Tim Shorrock

WASHINGTON, Dec 22 2005 (IPS) — Recent unprecedented moves by Southeast Asian nations to press neighbour Burma to speed up reforms are the kinds of steps the countries must take if they are to have any legitimacy as a political force in the global community, said Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) last week urged the military government in Burma, also known as Myanmar, to speed up democratic reforms and move quickly to release political prisoners. It also decided to send a special envoy to Rangoon to review Burma’s progress towards such reform.

Anwar, who spent six years in prison on what were widely believed to be trumped-up charges, added that until now, ASEAN has largely failed to grapple with critical political issues that divide its members, including human rights, Indonesia’s brutal annexation of East Timor, the legacy of the killing fields of Cambodia and “bigotry and repression” in some of its member states.

Speaking at a recent Washington forum on Southeast Asia organised by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, Anwar rejected arguments from some ASEAN leaders that these and other Asian problems are the end result of imperialist interventions in Southeast Asia. Moreover, opening ASEAN to discussions about freedom and internal governance in other countries was “not a matter” of outside powers, such as the United States or European Union, “dictating their positions,” he said.

Human rights issues are “essential features of human development” and have been “the main agenda of all freedom fighters in the (Asian) region,” Anwar argued. “We must never be deluded by some of these demagogues who believe that issues of freedom and democracy are somehow alien to our culture.”

He added that the future of the region “entails our courage and imagination in transforming” ASEAN members into “countries that are more democratic, respect human rights and the dignity of our men and women, which is very central to the Asian psyche”.

Anwar spoke from personal experience. He was jailed by the Malaysian government in 1998 after leading protests against then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Prior to his detention, he experienced a meteoric career, first as a student leader, then a parliamentarian and finally a government official – Minister of Youth, Minister of Education, Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister.

He regained his freedom in September 2004 after being acquitted by the Malaysian Federal Court, but suffered brutal treatment during his time in prison, including severe beatings that led to serious back problems. In a 2003 interview with the BBC, he referred to himself as “an incorrigible optimist”.

Anwar made his Washington appearance a few days before an East Asian Summit opened in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur. The one-day meeting brought together ASEAN’s 10 members plus China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. They agreed to create an informal regional grouping and work together to confront Asian economic, security and political problems.

“We have established the East Asian Summit as a forum for dialogue on broad strategic, political and economic issues of common interest and concern with the aim of promoting peace, stability and economic prosperity in East Asia,” a communiqué signed by the participants read.

The meeting was chaired by Malaysia’s current prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and coincided with ASEAN’s annual meeting. It was at that gathering that the decision was made to send an ASEAN mission to Burma.

Writing in the ‘Wall Street Journal’ on the day of the summit meeting, Anwar called the movement on Burma “encouraging.” But he wrote that ASEAN’s attempts to form a regional community will be possible only “if ASEAN overcomes earlier mistakes that have reduced its prestige and relevance. In particular, that means putting an end to the organisation’s practice of turning a blind eye to even the most egregious abuses by member states in the name of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.”

John Malott, a former US ambassador to Malaysia and managing director of ManattJones Global Strategies, a Washington, DC, corporate consulting firm, went even further than Anwar in his criticism of ASEAN. The association, he said, has basically become irrelevant to critical issues affecting the region.

ASEAN “became basically a golf club,” Malott said. “The time has come for ASEAN to put up or shut up.”

He argued that ASEAN’s organisational weaknesses were underscored when it failed to respond to the haze of pollution that cloaked major cities a few years ago. “ASEAN was not capable or willing to take action that would have had a decisive impact on one of the most important challenges facing not only ASEAN but most Asian countries,” Malott said.

Karl Jackson, a former US national security official now teaching at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, agreed that the regional body must begin to tackle substantial issues. ASEAN, he argued, reached its “high-water mark” when it helped negotiate a settlement to the post-war problems in Cambodia in 1997. But since then, it has failed to play a significant role in the Asia region.

“If Asian integration is to be at all meaningful, Asia needs to have its own organisation,” said Jackson, who served as a senior Pentagon official with responsibility for Asia in the late 1980s and, from 1991 to 1993, as assistant to the vice president for national security affairs. “I don’t think we can do this with ASEAN minimalism.”

Despite the criticism of the organisation, Ibrahim said ASEAN’s convening of the Asian Summit was an important step forward. “By sponsoring this summit, ASEAN is reasserting its relevance and importance as a key player in the larger community.”

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