More popular involvement needed for ASEAN

ASEAN has recently celebrated its 35th anniversary; and the Secretary General ushering the regional organization into its next year is Rodolfo Severino. Having served from 1998, his task will be continued by Ong Keng Yong of Singapore. Although Severino will be leaving his post to join the academic world, among other involvements, he will still continue to visit Jakarta. He talked to Ati Nurbaiti of The Jakarta Post.

Question: After the Sept. 11 tragedy, what do you think the changes were in ASEAN's stance toward terrorism?

Answer: Southeast Asian countries have been fighting against terrorism and religious extremism for a long time. In Indonesia there have been some encounters with religious extremism and the state has cracked down on religious extremism.

Actually the incidence of terrorism in the region is rather low compared to countries in Western Europe. Southeast Asia has always been alert to terrorism.

What Sept. 11 did was to first highlight how vulnerable we all are; it showed the international dimension of terrorism and the U.S. government engaged in a fight against terror because of what happened.

In the weeks after Sept. 11 ASEAN and country leaders issued statements condemning these acts and terrorism. ASEAN also stepped up cooperation against terrorists and there were arrests of suspects such as in Malaysia and the Philippines.

The Philippines and Malaysia have also had exchanges in information and links of intelligence agencies. Ministries in charge of transnational crime met in April in an antiterrorism campaign. The recent ARF (ASEAN Regional Forum) meeting (in Brunei) gave particular focus to the issue.

What about the different stance of members countries on the issue, like Indonesia, compared to Singapore, Malaysia and Singapore?

Countries have largely subscribed to their leaders' declaration. ASEAN chiefs of police have worked together to fight against transnational crime ...

Q: What is your view on fears that the terrorism issue may be used by governments in this region to crack down on their respective opposition groups?

A: In Malaysia and Singapore, as far as I know the arrests were made on sound evidence.

Q: The ASEAN regional forum (ARF), apart from confidence building measures, has not been able to make substantial progress for the region. Overlapping territorial claims of the Spratly islands remain. Why the slow progress?

A: The claims have continued for decades... They have invoked international law and law of the sea and history... Clearly there must be a settlement; now it is in the interests of all to stabilize the situation.

In 1995 (among latest incidents) China occupied the Mischief Reef (in the Philippines); ASEAN (members) then said it would be very difficult to settle all these claims. So everyone agreed to have a code of conduct to avoid fighting.

Since talks on the code of conduct the South China Sea has been quite calm. Now ASEAN countries have agreed on a code of conduct and will be discussing this with China.

Q: Japan's economic role in the region is declining. Do you think China will take over the role?

A: Japan's economy is much larger... and is now stagnant. It is a big market for ASEAN, a big source of tourism and investment. China is growing which is not a bad thing; we see China as a growing market and major source of tourism. So ASEAN is trying to strengthen relations with both Japan and China. And trying to engage both and South Korea in the ASEAN+3 forum so economic and political fortunes in East Asia will be more closely interlinked.

Q: What do you consider an important achievement in your term as ASEAN Secretary General?

A: When I came to ASEAN it had been hit by the financial crisis and environment problems, like the haze; there were the new members, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

ASEAN responded quite effectively to all of this and to ensure that the impact of the crisis was cushioned primarily through economic and internal reform and framing financial arrangements to stabilize the currency.

On the haze, we took measures to strengthen monitoring ability, to train firefighters and the communities... Indonesia has done its bit in persecuting those who were involved in the forest fires.

ASEAN has also expanded its cooperation. There has been the rise of problems across national boundaries such as HIV and AIDS, transnational crime, terrorism. We also have to take the initiative to close the development gap between members.

We've drawn up a work plan covering information and communication technology, regional economic integration and human resources development.

Tomorrow (Aug. 15) we are holding a forum to form partnerships involving dialog partners, ASEAN older members and international agencies.

ASEAN however has to do more in linkages of services; transportation links, energy links, removing barriers to trade and investment. Beyond this we have to work hard and faster for an integrated economy, to attract more investment and thus more jobs.

Q: And your disappointments?

A: One should not look back, there are no regrets. We have to be realistic about ASEAN with its different histories and it takes time to work these things through. It has come a long way in coalescing with each other in acting against regional problems. There has been some progress in achieving integration in the economy of newest members.

Q: What more would you like to be done?

A: Hastening progress of integration; ASEAN should be better known and understood; we should involve people, the private sector, civic organizations and the wider public; without that you don't get support in the common fight for common purposes.

Q: ASEAN cannot do much to improve the situation in Myanmar, because of the non-interference principle...

A: I don't know why non interference is always brought up, what country wants to be interfered with? Germany wouldn't want to be interfered with, would it? Myanmar is an ASEAN member; we need to ensure that it benefits from ASEAN and links to ASEAN and shows its capacity to do so. I am sure that Myanmar can benefit or it wouldn't have joined ASEAN.

In some cases it might have difficulty in adjusting, as for a long time it has been a closed economy. What would you hope for Mr. Ong in continuing your work?

Mr. Ong is an expert in information and country affairs in Singapore and knows how to deal with the public. That's crucial. ASEAN has had a lot of misperceptions; either some expect too much of it or some don't think it is important.

Many forget that it's comprised of sovereign nations and its relatively short history, and that it was born under difficult circumstances.

Q: And will East Timor, the newest nation, soon join ASEAN?

A: East Timor is very young. Its foreign minister (Jose Ramos Horta) was invited to an ASEAN ministerial meeting last month as a guest and next year he will be invited too. There is ample opportunity to consider the kind of association that East Timor will have with ASEAN.