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Nation : Thais defend proposal on A



The Nation, Agence France-Presse
July 23, 1998
Thais defend proposal on Asean switch


THAILAND'S ''flexible engagement'' initiative can serve as an early-warning
system for Asean members of the gravity of certain domestically generated
trans-national or international problems, Deputy Foreign Minister
Sukhumbhand Paribatra said Wednesday. 

His statement came as the Philippines, the host of the Asean Ministerial
Meetings, also defended the initiative saying that it was the same thing
Singapore elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew had tried to practice. 

The Thai proposal, which encourages Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) members to criticise one another on domestic policies which have a
regional impact, has sparked a debate ahead of the ministerial meeting
which officially begins Friday. 

Sukhumbhand said that this approach can also provide policy options and
facilitate the pooling of scarce resources for addressing such problems. 

These problems include the financial crisis, haze and environment issues
and trans-migration. 

The minister was speaking to journalists from Laos and Thailand attending a
seminar, hosted by the Reporters Association of Thailand, on the role of
the media in promoting Thai-Laos relations. 

He said many domestic affairs have obvious external and trans-national
dimensions which can adversely affect neighbours, the region and its
overall relations with others. 

The Asean foreign ministers will meet tonight to discuss the Thai proposal.
Their senior officials could not reach a consensus during their two-day
meeting earlier this week. 

The Philippines has been the only country that has openly supported the
Thai plan. Other countries have said that Asean should stick to its
principle of non-interference enshrined in the Treaty of Amity and
Cooperation. 

In a separate interview, Sukhumbhand said that Asean could no longer rely
on its status-quo policy because of the changes that have taken place in
the region and the world. ''Asean needs to be dynamic and catch up with the
trend,'' he said. 

In Manila, Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said that
Singapore's Lee had launched ''flexible engagement'' in Asean when he urged
Manila to fix its power outages in 1992. 

Siazon said that when Fidel Ramos became Philippines president in 1992,
''Lee called up president Ramos and said, 'president Ramos, you better fix
your power shortage -- seven, eight hours a day. No power, no good'. 

''Well Ramos, of course, felt a little slighted, but he understood the
message and because of that, he [became] determined to solve the problem in
12 months,'' Siazon said. 

Siazon said he did not know if Lee could be called the ''father'' of the
controversial concept, which has been strongly opposed by Indonesia,
Malaysia, Burma and Vietnam. 

''In fact this type of frank exchange has been going on in Asean for many
years now, but generally in private, but more and more in recent times
because of changes within the region and also because of the growing
integration of the countries of the region.'' 

He maintained that the principle of non-interference was ''well respected
and will not be challenged and the concept of no direct intervention into
the domestic affairs of others should be supported. 

''What is being proposed is that among Asean countries, it should be
permitted for Asean countries to speak on issues, or calling on another
Asean countries, when these issues have an impact on other countries,'' he
said. 

The group's staunch adherence to mutual non-interference has earned it
criticism from western countries and human rights organisations in the case
of army-ruled Burma, which joined the group in July last year. 



The Nation, Agence France-Presse