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ASEAN adopts broad charter

SINGAPORE: Regaining poise after the unprecedented action of a member-state breaking ranks over democracy and human rights issues, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Tuesday adopted a charter — the group’s first such document in 40 years of existence — with the same principles at its core.

Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein had, on Monday, opposed the idea that the collective forum could lend substance to the “good offices” of the United Nations, which was currently engaged in addressing the democracy and human rights issues in his country. Unable to persuade him to accept an ASEAN role, the forum then decided to stay clear of the crisis in military-ruled Myanmar.

Later, ASEAN Chairman and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that U.N. Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari would not brief, contrary to earlier plans, the collective ASEAN forum and the East Asia Summit (EAS) on the progress of his efforts in Myanmar and the way forward there.

The ASEAN held its annual summit on Tuesday, and the EAS leaders will meet here on Wednesday.

With Myanmar refraining from voicing dissent over the generic principle, as different from a country-specific norm, of democracy as a system of state governance, the ASEAN leaders signed, as planned, an ambitious charter to end their annual summit on a high note.

The salient generic “principles” outlined in the charter include “adherence to the rule of law, good governance, the principles of democracy and constitutional government.”

Another key principle is “respect for fundamental freedoms, the promotion and protection of human rights, and the promotion of social justice.”

Under the charter, these principles are to be translated into reality “with due regard to the rights and responsibilities of the member-states of ASEAN.”

Here, too, the accent on “rights” also suited Myanmar.

The charter provides for the establishment of “an ASEAN human rights body”. On the political side of the ASEAN agenda, the charter re-emphasises the forum’s commitment “to preserve Southeast Asia as a nuclear-weapon-free zone and free of all other weapons of mass destruction.”

On the economic side, the ASEAN signed a new declaration on a blueprint to carve out “a single [regional] market and production base” by 2015 instead of the original goal of 2020.

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