Painting a smile on 'brand ASEAN' By Charles McDermid and Jakkapun Kaewsangthong
HUA HIN, Thailand - At the same time that Southeast Asia's heads of state were
atop a splashy stage entangled in their famous 10-member cross-body handshake,
Cambodian activist Pen Somony was sitting on a curb outside the venue,
surrounded by reporters, and fearing for his life.
At the same moment that Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's nine-car
motorcade had stopped traffic to glide into the ultra-posh Sheraton Hua Hin
Resort and Spa, Nayom Pai-Sri was across the street selling snacks and
cigarettes from a tumbledown shack to try and feed his family.
Welcome to the annual summit of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations, or ASEAN, where hard issues generally go unmentioned and poverty
and human rights take a back seat to diplomatic platitudes, trappings of
togetherness and lavish expressions of Asian statecraft.
This year was meant to be different. For months, officials had billed the
meeting in the beach and golf resort of Hua Hin as a celebration of the dawn of
a "new" ASEAN. This was the bloc's first gathering since ratifying the
long-awaited ASEAN charter which came into force 10 weeks ago. The charter
incorporated the group [1] as a legal entity and laid the foundation for a
European Union-like community, without a common currency, by 2015.
More importantly, to fulfill the theme of this year's event - "ASEAN Charter
for ASEAN People" - leaders had promised to prioritize and empower the bloc's
some 570 million people - a stunningly diverse population larger than the
European Union or the North American Free Trade Association.
"I will join hands with fellow ASEAN citizens across the region to make ASEAN a
household name, not only for the people of Southeast Asia but for those
beyond," said new Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose emergence as a
dynamic regional leader may have been the ceremonial event's most significant
storyline.
Led by Abhisit's youthful charisma, host Thailand pulled out all the stops. The
summit's theme was "ASEAN Charter for ASEAN Peoples", and among the many
accompaniments was a new flag, which depicts a bundle of ten rice stalks and
the motto "One Vision, One Identity, One Community", and a comic book featuring
a cute, blue alien who arrives from space to make friends from each Southeast
Asia nation.
There was even the debut of an ASEAN theme song - The ASEAN Way - which
includes the stirring lyrics, "Together for ASEAN, we dare to dream; We care to
share, for it's the ASEAN way." The touchy-feely frenzy was enough to make Kavi
Chongkittavorn laugh.
The veteran Thai journalist and former assistant to the secretary general of
ASEAN from 1993-1994, has long been a strident critic of ASEAN's ineffective
policies and at times questionable governance. (Kavi once reported Cambodian
Prime Minister Hun Sen as saying the only good thing about ASEAN summits was
"golf, karaoke and durian".)
"ASEAN used to be a joke," Kavi told Asia Times Online. "In the old days they
would get together because they had known each for 10 years and play golf and
talk business. Now it's a different generation, and different language is being
used to engage people. ASEAN is no longer a joke - the charter is the
yardstick," he added.
In the past, ASEAN did little to counter criticism that the group was only an
elite fraternity. As John Funston, a former senior fellow at the Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, wrote, "To resolve differences between
members - ASEAN relied less on formal institutions and treaties than on close
personal ties at official, ministerial and head of government level – often
cemented on the golf or post meeting entertainment sessions."
This reputation, along with ASEAN's non-intervention policy and strict
adherence to consensus decision-making, has dogged the bloc for years. This
year China, India, South Korea and Japan declined to attend after the event was
postponed due to street violence in Bangkok. The United States has also become
"frustrated" with the grouping's slow pace, according to Harry Harding,
professor of international affairs at George Washington University in
Washington.
"There is a backing away from the idea that everything regional must be
ASEAN-led," Harding said during a presentation in January at Chulalongkorn
University's Institute of Security and International Studies. He noted, for
instance, that the Shanghai Cooperation Dialogue has a more effective dialogue
mechanism for security issues than ASEAN because it brings together military
people rather than foreign ministry folks - as ASEAN does.
‘Ogres' and activists
Even as Thailand scrambled to paint a smile on "brand ASEAN", old rivalries and
nagging issues were thrust to the forefront. Some familiar faces were stirring
up trouble.
Myanmar premier Thein Sein and Cambodia's Hun Sen broke ranks from their ASEAN
counterparts on the summit's first day, threatening to storm out of a
face-to-face forum with a multinational civil society coalition if activists
from their own countries were allowed to take part. Once the delegates exited,
the meeting proceeded.
Myanmar activist Khin Ohmar, last year's winner of Sweden's Anna Lindh human
rights prize, and 29-year-old Pen Somony of the Cambodian Volunteers for Human
Rights, had been selected by a regional human rights coalition to act as
representatives from their native countries.
The move sent tremors through the ASEAN hierarchy, which had promised a new
approach to human rights as a key issue on the summit's agenda. The stubborn
line from two of the bloc's most authoritarian governments cast doubt on the
willingness of old guard ASEAN leaders to commit to the people-oriented aspects
of the new charter.
