ASEAN's future challenges

With interregional relations becoming more important as the world becomes smaller in this cyber era, the international community cannot but acknowledge the growing importance of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in boosting prosperity, peace and stability in the region.

Prosperity, because most members of ASEAN, which initially comprised only five members when the association was set up 32 years ago but which has expanded to the current 10, have achieved a marked growth, reduced significantly the number of the poor and improved the living standards of their people in general.

Peace and stability, because ASEAN has succeeded not only in bringing peace to warring nations, like Cambodia and Vietnam, but also in persuading them to have friendly ties before including them as members of the regional grouping.

It has been an ASEAN consensus, right from its establishment in 1967 by the five founding nations -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- that members should cooperate constructively to achieve their common goals regarding the security and prosperity of their peoples.

Seen from this aspect, despite its lack of institutional power and a law-making body, ASEAN has withstood various challenges while maintaining its basic principles of noninterference among its member countries, regardless of size, culture or creed as well as political system.

Needless to say that besides its numerous successes, ASEAN has also suffered several setbacks during its arduous journey to its present widely respected state.

ASEAN, surely, will not be complacent with all its achievements considering that greater challenges loom ahead as it enters the next millennium. Of this, it has been clearly stated in the joint communique issued at the closing of its annual 32nd foreign ministerial meeting on Saturday. The communique calls for, among other things, more consolidation and renewed determination of its members to strengthen the association.

With the reform movements and political liberalization taking place in several countries in the region -- particularly Indonesia, the largest ASEAN member in terms of area and population -- the association cannot but review some of its basic policies so as to adapt to regional and global changes.

In this connection, several questions need to be raised such as whether the noninterference policy is still relevant and applicable to the present situation now that human interactions have become closer and information flow faster thanks to the progress of telecommunications technology. Or whether it would be beneficial for ASEAN to continue to adhere to its "Asian values" regarding human rights and democracy.

This is important because countries contributing most aid to ASEAN consider respect for human rights a prerequisite to receiving a helping hand.

Now that ASEAN has proposed "preventive diplomacy" in place of the confidence-building measures it has undertaken thus far, one can conclude that ASEAN realizes too well that some of its policies need changing if it wishes to keep its stature and importance in coping with the growing challenges.

The recent rising tension between ASEAN members who are claimants of a groups of islands in the South China Sea is a living example that not all disputes can be settled through confidence building alone as some member countries have violated the grouping's principles and started building structures on the disputed islands.

ASEAN, perhaps, needs to be more bolder in mapping out its overall strategies such as to reconsider the Philippines and Thailand's "constructive intervention" policy proposal. Because in an era of growing democracy, ASEAN, more likely than not, will have to constructively intervene in some of its members' internal affairs if it wishes to enjoy smooth global cooperation with countries that truly uphold democracy and justice as well as respect the dignity of human rights.