'ASEAN should be more like NATO'

'ASEAN should be more like NATO'

JAKARTA (JP): An American scholar says the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) should revamp its structure and give its secretary-general greater executive power.

Donald E. Weatherbee of South Carolina University, in a seminar titled Wither ASEAN? held on Thursday at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), compared ASEAN with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

He concluded that, for ASEAN to be more effective, the annual administrative meeting of the association's secretariat should involve ministers other than just the member-countries' foreign ministers.

As an example of such a structure, Weatherbee cited NATO's council, in which the secretary-general stands on an equal footing with ambassadors or foreign ministers to NATO.

NATO, established in 1949, holds meetings twice a year which are attended by foreign, defense and finance ministers of its member states. NATO's council determines NATO's policies, assumes financial and administrative responsibility for NATO on behalf of the member states and supplies necessary linkages between NATO's civilian and military bodies.

Weatherbee said ASEAN's secretariat should have an "executive function", instead of serving merely as a clerical, bureaucratic center.

"I think ASEAN should be able to make decisions, make policy, and have a secretariat which sometimes has an executive function and not just a clerical, bureaucratic, bookkeeping or agenda- keeping function," Weatherbee said.

ASEAN was formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei became the sixth member in 1984. Vietnam followed in July this year, as the first communist state to join the association.

The ASEAN secretariat, which is based in Jakarta, was established to provide for greater efficiency in the coordination and implementation of policies, projects and activities of the various ASEAN organs.

Its function is as the channel for formal communications between various bodies and committees of ASEAN and between governments and institutions.

It also serves as the focal point of communication between foreign governments, organizations and the association.

ASEAN leaders in their last summit in Singapore three years ago agreed to give the ASEAN secretary-general greater executive power and that the position should be elevated a ministerial level. They picked Dato' Ajit Singh, a senior Malaysian diplomat, to become the first chief of the revamped secretariat.

Weatherbee, who specializes in the politics and international relations of Southeast Asia, has taught at universities in ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

His most recent publications include Southeast Asia at Mid- decade: Independence Through Interdependence in Southeast Asian Affairs 1995.

He said that unless ASEAN becomes more formally structured, reaching consensus on various issues will become more difficult.

All ASEAN decisions are made on a consensus basis. (01)