ASEAN 'should rethink interference creed'

ASEAN 'should rethink interference creed'

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): A newly enlarged ASEAN will find it
challenging to keep to its fundamental creed of not interfering
in the internal affairs of member states, speakers at an Asia-
Pacific conference this weekend said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) despite
pressure from the West to deny Myanmar membership because of its
human rights record will admit Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia at the
grouping's annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur next month.

ASEAN -- currently grouping Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- has insisted its
policy of "constructive engagement" will nudge Myanmar's military
rulers along the path of reform.

Yusuf Wanandi, chairman of the Supervisory Board of
Indonesia's Centre for Strategic and International Studies,
called for ASEAN to give Yangon "a roadmap" for political and
economic reforms.

"Despite the principle of nonintervention in each other's
domestic affairs, there is always an exception to be made, and on
Burma (Myanmar) it is right to do so," Wanandi said at a seminar
on ASEAN at the Asia-Pacific Roundtable on Saturday.

ASEAN can also give some advice to the feuding factions in
Cambodia to avoid violent confrontation there, Wanandi said.

Relations between Cambodia's copremiers, Norodom Ranariddh and
Hun Sen, have been strained to a near breaking point in the run-
up to next year's general election, paralyzing the legislature.

Wanandi, a sherpa for the Indonesian delegation at ASEAN's
founding in 1967, noted that ASEAN played a key role in paving
the way to ending Cambodia's long civil war.

Brunei delegate Timothy Ong questioned whether all ASEAN
members were prepared to see the group abandon its cherished
principle of noninterference.

"Strict adherence to that principle made it possible for
Brunei to join in 1984. And strict adherence allowed ASEAN to
withstand the excesses of the Marcos regime (in the
Philippines)."

Wanandi said in response that the media and the non-
governmental organizations in ASEAN countries have broken the
taboo of noncriticism over issues like Indonesia's human rights
record in East Timor and Myanmar.

He called for a regional assembly that could air potentially
contentious issues, saying that ASEAN is overly defined by its
leaders and senior officials.

Jose Almonte, Presidential Security advisor and director
general of the National Security Council in the Philippines, said
the newly enlarged 10-member ASEAN would help safeguard the
region from outside intervention.

The new ASEAN would "prevent Southeast Asia from becoming an
arena of their strategic competition, as it was for much of the
last 50 years".

"Unification also increases Southeast Asia's attractiveness to
foreign investors, gives it clout to enforce reciprocity on its
trading partners," Almonte told the seminar.

With the three new members, ASEAN now has a total population
of 480 million -- larger than Europe's -- with a combined gross
domestic product of US$590 billion.