The 41-year old Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has come of age. The ASEAN summit now on in Hua Hin, Thailand is being held for the first time under the ASEAN Charter which was finally ratified last December by the last two members of the 10-nation association.
It is a giant step from what the association was when it was formally established in 1967 in the shadow of the Cold War and the growing fear that Marxism would overtake the region and South East Asian nations will fall like dominoes before advancing communism. Over the years, as the original six-nation association expanded to 10, absorbing into its fold regional nations that were earlier seen as ideological foes and establishing a dialogue with China viewed with some suspicion in the initial days of ASEAN’s being, the organisation has grown in stature.
Collectively the association has gained in confidence as its member-states became economically stronger and peace and stability, with occasional hiccups, returned to the region. That confidence made ASEAN open its doors to the wider world, establishing a dialogue-relationship with the most powerful nations and the economically advanced round the globe. It discussed regional security with the great and the small before the shadow of terrorism had begun to fall.
Despite ASEAN being firmly established in the international political scene, it is only with the current summit due to end today that the association appears to have achieved maturity. As ASEAN Secretary-General and a former Thai Foreign Minister Dr Surin Pitsuwan was to say at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand ahead of the summit, ASEAN is entering a new era. Why a new era? As Dr Pitsuwan and ASEAN journalists explain this summit is being held against the backdrop of the ASEAN Charter which makes the association a rules-based organisation and places it in a legal framework.
Thus all member-nations are bound by its rules and non compliance or an open breach of the rules could lead to punitive action if the member-nations so decide. But that is not all. A legal framework in itself does not amount to much if non-compliance is not effectively dealt with. The Charter signifies more than just dealing with breaches of its core principles. It begins with the words “We the people……..” Therein lies the fundamental change that has led to the ASEAN Secretary-General and others characterising the Charter as opening an entirely new chapter-and perhaps more than that- in the ASEAN story.
It is generally admitted by those who have studied the history of ASEAN as having been too elitist, that it is an association of elitists- politicians and officials alike- for the elitists. Now, say the proponents of the Charter, ASEAN is being stood on its head, as it were, and it is the 600 million people who constitute the ASEAN region who are empowering their leaders to act on their behalf.
But, say the critics, these are mere words and would remain so unless and until the people have a say in what the leaders do.
In response Dr Surin and other ASEAN officials point out that in recent years ASEAN leaders and the secretariat have engaged more and more with civil society organisations including NGOs and their views and concerns are increasingly reflected in what ASEAN does. For instance the Charter proposes setting up a Human Rights body ( the exact term for it is still to be decided) that makes it incumbent on all member states to promote and protect human rights and uphold international standards as stated in UN Conventions. Some civil society organisations have been rather critical of the terms of the human rights body saying they have been watered down. That may have been necessary to reach agreement in an association of such cultural and religious diversity and political hues and what appears in print now is perhaps the lowest common denominator.
The fact however is that10 years ago or less, it would have been inconceivable for ASEAN to have reached consensus on such a mechanism given some strongly held views about cultural relativism and Asian values. Now a dialogue between ASEAN leaders and civil society organisations have come to pass and what will be aimed at in the future is institutionalising this dialogue so that views and opinions reached at civil society gatherings ahead of the summit could be passed onto the ASEAN leaders for serious consideration.
Their meeting with ASEAN leaders at this summit being held under the Charter and underlining the primacy of the people, it is hoped, will become a benchmark for future dialogues. Dr Surin pleads that ASEAN must be given time to work things out and with the association expecting to turn itself into the ASEAN Community by 2015, member nations will not be able to drag their feet on putting the provisions of the Charter into practise.
Rome, as ASEAN advocates will say, was not built in a day. |
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