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.