ASEAN finds little unity in diversity
HANOI - With one word, tiny Laos
symbolised the lack of unity at a summit of Southeast
Asian nations in Vietnam this week.
Lao Prime Minister Sisavat Keobounphan, speaking at
a scripted opening ceremony on Tuesday, said it was
``regrettable'' Cambodia was not a full member at the
summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN).
A diplomatic slap by any standard, the word hung in the
air and shredded any pretence that ASEAN's principle
of consensus would prevail at the two-day summit and
prove the group was united in rescuing its battered
economies, analysts said on Thursday.
And it was not only Cambodia that divided ASEAN,
whose nine members comprise Brunei, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.
A clear fissure emerged over how ASEAN wanted to
fight the region's worst economic crisis in decades.
Discord over whether to embrace the global economy
or retreat behind capital controls, accelerate trade
liberalisation or lower import barriers cautiously,
neutered what some had hoped would produce a strong
message on ASEAN financial reform.
The best ASEAN could come up with was a statement
of so-called ``bold measures'' that analysts said
promised much in the catchy slogan but delivered little
in the fine print.
``Southeast Asia leaders came to Vietnam and the
underlying impression of discord did little to restore the
group's credibility. They failed to keep the Cambodian
issue from overshadowing the summit,'' one Western
diplomat in Hanoi said.
``I think the bottom line is the outside world wanted to
see ASEAN leaders do something about the economic
crisis and they have got together and created these
so-called bold measures but there was nothing in that to
spark attention.''
Alison Broinowski, a visiting fellow at the Faculty of
Asian Studies at the Australian National University, said
the imminent inclusion of Cambodia and discord on
how to fight the economic woes showed ASEAN's
cohesiveness was being ``severly challenged.''
``I think they are overreaching themselves with the 10
(members) and they have taken the risk of bringing in
some who are seriously poor,'' said Broinowski, an
author and expert on ASEAN.
Those urging caution on trade reform were
communist-ruled Vietnam and Laos, among the poorest
countries in the world.
Cambodia had been expected to join ASEAN in
mid-1997 along with Laos and Myanmar, but its entry
was delayed after Premier Hun Sen ousted his then
co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh in a coup. Last
month Hun Sen, who won a July poll but not enough
votes to govern alone, agreed to a new coalition with
Ranariddh.
Leaders secured a face-saving decision by agreeing to
admit Cambodia but not during the summit as most
members had wished. Singapore was most opposed,
saying the new coalition government needed to
implement certain agreements first.
David Fernandez, ASEAN Economist at J.P. Morgan
in Singapore, said the Cambodian issue underlined the
fault lines that remained within ASEAN and further
exposed the group to the limitations of becoming a
two-tiered organisation.
``This is an obvious structural problem in the way
ASEAN is developing and in many ways it has the
potential for diluting the likelihood of ASEAN becoming
one voice for the region,'' he told Reuters by telephone.
ASEAN had to make hard decisions in the future to
reinvent itself and regain credibility, Broinowski added.
``But to make these hard decisions they have to forget
about the consensus rule and the non-interference
principle,'' she said.
``If they cannot deal with this as other organisations do
and say that consensus is too slow and non-interference
just too inefficient then I think the chance of ASEAN
reinventing itself quickly enough to be effective is slight.''
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad insisted
ASEAN must stick to the principle of non-interference
in the affairs of member states and base all decisions on
consensus.
But Thailand urged more openness and Premier Chuan
Leekpai suggested the group needed new approaches
and fresh thinking to meet the challenges of a
fast-changing world.
Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan also admitted on
Tuesday that in the face of the crippling economic crisis
ASEAN's once prized characteristic of diversity had
become a burden.
Diverse political, social and economic systems had to
be reconciled by member countries if the grouping was
to regain international investor confidence, he said.
Reuters - December 17, 1998.
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