Challenges for ASEAN

Challenges for ASEAN

It is now clear that the decision of five Southeast Asian
leaders to set up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) in 1967 was a historic step. The regional grouping is a
success story, respected in the eyes of the world.

Southeast Asia is not only one of the world's major reservoir
of natural resources but is also an area of rapid economic
growth. This region is now comparatively stable and there is
steadily-improving cooperation among ASEAN's enlarged membership
of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,
Brunei Darussalam and Vietnam. In the diplomatic sphere, the
association also helped solve the Cambodian crisis. We observe
with pride that the new government in Phnom Penh is very popular
and democratic.

The ASEAN summit meeting which opens in Bangkok today is being
attended by leaders from 10 Southeast Asian countries, the first
such gathering in this region and one undreamt of in earlier
decades. The leaders of this region will sign a declaration after
their summit tomorrow. Laos and Cambodia have been observers of
ASEAN while Myanmar is still watching from the outside. A
representative of the Myanmarese junta will attend the summit
meeting as a guest of the host country.

Myanmar will apparently remain a thorn for the region for God
knows how many more years. The situation there is not better than
it was last year and tomorrow does not promise improvement. The
military regime in Myanmar, which is called SLORC, the acronym
for State Law and Order Restoration Council, continues to violate
its people's basic rights. Lately it seems to have been rougher
in its handling of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader it
released in July after keeping her under house arrest without
trial for six years.

Western countries have long expressed concern over the Yangon
junta's heavy-handedness, but so far Myanmar's neighbors have
acquiesced in the regime's dreadful human rights records.

ASEAN believes the approach it took toward the Cambodian
crisis is not applicable in Myanmar's case. The organization has
pursued, instead, a policy of "constructive engagement" which it
says will nudge SLORC toward respecting democratic values.

But the way SLORC has treated Suu Kyi since her release has
been a long way from respecting the patience and understanding
shown by ASEAN to date.

Recently SLORC has decided to ban Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy from participating in future general elections and
is seeking to block all opportunities for the democratic leader
to lead the nation on the basis that her husband is a foreigner.

ASEAN members, which claim to respect human rights and
democracy, have to decide how much longer they can stand side by
side with such a regime.

This problem should be addressed soon -- not because Myanmar
is that important for Southeast Asia or because it has tarnished
the region's image for too long -- but because ASEAN has enough
other problems to solve.

In economics, the organization has to bring forward the
establishment of the ASEAN Free Trade Area to the year 2003
through steep tariff reductions on thousands of products.

As of next month, ASEAN should also schedule the removal of
all non-tariff barriers. Bringing about free trade is no easy job
because each of ASEAN's member-countries has a separate political
will, even though each has adopted a free-market economy.