Experts give thumbs-down to East Asian Community

Experts give thumbs-down to East Asian Community

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Experts gave a thumbs-down over the weekend to the proposed East
Asian Community (EAC), saying that the existence of such a
community would create tension in the region.

Citing the wide economic gap and different political alliances
among member countries, they stressed that the establishment of
such a huge community required thorough studies.

"The existence of many unresolved problems within ASEAN and
the absence of a common perception over the goals of the
community will likely create tension among member countries,"
Bantarto Bandoro of the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) said on Saturday.

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
and Japan agreed on Friday to work towards the establishment of
the so-called East Asian Community in order to boost prosperity
and security in the region. The community would also include
China and South Korea.

According to Bantarto, ASEAN should first develop itself into
a strong community to ensure that they would become the driving
force of the EAC, instead of being lorded over by stronger
countries in the region.

Another foreign policy analyst, Soedjati Djiwandono, concurred
with Bantarto, saying that it would be too confusing to implement
the concept.

"We still do not know yet what to do to strengthen cooperation
among ASEAN countries and turn it into a real community, and then
we already agreed to establish a bigger community," Soedjati
said.

He said that a community required greater understanding and a
common pace between member countries in both political and
economic development.

Among the 10 ASEAN members, only Malaysia and Singapore have
achieved strong economic foundations, while the rest are
struggling to develop.

"We cannot even have a similar pace of economic growth among
ASEAN members, how much more with Japan, China and South Korea,"
Soedjati said.

Bantarto said there were many other urgent problems that ASEAN
should address first before establishing a new community. Those
included the concept of an ASEAN Security Community, which was
agreed upon in the ASEAN Summit in Bali in early October 2003.

"Some ASEAN countries have reservations with the ASEAN
Security Community concept and we already jumped into another set
of new community concepts," he said.

"ASEAN should put their house in order first before joining
the East Asia Community," he stressed.

The agreement on the establishment of the East Asian Community
was signed by heads of state of ASEAN members and Japan on the
last day of two-day ASEAN-Japan commemorative summit in Tokyo,
Japan on Friday.

Cochaired by President Megawati Soekarnoputri as chairwoman of
ASEAN and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the summit
ended with the conclusion that the community was needed to
enhance prosperity and security in the region.

Not all ASEAN leaders, however, gave unreserved backing to the
community, whose detailed arrangement and action plans were still
to be discussed.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, for example,
gave qualified support to the enlarged Asian grouping.

"You can have this other alignment as long as it aids economic
growth and political stability and as long as it doesn't
undermine but rather complements the dynamics of ASEAN," Arroyo
was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying.

ASEAN and Japan are also members of the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC), whose annual meeting ended in disappointment
in Bangkok, Thailand in October due to overindulgence in security
issues, especially the campaign against terrorism.