New secretary general at crucial point for ASEAN

New secretary general at crucial point for ASEAN

Chin Kin Wah
Senior Fellow
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
The Straits Times
Asian News Network
Singapore

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will have a
new man in Jakarta next month when Ong Keng Yong, press secretary
to Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, succeeds Rodolfo Severino of the
Philippines as ASEAN secretary-general.

The last Singaporean in the post was Chan Kai Yau, a former
Director of Education who occupied the post 18 years ago. The job
is rotated in alphabetical order among ASEAN member states.

Until 1992 when major amendments were made to the post's
status and length of tenure, the office-holder was secretary-
general of the ASEAN Secretariat, not the secretary-general of
ASEAN. This fine distinction, not often appreciated even within
the region, reflected the loose institutional structure of ASEAN
at the time, when most of the essential work was decentralized at
the national level.

It was customary then to point out that ASEAN was not about
regional integration, only cooperation. This left the ASEAN
Secretariat with very limited functions, which encouraged critics
to describe it as a "glorified post office" and its top occupant
as someone who was "neither secretary nor general". Initially,
his term of office was only for two years, extended to three in
1985.

Much has changed since. With the re-designation of the post in
1992, the secretary-general was elevated from ambassadorial to
ministerial rank. His term of office was further extended from
three to five years. If present rules of appointment prevail and
given ASEAN's 10 members, it will be 45 years before another
Singaporean fills the post.

There are provisions for further extending the secretary-
general's term of appointment, but ASEAN governments will
probably be reluctant to do so as this would delay their turns at
the helm.

The rising profile of the secretary-general reflects the
secretariat's bigger and more important workload. The phasing-in
of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), the expansion in regional
membership with the addition of Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and
Cambodia and a growing recognition of the need for closer
regional integration: all these mean that the secretariat
increasingly has to initiate, advise, coordinate and implement
ASEAN activities.

Because ASEAN is not a supra-national organization, the
secretary-general's role is still circumscribed by sovereign
member governments. The secretary-general, although a nominee of
his home government, is there to promote the region's interests,
not those of his own country. Ong will necessarily be sensitive
to these considerations.

His task will be challenging. The changeover at the ASEAN
Secretariat occurs at a time when the region is struggling to
recover from the crisis of 1997/1998, which broke just when his
predecessor, Severino, was settling into the post. Severino, much
to his credit, worked to ensure that ASEAN did not disappear from
the radar screens of international observers and investors, even
though many thought the region had lost its effectiveness and
relevance.

Ong also takes over at a juncture when international terrorism
is damaging investor and tourist confidence in the region,
leading to a perception of ASEAN as an undifferentiated region of
turbulence and uncertainty. He intends to correct this distorted
view, and is making it his priority to "get investors to come,
get business people to come".

But promoting ASEAN does not mean for trade and investment
purposes only, although these are important. Just as important is
getting ASEAN known to its peoples -- a task that has not
diminished in urgency after 35 years as a regional association.
Indeed, the need to cultivate a sense of regional community and
identity has become even more important with the arrival of new
members who need to be brought into the regional mainstream.

The continued dark clouds hanging over the region may tempt
some to question ASEAN's relevance, but it should be said that
ASEAN is not just about economic cooperation alone. Its success
was in ensuring a politically stable and orderly regional
environment through tested habits of conflict avoidance and
containment, and the ASEAN way of arriving at consensus through
consultation. That stability in turn facilitated economic growth
and prosperity.

This aspect of regional cooperation has not been diminished.
Nor should it be taken for granted -- which is where the
secretariat's role as regional public educator comes into the
picture.

Given China's economic ascendancy and the need for ASEAN to
reclaim its competitiveness, there is scant alternative but to
move towards greater economic integration. Will there be life
after Afta? What are the implications of proliferating free trade
agreements for ASEAN itself? Will it move on to being an ASEAN
economic community? How should integration evolve, given the
unique and diverse circumstances of the region? These are
questions that need study, analysis and informed debate, which
the regional secretariat can facilitate.

Finally, if ASEAN exists ultimately for the peoples of ASEAN,
what does the regional association mean for them? Civil society
groups seek a bigger part to play in socio-economic cooperation.
The second ASEAN People's Assembly, a gathering of non-
governmental organizations held in Bali in late August this year,
heard calls for the ASEAN Secretariat to be a bridge between the
aspirations of people on the one hand and the association of
nation states on the other.

Not all expectations can be realistically met, nor can the
secretary-general exceed the mandate given to him by the
grouping's leaders, but there is still more he can do to further
the region's interests.