Gathering ASEAN
Gathering ASEAN
Leaders of 10 Southeast Asian countries gather in Vientiane
today for what has become an annual frat party for the regional
grouping known as ASEAN.
Skeptics will look down on this vigil as a self-absorbed meet-
and-greet that only has value as a public relations exercise for
an association that has become more prosaic with age. Mannered
and out of reach of the man on the street, this staged event is
far away from the often gritty lives of the region's 400 million
inhabitants.
It is no surprise, therefore, that after nearly four decades,
the gallery of ASEAN watchers currently comprises more cynics
than converts. The derision of the unbelievers is well-founded.
Except for professionals connected with the grouping, few
believers could easily explain how ASEAN has benefited their
lives.
But expectations, especially elevated ones, are often
contrived in a vacuum. And critics frequently focus on what
should be and conveniently neglect what might have been.
The ASEAN summits -- past, current and future -- serve a more
profound, yet less obvious purpose than as mere photo-ops for
leaders on the front pages of this and other regional newspapers.
For Southeast Asians it is now impossible to talk of regional
politics, or to imagine a world without ASEAN -- even if most
people don't know what it is. We take for granted the peace that
has prevailed and allowed most of the founding ASEAN members to
become economic tigers in the early 1990s.
It is the empathy brought about by contacts in the grouping
that has averted a region, which has no prior history of peaceful
cooperation or dispute settlement, from instability.
For host governments of this annual event, the summit meetings
are a political showcase. An opportunity to turn up the spotlight
on the country's place in the world and emphasize the country's
standing in global politics. For small states like Laos, hosting
the summit is a landmark achievement and a source of national
pride.
The significance of summit diplomacy is another merit that
should not easily be dismissed. The close interaction between our
leaders -- the people who shape the fate of our respective
nations -- is key to the maintenance of amiable inter-state ties.
These men and women set the tone for one nation's perception
of another. Their personal chemistry helps expedite possible
impasses or can complicate them. At the very least, by their
common association in the grouping, the prevailing internal
mechanisms will not easily allow a relationship between member
states to lapse into open conflict.
Some 32 documents are set to be discussed and endorsed during
the latest summit and its preceding ministerial meetings. Most
are beyond the comprehension or interest of the average Southeast
Asian.
Nevertheless, like it or not, the shape of Southeast Asia --
Indonesia's front-yard -- is being determined in these meetings.
With the endorsement of the summit, a blueprint for an ASEAN
Community will be laid out; an idealistic road-map for the
betterment of the peoples in the region.
It is pleasing to note the continued goodwill within ASEAN
and, more importantly, its evolution -- an ability to more
frankly discuss down-to-earth issues.
It is extremely encouraging that ASEAN is now considering
principles that a few years ago would have been considered taboo.
Issues such as political development, the environment and welfare
are now often on the table. What is still needed, however, is the
translation of these lofty visions into practical ideas and a
common language.
It would be to much to hope that ASEAN directly and openly
intervenes in news-driven issues such as continued repression of
political activists in certain member states. But there is hope
that as ASEAN matures new values will pervade.
Values that every man, woman, and child -- whether in
Vientiane or Jakarta -- can identify with. Values that will
proudly identify them as ASEAN citizens.