14
speak up!
Asean – an alphabet soup
with a dash of numbers
GO TO any seminar, conference, forum
or roundtable on Asean and you would
never fail to be surprised by the diverse
views expressed by the panelists, be
they civil servants, scholars, economists,
bankers or businessmen.
One would have thought that after
40 years there would be more con-
sensus that Asean is making progress
and helping modern Southeast Asia to
stay together even though one is hardly
surprised that it has yet to respond
meaningfully to the current global
economic crisis.
But, of course, the civil servants
involved in the so-called “Asean proc-
ess” would protest quite vehemently
at any suggestion that the regional
body is moribund. To them, any slight
movement forward, however small
or infinitesimal, would be hailed as
progress. They have to.
In that sense, the roundtable on
Wednesday on “East Asia Community
Building: The Role of Asean”, organised
by the Institute of Diplomacy and For-
eign Relations (IDFR) and the Malaysian
International Affairs Forum (MIAF), is
no different from past confabs on the
Comment
by Zainon Ahmad
subject in its various permutations.
Some participants said Asean should
be strengthened, others called for more
efforts at integration while there were
also those who called for the regional
body in its present form to be allowed
to die.
This last group pointed to the think-
ing among some sections of the Indo-
nesian elite that Asean was holding up
the economic progress of their country
which is often thought of and acknowl-
The rakyat, of course, have despaired
over trying to understand what Asean is
all about; they are familiar with the acronym
but are unsure what the regional body does,
the issues it is handling and where it fits into
the general scheme of things global.”
edged as the big brother and leader of
the regional grouping.
The rakyat, of course, have despaired
over trying to understand what Asean is
all about; they are familiar with the ac-
ronym but are unsure what the regional
body does, the issues it is handling and
where it fits into the general scheme of
things global.
They are probably as perplexed as
Omar Khayyam when he said: “Myself
when young did eagerly frequent doc-
tors and saints and heard great argu-
ments about it and about: but evermore
came out the same door as in I went.”
Thus former prime minister Tun
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in his speech
when opening the roundtable, called for
the need to expedite the formation of a
version of Chatham House in London or
the Council of Foreign Relations in New
York to explain, research and discuss
international issues.
He said Malaysians should be “fully
aware of external factors which can
equally determine the success or fail-
ure” of the nation and attain national
consensus on international issues.
As it is now, there are probably Ma-
laysians who do not know that Asean
stands for Association of South East
Asian Nations formed in 1967.
Some, probably confused by the
numerous abbreviations and acro-
nyms, think it is an alphabet soup of
nomenclatures used by officials and
academics tracking the activities of the
regional body.
Among the main ones are TAC, AC,
AMM, AEM and AFTA representing the
Asean Treaty of Amity and Cooperation,
which the US acceded to last month,
Asean Charter, which gives a legal frame-
work to the grouping, Asean Ministerial
Meeting – meeting of foreign ministers
actually, Asean Economic Ministers Meet-
ing and Asean Free Trade Agreement.
The leaders of these 10 nations must
have exulted with pride that the mighty
US had condescended to be the 16th
non-Asean signee of the TAC which, of
course, was the sole superpower’s way
of saying “we are back” in the region.
Those uninitiated in the Asean
nomenclature would find it hard to
guess what BIMPST and CLMV stand
for. The first refers to early comers
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philip-
pines, Singapore and Thailand and the
theSun | FRIDAY AUGUST 14 2009
second refers to latecomers Cambodia,
Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. There are
reasons for the separate groupings.
Of course, there are legions more
combinations of letters, which Asean
officials have referred to as building
blocks, including one that represents
an AA (Asean accord) on THP (for
transboundary haze pollution) and, as
can be seen, which does not seem to
do much to lessen the annual haze – a
polite term for smog.
To this soup of alphabets has been
added lately a dash of numbers, causing
quite an upset to those who feel that
Asean should be a wholesome and
strong brew first, one that has char-
acter and identity before it ventures to
expand further.
Thus, there is now an Asean + 3
which those who could not be weaned
away from alphabets have referred to
as APT (Asean plus three), a ghost of
the EAEC that former PM Tun Mahathir
Mohamad was trying to sell. The three
(3), of course, refers to China, South
Korea and Japan.
The regularity of consultations
among members of the APT have
somehow inspired those who dared to
dream to come up with the idea of an
East Asian Community. If there is an EC
(a European Community) why not an
EAC, they reasoned to their leaders.
But Australia, New Zealand and India
also wanted to join and to accommo-
date them in a forum called the East
Asian Summit or EAS or a summit of
Asean + 3 + 3 was created in 2005 dur-
ing Abdullah’s watch.
This explains why he was invited to
inaugurate the one-day rountable.
AASSHHER
CCCASH
CUACCSH
HHER
VO
V OU
VOUCHER
UCHER