Domestic issues will have regional impact on ASEAN-10

Domestic issues will have regional impact on ASEAN-10

The following is an interview with the Chairman of the
Supervisory Board of the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and
International Studies Jusuf Wanandi, on ASEAN's recent decision
to accept Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia into its embrace in July.
The interview was held during the Asia Pacific Roundtable meeting
in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Question: As ASEAN-10 will become a reality next month what do
you think is the most immediate agenda of the regional grouping?

Answer: First, ASEAN has to change its customary working
system with its seven members. Not all decisions will have to be
taken by consensus anymore, for example. Second, we have to
bolster our supporting agencies in order to buttress the
institutionalization process.

So far we have too many meetings around the place and a small
secretariat staff. We need to reinforce the office and set up
institutions dealing with specific issues like, for example,
political security.

All issues are currently being handled by the Senior Officials
Meeting (SOM). There is no permanent staff in SOM or in the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF) dealing specifically with political
security, for example.

Third, we have to look into what kind of things we are able to
do in the economic sphere. This is important to avoid a situation
in which they are not yet prepared to join the ASEAN Free Trade
Area when the time comes. In other words, this is to avoid an
ASEAN with two different economic stages, the prosperous and the
less prosperous one. We do not want this to happen.

It is important for us to offer technical assistance to the
new members, assistance for human resources development and for
their macroeconomic policies. We need to send a team to every one
of those new ASEAN member countries to serve as development
corps, borrowing from the American peace corps. We need to give
them comprehensive and relevant assistance. We can also help them
in their efforts to secure foreign aid from international
institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund.

We will have to assist the new members, especially Myanmar, in
responding to foreign criticism and also to ASEAN.

Our credibility will also be at stake with the inclusion of
Myanmar and Myanmar is expected to recognize this and be willing
to cooperate with us in responding to such criticism be they from
the Western press, non-governmental organizations, governments or
from similar parties within ASEAN countries themselves who really
wish to see a more politically open and transparent Myanmar.

It is also hoped ASEAN's constructive engagement policy will
get them started in their national political reconciliation.

This should start with a change to their constitution and be
finalized by holding dialogs with various societal groupings to
set up a plan for a general election to end the current ad hoc
character of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)
government.

This process will have to begin. One of the important issues
is the future position of Aung San Su Kyi. ASEAN should never
stay idle in all these matters. Malaysian Foreign Minister Badawi
is visiting Myanmar this week after returning from Laos and I am
sure he will underline the obligations of being an ASEAN member.

Q: What about Cambodia?

A: With Cambodia we have to underscore that the two rival groups,
the Funcinpec (National United Front for an Independent, Neutral,
Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia) and the CPP (Cambodian
People's Party) of Hun Sen should be able to cooperate and not
attack each other, even less cause a civil war, because we have
done a lot for them and they have achieved a lot of progress on
their road to peace.

Should they resort to confrontation, it would destroy
everything. The recent report on the country made by Sukhumbhand
Paribatra (of the Bangkok-based Institute for Political Research)
is very helpful. It says the country's political situation is
serious but not hopeless and a request for a national
reconciliation from a third party says we should support this in
fear they would never become a good member of ASEAN. One
encouraging thing is that both rival groups insist on becoming
ASEAN members.

Q: Talking about domestic politics we certainly can not overlook
Indonesia, the biggest member of ASEAN which seems to face an
imminent succession issue...

A: I know that all attention is directed at how far domestic
political stability can contribute to regional stability. They
know that Indonesia is a big country, and whatever happens to it
will have an impact on ASEAN and every member is therefore
concerned about our situation.

And we also have to be aware that we can not behave in an
arbitrary fashion politically as whatever we do will have a
regional impact that will affect not only our own people but the
people of the whole region.

So we should be very careful about what we are going to do and
we should always take into account the fate of other people in
the region. This will be a challenge in the near future.

Q: How can this challenge be overcome?

A: Well, ASEAN has a different way in dealing with political
issues. Unlike Western countries, ASEAN countries may resort to
the Asian way of avoiding public condemnation and criticism.

