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Updated Monday, July 12, 2010 11:49 am TWN, By Kavi Chongkittavorn, The Nation (Thailand)/Asia News Network

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Indonesia, the new intellectual leader emerging in ASEAN

At the May meeting in Hoi An, ASEAN senior officials found it extremely difficult to choose either formula for the inclusion of the world's two superpowers. The ASEAN chair, Vietnam, plus Indonesia and Laos prefer an expanded EAS. Singapore and Cambodia strongly back the ASEAN plus eight, along with potential support from the Philippines and Burma. Thailand, Brunei and Malaysia need additional information to come up with their positions. Of late, both Thailand and Malaysia are edging towards the proposed Indonesian plan.

When the foreign ministers meet in Hanoi in coming days, these positions would certainly shift and change. Meanwhile, strong posturing and lobbying are visible from Singapore and Indonesia over their preferred formulas. In fact, their differences are minimal. Quite a few ASEAN members fear that ASEAN will lose its influence and centrality in the newly proposed ASEAN plus eight. They prefer an expanded EAS with the U.S. and Russia added on as it would help forge common views on global issues with the fulcrum in ASEAN. A consensus must be reached before a report with recommendations is ready to be made and submitted to ASEAN leaders at their summit in October.

In the past, Singapore has been the uncontested intellectual leader of ASEAN, providing new ideas related to economic and security matters to reinvent and make ASEAN relevant to the global community. The ASEAN Regional Forum and Asia Europe Meeting are such hallmarks. It used to be a given that Singapore's ideas would eventually morph into ASEAN plans.

This time, however, there is a new regional environment with the rise of democratic Indonesia. The grouping's biggest member has come up with many bold and liberal ideas of its own regarding ASEAN. It has played crucial roles in pushing for the drafting of an ASEAN charter and security community. Gone are the days when it used to be ridiculed as the grouping's smallest denominator-nothing moves without Indonesia's consent. Now the country has become the biggest denominator that can inspire the rest of ASEAN. Jakarta's growing confidence in its own democratic development has already transferred to its multilateral diplomacy towards ASEAN and major powers. Indonesian civil society groups have been the most active in ASEAN in pushing for people-oriented agenda including human rights and climate changes.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa also stressed the importance of ASEAN in Indonesian foreign policy in his interview with the author at the end of last year. Indonesia's switching the ASEAN chair with Brunei for next year was another example. The move aims to achieve twin objectives of regional and global leadership. With the ASEAN chair next year, Indonesia has ample time to devote all its energy to host the G-20 and APEC summits in 2013. To become a Brussels of the East is no longer far-fetched.

In the end, the role of potential intellectual leader in ASEAN as perceived by fellow ASEAN members would be a pivotal factor to swing their decisions on either option. Thailand will also use this benchmark as one of the criteria for its decision.

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Comments

July 15, 2010 leesjuan@

Subject: ASEAN -The Toothless Tiger

Asean, from a few countries has grown into a 10-country 'complex' organisation. Kavi C. Ann's perspective of Asean and its emerging power in SEA and Indonesia's prominence shows nothing but the innate POWER of individual entity of nations. Everyone wants to be the leader.

Asean can never be homogenous. Conflicting ideas and proposal abound. Human rights infringement, curtailment of freedom of speech, social suppression. Can any Asean nation claim they are angel government?
Myanmar sticks out like a sore thumb with its worst human right suppression of its citizens and the unjust detention of Aung San Suu Kyi. A dictatorship nation. Singapore, an authoritarian enclave under the despotic LKY, with self-enriching creed as of the "marriage" creed. Many citizens live life on the edge. The poor are marginalized. But Singapore is a first world nation.

No nation in this world can claim credulence to be a nation for the people by the people and with the people. Even the US, a liberal democratic nation, harbours so many hidden agendas in its foreign policies to bring the world into catastrophic topsy-turvy.

The invasion of Iraq is a case in point. To this day the countless innocent death and murders of innocent. Young troops sent to their death. So, is America the moral leader of the free world??

Asean will never be extraordinary in shaping the politics of SEA. China as the emerging economic power will replace US in our region. Japan will forever hang in the balance.

Middle East's conflict will only cease only if US stop its one-sided policy on Israel. Palestines (Hamas) must understand that no one has the right not to let others exist. Peaceful co-existence is the only answer to middle-east's turbulent conflict.

Kavi C. Ann's wide view is her perspective of thoughts. A good article. But at the end of the day how Asean will emerge in the eyes of the World Arena, is left to the participating countries to show a clean record of governance and fair treatment of their citizens. Beyond that everything is a farce.

Asean may just be a toothless tiger, ferociously intimidating its very people but not doing more to the world at large. All the various Summits and Meetings can be just talk only. We shall see the progress in time...we are not Nostradamus. Let us not be N A T O. (No Action Talk Only).

patrick lee song juan