Does ASEAN realy care about its people's pain?

Ati Nurbaiti, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The town of Nunukan in East Kalimantan has witnessed waves of illegal workers pouring through its borders, a scene provoking both lessons in law enforcement and dignity on the part of Indonesians. At least 67 workers and their children have reportedly died of exhaustion and malnutrition, leading to sharp criticism from Indonesians and also the Philippines whose workers are also being deported for not holding valid documents. Some parents have had to decide to leave children with strangers for fear of not being able to feed them. Kuala Lumpur had been lenient enough and now it is acting against illegal workers.

Amid the suffering of thousands who might nevertheless return in the absence of jobs in their own country, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations can only look on. Next year the whole affair may be repeated all over again. But labor policies are those of Malaysia and ASEAN must maintain its principle of "non intervention".

No one likes to interfere with their neighbors, says Sukumbhan Paribatra, a member of Thailand's parliament. In a gentle manner harking of young high ranking Thai officials who seem to share less of the "old boys club" code among ASEAN leaders, Paribatra said "there are times when problems affect neighbors." Evoking "ASEAN solidarity" in the current migrant worker issue, a participant in last week's Asean People's Assembly said, "what does this do to friendship among neighbors?"

ASEAN does recognize the need to act when problems transgress national borders. Since 1997, it encouraged the conduct of free and fair elections in Cambodia. As its secretary-general Rodolfo C. Severino Jr. said ASEAN's involvement in Cambodia was "not out of a desire to interfere in a neighbor's internal affairs, but because of the regional repercussions of developments ..."

Yet regarding the recurring haze problem, Malaysians and Singaporeans can only hope that the winds do not blow their way. It has become so severe that residents of Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan now reportedly face starvation as the air and land routes on which they depend on for food supplies are impassable.

In 1997 Malaysians and Singaporeans shared the suffering of Indonesians due to the health hazards posed by the haze and ASEAN ministers agreed on a Regional Haze Action Plan.

But Jakarta's commitment is far from clear; residents in Riau and Kalimantan have largely been left to cope by themselves. No wonder the observation that many of over 500 million of ASEAN's entire population do not know about it let alone all the work it has done. "Ask the people what ASEAN is and what impact it has had on their lives, and they don't know," former foreign minister Ali Alatas said.

Instead, the regional body has long been known "as a club of dictators," says scholar Carolina G. Hernandez, President of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) in Manila. Says Paribatra, the problem is "the difficulty to sustain political will" among ASEAN leaders, to act on their own fine agreements and declarations.

Given so many internal problems of governments when ASEAN was formed in 1967, leaders "may have been forced" to focus on good relations among themselves, says Alatas. But well ahead of its 35th anniversary this year, he added that it had been a "long felt need" to bring ASEAN closer to its people.

If leaders were golfing together and managed to solve problems then of course this would be good thing, says Malaysian activist Deborah Stothard. But if the excuse is that the leaders must focus on national stability even in times when it was believed that stability was a requisite to economic growth -- "they have a twisted understanding of security," says Stothard.

Security, she said, is "when people are reasonably satisfied and feel they can negotiate (with the government), and when people don't leave their country in such large numbers."

But instead governments in ASEAN's history have displayed mistrust in their own people, arresting potential dissidents for instance. Thus ASEAN and its leaders seem to be clinging to a naive "ASEAN way" without significantly resolving problems, says Stothard, while their people must try on their own to seek improvement; Hernandez cites the prodemocracy movements in Indonesia "and even Myanmar".

Stothard, who coordinates the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (Altsean-Burma), is among a few activists who see some hope of ASEAN becoming more effective through the scholars close to it. Exasperated with how removed ASEAN was from its population, think tanks, such as ISIS and the Jakarta-based Centre for International and Strategic Studies, following up on an idea from Thailand, developed the first ASEAN People's Assembly in Batam in 2000, and the second last week in Bali.

Although Southeast Asia already has so many non-government organizations and networks on various issues, "they are all talking among themselves, ASEAN is also talking by itself," Hernandez said. The Assembly aims for specific networks linking ASEAN to these networks.

Because ASEAN has long projected an aloof image, wouldn't it be best to accept that the people must do the work on the ground while leaders can focus on avoiding tension among themselves?

The drawback of ASEAN remaining ineffective, says Danny Yatim, an activist on HIV/AIDS issues, is that people's initiatives will never have nation wide, let alone regional, impact.

Apart from HIV/AIDS, trafficking of humans, drugs and weapons are still among the threats to Southeast Asians, and a wide income gap remains within and among member countries. These are among the issues of "human security" which ASEAN has long been called on to address. However participants in the People's Assembly reiterated concern that in the trend of "falling over each other" to win the favor of the United States, ASEAN governments have, since Sept. 11, found it increasingly convenient to sacrifice civil liberties, drawing thin lines between dissidents, rebels and terrorists.

Many expectations of ASEAN are "unrealistic", says Severino, whose term ends at the end of the year; many do not acknowledge the progress made, its relatively young history and the hardships surrounding its birth. "Either people expect too much or don't think ASEAN is important," Severino said.

But people do need ASEAN and high expectations are inevitable.

Since Sept. 11 scores of handicraft exporters in East Java had to reschedule deliveries or stop exporting altogether, given the suspicion of smuggling and fears of anthrax, said Alam Surya Putra of the Association for Small Scale Business (Pupuk).

"ASEAN needs to focus more on enhancing local economies," Alam said. "So far ASEAN (member countries) has favored growth and hence large industries."

At least Southeast Asians would expect, says Stothard, ASEAN's engagement in more efforts in human security instead of its current failure to respond to situations where threats are posed by neighboring countries.

To direct ASEAN into a "community of caring societies," as outlined in its Vision 2020, the recommendations of the People's Assembly in Bali will be submitted to the ASEAN Secretariat ahead of its November summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia this year.

The recommendations which stress on the "human security" agenda reflect the demand that ASEAN and its leaders actually listen and take care of the needs of their people.