ASEAN Summit Gets Underway

The ASEAN anthem and traditional music greeted delegates at the opening of the Association of South East Asian Nations summit in Hua Hin.

There was blanket security with some 18,000 troops deployed to prevent a repeat of anti-government protests that last April forced the ASEAN summit in the resort town of Pattaya to be cancelled, with officials being evacuated by air.

Inaugurating the summit on Friday, the Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, highlighted the grouping’s response to recent crises, such as the financial downturn but also various natural disasters that have struck the region.

“A community of peoples”

He also said human rights should be at the forefront of ASEAN, which has expanded trade, finance and transport relations between member states.

“Most importantly,” he said, the grouping should be “a community of peoples that promotes equitable access to human development opportunities, human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

“Our people will be the ultimate beneficiaries of our future ASEAN community. ASEAN's relevance in the future will be judged from our ability to respond to challenges affecting the well-being of our peoples in a concrete and timely manner.”

In this vein, on Friday, ASEAN launched a new intergovernmental human rights body, described by Mr. Abhisit as being “important” for protecting the rights of women and children.

Leaders refuse to meet civil society groups

But a scheduled meeting with civil society groups fell apart after the leaders of Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines refused to meet the designated representatives.

Representatives from civil society groups from Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia then walked out of the meeting.

Debbie Stothardt, a spokesperson for the Alternative ASEAN Network said the incident raised doubts about ASEAN leaders’ commitment to a “people-centred community”.

“It became very clear from the conditions imposed that this was in no way a dialogue or an interface,” she said. “Until ASEAN governments are genuinely interested in discussing solutions to the urgent problems facing the region it is pretty clear that ASEAN is not going to move ahead.”

“Not going full-steam ahead”

ASEAN has come under criticism because of its dealings with Myanmar’s military government and the fact that the Charter and human rights body does not have powers to punish states that breach human rights.

The summit was also plagued by the early absence of several ASEAN leaders, including Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen, who according to press reports has lent support to fugitive former Thai leader, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Carl Thayer, an Asian regional security analyst at the University of New South Wales in Australia, was not very optimistic about ASEAN’s progress: “Not being able to deal with human rights, leaders bogged down and not being able to come, and the Cambodia-Thailand dispute; all this indicates well that ASEAN is no longer going full-steam ahead into the future. It’s not yet dead in the water but it’s at risk of being overtaken by other regional structures.”

In the remaining days of the summit in Hua Hin, ASEAN leaders will meet their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea and later New Zealand, Australia and India.

Author: Ron Corben
Editor: Anne Thomas