ASEAN told to abondon non-interference policy

ASEAN told to abondon non-interference policy

SINGAPORE (AFP): Southeast Asian nations should change their policy of non-interference in other member countries where internal political problems have regional implications, former Philippine president Fidel Ramos suggested on Friday.

He said the tradition of non-interference in domestic affairs among member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was useful in the early years when the grouping was building up mutual confidence.

But now, Ramos said, this "seems to have hobbled the association, preventing it from taking purposeful action," he told a forum at the National University of Singapore.

Ramos, who stepped down in 1998 at the end of his six-year term, cited the political crisis in Indonesia, and the East Timor problem in particular, as well as the Spratly islands dispute in the South China Sea as examples of ASEAN's weakness in responding forcefully to domestic issues.

"Just now, ASEAN's reputation is at an ebb," he lamented. "Doubts are being expressed -- in the light of recent events -- about its effectiveness," he said.

Thailand and the Philippines have called for a re-examination of ASEAN's non-interference policy, arguing that domestic events in one ASEAN member state could adversely affect its neighbors.

During the East Timor troubles late last year, Ramos said ASEAN -- deferring to Jakarta -- "ended up passively supporting the intervention of the Western powers led by the assertive Australians."

Militias, backed by members of the Indonesian armed forces, conducted a violent campaign of murder and intimidation in East Timor in the month leading to an August 30 referendum on East Timor's future.

The violence worsened after the ballot in which East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975.

More recently, Ramos said disputes over the Spratlys among three of the four Southeast Asian claimants were complicating ASEAN's efforts to respond in concert to China's incursions into the South China Sea.

When asked about the possibility of ASEAN mediating in a brewing China-Taiwan dispute, he said: "ASEAN should not get in there unless it is asked."

"On the other hand, we have to monitor what's going on because the new world order is very fragile," he added.

Southeast Asia must become more closely integrated and ASEAN member states must seek a new balance between national sovereignty and regional purpose.

Any involvement by Southeast Asian countries in neighbors' domestic affairs with regional implications would be "the natural consequence of growing Southeast Asian integration."

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam are the members of ASEAN laying claim to all or part of the Spratlys, along with China and Taiwan.

The other ASEAN members are Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand.

"ASEAN is not -- and was not -- meant to be a supranational entity acting independently of its members. It makes no laws and it has neither powers of enforcement nor a judicial system," Ramos said.

"Having said that, I must also say that, over these next few years, ASEAN must change, if it is to keep pace with Southeast Asia's evolving circumstances," he said.