Published on December 10, 2005
An Asean bottom-up summit could be a breath of fresh air after all these side meetings
As the 11th Asean and “related” summits draw near, most regional government leaders are looking forward to attending their respective summits. Kuala Lumpur will surely be one of the busiest world capitals when the multi-plus-plus summits concertedly take place on December 12-14. It will not be just an ordinary summit; instead, it will be a MegaloSummit of the Asean HexaPlus, with many “side-step” meetings of non-Asean leaders who do not want to miss the boat.
With the recent conclusion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum, many wonder why it does not include other superpowers and make it an Apec follow-up. Well, the official website of the media secretariat of the summit says it all: “The related summits that are to be held around that time are the 9th Asean+3 Summit, 9th Asean+China Summit, 9th Asean+Japan Summit, 9th Asean+Republic of Korea Summit and 4th Asean+India Summit. Malaysia will also be hosting the first Asean+Russia Summit. The highlight of these high-level meetings will be the staging of the First East Asia Summit (EAS) on 14th December 2005.” I would call it an “Apec-plus-anything-minus-the-US”. While fostering closer relations and cooperation with those outside the grouping is well accepted, Asean leaders should have looked into their own backyards and listened to the people who voted them into public office. As a private citizen marginally observing from the sidelines, I made a wild guess that in the wake of the multiple dialogues held at the Apec meet, Asean leaders would have grown tired of the super-busy bodies and would have thought of a plan to take into stock the wisdom of the people at the grass-roots level, the Asean Bumiputras. I was wrong. Hence I would like to propose that the 11th Asean Summit ponder the creation of an Asean Economic and Social Advisory Council. This open forum would serve as an institutional platform for social dialogue among national economic and social advisory councils or similar institutions, each of which represents the public grass roots, trade unions and industries. Until this forum is formed, people in Asean will not have a say in whatever their leaders do without consulting them on whatever agenda affects their lives. Chamnong Watanagase Director, Open Forum for Democracy Foundation Bangkok ------------------------------------ Global warming is complex, but Kyoto is still a dud Re: “The relative unimportance of global warming”, Opinion, December 3. Bjorn Lomborg’s article is right about at least one thing: the Kyoto Protocol is expensive and doesn’t do much. However, the projections he refers to, that global warming will have very little effect until after 2100, by which time even poor people in poor countries are projected to be rich (and thus able to afford the effects of global warming?), show the fallacies of economic methods. Economists are usually unable, or unwilling, to take into account “externalities”; that is, the costs or benefits of whatever they are analysing outside the confines of narrow definitions of cost and profit to private enterprises. In the case of global warming, one of the most important externalities, which they do not account for, is the effect on life forms external to humans. In other words, global warming will have an enormous impact on animals and plants. This, in turn, will have impacts on humans that the economists have not taken into account. For example, in a warmer world, species like insects, viruses and bacteria will multiply enormously – indeed, that already is happening. Other species, such as birds and fish, are having their life cycles and reproductive processes disrupted. Personally, I do not know exactly what the results will be for humans. Perhaps the biggest change we’ll have to endure will be the replacement of poached salmon by fried cockroaches. However, I know that many ecologists and biologists are already very alarmed by the changes that have already occurred. Several species have already died out completely. More beetles are attacking forests. Diseases are proliferating. I think we need to see more information from more scientists before hopping on the economists’ bandwagon. Lomborg is correct that other urgent problems demand our attention, and there is much we could do. I agree there is much to do, and our national and international leaders should get the world organised to doing it. However, Lomborg’s suggestions about research and development into alternative energy sources and conservation should also be pursued now, not later. Of course we can afford it: a minor reduction in military expenditures could easily cover new energy development. Saving life on this planet is not a matter of affordability. If we are, in fact, facing self-annihilation, isn’t a “cost-benefit” analysis really beside the point? Robert Uplee Bangkok ------------------------------------ Let’s expand the treaty to include the planet Mars Re: “Lecture on global warming smacks of hypocrisy”, Letters, December 9. I concur with Cha-am Jamal that the global-warming doomsday-promoters are basing their arguments on faulty assumptions and lack of real evidence associating global warming with human activity. As another writer has pointed out, there are natural cycles of the Sun and Earth that have put this planet through several warming and cooling cycles over the millennia. I would like to add an interesting point that hasn’t been brought up on this subject yet: Nasa recently announced they have determined that Mars is also going through global warming and its CO2 polar ice caps are evaporating into the atmosphere. I find it unlikely that human activity is responsible for this too. I also find it unlikely that it is just a coincidence that Mars is warming at the same time as the Earth. Uncle Claw Ayutthaya ------------------------------------ PM could be moving to ward off an internal coup Re: “PM puts faith in old buddies”, News, December 8. Could Thaksin be inviting his old buddies, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and Wan Mohammad Noor Matha, as well as Adisai Bhodaramik and Suwit Khunkitti, back to Thai Rak Thai because he fears an internal coup? With Snoh Thienthong refusing to state his intentions for the next election and other sidelined Thai Rak Thai members fed up with Thaksin’s unilateralism, there may be substance to the rumours that disaffected party members, along with people allied to other institutions, as well as some foreign business people and diplomats, might be contemplating a drastic political move. Also, in regard to your bashing Sondhi Limthongkul, it is beginning to sound like sour grapes. Sure, he’s a highly flawed vessel, but at least he’s making some noise where it has been previously silent and raising awareness of government misdeeds in the process. Your fine papers in Thai and English are really the only critical voices on these matters. Pete Chilcutt Bangkok ------------------------------------ Old and tired blood rarely pumps life into anything Re: “Chavalit to tackle poverty”, News, December 8. I didn’t think it would take too long to bring old Chavalit Yongchaiyudh out of retirement: they can never resist the limelight, no matter how little they have to offer. How can new blood make its way in politics with this carousel of geriatrics constantly being wheeled out? The Old Boys’ Club is alive and well and living in Thailand. Chiang Mai Mike Chiang Mai ------------------------------------ Zebra crossings only group together targets for drivers Re: “Schoolboy killed by speeding truck”, News, December 8. The death of a 14-year-old boy caused by a reckless driver is lamentable, another statistic to add to the Kingdom’s already appalling road-safety record. However, is the belated suggestion by Pathum Wan District Office director Surakiart Limcharoen to establish a zebra crossing really a solution? In my experience, motorists here are seldom willing to stop for pedestrians trying to cross the road. Anyone wishing to cross the street at ground level, even at designated crossing points, is dicing with death in the face of selfish, impatient drivers. Education in road safety and courtesy towards others is far more urgently needed. Lewis Gibson Bangkok ------------------------------------ Iraq soon to pay dearly for Bush’s dastardly folly It’s now clear to all and sundry that the Iraqi adventure is crumbling like a stale old birthday cake that no one now wants to eat. No one (not even George Bush) believes there’s going to be a solution that will save US face; a shameful withdrawal leaving a country torn to shreds with a civil war looks the likely option. This is obviously a great disappointment for the simplistic president and his cronies, who saw the adventure as an easy “take” of a country from the hated Saddam Hussein, and into the bargain they would get their hands on all that oil. Disastrously wrong! And the consequences will be far-reaching, not only for the protagonists of the war but also the other nations who in the future will have to in some way shore up the chaos that is about to ensue. It is no good looking at Bush’s 30-per-cent approval rating: America got what it paid for. The Americans should take their minds back and reflect on things. On the reason the war was started: they thought it would be easy, and there would be financial rewards in the form of oil. On the death toll in number of American servicemen having risen to well over 2,000, and the grinning goon standing in front of the “Mission Accomplished” banner on a warship, smugly accepting the applause for his great idea. This presidency is made up of conflicting sensibilities and upside logic. They say: “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” But I’m sure that Bush was good for the money. A Warner Bangkok
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