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.