DPM,
Excellencies,
Dear friends,
Colleagues
1 Listening to Walter, now I know why camels tear all the time. This will be a difficult year for all of us in ASEAN. How long this global economic crisis will last no one knows. It is not likely to be short. In the coming months, retrenchment in every ASEAN country will rise steeply. All governments in ASEAN will come under stress to a greater or lesser degree.
2 Under such conditions, it is natural that protectionist sentiments will rise. Governments will come under growing domestic political pressure to protect jobs and to favour local businesses.
3 ASEAN itself will be put to the test. Without strong leadership, individual ASEAN countries in their preoccupation with domestic economic problems may not follow through on commitments. The political will to make ASEAN an ever closer community may slacken.
4 By the time this crisis is over, the cards would have been reshuffled. Some countries will surge ahead while others will slide behind. As for ASEAN, the question is whether this crisis will make us stronger or weaker. Much will depend on the response of ASEAN leaders and their collective determination to maintain solidarity under trying conditions. We cannot be sure now how they will react.
5 During the Asian Financial Crisis, many analysts thought that it would spell the end of ASEAN. In fact, the opposite happened. Despite economic and political upheavals, leaders and ministers continued to meet and make tough decisions. Somehow there was a deep instinct to keep together. Our Asian dialogue partners, China, Japan and South Korea, also stayed close. It was during the Asian Financial Crisis that the ASEAN+3 grouping was formed. We persisted in our trade liberalisation agenda and began a series of free trade initiatives which put ASEAN in a much stronger position today.
6 There is therefore reason for us to be cautiously optimistic that ASEAN will come together even more during this crisis.
7 It is fortunate that we face this crisis with the ASEAN Charter already in force. When we embarked on the process of drafting the Charter a few years ago, there was considerable scepticism. Despite divergent views in the early stages, the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) under Tun Musa Hitam's chairmanship concentrated on the major issues and presented a historic report to ASEAN Leaders in January 2007. A year before, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in the ASEAN Chair commented that "the Charter is a momentous undertaking" and he instructed the EPG to "be bold and visionary in proposing major steps", adding that "in order to provide the Eminent Persons the greatest flexibility, ASEAN has not stipulated any Terms of Reference". It was a blank sheet of paper that was provided to the EPG.
8 Based upon the EPG's report, the Charter was drafted chapter by chapter, never easily, by the High Level Task Force which was chaired first by Ambassador Manalo, and later by Professor Tommy Koh. I am so happy that Ambassador Manalo is here to join us for this afternoon's launch of the book. Foreign Ministers met many times to settle key points in different parts of the world. Often we started our discussions not knowing whether we would come to any decision at the end of it. But, somehow, there was always a strong political will to settle, move forward and a helpful spirit of compromise.
9 I remember two particular decisions which many of us feared might long remain deadlocked. One was what "ultimate dispute settlement" by the Leaders meant. If decisions were always by consensus, how could recalcitrant behaviour be disapproved of and sanctioned against? And if you could not impose sanctions, then what was the purpose of the organisation, what discipline could it enforce? Gradually, we came to the conclusion that the Leaders acted as a college of peers, who could establish their own rules of discussion and decision-making. We could not limit their freedom of action. It was a deep view, not a cop out. To specify more was not only unrealistic but needlessly disputatious.
10 A second decision was the establishment of an ASEAN Human Rights Body. Views were polarised not because any ASEAN country was against human rights, but because some rightly feared that such a body might be used by external powers to pressure them. By seeing the issue from each other's point of view, we were able to make some progress - enough for a provision to be made in the Charter, but not enough for that provision to be fleshed out in the Charter. This is of course a subject that remains under intense discussion and will be on the agenda when Foreign Ministers meet in Hua Hin in two days' time. Well, I doubt that whatever body established will have teeth, but it will certainly have a tongue and I certainly hope it will be a sharp one.
11 After the Charter was signed by ASEAN Leaders in November 2007, we could not be sure that all ten countries would ratify it within a year. But all did eventually, miraculously, and the coming into force was celebrated at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta last December 15th despite the postponement of the Summit. Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan has been energetic in getting the Charter implemented. The Secretariat is being strengthened and a Committee of Permanent Representatives is being formed.
12 The ASEAN Charter will help us get through this economic crisis together. All three pillars of ASEAN must be strengthened in a balanced way. While the current emphasis is obviously economic, this can only happen if there is sufficient political will backing it. That political will in turn requires support of the ASEAN idea among ordinary citizens. In other words, for the ASEAN Charter to be part of our collective DNA, it must be internalised in the minds and hearts of the people of ASEAN. Last December when we celebrated the coming into force of the Charter, we also released the new ASEAN Anthem. I hope that every school child in ASEAN will learn to sing the anthem one day, memorizing it by heart the way we do for our national anthems. I suppose this must begin with leaders and ministers.
13 It is good that Ambassador Manalo, Attorney-General Walter Woon and Professor Tommy Koh came together to edit this book of contributions from many of those who were involved in drafting the ASEAN Charter. These reflections will help future generations understand the Charter's overall design, why it looks the way it does, and why and how certain key provisions were drafted in a particular way. I am delighted to join all of you here for the launch of the book this afternoon, and to add my congratulations to the many which the authors must have already received.
14 Thank you.
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