Plan for 'ASEAN plus three' secretariat evokes fears
Plan for 'ASEAN plus three' secretariat evokes fears
P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse, Bandar Seri Begawan
A Malaysian plan to institutionalize an ASEAN dialog process with China, Japan and South Korea has prompted fears the Southeast Asian grouping may be subsumed by the giant neighbors, diplomats say.
Leaders and ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and counterparts from the three North Asian countries have been meeting annually to discuss key political, economic, security and tourism issues since 2000.
Malaysia is now asking the other ASEAN members to support its plan to set up and house in Kuala Lumpur a special secretariat for the dialog process, popularly known as the "ASEAN plus three".
ASEAN senior officials, meeting ahead of talks among foreign ministers from the grouping, discussed on Friday Malaysia's plan but it received lukewarm support particularly from key members Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, the diplomats said.
Some of them fear that the setting up of a 13-nation base in Kuala Lumpur would erode the strength of the current ASEAN secretariat in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
Indonesia, the "big brother" of ASEAN, had fought hard to house the ASEAN secretariat.
Singapore's support for the Malaysian proposal is muted because an official from the city state is poised to take over as ASEAN Secretary-General, a powerful position in the Jakarta secretariat.
But more importantly, the diplomats said, establishing a separate secretariat in Kuala Lumpur would steal the shine from ASEAN.
"If you institutionalize ASEAN plus three, ASEAN will lose its luster as a regional entity," a diplomat attending the meeting in Brunei told AFP.
"We'll be 'neutralized' by the North Asian giants, especially China."
He and several other diplomats, whose countries gave little support to the Kuala Lumpur plan, spoke on condition of anonymity, in tandem with ASEAN's unwritten rule not to openly criticize a fellow member's proposal.
But Malaysia is determined to push ahead with the proposal within ASEAN, where it reportedly receives support from at least five members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Diplomatic sources said Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad may seek Indonesian support for the plan during talks with his counterpart President Megawati Soekarnoputri early next month.
China, Japan and South Korea meanwhile are said to have given tacit backing to the Kuala Lumpur secretariat plan.
Mahathir, Asia's longest serving leader, has been fervently calling for an East Asian grouping.
Regional diplomats admit that the ASEAN plus three process is a refined version of his original East Asian Economic Caucus proposed in 1990.
ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino said the Kuala Lumpur secretariat proposal would most probably be discussed among the grouping's foreign ministers who begin a two-day meeting on Monday.
Malaysia is aiming for the proposal to be adopted at the ASEAN summit in Cambodia late this year so that it would be a "fitting farewell gift" for Mahathir before he retires in October 2003.
"We have to look from a broader, East Asian perspective if we want to counter the numerous political and economic challenges facing the region," said a Malaysian diplomat.
"And one of the ways is to create a mechanism to harness the tremendous potential of the ASEAN plus three process which covers a population as huge as two billion," he added.