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Published on November 30, 2007

 Now that the hullabaloo surrounding the signing of the Asean Charter has ended, let us get down to business immediately. There are now two top priorities: ratification of the charter and the establishment of the promised human-rights body that goes along with it. The urgency of completing both of these must be understood and made very clear among all members of the regional grouping.

When the Asean leaders signed the charter, they said they would try their best to ratify it as soon as possible. But nobody dared give any commitment to do so within a specific time frame. Preferably this period will not be any longer than a year from now.

There has been general agreement to expedite the process of ratification, but it remains to be seen which member countries will be the first and last to do so. It is pivotal for such gestures to be made. Asean members that delay ratification for a long time will simply drag the grouping down, while using the argument that only peer pressure can encourage all the members to get the process under way as soon as possible. But if Asean's history is any judge, that argument holds little weight, and has hardly been the case at all. Peer pressure within Asean has not yet worked as it has in regional organisations in other parts of the world. Therefore political will is still the most important factor.

One concern is the political crisis in Burma and the nature of the military regime there. If the political process inside Burma is not settled soon, it will certainly delay the ratification of the charter and will affect the grouping's performance.

Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan has a long and quite controversial history of engaging the Burmese regime. This record goes back to 1997 when he was serving as Thailand's foreign minister. Any delay would also undermine Surin's authority under the new charter. To be effective, the charter must be ratified by all. Indeed, just one member's deliberate sluggish attitude could even disable the charter. That is why it is crucial for all members to ratify it as soon as possible so that Surin can carry out his responsibilities properly.

Second on the agenda is the human-rights mechanism in Asean. Everybody knows that Asean will definitely move slowly on the setting up of this body. The charter drafters knew well that it was the most controversial and sensitive issue among the member states, so they deferred the writing of the terms of reference until after the charter was signed.

Right now, they feel they are not under much pressure to establish the rights body as an urgent matter. Again, the Asean leaders have not set a time frame. So, the drafting process could go on for a long time, with each member citing different opinions and criteria.

Asean is already a latecomer to the arena of human-rights protection. The African Union, for instance, has established all mechanisms, including a court system, to handle cases of human-rights violations among its member countries. In private, some Asean leaders have ridiculed the African Union's effort, saying that the system does not work at all because violations continue unabated anyway. But this is simply not a good enough reason to justify further delay in establishing the Asean human-rights body.

For Asean watchers, it is as clear as the sunrise in the morning that the rights body will have no teeth. The Asean leaders do not want it to have any bite. After all, they have delayed the planned establishment of the regional mechanism for 14 years since their initial agreement in Bangkok in 1993. For it to succeed now will require an extra push from all members.

Unfortunately, more than half of the Asean governments are pretty rough on their citizens. Records of rights violations - with different patterns and consistency - inside Asean are not laudable by any international standard. Few members have the incentive to set up the protection mechanism.

Asean leaders can say whatever they want regarding the charter and its values, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. From now, Asean citizens, civil-society organisations and the media should closely watch the Asean leaders' words and behaviour regarding the charter's realisation.

The Nation