We should find a mechanism where we are able to freely
exchange constructive criticism and pose critical questions based
on an awareness that whatever happens in an ASEAN country will
affect the whole region.

Q: Do you think that will work?

A: The Asian way will work. First, the most important thing is
that we will have to hold a dialog (with new members). Second, we
will have to exert peer pressure, a pressure from us all to
convince them in a positive way (of the need to change).

Q: Some countries, such as Myanmar, may take a defensive stance...

A: Yes, that is the case. They are doing things in absolute
terms. This has to be forsaken entirely. The principle of non-
intervention is no longer there simply because it has been
violated, not by the government, but by NGOs who have done so
repeatedly. That's why we have to create a mechanism for this in
order not to let them go out of hand. This will be a problem. We
have tried to discuss it in terms of good faith.

Q: How long will this kind of effort last?

A: It certainly takes time, five to ten years before it can
become a well-developed method. We should not use pressure of any
kind to let it happen. Rather we should allow it to develop in a
a natural way. This should be accomplished in stages and in an
evolutionary manner.

Q: Are you optimistic about it?

A: There is no other way. Our integration is bound to make us
stronger economically and allow us to cooperate in other fields.

Q: In the roundtable discussion you spoke about an institution
such as an ASEAN assembly to help foster dialog between member
countries?

A: That's right. The holding of the second track meeting
(informal meeting involving NGOs and government officials in
their private capacity) allowed us to exchange opinions in an
effective manner.

If not, frustration will spill over into the streets in
Malaysia, Thailand or in the Philippines where NGOs were
protesting over East Timor. We should be able to talk about this
kind of issue with a cool head and an open mind despite our non-
intervention principle. We need to think about a mechanism of
this kind.

In this line of thinking, we can not refrain from being more
interdependent in the future. Whatever happens in a neighboring
ASEAN country will in turn affect us, hence, we can't afford to
let other countries do whatever they like. In the least, there
should be an exchange of ideas and criticism conducted in a
constructive way to enable us to correct our erstwhile unfounded
behavior.

Q: Do you have a time frame of when to start all this?

A: We are having an ASEAN congress next month here (Kuala Lumpur)
and we are going to invite our NGOs, those who are not
ideologically oriented and those which are recognized by ASEAN
and working in the field of justice and humanitarian affairs such
as the National Commission on Human Rights and those working in
the field of youth and women's affairs. Government
representatives, businessmen and professionals will also be
invited.

Q: Back to the intervention issue, there are those who believe it
is the ARF which helps institutionalize foreign intervention. Is
this true?

A: It is actually an inaccurate perception. First, they seem to
look at the 1971 concept of ZOPFAN (Zone of Peace, Freedom and
Neutrality) as hostile to a big country.

But this is not the case, we have always recognized the right
of the presence of a big power in our region. What we don't
condone is the hegemony of a big country in our region. We want
to have the right to decide our own fate and define the
significance of their presence in our midst. This has been so
since 1971.

So, it is not true that the presence of a big power is only
possible after the ARF. The ARF itself is a step forward for
ZOPFAN. We invited all big powers to be present in our region
through ZOPFAN as long as they didn't show their hegemony over
the region. And now we have the ARF which is an institution to
see how their presence is best defined.

So we can invite China and the United States to the region and
find a regional order through the ARF. This is an improvement of
the ZOPFAN concept, not only dealing with their presence, but
together with us all we can decide how best their presence can be
made.

Q: In the roundtable you suggested the creation of a unit under
SOM?

A: I am thinking of a permanent arrangement for ARF since it
keeps taking turns according to its chairman, now being Malaysia,
but there is no permanent unit under its authority to support the
implementation of the institutional memory of the ARF, and this
is precarious.

Q: Is there an economic motivation behind the expansion of ASEAN?

A: As I see it, the main motivation is political, diplomatic and
strategic reasons. When 10 countries unite into a regional
grouping we will be stronger.

Second, it is more difficult to break us apart or get us
involved in a clash with each other or at least it is easier to
prevent us from fighting each other.

We also have a diplomatic weight on the international
political stage, and this is the main issue. Certainly, there is
economic importance involved, especially for the medium- and
long-term. (hbk)