To hear an audio version of Dr. Surin’s talk to the media conference, go HERE
If ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, does not reinvent itself, it could slip into irrelevance in a rapidly globalizing and interconnected world.
And journalists have a role in that process, not as mouthpieces for any particular government or official line, but rather as active agents helping a regional community “talk to itself.”
That was the message, or at least a central one, in a keynote address by Dr.. Surin Pitsuwan at the opening banquet of the East West Center’s Bangkok media conference this evening
Dr. Surin is the new Secretary General of ASEAN, and he offered up a rousing defense of the organization in his address to nearly 200 conference attendees and guests.
But ASEAN will be a player only if its member states rethink their role, he said. That begins with adopting a charter that sets out how ASEAN can play a central part in the political, economic, socio-cultural and security future of the region, Surin told the group.
In other words, ASEAN can be in the driver’s seat, he said, “but only if it has a driver’s license:” a charter.
There was a time, Surin said, when ASEAN ‘s relevance was largely dependent on its role as an honest broker across Asia, as “dialogue partners” such as China and Japan found ASEAN meetings a congenial place for their own often-difficult bilateral conversations.
With China, Japan and other big powers now talking more directly to each other, ASEAN must come up with a fresh role, he argued. That role, guided by a charter which member states have yet to adopt, would put ASEAN front-and-center as the region builds its own political, economic, socio-economic and security community.
“ If ASEAN can grow into a viable, strong and effective and dynamic growth sector, the world will have one less region to worry about, and that is enormous,” he said.
The first question for Surin, naturally, was about Burma and whether the ASEAN charter should take a stronger stand on democracy and human rights.
Surin acknowledged the pressure to do so, but argued it makes no sense to let the movement toward a charter falter on this issue. “We have to start somewhere,” he said.
There was much more, about the environment, how the region can take a leadership role in Muslim-Western relationships and many other topics. Watch for a full report on Dr. Surin’s talk shortly.
Meanwhile, what role do you think ASEAN should play, in the region and on the global stage?
3 responses so far ↓
1 brian gomez // Jan 20, 2008 at 2:28 pm
As one of the earliest Jefferson Fellows at EWC (1969) I would like to strongly support the comments of Dr. Surin Pitsuwan about the need for ASEAN to reinvent itself in order to maintain its relevance in a rapidly globalising world.
Went I went to the EWC it was heady days for ASEAN, as a pioneering regional organisation. ASEAN, it seems, has yet to effectively cope with its expansion from a six-member organisation to ten.
International trends that are affecting its relevance include the growing role of China and India globally and the rising tendency of many countries, including some within ASEAN, to conclude bilateral deals to the potential detriment of multilateralism.
But ASEAN remains an important sub-regional grouping which arguably needs to redouble its efforts to forge even closer intra-regional bonds as one of the world’s most forward looking and progressive groups of developing countries.
I watch these developments with great interest. I went to EWC as a Malaysian participant, but these days I live in Australia with much of my work in recent years focussed on Papua New Guinea, a key Pacific Island nation that has much to gain from closer ties with ASEAN.
2 Mark Hukill // Jan 21, 2008 at 9:37 am
I was an intern at EWC in the late 80’s and worked in Singapore from 1990-2000. While Surin’s comments are welcome, ASEAN is irrelevant in terms of anything that really matters.
The unmentioned gorilla at the tea party is the policy of non-interference in each others internal affairs. Too often this has been invoked as an excuse to do absolutely nothing in the face of ghastly conditions in member states, be they political or otherwise.
If ASEAN wants to have real value, it must confront the reality that the shameful behaviour of a few affects the whole. This policy must evolve, carefully no doubt, but in a significant way or else what now is largely a congenial toastmasters club with some technical cooperation benefits will fade. No new generation will find it of value and rogue regimes will continue to thumb their nose at this piece of regional fluff while outsiders just take advantage of it as a convenient pit stop for their own affairs.
3 jonfernquest // Jan 21, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Mark Hukill states: “The unmentioned gorilla at the tea party is the policy of non-interference in each others internal affairs. ”
A policy of “interference” as opposed to “non-interference” really means a policy of US interference or at least enables such.
What would you call US Trade Representative Susan Schwab turning up at the last ASEAN meeting and lecturing everyone in a bully-ish sort of way that it cannot be “business as usual.”
The current ASEAN policy of non-interference allows long-term business relations to be built for the future prosperity of the region much like the World Bank’s insurance of political risk in FDI (MIGA). The most notable case being the joint Japanese-Thai investment in Iran’s petrochemical industry.
As it stands there’s likely to be another 20 years of stalemate in Burma instead of the transformation that could have been achieved 20 years ago if the US had chosen to engage with the Burmese economy and transform it from the ignored economic backwater it became after WWII.