Asean 'must change'

On its 40th anniversary, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been urged to transform into a community with people at its centre rather than be an elite inter-governmental club.

Manaspas Xutu, adviser to Asean's foreign minister, said in a speech to commemorate the anniversary that the regional grouping must integrate its three pillars of security, economy and social culture in order to become a real community.

From now on, Asean should not be limited to its member states making top-down decisions. It needed to expand to allow greater participation from the private sector and civil society, he said.

"To build the community, Asean needs continuity and the ability to mobilise all sectors," he said.

Manasvi Sridodapol, deputy director of the Asean Affairs Department, said the grouping had learned over the past four decades that good relations between neighbours were the key to success in maintaining regional security.

However, the security landscape has changed over the past 40 years and Asean faces new challenges including non-traditional security issues, domestic disunity within individual members, diversity within the overall grouping as well as inter-dependence on outside countries in the fast-developing modern world.

These challenges required Asean to review its basic principals applied over the past four decades, he said.

Its members needed to review the non-interference doctrine regarding domestic problems and rethink the consensus principle when a quick decision was required, he said.

"The role of the people and civil society is now more important. We have to think about the role of NGOs and informal diplomacy," Manasvi told a seminar at the Foreign Ministry yesterday.

Thammasat University academic Chulacheeb Chinwanno said the non-interference doctrine might be an obstacle to building a new Asean community.

"I think Asean has to review the non-interference doctrine. How can we be in the same community if we can't talk about each other's internal affairs?" he said.

Asean also needed mechanisms to modify the consensus principle of decision making since it would take time to build such a consensus on all issues. Mechanisms such as a high council or troika might be able to help Asean's decision-making process more relevant, he added.

Chulacheep, also an international relations expert, suggested that Asean build a "sense of community" among its population.

"A sense of community might exist among the elite and officials of the group but if ordinary people lack such a sense, Asean will be far from being a community," he said. 

Supalak G Khundee

The Nation