From Bali with a deeper sense of community

From Bali with a deeper sense of community

Bantarto Bandoro, Editor, 'The Indonesian Quarterly',
Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta,
bandoro@csis.or.id

The ninth summit meeting of ASEAN ended last week with a
wholehearted commitment by the leaders to turn the region of
Southeast Asia into one that could ensure long-term prosperity
and security for its people. The Bali Concord II, so-called to
reflect its status as the new foundation of ASEAN cooperation, is
a regional platform on which ASEAN is to plan its future policy
and destiny.

The concord represents a paradigm shift, and will accelerate
regional integration and identity-building.

The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also
pledged to transform "troubled" Southeast Asia into a "united"
region that stresses cooperation and mutual tolerance.

The concord is also considered to be more feasible, not only
because the foundations for constructing an ASEAN community are
already in place, but also because the objectives envisioned by
the Concord are quite logical given the changes that have taken
place in the regional environment.

The Bali Concord II, with three communities -- economic,
social and cultural, and security -- as its pillars, has been
necessitated by the challenges of globalization and by the
economic and security situation that has developed since the 1997
financial crisis, and outbreaks of terrorism in the region.

But will these three pillars really ensure success in the
effort to build an "ASEAN community"? The implication of the
Concord is that ASEAN was previously only an association or a
loose society -- this being the result of competing state
interests.

Thus ASEAN was only an imaginary and mechanical structure in
the Southeast Asia countries. ASEAN had not reached what the
German sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies (1855-1936) called "real and
organic life." After 30 years, ASEAN leaders are now eagerly
seeking to construct a real community based on proximity,
friendship, neighborhood and common locality.

Thus, the community envisioned in the Concord represents
ASEAN's preferred vehicle for reflecting a new regional
relationship in the face of globalization, terrorist threats,
illegal immigration and other forms of non-traditional security
threats. It is also meant to reflect ASEAN's identity and a new
approach to regional issues.

The "community" that ASEAN seeks to build is a product of both
natural as well as rational will, given both decades of intra-
ASEAN relations and the needs of the future. They now seek a more
cohesive and solid unity.

The Bali Concord II gives the impression that ASEAN leaders
are alert enough not to isolate the various phenomena that could
hinder ASEAN's development, or which could cause friction among
ASEAN members, such as human resources development or intra-
regional differences. By refraining from doing so, the leaders
are attempting to create a kind of an integrated mental image for
ASEAN. A community-based relationship after all is based on the
fact that states interact, link with each other and learn to live
with each other because they feel that they "belong together."

An ASEAN community is one that conveys the idea of certain
economic, social and security bonds stemming from proximity,
moral ties, common interests, neighborhood, friendship and so
forth. But ASEAN will find that with its competing state
interests, policy preferences and standpoints, conflicts remain
inevitable and the road to a solid regional grouping will not be
smooth.

For instance, although ASEAN has done a good job in reducing
tariffs among its members, only a small percentage of intra-ASEAN
trade is conducted under the AFTA scheme. Furthermore, in view of
different levels of development and liberalization, the task of
establishing the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will be far from
easy.

Compared to the AEC, many more suspicions and concerns were
voiced over the "security community", as some members are wary of
becoming involved in a military alliance. There are also still
many differences on various security issues. It remains to be
seen whether and when ASEAN can be called a true community, one
that reflects a real sense of nearness, solidarity and belonging,
and which enables to pursuit of common goals. ASEAN's challenge
is, therefore, to prevent its community from being increasingly
marked by individualism.