Quite revolution in Southeast Asia

Quite revolution in Southeast Asia

The following is based on an address presented by Deputy
Foreign Minister of Thailand Sukhumbhand Paribatra at the seminar
on "The 1999 Indonesian Elections: Lessons Learnt and Challenges
to Consolidate the Transition" organized by the International
Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in Jakarta on
July 27, 1999. This is the first of two articles.

JAKARTA: For long the area now known as Southeast Asia has
been both a cradle and a crossroad of civilizations. Its history
has always been shaped by developments and influences from both
within and without the region and by the synergy of change
created by the confluence of such developments and influences.

This is perhaps more evident now than ever before Southeast
Asia is undergoing a quiet revolution. It is a revolution driven
by the convergence of several dimensions of rapid and far-
reaching change, global and indigenous, political and
technological, social and economic.

In the first two decades of the new millennium one is likely
to witness unprecedented social and economic transformations in
all the societies in the region. Traditional arts, cultures and
ways of life will not disappear, but more and more they will be
challenged, overtaken or rendered irrelevant by new norms,
values, belief and patterns of expectations generated by the
process of globalization.

The state will not remain immune to change. It will continue
to exist. It will continue to play its role as the traditional
embodiment and guardian of the nations's identity and interest.
But its sovereignty, freedom to act, capacity to protect and
control its territorial domain, and ability to safeguard and
promote its public's interest will be increasingly eroded by
global and transnational developments and influences. The
financial crises of 1997-1998 are but early and acute symptoms of
this syndrome.

Midst this quiet revolution, there are numerous challenges,
which the region will have to face over the next two decades,
perhaps more.

The first is the challenge of global interdependence.

The process of globalization is relentless inexorable. It can
bring both immense benefits and grave costs, as evident from the
fluctuating fortunes of most Southeast Asian economies over the
last decade. The region's security and wellbeing will depend upon
the regional states' ability to maximize benefits and minimize
costs arising from the forces of globalization.

The challenge is not how to deny or isolate oneself from this
process. It can not be done. No one can remain forever immune
from the global markets' influences. Rather, the challenge is how
best to strengthen oneself, so as to be able to manage the
process of globalization in ways that most suit one's interests.

More extensive and intensive regional cooperation in areas of
trade, investment, finance, human resource development and social
safety nets, especially in the framework of ASEAN, is necessary
to strengthen oneself. So is the invigoration of certain
traditional institutions and values, particularly those related
to the community and the family. And a wide range of measures
needs to be implemented to increase productivity and
competitiveness through human resource, infra-structural and
technological development.

But I believe that what ultimately makes the difference is
good governance in both the public sector and the private sector.
The existence of well-informed political and corporate
leaderships, who are prepared to perform their duties in a
transparent, accountable, and socially responsible manner, is no
guarantee of success, for nothing in life can guarantee success.
But it does provide better conditions and greater opportunities,
firstly, for reviewing, questioning, modifying, changing or
discarding inappropriate institutions, laws and policies and,
secondly, for initiating, formulating and implementing new and
more effective measures for the good of the public.

The second challenge is the challenge of regional
interdependence.

The outbreak of financial and economic crises in 1997-1998
demonstrated growing interdependence in Southeast Asia. We are
now discovering more and more that problems in one country can
affect the security and wellbeing of the peoples of other
countries. The dividing line between purely domestic issues on
the one hand, and domestic issues with international, regional or
transnational implications, on the other, is becoming
increasingly difficult to discern. Apart from financial and
economic issues, problems of the environment, drugs, diseases,
poverty and unemployment, ethnic or religious conflicts,
political and military developments of certain nature, come
easily to mind.

Closer cooperation is imperative for members of this emerging
Southeast Asian "regional village". ASEAN provides the best
framework for the promotion of both multilateral and bilateral
cooperation among the regional states to address many of these
problems.

But a fundamental attitudinal change is also necessary.

A core principle, on which both ASEAN and the international
system as we know it were founded and continue to operate, is
non-interference in domestic affairs. Commitment to this
principle is absolutely essential. Abandonment will create
widespread disorder, and conflict and will in the end tear ASEAN
asunder.

But at the same time this commitment can not and should not be
absolute. It is necessary for ASEAN to expand the agenda of
regional concern, consultation and cooperation to include issues
which a few years ago would have been considered purely domestic
and hence "untouchable" as far as other ASEAN members are
concerned. Far from being a divisive factor, this attitudinal
change can help the cause of ASEAN regionalism in the longer
term. It can help provide an early-warning system to alert one
another of the gravity of certain domestically generated trans-
national or regional problems. It can also help present policy
options to facilitate the pooling of minds and scarce resources
to deal with such problem.

The challenge for the ASEAN countries is how both to respect
this core principle of non-interference and to address
effectively the fundamental realities, where the chains of cause
and effect of certain problems stretch across sovereign and
geographical divides.

The third challenge is the challenge of regional dissonance.

ASEAN is now ten. With Cambodia's membership, ASEAN has become
a truly region-wide association, as had always been intended by
the founding fathers, and its potential as a regional community
has been considerably enhanced.

But the process of expansion also means greater diversity.
There now exist greater differences than ever before, among the
ASEAN members, in values, beliefs, historical experiences and
memories, levels of development, and degrees of familiarity with
and attachment to traditional ASEAN norms and practices. These
differences can be centrifugal factors for regional cooperation
and make it difficult for ASEAN to realize its full potential in
the short term. They also serve to cause friction and conflict
with many of ASEAN partners from outside the region.

All regional organizations experience difficulties in the
process of expansion. ASEAN is not exception. But in ASEAN's case
every effort must be made to ensure that greater diversity
presents an obstacle only in the short term, that the saliency of
regional dissonance diminishes over time, to be replaced by a
growing convergence of norms, values, beliefs, and political and
diplomatic practices.

The habit of consultation and collaboration among member
governments can serve to reduce differences. But it is unlikely
to be sufficient. Political will on the part of individual
leaderships to make hard choices and bring about necessary
domestic changes for the sake of regional cooperation is also
necessary. So are enhanced interactions at the people-to-people
level in all manners and forms. These, in turn, require more
flexibility, openness, and open-mindedness on the part of all the
region's societies than ever before.

Window: A core principle, on which both ASEAN and the international
system as we know it were founded and continue to operate, is
non-interference in domestic affairs.