Disputes put Asean in `crisis of credibility'

Singapore Foreign Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar outlined some of the challenges confronting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) as the ministers prepared for a security forum with global powers today.

One issue is how to integrate old and new members of an expanded Asean family of 10 countries -- each at a different stage of economic development and with different political systems -- to avoid splitting it into a ``two-tier organisation''.

Another is how to press ahead with co-operation despite bilateral strains between some members of the group.

Asean is grappling with disputes such as the Spratlys Islands, claimed in whole or in part by members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as by China and Taiwan.

The two-day meeting also included discussion of some topics once considered taboo.

The ministers discussed such issues as ``civil society, human rights, political systems, role of non-government organisations, democracy'', Mr Jayakumar said.

They debated how Asean can balance its longstanding principles such as consultation, consensus and non-interference in each other's domestic affairs while at the same time meeting ``modern challenges''.

``I am not going to pretend that we have arrived at all the answers,'' Mr Jayakumar said on Saturday.

``This would not be credible. And the essential challenge that Asean faces is one of credibility.''

Over the past two years, the group's public image of solidarity and its economic prestige have been tarnished by an unprecedented financial crisis and political stresses in individual economies, and sometimes between member states.

``The regional economic crisis has hit the region like a tidal wave, leaving devastation in its wake. Many governments are under tremendous pressure to cope with the political, economic and social effects of the crisis,'' Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said.

Many Asean members are experiencing a political transition, while the grouping has expanded with the entry of underdeveloped Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia in the past two years to encompass the whole of Southeast Asia.

Since the onset of the regional economic crisis, Asean has seen long-time Indonesian leader Suharto step down and would-be Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim sacked and jailed for corruption.

Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said outsiders were doubting Asean's ``efficacy'' and had also caused the group ``to rethink our role''.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said ``the financial crisis, which had overwhelmed our economies and unsettled the social and political fabric of our societies, showed that Asean countries were as yet unprepared for the full impact of the forces of globalisation''. - AFP