ASEAN: Does It Offer Hope for Southeast Asia?

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Does It Offer Hope for Southeast Asia?

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My nation, the Philippines, is a member of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. On the 8th of August ASEAN will celebrate its 40th anniversary.

But as this regional organization, which had the potential to do so much for my nation, expanded from its original members (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines) it abandoned its original goal—regional solidarity against communist expansion. Now it is merely a trading community of 10 neighboring nations with limited commercial objectives.

Communist Vietnam itself has been admitted, as have the communist nations of Cambodia and Lao PDR (Laos-People's Democratic Republic). Even Myanmar, a country ruled by a military-junta is now a member. The tenth member is oil rich Brunei Darussalem.

What hope is there for the governments from my region of the world to ever agree on ways to improve the life of ordinary citizens rather than limiting their cooperation to the realm of commercial concerns only? Actually, the hope is very great—but from a very different source, which in the future can provide lasting solutions to the regions many problems.

Yet the need now for regional organization and cooperation at all levels of government is very real. The 10 Charter Member-Nations of ASEAN comprise more than a half-billion people in the Southeast Asia. They occupy a total area of 4.5 million square kilometers. They also have a combined gross domestic product of almost US$ 700 billion and total trade of about US$ 850 billion (according to ASEAN's own website).

With a 40th anniversary approaching, the foreign ministers of ASEAN nations met in Manila, Philippines from July 30 to August 2, 2007 to discuss some critical issues they need to address at the ASEAN Summit Conference later this year. But it is unlikely they will be able to sufficiently put aside their ideological differences to give ordinary citizens in this region of the world any real hope that the conditions under which they live will be much different.

One reason for these low expectations is that to this day ASEAN has no officially ratified organizational charter. One of the founding principles of the organization's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) is "the right of every State to lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion, or coercion; and non-interference in the internal affairs of one another."

The Philippine Stars' page 1 headline article on July 31, 2007 (written by Pia Lee-Brago) reported, "Some ASEAN countries [such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam] fear scrutiny of their human rights record, and the group has traditionally held to the cardinal policy of non-interference in each other's affairs. Human rights groups complain that this non-interference principle fostered undemocratic governments in the region."

The paper also noted that "talks over the past days, often stretching into the wee hours, have failed to iron out bitter divisions that cut to the heart of how the block would operate under the new charter. Member countries have not agreed yet on a mechanism to punish or sanction those that do not abide by the new rules."

Opinion writer Ana Marie Pamintuan asked in the Editorial section on page 14 of the previous issue: "Do universal human rights apply in the Islamic world? That question must be answered by ASEAN, whose founding member Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, and whose two other members Malaysia and Brunei are also predominantly Islamic."

Considering all these obstacles to addressing more than just commercially driven regional issues by the nations of Southeast Asia, why do I have confidence that a better life is a certainty for my region of the world? It is because I understand and believe promises from the Holy Bible that I would like to share with you.

One of those promises is that in the future, " The kingdoms of this world [will] have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" (Revelation 11:15).