Dump non-intervention policy ASEAN states told

Dump non-intervention policy ASEAN states told

BANGKOK (APF): ASEAN members must dump their cherished tradition of non-interference in each other's affairs or risk never resolving the differences that could drive them apart, Thailand's deputy foreign minister said.

"They won't be able to hold on to the notion that a non- interference policy will always be sacred," Sukhumbhand Paribatra told a seminar on the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) here Wednesday.

"It is essential that members do their utmost to make themselves acceptable in the eyes of the international community," he said in comments reported by local papers Wednesday and confirmed by his office.

"No one can live in isolation. Otherwise, regional integration will not be able to move forward."

The change would allow the grouping to strengthen internally and cope with future challenges and outside interference, he said.

Thailand is pushing at the seminar on "ASEAN in the New Millennium", held ahead of a meeting of the group's foreign ministers here next month, for an ASEAN troika to mediate in conflicts between member states.

Sukhumbhand said ASEAN members must understand that problems affecting regional countries can no longer be confined within their borders.

"Problems in one country can affect another, be it economic, environmental, transnational crime, drug trafficking and public health," he said.

ASEAN faces a major image problem thanks to a series of stumbles and omissions that critics cite as evidence that it has become increasingly irrelevant.

It was slammed for failing to predict the 1997 financial crisis that enveloped the region, and for doing little to fend off the contagion when it came, or to assist in recovery.

And it was accused of thrusting Australia into the role of the region's chief peacekeeper by failing to form a joint position on the carnage in East Timor last year.

Another problem came with the admission of Myanmar in 1997 despite bitter objections by Western nations who accuse the ruling military of widespread human rights abuses.

The inclusion effectively blocked inter-regional ministerial talks between ASEAN and the European Union, which refuses to grant visas to Yangon generals.

But Sukhumbhand defended the role of the grouping, which now embraces Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

He said it played an important role in uniting a region that had once been described as the "Oriental Balkans."

The director of the Thai foreign ministry's East Asia department, Surapong Jayanama said ASEAN members had agreed during the Cold War era to shelve their differences for the sale of regional unity and security.

Now, however, those differences were become more visible and potentially more troublesome. Overcoming them was a major obstacle to regional integration, he told the conference.

Former Philippines president Fidel Ramos has also voiced support for abandoning the non-intervention policy, saying it was a relic of the early years of the grouping when the priority was to build mutual confidence.

But now, Ramos said, this "seems to have hobbled the association, preventing it from taking purposeful action."

Thailand and the Philippines have taken on a more prominent role within ASEAN since Indonesia, once the "big brother" of the association, became mired in turmoil following the departure of president Soeharto.