Still a long way to go

Still a long way to go

ASEAN foreign ministers and their counterparts discussed a
whole range of subjects during almost a week of meetings in
Jakarta.

In the end, two issues dominated: Burma and the World Trade
Organization (WTO).

It takes great pride in what is seen as its increasing
maturity, its ability to initiate international activities (such
as the regional security forum), and the fact that it no longer
has to follow the lead of the Western powers.

And yet its reluctance to broaden its values beyond self-
interest shows that ASEAN still has a long way to go.

Some ASEAN governments insist that they do want to see Burma
become more democratic, and that constructive engagement is the
best way to achieve this.

But in practice ASEAN is not really doing much to
counterbalance the legitimacy it is giving to the Rangoon
dictators by bringing Burma unconditionally into ASEAN
activities.

One interpretation is to view the Jakarta meeting as an
occasion where the Western countries turned ASEAN into a forum
for condemning Burma.

That would be a slight exaggeration, since the ASEAN countries
stood their ground.

But it does mean that Jakarta 1996 was a venue for unusually
intense East-West confrontation, not only on Burma, but also on
the introduction of labor rights and corruption as new
responsibilities of the WTO ministerial meeting in Singapore in
December.

There is a possible link between the controversies over Burma
and the WTO.

ASEAN is right to oppose bringing labor and other human rights
into the WTO.

It is right to say that these issues should be handled in
other forums.

One such forum is ASEAN itself.

ASEAN's position in the WTO would carry so much more weight if
ASEAN, as a group of like-minded neighbors, were to demonstrate
that they genuinely care about issues other than their own narrow
commercial interests.

In other words, ASEAN should devise its own "footprint" of
decency.

It should state clearly that its members must observe
standards of decent behavior, and that the kinds of practices
undertaken by the SLORC are unacceptable.

-- The Bangkok Post