While participants and government officials at Annette Lu's (呂秀蓮) annual international conference, the Democratic Pacific Assembly, took a stance against inaction, a call to establish a regional security mechanism was yesterday met with doubt.
"Whether [security issues] are a matter of nature or nurture, institutional control is a mechanism we should think about. In the Asia-Pacific region, we do not have such a mechanism," said National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Parris Chang (張旭成).
PHOTO: LO PEI-TEH, TAIPEI TIMES
"The UN has failed in this aspect. We need a new security mechanism for our region. A threat to one country -- an attack on one country is an attack on all the other countries," Chang said, alluding to the threat to the nation posed by China.
On this point Chang didn't mince words: "China has more than 500 missiles aimed at Taiwan, and we are not alone in taking this threat seriously -- even as the US treats this issue with considerable apprehension," Chang said.
"The Democratic Pacific Union should be an alliance of security, an alliance of core values, and an alliance for prosperity," Chang added.
When forum moderator, US Congressman Charles Rangel, asked participants to comment on Chang's lack of confidence in the UN and proposal to establish a new security alliance, participants chose to skirt the issue and instead focused on UN failures.
Chris Barrie, a visiting fellow from Australian National University's Strategic and Defense Studies Center said the "UN is an ineffective and hopeless organization incapable of solving any of the world's problems," but failed to comment on Chang's call for new regional security mechanisms.
Asked whether the establishment of a regional collective security program was possible, Rangel pointed to the difficulties involved in garnering government support.
"I don't know to what extent my government would recognize an international organization like this," Rangel said.
"There are so many countries that are participating and of course unless their countries agree to support it then it's nothing but a great idea," he told Taipei Times yesterday.
Rangel was not alone in his observation that the political leadership of Democratic Pacific Assembly members would make it difficult for the creation of a regional security alliance.
The conference, which aims in part to bring about regional integration, saw representation from countries as geographically diverse as Canada, Indonesia, Grenada, Ireland, Japan, and El Salvador.
Jamil Mahuad, a visiting professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, noted a similar challenge.
"We need to define clearly the problem that we are trying to solve. Insecurity is different everywhere," Mahuad said, citing terrorism, genocide, and street crime as different forms of insecurity taking on different levels of importance in different nations.
"[The assembly] needs to define the issues, and once we've defined them, we have to develop an action plan and measure the result," Menendez said.
Chang later expressed opposition to inaction by the assembly, saying that the problem with the UN Security Council was that people were killed while the council debated issues.
While Chang yesterday called for a regional security mechanism that would be "founded on a commitment to peaceful resolution, respect for human rights, and transparency," the next step remained unclear.
"I think they're trying to emphasize that if [the mechanism] gets enough regional support there is no telling what could happen," Rangel said.
"The first two years, we're just focusing on promoting and achieving a consensus on universal values," said John Kao (高建文), director of the assembly's initial planning committee.
Kao explained that the assembly's long term goal was to establish a permanent international organization called the Democratic Pacific Union with representative offices abroad.
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