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.