Expanded ASEAN is positive for the region
JAKARTA (JP): Political scientists and observers from the Asia-Pacific region said yesterday that the planned expansion of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a positive development for the region, provided it is carried out in a pragmatic way.
"The current drive by the Southeast Asian people themselves to be one Southeast Asia of ten countries is really a milestone in the region's history," Hasjim Djalal, Indonesian ambassador-at- large for the Law of the Sea and Maritime Affairs, said at a workshop held by the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The workshop, held to highlight CSIS's silver anniversary, was called "One Southeast Asia in a New Regional and International Setting".
ASEAN, a regional political and economic grouping formed in 1967 to act as a buffer against communist expansion, currently has seven members: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, and Vietnam.
ASEAN's membership will be extended to ten countries with the inclusion of Cambodia and Laos next year and Myanmar later. The average economic growth of ASEAN's current members ranges between 6 and 8.5 percent.
The admission of Vietnam, a communist country, into ASEAN last year was proof of the association's constructive and positive role in maintaining peace and stability in the region, Hasjim said.
Political analyst Liao Shaolian of China's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies of Xiamen University said that since ASEAN has provided a better example of flexible regional cooperation than any other international organizations, ASEAN could play a better role in the triangular geopolitical strategy between Asian powers like China and Japan, and the United States.
Although most speakers agreed on the positive developments the association has achieved, a number of participants also voiced worries that ASEAN, with its extended membership, may not achieve as much as it did before, and that the economic growth of some member countries may slow down.
John Bresnan, professor of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, New York, said that since economic growth has transformed each ASEAN member country's policies and interests, new challenges and problems have arisen and new strategies are needed.
Bresnan said that ASEAN needs thorough understanding and keen observation by foreign policy analysts.
These political analysts should be "well-equipped and knowledgeable of the developments in other member countries," he said.
Masahide Shibuzawa, the director of the East-West seminar, said Japan would welcome "ASEAN 10" as long as it plays a positive role in the region.
Shibuzawa said that bilateral ties between China and Japan are good now, but "in the event that relations between Japan and China turn sour," Tokyo might ask ASEAN to face Beijing.
He also said that ASEAN, as a regional power, could also offer the new security environment the U.S. has been looking for following the end of the Cold War.
Jusuf Wanandi, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of CSIS, said ASEAN could play a bigger role in promoting peace and security as well as equity and social justice in the region.
"ASEAN should also try to provide what the UN could not provide, by implementing collective security systems like peacekeeping, not only here, but also in other parts of the world," he added.
ASEAN's role in helping achieve a comprehensive peaceful solution to the Cambodian armed conflicts in the last decade was widely praised.
One of the participants from the Philippines, however, reminded the workshop that extension of membership in the association means also that ASEAN will have more responsibilities and obligations.
Soedjati Djiwandono, member of the CSIS Supervisory Board, cautioned that the planned extension of membership should be carried out in a pragmatic way and not at the expense of any member's national interest.
ASEAN's achievements and successes were mainly due to the members' economic strength and accomplishments, he added. (ego)