April 18– 14, 2008
A brief look-back at the topics and issues making headlines around Asean 
 

Asean Charter Will there be a full ratification?

Rice Crisis: How Asean is reacting to the impact

  
Asean Charter

Will there be a full ratification?

Upbeat over the Charter ratification

Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan was upbeat over the full ratification of the charter by year end. “Next year will mark the historic beginning of Asean and the Asean charter,” the confident Asean chief said at a recent news conference in Bangkok.

More than four months has passed since the leaders of the 10-nation Asean signed the historic Asean Charter in Singapore last November. Vietnam became the fifth member to have ratified the Charter early March, joining Singapore, Laos, Malaysia and Brunei.

Thailand should ratify the Charter before assuming the Asean chair in August this year. The remaining four members – Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Myanmar – are expected to follow suit before the end of this year.

Surin has said he expects the ratification process will be completed by the time of the Asean summit in Thailand in December, and the 41-year old regional group becomes a rule-based entity rather an ad hoc bloc.

Besides, it will also enhance the role of the secretary-general and establish a human rights body for the first time ever to promote and protect rights in the region.

Junta-ruled Burma, which has a poor record on human rights protection, has signalled that it will sign to ratify the charter not later than the coming Asean summit in Bangkok, he said.

Surin, who has been in office for three months, was sharing his vision on the integration of the group at a recent luncheon speech in Bangkok to accept an honorary doctorate in law from Bristol University.

Having reached the halfway with the Charter ratified by five out of the ten members, with some eight months more to go before the year-end deadline comes; it seems Surin’s expectations are not too ambitious.

However, there are some causes for concern over Indonesia and the Philippines ratifying the document on time, which could delay the Chart coming into force next year.  

In Indonesian, the government would like the House of Representatives (DPR) to ratify the Asean Charter sooner rather than later. But not all the lawmakers agree with the government.

Early in April an international relations expert at Indonesia’s Gajah Mada University argued that there was actually no need for the Asean Charter to be ratified by Indonesia’s parliament, saying it was not a legally binding document.

Professor Dr Ichlasul Amal shared the common view among Indonesian members of Parliament that a treaty contains agreements affecting the state and nation's interests in a binding way and therefore it needed parliamentary ratification but a charter could be implemented merely based on the government’s approval of it.

He also noted that there is resistance in the Indonesian Parliament against the Charter’s ratification as some lawmakers suspect the charter hold out certain undue advantages for Singapore.

He said it was unusual for Singapore, which would not be easily persuaded to sign a document affecting Asean affairs, to take the lead and sign the Charter.

In the Philippines, the Congress has said it won’t ratify the Charter unless Myanmar junta upholds the Charter’s principles of democracy and human rights and releases pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Political deadlock in Burma, particularly since the September crackdown on mass demonstrations which claimed at least 31 lives, remains a key problem for Asean.

One of the most significant pledges in the charter is to set up a regional human rights body. Critics note, however, that it will have limited impact given that it will not be able to punish governments that violate the human rights of their citizens.

Negotiators have watered it down by dropping earlier recommendations to consider sanctions, including possible expulsion, in cases of serious breaches of the covenant by member nations.

“Of course there has been some watering down,” said former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas, who helped draft the charter, during the last Asean Summit in Singapore. Still, “I think it’s a good step forward; it's a momentous step forward.”

Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the Charter is a long-term document and not meant to handle certain issues such as the current situation in Myanmar.

The Myanmar issue is one of the hurdles Asean is facing as it follows the leaders’ vision to create an EU-style bloc.

It remains to be seen how Asean will work it out to have a full ratification of the Charter. They have to find a way and get it done because the pact will collapse if one country fails to ratify it.

There is still eight months to go and hopefully Asean will be able to sort it out. But the group also has other issues to tackle.

Asean’s lofty plans for a unified market by 2015, which hinge on painful reforms, could be derailed by red tape, vested interests and foot-dragging.

Despite the approval of a blueprint for an Asean Economic Community embracing more than half a billion people, the AEC will remain an aspiration if member countries lack the political will to push through with these reforms.

Very often, Asean governments are found unable to resist pressure from domestic interests, and setting up foreign ownership controls. Besides, there are disparities between the group's more developed members Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, and lower-income states Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

It is time Asean took these challenges seriously and if it must maintain (or redeem) its credibility as a regional force to reckon with.