SE Asian nations to stay out of Indonesian crisis
SE Asian nations to stay out of Indonesian crisis
HANOI (AFP): Indonesia's Southeast Asian partners will stay
out of the political crisis racking the sprawling regional giant
but are alert to the possible fallout, a top regional official
said on Saturday.
"Unless matters take a really bad turn, I don't think this
will have a serious repercussion in the region," Rodolfo
Severino, secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), told reporters here.
Severino confirmed that ASEAN senior officials, laying the
ground for a meeting of their foreign ministers starting in Hanoi
Monday, discussed the Indonesian parliament's drive to impeach
President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Indonesia is by far the largest member of ASEAN, which also
comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The group reaches its decisions by consensus, and has often
been criticized for not taking a sterner stand on problems in one
country that could affect the others.
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said observers must
appreciate the ASEAN mandate of non-interference.
"I think everybody is very concerned about political stability
in Indonesia but everyone has declared their support for
Indonesia," he told AFP in Phnom Penh before leaving for Vietnam.
"I hope they (the Indonesian government) achieve a compromise
in order to avoid destabilization which could lead to very
negative actions in Indonesia."
Severino said ASEAN would take a hands-off approach to the
Indonesian troubles despite having a mechanism to discuss serious
problems in one member state that could affect the entire region.
"This is something being dealt with by the Indonesians. We
will just have to let them deal with it," he said.
Hassan Wirajuda, head of political affairs at the Indonesian
foreign ministry, told the two-day ASEAN senior officials'
meeting which ended Saturday that he hoped a peaceful way out of
the political crisis would be found.
With Indonesia once again in turmoil, the Cambodian and
Vietnamese foreign ministers urged their ASEAN partners not to
lose sight of the goal of integrating the group's newer, poorer
members with the more advanced.
"Narrowing down the development gap between member countries"
would be one of the "major tasks" for ASEAN in the years to come,
Vietnam's Nguyen Dy Nien told the senior ASEAN officials as they
wrapped up their preparatory talks.
The ministers are due to adopt an Initiative for ASEAN
Integration which has been one of the main priorities of
Vietnam's year-long tenure of the regional grouping's rotating
chairmanship.