Reuters : ASEAN ends meeting marked

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

ASEAN ends meeting marked by free speech debate 
08:26 a.m. Jul 25, 1998 Eastern 

By Stephen Powell 

MANILA, July 25 (Reuters) - The Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) on Saturday ended a two-day meeting of foreign ministers marked by
exchanges over whether to discuss previously taboo subjects like democracy
and human rights. 

Ministers noted widespread criticism that the nine-member group had
appeared helpless in the face of major challenges such as the region's
financial crisis and calamitous forest fires last year in Indonesia. 

Their final communique deplored nuclear tests in South Asia -- it did not
refer by name to India and Pakistan, which conducted tit-for-tat nuclear
tests in May -- and called for the elimination of nuclear weapons. 

The communique also highlighted the signing of a declaration that member
states would try to make Southeast Asia a drug-free area by 2020. ASEAN
members include countries of the infamous opium-producing Golden Triangle,
Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. 

But the meeting was overshadowed by what looked like an unresolved debate
over whether ASEAN should permit a more freewheeling political style and
allow debate on issues transcending boundaries, such as human rights and
the environment. 

Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan, supported by the Philippines, led the
campaign, telling the conference on Friday: ``Like it or not, the issues of
democracy and human rights are those that we have to increasingly deal with
in our engagement with the outside world. 

``How are we going to put ourselves on the offensive rather than always on
the receiving end?'' 



The meeting embraced a compromise, calling for ``enhanced interaction'' on
trans-boundary issues while preserving the group's central tenet of
non-interference in member states' affairs. 

Closing statements to the ministerial conference by outgoing chairman the
Philippines and incoming chairman Singapore showed how very differently
member states intepreted the compromise. 

Philippine Foreign Minister Domingo Siazon told delegates: ``Our common
problems have driven us to work together. Trying times call for courageous
thinking. And greater openness is a boon to our common efforts.'' 

He told a closing news conference that ``lively discussions'' on the
non-interference issue marked the first time it had been considered jointly
at this level. 

Singapore Foreign Minister Shunmugam Jayakumar took another line entirely.
He said the meeting had started amidst some confusion and speculation as to
whether there would be changes to ASEAN's fundamental principles. 

``These controversies have been laid to rest,'' he said. ``We are now
clearly of one mind, resolute and united. The basic principles of
non-intervention and decision-making by consensus would remain the
cornerstones of ASEAN.'' 

Thailand has been pushing an agenda of greater openness partly because it
feels the pressure of illegal workers entering the country from
military-led Myanmar, giving it first-hand experience of the fall-out from
political turmoil in a neighbouring country. 

Myanmar was admitted into ASEAN last year despite its pariah status in the
West. The apparent lack of progress in resolving the long conflict between
the military junta and pro-democracy campaigners is an embarrassment to
some in the association. 

The Philippine minister Siazon told the closing news conference that he
wanted to see the process of national reconciliation in Myanmar
accelerated. 

ASEAN's members are Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.