ASEAN hopes for new charter at Asian summit

Manila, Jan 9: Southeast Asia will consider allowing countries to wade into each other's internal affairs this week when leaders discuss the biggest shake-up of the region's internal diplomacy in 40 years.

Wary of being overtaken by a growing China and an increasingly confident Japan and anxious to tackle criticism that it's nothing but a talking shop, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) wants to draft a mini-constitution for itself this year.

At ASEAN's annual summit, leaders from 10 member countries will agree proposals for drafting the charter, which would turn a group whose hallmark has been informal consensus into a legal entity with binding rules more akin to the European Union.

''At the summit, the ASEAN charter has the most far-reaching implications because of the discussions on the ground rules,'' said Victoriano Lecaros, ASEAN spokesman in the Philippines, which currently holds the organisation's rotating chair.

Proposals drafted by a panel of former ministers and leaders call for sanctions, but not expulsion, for serious breaches of commitments, such as Myanmar's ''roadmap'' to democracy, but analysts doubt whether ASEAN is ready for such a bold leap.

''Even if proposals for sanctions were accepted, if it required consensus then it's hard to imagine ASEAN agreeing to levy such sanctions,'' said Robert Ayson, Australian National University strategic and defence analyst.

''ASEAN tends to be a lowest common denominator type organisation and that has become more true as it has expanded.'' ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

ANAEMIC PACE

Founded in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War and in the midst of the Cold War, ASEAN offered its newly independent members a forum to engage with each other and deal with external powers on a more weighty footing.

In a region still marred by border disputes and ethnic differences, ASEAN has helped create trust among vastly different countries ranging from an absolute monarchy to communist-run states and has given smaller nations an international voice.

But, in comparison to the European Union, which has a single market, a single currency and body of law, ASEAN -- founded 10 years after the European Economic Community -- has moved at an anaemic pace due to its consensus decision-making structure.

Myanmar has also become a major embarrassment for the group, which has failed to nudge the country's military junta into following a democratic path, underlining the problems of its ''hear no evil, see no evil'' policy of non-interference.

Member countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia have become more openly vocal against Myanmar's military leader, Than Shwe, who did not plan on attending this year's summit and is undergoing treatment at a Singapore hospital.

The ''Eminent Persons' Group'' (EPG) which drafted the charter proposals has called for leaders to engage in, ''more candid exchanges'' with each other at summits and has said the group must ''calibrate'' its traditional approach of non-interference.

Other proposals include replacing consensus with majority voting in non-controversial areas such as economic cooperation and crisis-management, a twice-yearly summit and a greater role for ASEAN's secretary-general.

While former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, who was Manila's representative on the EPG, has said he is confident that all proposals will be accepted at the January 10-15 series of meeting in the central Philippine island of Cebu, Lecaros was more sceptical.

''I think it would be too much to hope for that everyone will accept this as it is.''

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