Kuala Lumpur summit takes ASEAN to higher plane

Kuala Lumpur summit takes ASEAN to higher plane

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Kuala Lumpur

Since its inception 38 years ago, the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) has operated on principles that, in spite
of its seemingly endless summits and meetings throughout the
year, defy a true organization in its strict sense of the word.
It has remained essentially a loose organization with very few
rules.

There are no leaders but only rotating chairs. Its decisions
are not binding, which allows members to opt out of any agreement
or pact if they felt it went against their national interests.
Members don't take decisions, but rather consensus. And at least
until recently, they don't interfere or comment on the domestic
affairs of fellow members.

Change is apparently in the air.

With ASEAN expanded to include all 10 members in the
geographically defined Southeast Asia since 1997, and with ASEAN
increasingly playing a bigger role in international affairs, and
with the group pushing for free trade arrangements within the
group and with their neighbors, and with China and India rising
fast to become regional powers, there is a growing realization
that ASEAN has got to change its ways.

And, as former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas argues,
it is not a question of whether or not ASEAN members are ready,
but more a question of when.

"We should have done this a long time ago," Alatas told The
Jakarta Post at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport lounge
before boarding his flight for Kuala Lumpur.

Alatas is in Kuala Lumpur in his capacity as a member of the
Eminent Persons Group (EPG) overseeing the drafting and
establishment of the new ASEAN Charter. The charter itself won't
be ready at the ASEAN summit this week, but ASEAN leaders will
give their endorsement for officials to begin work on drafting
the group's constitution.

"ASEAN has operated on the basis of declarations rather than
treaties," Alatas said. Each of the 10 ASEAN members has
appointed a representative to the EPG.

The European Union (EU), which is struggling to enact a new
constitution, has operated on the basis of the Treaty of Rome.
The Africa Union and the Organization of American States are also
founded upon charters. A charter would establish the association
as a juridical personality and a legal entity. It would make
clear the association's objectives," Rodolfo Severino, ASEAN
secretary-general 1998-2002, writes.

"The charter would enshrine the values and principles to which
the association's members adhere, and which, in a real sense,
define its very nature," Severino said in a paper he wrote for
the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS).

How far ASEAN members are willing to go in crafting a charter
remains a big question mark. An ASEAN constitution that is
binding will mean that members have to abide by the rules, and
thus could very possibly entail the loss of some sovereignty. The
EU experience is a good example.

"We should not talk about sacrificing sovereignty. We should
redefine sovereignty itself to accommodate the fact that
countries will have to give up something for the good of the
region," Alatas said.

The Kuala Lumpur declaration to be read out on Monday at least
shows the goodwill of ASEAN leaders to formalize their relations.

The charter will incorporate many of the principles already
enshrined in earlier ASEAN documents, most notable of which are
the Bangkok Declaration of 1967, the Bali Concord of 1976, the
Treaty of Amity and Cooperation of 1976, the Southeast Asia
Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, the ASEAN Free Trade Area, the ASEAN
Vision 2020, the Bali Concord II of 2003, and the Vientiane
Action Program of 2004.

But negotiations for the charter are expected to be tough on
how much sovereignty members are willing to give up. ASEAN is
made up of monarchies, republics, democracies and authoritarian
regimes, and they often don't see eye to eye on many things.
Going by the EU experience of pushing its own new constitution,
ASEAN probably still has a long way to go before it comes up with
a charter.

"No. There's no deadline to speak of. But we expect to see a
draft of the text by next year," Alatas says.