The ASEAN SARS epidemic: Human security versus GDP

Kavi Chongkittavorn, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

When the Association Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders meet here today (April 29, 2003) to discuss the surveillance, monitoring and impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome or Sars, they must make sure that the human security aspect of the outbreak is their topmost priority. Otherwise, it might be submerged by all the efforts to pump up economic growth. Sars has already affected the people in the region as never before seen, threatening their hopes to lead a normal life.

As the outbreak spread far and wide, ASEAN countries with Sars victims have come up with their own countermeasures to fight the epidemic. Singapore has become the world's most stringent nation as its preventive measures include jail terms for persons who break their quarantine. The island's health ministry can destroy goods and premises which are contaminated by the disease and punish any Sars suspects who put others at risk as well as those who give false information or refuse to cooperate.

Unlike Singapore and Malaysia, Thailand has chosen a different path. Bangkok has emphasized business recovery plans to restore the sudden loss of foreign exchange due to the suddenly sluggish tourism industry.

Incoming tourists have fallen by almost 50 percent since the outbreak two months ago, which translates into billions of baht.

Within the region, Thailand is the most vigorous in promoting discount campaigns, including cheap hotel rooms and tickets to attract tourists to visit the country. It has become a daily bargain, a zerosum game at its best.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has come up with publicity stunts himself, including a visit to Don Muang airport without a mask during the height of the Sars scare last month. He pledged to pay two million baht to victims who die of Sars in Thailand.

Now, he wants to declare Thailand as a Sarsfree zone when the ASEAN leaders are in town to guarantee the safety of tourists and travelers abroad. His concern is clear: It is all about GDP growth, which he predicted would be high this year. Populist policies and his own popularity depend largely on an upwardly mobile economic index.

So the prime minister is doing everything he can to sustain this growth level. No one has dared to suggest that his economic growth forecast for the country would have to be revised. He wants the Thais to have confidence and travel around spending money. Senator Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affair Committee, aptly called this "egotourism".

After Thaksin's trip to the airport, Thai officials have actually expedited their surveillance as other countries have strengthened theirs. Fortunately, Thailand only has two fatal victims, who contracted the deadly disease in Hong Kong. At the moment, Don Muang Airport is the country's entry point with the toughest measures of monitoring and imposing quarantines, but they are seldom implemented in full. Numerous tourists entering Thailand through other modes of transportation and other entry points can avoid Sars detection altogether, especially in Northern Thailand and along the Mekong River.

It is still too early to say how good the Thai surveillance system against Sars is, despite the government's selfcongratulatory remarks over the week. Doctors have issued public warnings that when the rainy season comes, the outbreak of Sars could expand.It would be wise not to lower our protective guard against the virus.

Despite their differences, the ASEAN leaders will have an opportunity to address Sarsrelated issues in a holistic manner. Human security must be on the top of agenda tomorrow. Without a healthy and confident population, the economy will be severely disrupted.

As of now, ASEAN has yet to include concepts of human security in its official policies. The grouping still views human security as strictly a domestic domain. Members, especially the new ones, are reluctant to bring it up within a regional context for fear of interference from third parties.

Indonesia, the host of the 9th ASEAN summit in Bali this November, plans to introduce the concept of collective regional responsibility to strengthen Asian cooperation. The Sars summit tomorrow will serve as a platform to test this longstanding idea. ASEAN's lethargic attitude and lack of action have been caused mainly by voluntarism, since ASEAN cooperation is not legally binding.

In Bangkok, ASEAN has an excellent opportunity to turn a scary crisis into a great opportunity for common action. Since ASEAN is fearful of the epidemic, certain members having suffered more economically than others, it is still possible for the grouping to explore maximum measures to forge closer cooperation in an increasingly volatile world.

In that sense, Sars can serve as a template for future regional cooperation on such transnational issues as antinarcotics programs, human smuggling, illegal migrant workers, HIV/Aids and terrorism.

Though ASEAN has been discussing these problems, concrete actions have been hard to come by.

The summit outcome will also provide muchneeded impetus for the stalled Hanoi Plan of Action -- the blueprint of ASEAN's future agreed in Vietnam in December 1998. The plan is up for reappraisal next year. Collective regional responsibility can reinvigorate ASEAN's agreed upon programs into real progress.