Susilo asks the public to work with ASEAN

Susilo asks the public to work with ASEAN

Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged the general public on
Monday to take part in the decision-making process of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Susilo told an audience of ambassadors and researchers at the
ASEAN secretariat here that greater public participation could
encourage democratization in neighboring countries that were
still authoritarian, and thus promote economic growth.

"We can ask ourselves whether ASEAN has managed to hold true
to its name as an association of nations, or whether it has
remained an association of governments ... in the end, the
backbone of any community of nations is not governments, but the
peoples who make up the nations. Governments come and go but the
people will always be there," he said.

Since ASEAN contains a mix of democratic and authoritarian
states, Susilo also called for the governments to create
favorable environments for nurturing democratic values.

Without referring to any specific ASEAN member-state, he asked
the governments to listen to their own peoples' suffering,
because "the perspectives from the boardrooms and from the groves
of academia are not the same as the view from the grass roots.
And the grassroots view can make a difference."

"And that voice speaks of many aspirations: of peace and
prosperity, of a reliable future for themselves and their
families, of freedom and democracy, of human rights and good
governance, and of transparency and the accountability of
leaders," he said.

"Let us listen to that voice -- encourage it to speak loud and
clear. For in the long run, it will lead us to our true destiny,
to the fulfillment of the collective vision that is truly shared
by all of us. Wherever in the ASEAN region that voice is stifled,
we become less of a community."

"And wherever that voice is allowed to speak freely, and it
chooses to do so with responsibility, opportunities are created
for progress, for the growth of cooperation, we become more of a
community," he said at the end of his speech.

Susilo, however, did not specify in what way the general
public could take part in ASEAN's decision-making processes.

But he cited as an example Indonesia's experience in the
community-based planning of the reconstruction of the areas of
Aceh that were devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

"As a result, we have a good master plan. We know for sure
that every project in the plan is matched to a felt need or a
cherished aspiration. With the people's help, we will monitor
implementation so that we are certain that every budgeted rupiah
and every donated dollar are spent according to plan," he said.

The annual lecture was given in order to mark ASEAN's 38th
anniversary. ASEAN was founded in Bangkok by five Southeast Asian
countries -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and
Singapore. Brunei Darussalam joined the group in 1984, followed
respectively by Vietnam (1995), Laos and Myanmar (1997), and
Cambodia (1999).

Susilo also praised ASEAN's "maturity" in the lecture,
particularly in its recent decision, during the ASEAN Ministerial
Meeting in Laos, to allow Myanmar to forego its turn as chairman
to allow the military regime to work on what it says is its
democratic reform process at home.

"This demonstrates ASEAN's fully developed capability to solve
its own problems. It shows a delicate sense of balance between
non-interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and
upholding human rights and fundamental freedoms."

Myanmar -- Page 11