ASEAN 'must unite to fight money woes'

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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