Part 2 of 2: Megawati, terrorism, UN & security community

J. Soedjati Djiwandono, Political Analyst, Jakarta

Even if President George W. Bush has repeated his efforts to convince Muslims that he is not against Islam, his arguments are not always well received. Because, he is in fact fighting groups like al-Qaeda, that claim to fight in the name of Islam against the United States and its interests.

The Muslim community here need not be defensive nor feel "cornered". They should not reject the possibility that some Muslims are involved in terrorism or may be linked to international terrorist networks. We should refrain from blaming terrorism on the Americans. This sort of argument is made on the basis of conspiracy theories -- which many people here seem to have a penchant for, as they lack a more rational or scientific reference.

In her speech before the 58th United Nations' General Assembly last Sept. 23, President Megawati Soekarnoputri touched on the need for some kind of reform for the United Nations. She said, "the world has been undergoing rapid changes. Technology has transformed the world. It has become an open and almost borderless space -- human life and inherent value systems have developed so fast".

She added, "There are many orders or even instruments, both institutional and procedural, which require adjustment and improvement. Forty-three years ago, in 1960, our first President, Dr. Soekarno, spoke clearly on the issue. In his address entitled To build the world anew, to this very Assembly, he called on the need to reform the international order and relations among nations of the world.

"Now, we all realize and recognize the truth of his call. We are indeed in need of fundamental reform. Should, to that end, this organization need improvement in its performance ... we must have the courage to review, revitalize and empower its institutions and working methods."

Sukarno's idea of "reform" -- that he might have expected to be reflected by the UN -- was another bipolarization on a completely different basis, namely, the distinction between one group of nations he called the "old established forces" and another group of nations, he called the "new emerging forces."

Sukarno, however, ignored the historical background of the UN, which to some extent was an improvement of the previous League of Nations.

Finally, Megawati's speech focused on her hopes for what she termed an "ASEAN Security Community": "We must strengthen international cooperation and reinforce regional engagement. In Southeast Asia, we continue to enhance the role of ASEAN. Next month, at the ASEAN Summit that Indonesia will host in Bali, we expect to take a concrete step toward forming an ASEAN Security Community that will support and complement our efforts to become an ASEAN Economic Community".

What was introduced by Megawati in her speech to diplomats at a public lecture at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta -- as reported in this paper on Aug. 9 -- was something new to me as a student of international relations.

The idea had previously been proposed by the government, but in her speech Megawati called on ASEAN countries to adopt the proposal to establish a "fully fledged security community."

The idea of a security community -- first developed by Prof. Karl W. Deutsch relating particularly to the North Atlantic -- came to my attention through the publication of Deutsch et al.'s, Political community and the North Atlantic area, in International Political Communities: An Anthology (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966).

What follows is an attempt to briefly examine factors preventing the realization of the concept as spelled out by the President, especially as applied to ASEAN, as compared to what I understand from the idea of security as applied to the North Atlantic area.

Indeed, some writers even regarded ASEAN as a security community as far back as the mid 1970s, while others identified trends within ASEAN toward the establishment of such a community. The writer discussed this in a book titled ASEAN: An Emerging Security Community? (CSIS, 1991)).

According to Deutsch, The most essential element of a security community is that which makes resorting to violence within the community unthinkable. ASEAN already exhibits the tendencies of a "security community," in which warlike behavior by members of the community toward each other has virtually been eliminated.

None of the characteristics of a security community relate to outside powers or external challenge to security. But, in the Indonesian concept, as outlined by Megawati, ASEAN's security community faces the threat of "terrorism" -- "terrorism may be internal as well as external. And terrorism perpetrated by elements within a member state of ASEAN may be external to the rest of the association".

This may be what Megawati meant when she said that an ASEAN security community is aimed at providing mechanisms to "handle" (terrorism along with other) transnational crimes.

She explicitly stated, however, that it is aimed at "addressing security issues such as terrorism and separatism". For one thing, to treat separatism as terrorism is a gross mistake. Separatism may indeed employ terrorism as a method but, separatism itself is also a means. A means toward independence, in turn a means toward the establishment of a nationhood, also a means towards prosperity and justice.

The inclusion of "separatism" as a threat to be handled regionally would be a violation of what the Indonesian government has thus far held fast -- the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of an ASEAN member state. This has been regarded as a "cardinal principle" of ASEAN, as also stipulated in the UN Charter.

Indeed, the Indonesian concept of "security community" appears to be different in nature from what has been familiar to the academic world as "a theory" of international relations. This is a different animal altogether -- so, in order not to confuse the people's understanding, perhaps it is wiser to use a different term.