The aftermath of the threatened boycott, which resulted in a security scrum and
an ad hoc curbside press conference, thrust ASEAN's controversial human-rights
record back into the spotlight. In explanation for the move, Cambodia said it
reserved the right to select its own civil society representative and Myanmar
was apparently displeased with Ohmar's pro-democracy activities, according to
rights activists and delegates.
"Hun Sen wanted to show that the civil society forum needed better
preparation," said Kavi. "Hun Sen has a special place in ASEAN, as he is the
longest reigning leader at the moment. The point he wanted to make was about
non-governmental organizations, but it might have been better if he had kept
quiet."
Earlier, delegates lauded the forthcoming establishment of a new ASEAN
human-rights body, a landmark event in the group's 42-year history. But critics
said the proposed body, expected to begin functioning later this year, would
lack the teeth to punish violators such as Myanmar with expulsion or sanctions.
The event's organizer said the first-of-its-kind forum was still a success, and
a blueprint for future government-civil society dialogue. "The event was
tarnished. It would have been ideal to have all the civil society
representatives," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at
Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
"Still, this engagement between civil society and the leaders is unprecedented.
Under the initiation of this chairmanship it has created a building block that
can be built upon. To the extent that leaders listened, it was a positive
outcome," he added.
The incident ensured that human rights would be the summit's hottest issue with
the some 1,200 attending media. The only backlash may be that Myanmar, which
has already been pressed hard on the issue of the ethnic Rohingya boat people,
and Cambodia may have increased media scrutiny of their policies and human
rights records.
During the summit Myanmar's foreign minister said his country might be willing
to take back Rohingyas - but only if they were identified as Bengalis who
reside in Myanmar and not as Myanmar citizens. This is in line with Myanmar's
official policy which denies Rohingyas official status, including the right to
move freely or marry without state permission. According to the BBC, a memo
faxed to journalists by the Burmese consul in Hong Kong last week insisted
Rohingyas could not be from Myanmar, as they were dark-skinned and "as ugly as
ogres".
"[Myanmar] and Cambodia are trying to sabotage one of the most important ASEAN
summits ever. We're disappointed, but not surprised," said Debbie Stothard with
the rights group Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, who has been following
ASEAN's human rights practices since 1988. "It's unbelievable that powerful,
oppressive ASEAN governments can't bear to face their own people. Hopefully,
they'll feel a deep sense of embarrassment," she added.
Thais in the middle
While this may be unlikely in Cambodia's Phnom Penh and the Myanmar capital of
Naypyidaw, Thai leaders were aghast at the activists' treatment. After the
incident became public, both activists held a brief meeting with Thai Prime
Minister Abhisit. "We will take gradual steps and encourage a wider
participation," he told reporters after the closed-door meeting.
Even before the meeting - Kavi called the high level of distrust between
officials and their civil groups "an ugly scar on the ASEAN psyche". He
credited Abhisit's willingness to meet with the delegates as keeping the summit
from total collapse.
Cambodian activist Sonomy was visibly shaken by the ejection. Speaking softly
in halting English and Khmer, he said he would let his colleagues speak for him
as he was worried about possible repercussions once he returned home. "We hope
that the Thai prime minister and ministry of foreign affairs will honor their
commitments and that no harm will come to him," said Stothard.
Others lauded Abhisit's handling of the diplomatic flare-up. "I think [Abhisit]
did a great job on two fronts. He articulated a stance on unity and used the
example of the meeting held during the financial crisis in 1997." said Kavi.
"Now he's emerged as a bright, young leader to the global community and in
Thailand. He just wrote his reputation. I think Abhisit was able to capture a
new spirit and create a new ASEAN."
Others were less enthusiastic, citing ASEAN's history of divisiveness and
inactivity and claiming that competing outside forces - namely the US and China
- will eventually pull the group apart. One attending analyst who declined to
be named, told Asia Times Online, "ASEAN has chance to do so many great things,
but won't. Their missed chances for cooperation are too numerous to mention
down there. China will have them all like an anaconda before they notice."
Even Kavi, who is unmistakably bullish on ASEAN's direction, admits progress
will be slow even as rhetoric is increasingly rosy. As he put it, the change
has been "evolutionary, rather than revolutionary", as some ASEAN members and
citizens may have liked.
"There was much more openness at this meeting. The leaders are more comfortable
and the secretary-general has more power, including control of all ASEAN
humanitarian efforts. Just 15 years ago he was neither a secretary nor a
general," he said. "There has been lots of groundwork and guidelines put in
place that still need to be fleshed out. Right now if you took a bite out of
ASEAN, you would get a mouthful of bones."
Note
1. The 10 members of ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Charles McDermid is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand. Jakkapun
Kaewsangthong is a Thailand-based journalist.
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