ASEAN needs to adapt to face future

ASEAN needs to adapt to face future

BANGKOK (AFP): ASEAN countries should give preferential
treatment and aid to new members to prevent a "two-tier"
organization from developing, former Indonesian foreign minister
Ali Alatas said in a report Monday.

"We must continue to pull out all our efforts towards
liberalization and toward finding effective means to adjust
ourselves to globalization; if we fail to do so we will be left
behind," he told the Nation in an interview.

"The new members are not as advanced economically and they
need our help," said Alatas, one of ASEAN's most influential
figures.

"Apart from concentrating on projects like Mekong Basin
Development, ASEAN must come up with development aid-based
programs like what the EU did for many years for its under-
developed members."

Alatas cited as an example of a more flexible approach ASEAN's
decision to allow new members such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and
Vietnam more time to achieve Asean Free Trade Area conditions.

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups
Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Alatas, former president Soeharto's foreign policy chief, was
in Bangkok last week to receive a royal decoration for his role
in promoting Thai-Indonesian relations and his determination to
bring peace and stability to the region.

He acknowledged that ASEAN had faced credibility problems, in
particular following Myanmar's entry to the regional group in
1997 and the resulting political fallout with the EU.

"Undoubtedly what has happened in (Myanmar) has affected
ASEAN's effectiveness in work, as proven by our difficulty in
getting dialogues with the EU."

But Alatas stressed that ASEAN must continue in its own way to
persuade Myanmar's ruling military junta to resolve its problems.
"Ours is a different way from that of the West, which wants to
impose sanctions and denounce (Myanmar) publicly. We think his
method will not work," he said.

Ministerial meetings between the EU and ASEAN were suspended
after Myanmar was admitted to the regional organization in 1997.
However ties are due to be renewed at a meeting in December in
Laos.

Alatas also said that the political and regional problems
affecting the vast Indonesian archipelago had not weakened his
country's backing for the grouping.

"Indonesia has not abandoned ASEAN and its interest in ASEAN
will not be diminished. We believe that ASEAN is vital for peace
and stability, he said.

"We have achieved a tremendous amount because our environment
is so peaceful and because we have ASEAN."

The former foreign minister also said that ASEAN should
support any attempt by East Timor to join the group once it
becomes fully independent.

But he dismissed suggestions about expanding the group to
include China, Japan and South Korea: "ASEAN should remain an
ASEAN for Southeast Asia."

When asked whether ASEAN should seek to mediate in cross-
strait tensions between China and Taiwan, Alatas said it had to
prevent itself "from being sucked in."