and Myanmar to the organization would help ASEAN in its campaign to create political stability, security and prosperity in the region.

ASEAN comprises Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Vietnam. Laos and Myanmar officially joined the association in July. The association deferred the membership of Cambodia, despite ASEAN's fervor to have 10 members, due to the political turmoil in the country that erupted in July.

Soeharto also pointed out that the region committed itself to making ASEAN a free trade area by year 2003, and succeeded in narrowing the economic gap between its members, as well as achieving impressive economic success overall.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad urged the AIPO general assembly to come up with solutions in defense of the Southeast Asian economies.

"We must not allow our economies to be influenced and dictated by others who only seek material gain at the expense of the livelihood of people," he said in a speech delivered by the Malaysian Speaker of People's Council Tan Sri Dato Mohamed Zahir.

He called on ASEAN members to give priority to the development of new concepts on international commerce and politics.

"Open markets and open societies of the borderless world will undermine our stability if it means opening up only our markets and societies to developed countries and not vice versa," he said.

Also giving a speech yesterday was Philippine President Fidel Ramos who said that ASEAN's major agenda after solving the conflict in Cambodia would be to seek a peaceful solution to the South China Sea dispute.

Ramos said in a speech delivered by the country's Senate Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. that ASEAN should pay more attention to maintaining the sea as an international freeway, to the demilitarization of the islands around the sea and the development of the sea's resources on the basis of an equitable sharing of profits and responsibilities.

Mahathir reiterated his call on a redefinition of the human rights concept, saying that the current formulation was applied at the expense of developing nations.

He said the human rights charter, introduced after World War II, did not take into account the actual situation in each individual country, but was prone to intervention by others over the internal affairs of a country instead.

"We value human rights but we also value the stability of our country, which is the cornerstone of our prosperity," he said.

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