Surin Pitsuwan new ASEAN chief on economics and Burma
By Jon Fernquest |
Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN secretary general-designate, indicated that a return to a policy of "constructive engagement" with Burma was in the making. The same policy he pursued as foreign minister under Chuan Leekpai's administration prior to Thaksin. In an interview published yesterday in the Bangkok Post he comments:
Mr Surin said that the international environment had changed. When he was foreign minister 10 years ago he pushed for Asean to adopt "constructive engagement" with Burma. Even then, he got only partial support within the group."Ten years ago what I tried to do was too ambitious, probably alien to the region. Now I think the region has come around and evolved and agree that we have to manage things together - the issue of democracy, the environment, human rights, opening our markets to each other," he said.
"So I think the atmosphere has transformed. I don't think you need to push too hard, or need to argue too much in order to deliver the message. I think it is accepted and recognised."
What Asean needs to do, he said, is ensure that our diversity does not become a "structural defect that will restrain the region from becoming one dynamic organisation".
No mention of the pushy and ominous warning that US Trade Representative Susan Schwab issued last week (read article), but isn't the definition of "diplomatic": being careful in what you do and say so as not to offend people?
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, at Chulalongkorn University, recently declared that "constructive engagement" was "dead" :
"The current spate of violence in Burma exposes Asean's Achilles' heel. Burma's membership has been an albatross from the outset. It has not brought what it promised. The logic of constructive engagement is dead.Propelled by its cardinal norm of "non-interference" in the domestic affairs of other member states, the "Asean way" is being put to the test in Burmese streets in the coming days.
Always full of sound and fury, Asean has done too little to be taken seriously by the international community." (Source: Bangkok Post)
And then there's Thai PTT's massive natural gas imports from Burma ($2 billion, %40 of Burma's exports):
"...some analysts said ASEAN under the chairmanship of Thailand -- a major buyer of Myanmar natural gas -- over the next year might tone down criticism of the military regime." (Source: Reuters, Nov 22)
Surin Pitsuwan seems a little angry that Burma is the only issue people want to discuss:
"The Burma issue has certainly stolen the limelight from the three core pillars of the Asean charter - the creation of economic, political-security and socio-cultural communities by 2015.
To clarify, according to the 2003 ASEAN Summit, the ASEAN community will be built upon three pillars:
1. Political and security cooperation
2. Economic cooperation
3. Socio-cultural cooperation
(Source: ASEAN Summit in Wikipedia)
Cooperation "for the purpose of ensuring durable peace, stability and shared prosperity in the region." Hard to achieve if you have to help the US impose economic sanctions on each other! :
The economic blueprint aims to remove substantially all restrictions on trade in services within four industries, including air transport, health care and tourism, by 2010. Trade barriers in logistics services are expected to be removed by 2013, while all other services industries will be opened two years later.
Economics has to be first since ASEAN is facing increasing competitive pressures from its very large neighbors China and India:
"You have heard that China and India are sucking the oxygen of investment away from Asean," Mr Surin said. "This is a very, very serious matter. So either Asean puts its house in order, making sure its 570 million people become one unified, attractive market, or it goes into the future as divided and disorganised. It will not make us attractive or give us any bargaining power compared to China and India."
Again, economics has to come first:
"The nuts and bolts of the Asean community will still be economic because that's what will deliver cheaper goods, better goods, more efficient transport of goods and products, mobility of people to work in each area. It's the economic community that will be the nuts and bolts of integration, but it cannot be sustained if people do not feel they belong, if they do not feel ownership and if they cannot participate and benefit," Mr Surin said."
Economic cooperation would probably come out way ahead of the economic sanctions that US Trade Representative Susan Schwab wants, if the people of ASEAN, for instance, had a big democratic election to choose what goals they wanted to pursue. We'll soon see, as Surin says:
"Whether I will be a secretary or a general remains to be decided by the people of ASEAN," he said. (Source: Reuters, Nov 22)
So if the US really believes in democracy maybe it should let ASEAN take its own economic approach to bringing about change in Burma. ASEAN has trade and cultural ties with Burma. The US has none.
South Korea is a thriving democracy that got its economic start with a lot of help from the US, but it took 30 years for the country to have democratic elections. Along the way, while South Korea was developing economically, the US was not concerned about democracy at all and even helped out a little bit in the suppression of the Kwangju massacre.
Why is the US so interested in democracy in Burma now? When it has hardly been interested in Burma at all during the entire post World War period (1948-2007) (Bangkok Post, 26-11-07, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
designate - formally chosen for a position or job
constructive - positive, to create something together, not just to destroy
engagement - having relationships with another country (instead of treating them like an enemy or isolating them)
in the making - being created, but not finished yet
ambitious - wanting to achieve a lot (maybe even too much)
alien - not native to place (does not really fit)
evolved - changed slowly over time (into something more adapted to its usrroundings)
transformed - changed
ensure - make sure something happens
diversity - many different kinds of, a variety
defect - when something is not the way it's supposed to be, an imperfection
pushy - forcing people to do what you want
ominous - indicates that something bad is going to happen soon
tone down criticism - make softer, less critical
stolen the limelight -
summit - high level meeting between the leaders of countries
core - most important
prosperity - when business thrives and people become wealthy
impose - forcing someone to do something (imposing a regulation, for instance)
sanctions - punishment
logistics services - services transporting goods between places and storing them in warehouses
economic blueprint - economic plan
competitive pressures - othe companies forcing your company to produce at lower cost or higher quality or make your product differently to attract customers
puts its house in order - solve any existing problems, so you can get on with life and business
nuts and bolts - the details of the parts that make a thing work (you need to study them if you really want to understand how it works)
mobility of people - ability for people to move around from country to country freely (treating migrant workers fairly, for intance)
integration - becoming one unified hole (with everything tied together and connected properly)
sustained - keep going for a long time, continuosly without stop
participate - when a person joins with the activities of a group
trade and cultural ties - when people establish business, educational, scholarly and other kinds of relationships with people in other countries
