More popular involvement needed for ASEAN

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.