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Bold moves proposed to bolster ASEAN

A high-level group has proposed bold moves to turn ASEAN into a more disciplined regional grouping or risk fading "into the sunset," its report said yesterday.

Even ASEAN's longstanding principle of non-interference in each members' affairs is being scrutinized.

Such a step may be necessary to ensure effective decisionmaking in transnational matters, said the package of proposals to be presented to ASEAN leaders at the summit in Cebu, Philippines, this week.

The measures, drawn up by the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) comprising 10 senior ministers, former leaders and diplomats, were published in the Straits Times.

Among the suggestions are new systems to monitor member states' compliance with signed agreements, independent panels with the authority to issue binding decisions in disputes and provisions for ASEAN's leaders to mete out penalties if countries are in serious breach of promises made.

Among the penalties that are proposed are temporary suspension of the member state's rights and privileges.

Expulsion has not been ruled out.

Unless ASEAN pushes ahead with "hard-nosed decisions" to transform itself into a more effective organization, "its future will be one of atrophy and marginalization," said Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister S Jayakumar, the city-state's EPG representative.

"If it continues to do more of the same ... ASEAN will just become one of those organizations which slowly fade into the sunset," he was quoted as saying.

Leaders are expected to adopt the report, paving the way for the drafting of the ASEAN charter, a mini-constitution to guide the grouping's future development.

Singling out ASEAN's gap between vision and implementation, Jayakumar said this key problem has plagued plans to integrate its 10 economies so they can better meet competition from China and India.

ASEAN includes Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
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