Thailand seeks to redefine ASEAN's role

Thailand seeks to redefine ASEAN's role

By Karl Malakunas

BANGKOK: When one of Australia's most senior defense officers
flew through Asia last month in a bid to round up troops for the
multinational peace keeping force in East Timor, history
suggested his plea would be ignored.

Given the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN)'s 22-
year policy of not interfering in the internal affairs of its
member states, sending a powerful deployment from any ASEAN
country on to Indonesian soil seemed highly improbable.

But with Thailand looking for a chance to redefine its own and
the regional body's role in the face of increasing attacks over
the region's inability to deal with crises in its own back yard,
Australia found a much needed Asian ally.

Air Marshall Douglas Riding, vice chief of Australia's defense
forces, walked out of his meeting in Bangkok with Thailand's
political and military leaders on Sept. 16 able to report back to
Canberra that his mission had been a success.

While other nations in the region had offered more symbolic
than practical support, Thailand committed 1,500 troops, a naval
vessel and transport plane and took on the role of deputy
commander of the International Force for East Timor (Interfet).

In a decision that Australian diplomats have described as
unusually quick, Thailand's Prime Minister, Chuan Leekpai, and
army chief, Gen. Sarayud Chulanont, took less than a day to agree
for the Thai military commitment to exceed that of all other
nations except Australia.

"In the initial stage, we cast our net as wide as we could to
get forces from any (Asian) country we thought had the capacity
and military organizational skills," a senior Australian diplomat
said last week. "The Thais were terrific, the Thai military
forces moved very, very quickly."

A senior Thai government official said last week that
Thailand's decision to commit so heavily to Interfet, which came
after Indonesia invited international peace keepers into East
Timor, was a last-ditch bid to ensure ASEAN had a say in fixing
its own regional crises.

Thailand's foreign minister, Surin Pitsuwan, had already used
his country's turn at the helm of ASEAN this year to push for a
major policy change away from the body's original goal when
formed in 1967 to promote economic and political co-operation
without interfering in each others' internal affairs.

Thailand, and to a lesser extent the Philippines, started
pushing for "constructive engagement" rather than non-
interference.

With the United Nations taking control of security in East
Timor to stop the massacres following the independence vote,
Thailand felt that ASEAN would lose all relevance and credibility
if its member countries did not prove they were prepared to
become militarily involved in theirs neighbors' security issues.

"We hope this will kind of be a groundbreaking move for the
other challenges in this region in the future," the senior Thai
government official, who is involved in developing ASEAN policy,
said. "ASEAN has realized that we have to be more engaged with
one another. Even if it is the internal matters, we must be able
to talk about it and take some action.

"Many of the member countries recognize that many of the
problems that we will face in the future will be these kinds of
problems and we have to not be seen as irrelevant." However,
while the five original members of ASEAN, aside from Indonesia,
have backed Interfet, the newer members -- Vietnam, Burma,
Cambodia and Laos -- have refused to become involved, fearing
possible intervention in their countries for their own human
rights abuses and other internal conflicts.

And, wary of the diplomatic sensitivities and a possible major
split in ASEAN, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore
and Brunei have made clear their decisions to commit to Interfet
were made as individual countries, not under the auspices of the
regional body.

Western diplomats are unsure if Thailand and the other
nations' more flexible approach to non-intervention will hold if
another regional crisis flared in, for example, Burma, which has
a long history of internal conflicts and bloody suppression by
its ruling military junta.

"The rules are starting to change and it's very difficult to
see what the end result will be," a Western diplomat said.

With UN secretary general Kofi Annan this month calling for
the international community to respond more quickly to
emergencies previously considered the sole domain of the
individual country, Thailand and ASEAN may continue to be forced
into similar quandaries.

A range of other theories exist as to why Thailand has taken
such a lead role in Interfet. Some analysts believe Thailand is
positioning itself to compete with Australia for "middle-power"
influence in the region. This view gained credence when a senior
Thai military officer recently criticized Australian Interfet
troops for being too aggressive in East Timor, despite the
multinational force not having fired one shot.

However, rather than a power play between the two countries, a
Western defense expert based in Bangkok said Australia and
Thailand were working closely together for shared objectives
based partly on their strong military relationship.

A decades-old defense co-operation program has seen more than
100 Thai military personnel go to Australia each year for
education and training which, combined with a range of other
joint training operations, have helped keep relations close.

"The Thais do know Australia and Australia's military system
-- there's a certain amount of that which is influencing this
contingent of deployment of Thais," the expert said.

Another possible factor was that Australia and other Western
countries had used the US$17 billion International Monetary Fund
rescue package following the 1997 economic crash in Thailand as
leverage in pressuring the Thais to commit troops.

"The money would have probably had a slight influence," the
expert, who has monitored Thailand's military relations with
Australia and other countries for more than a decade, said.

But the Thai government official denied that there had been
any economic pressure from the West.

"I don't think we are doing this in response to what the
Western countries want," he said.

"We are a democracy. We are concerned about this situation and
if it corresponds with what Western countries want, then so much
the better, but that is not our aim."

-- Observer News Service