It's time to question ASEAN's consensus model

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 08/08/2007 12:50 PM  |  Opinion

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Call me a party pooper, but rather than celebrating the 40th anniversary of ASEAN today, we should be contemplating its future, assuming there is a future for the regional organization in the first place.

Questions are now being asked as to whether or not the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- whose presence has served to ensure peace and stability in the region over the past four decades, which in turn has allowed countries to grow economically and prosper -- can really serve to further the region's interests in the increasingly competitive and complex world.

Some changes are certainly needed, given the rapid transformation of the geopolitical and economic environment in Asia, especially with the rise of China as a regional and global power and the emergence of India as a new economic player in Asia.

ASEAN has responded to this evolving Asian order with its decision to forge a community out of its 10 member states by 2020 and with its plan to enact the ASEAN Charter later this year during its annual meeting in Singapore. But going by the draft of the charter, which was submitted to ASEAN foreign ministers in Manila last month, one can sense that ASEAN is not prepared to go the distance to meet the challenges of the new Asia.

The ""ASEAN Way"", by which all decisions are made by consensus, may have served well over the last 40 years, but in a competitive environment that often calls for rapid responses, the mechanism is no longer defensible. In fact, it is becoming an impediment to ASEAN's progress.

ASEAN has already lost so much ground and time by sticking to its consensual decision-making mechanism, while China and India are fast making inroads into the construction of the new Asian order. The ASEAN Way is cumbersome, and this is not likely to change if we go by the draft of the charter.

When ASEAN was still only a six-member group, reaching a consensus between Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand was already a difficult and time consuming task. Since the joining of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to the grouping between 1995 and 1999, decisions have been even harder to come by.

Since the ASEAN-10 is quite a mixed group of political systems -- from an absolute monarchy to the most authoritarian regime, controlled societies to liberal democracies -- inevitably members do not see eye to eye on many issues. Forging a consensus becomes that much more difficult.

One would have thought, however, that external pressures from the changing global geopolitical and economic environment would be strong enough to encourage ASEAN to take the necessary steps to change its ways to meet present day challenges. The draft ASEAN charter does not reflect the urgency with which the group should respond. ASEAN will be going at a speed it feels comfortable with, just the way it has always done.

ASEAN member countries may be fully aware of the need to change, but some of them do not have the capability to transform this awareness into political will.

If ASEAN is serious about forging a community, inevitably this would mean giving up some sovereignty for the good of the region. The ASEAN Way of making decisions by consensus means that it only takes one member to send any proposal back to the drawing board.

ASEAN's anniversary is not a time to denigrate the ASEAN Way. It has worked well in the past, but that is exactly where it belongs. Over the next 40 years, ASEAN has to change its ways.

ASEAN, and the ASEAN Way, is responsible for the emergence of the Asian ""economic tigers"" -- Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and now Vietnam. But these tigers no longer have the exclusive prairie they enjoyed in the 1990s.

Now they have to make way for the fiery Chinese dragon and the stomping Indian elephant, both of which seek to dominate the play ground. If the tigers are to survive, first they have stay together, and second, they have to be smart.

In marking ASEAN's 40th anniversary, we need to contemplate whether we want to stay together and face future challenges together, and more importantly, whether we have the will and capacity to do so.

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