One Asia
One Asia
The walls of division which separate the people's of South,
Southeast and East Asia came down earlier this week for a brief
moment as leaders of 14 Asian countries gathered in Vientiane as
equals and colleagues.
The annual summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Monday and Tuesday included meetings
with leaders from China, Japan, South Korea and India.
The proceedings were full of fanfare and the customary
officialdom, laced with fancy rhetoric. Beyond the decorum, the
significance of these 13 men and one woman gathering in the same
room with a seemingly genuine desire to pursue mutual cooperation
should not be understated. They represent some two billion people
of Asia whose lives are separated by natural boundaries,
language, ideology and materialistic interests.
Ten years ago such a gathering would have been bogged in
suspicion and diplomatic entanglement. A decade before that, a
meeting of such magnitude could only have been part of pact to
end war or negotiations for peace.
Many in Asia lived through the troubled times of uncertainty.
It was not so long ago that the region was in turmoil: two giant
armies -- India and China -- were at odds, the Korean Peninsula
was in open conflict, Indonesia and the Philippines were in
confrontation with Malaysia-Singapore, and Indochina was ravaged
by war.
Lingering suspicions persist, and outstanding disputes remain
unresolved. But the presence of these leaders in a single venue,
smiling and embracing one another, is a sign of the positive
times the region is experiencing.
If there is dispute among nations it is better for these
leaders to thrash it out across the negotiating table than have
their people raise arms against one another.
No small thanks should be directed toward the work of ASEAN.
The regional grouping has effectively made open conflict between
the 10 Southeast Asian states increasingly obsolete. Its work in
engaging powerful east Asian neighbors -- China, Japan and South
Korea -- is also beginning to bear fruit.
It is the nations' leaders that declare war and make peace.
And in that respect there is confidence that ASEAN's continued
engagement with Asian giants will yield similar peaceful results.
The diversity between the nations will remain. But, as
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said upon his arrival in the
Laotian capital last week, the diversity of the peoples of Asia
should be a source of strength, not division.
We are thus hopeful that as our leaders work out the
modalities for peaceful coexistence toward an end to inter-state
conflict, they will also begin respecting the political and
economic rights of their peoples, irrespective of nationalities.
Whether we are Thai or Filipino, Indonesian or Japanese, each
have innate values common to any human being. Being fellow Asians
only helps to narrow any divergence of perceptions.
If these values and rights are not respected, or even
suppressed, the common peace sought by leaders will never be
sincerely realized, regardless of the formal arrangements reached
by officials. Peace begins at home.
A state of amity between nations may exist. Nevertheless
without domestic stability -- brought about by political and
economic development -- in all countries the region can only
sense anxious peace devoid of peace of mind.