Megawati calls for ASEAN security community
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In her first public address after Tuesday's bombing in Jakarta, President Megawati Soekarnoputri warned of the immense threat of surging terrorism and called on countries in the region to establish a "fully-fledged" security community.
She noted that a series of bombings, with the latest at the JW Marriott hotel in South Jakarta, showed that the cooperation -- against the war on terror -- of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation's (ASEAN) members was inadequate.
"Regional plans of action to tackle such problems ... suddenly appear inadequate in the face of the cataclysms like the terror attacks in the United States, in Bali, and a just few days ago at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta," she addressed diplomats at a public lecture at the ASEAN Secretariat.
The terror attack on the JW Marriott Hotel killed 10 people and wounded 149. Police have not named any suspect, but speculation has fallen on Jamaah Islamiyah, which was blamed for last year's Bali bomb attacks.
Megawati then called on ASEAN countries to adopt Indonesia's proposal to establish an ASEAN Security Community, aimed at addressing security issues such as terrorism and separatism.
She promised to bring the issue to the upcoming summit in Bali in October, where she will encourage the countries to consider, "growing into a fully-fledged security community".
"This does not mean a defense or military alliance, but a more comprehensive political cooperation in which they share responsibility in responding to threats to regional harmony and security," she stressed.
The proposal for ASEAN Security Community, first unveiled at the ASEAN foreign ministerial meeting in Phnom Penh in June, met with a cold response from a number of skeptical members.
These countries wanted reassurances that the cooperation would not hark back to past treaties, such as the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) which split regional neighbors.
Indonesia, with the support of Thailand, nevertheless, assured that the cooperation would not be similar to SEATO nor the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as it would not serve as a defense pact.
The concept was aimed to provide a mechanism to deal with disputes, separatism and also to handle terrorism along with other transnational crimes.
The proposed ASEAN security community would include centers for combating terrorism, training in peacekeeping, a center for cooperation in non-conventional issues and regular ASEAN police and defense ministers' meetings.
But diplomats stressed that more work was needed and the realization of an ASEAN security community would be developed along with the cherished dream of full Southeast Asian economic integration.
In addition to cooperation among ASEAN countries, Megawati also called for a stronger global collaboration to fight terrorism.
"It became clear that no single country or group of countries could overcome this threat alone. In Indonesia's view, which is shared by the rest of the ASEAN members, it will take a global coalition involving all nations, societies, religions and cultures to defeat this threat," Megawati said.
Speaking in English on the occasion of the ASEAN's 36th anniversary, the President also cited other imminent security problems in the region such as the North Korea Nuclear crisis, and the stand off in Myanmar after the arrest of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The President underlined that ASEAN should avoid unilateralism in responding to the threats and expand cooperation on political issues.
"ASEAN needs to do more in order to find a peaceful resolution to these conflicts, this is especially so in the light of the surge of unilateralism in international affairs," Megawati remarked.