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."
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