Southeast Asia has tussled continually with
the two faces of US foreign policy – from the time the US propped up
authoritarian regimes in the 1970s, and until the 1990s when the Clinton
administration came out loud and clear on human rights and democracy promotion.
Last
week, the first ASEAN-US Eminent Persons Group (EPG) Meeting came to a close in
Manila, marking 25 years of formal dialogue between the partners.
This high-level
gathering of top diplomats, intellectuals and business entrepreneurs picked up
from where the ASEAN-US Leaders’ Meeting left of in November 2011 and laid the
groundwork for the fourth ASEAN-US Leaders’ Meeting in Cambodia later this
year. The ASEAN-US Dialogue and Leaders Meeting is a fresh opportunity for the
two parties to take history onto their side.
For the
US, the fact that their exports to ASEAN rose by 23.3 percent, totaling
US$100.5 billion in 2010, and that they are each other’s fourth largest trading
partner, to a sum total of $186.1 billion also in 2010, should be more than an
incentive to keep their markets alive in the region.
ASEAN
is not only a good neighbor to China, it is a neighborhood all unto itself and
represents a vast repository of natural, cultural and intellectual wealth.
For the
10 member states of ASEAN and their array of emerging economies and democratic
institutions, the US can prove to be the timely ally. It is the foil to
Leninist-style capitalism and one albeit flawed model of liberal democracy to
which countries at the very least can gauge themselves on the road to national
development.
So if
former US ambassador to Singapore, Stapleton Roy, who is a member of the EPG,
claims that this US “comeback” in Southeast Asia is not about “containing”
China, then it ought be, in my view, about building ASEAN. To understand how to
draw the lines for the future of ASEAN-US relations, one has got to look at the
mouseprint, which means following through some of the most strategic agreements
that are on the table, and not just the hyped-about trade and commercial
benefits.
First,
ASEAN government entities ought to be forthright not only in imitating but
owning technical know-how that can help them push for the freer flow of goods,
people and capital by 2015.
The
US-ASEAN Connectivity Cooperation Initiative that came out of the November 2011
meeting should now be supporting activities that allow ASEAN business
enterprises to observe the manufacture and demonstration of US goods and
services in the energy, transportation, and information and communication
technology sectors. Indonesia, with its online social habits, and the
Philippines, which pioneered the “text” revolution in 2001, are sterling
examples of what we stand to gain if we narrow the digital divide.
Second,
thousands of lives have been lost and numbers more have been threatened by
floods, storms, earthquakes and landslides, especially in the last decade in
Southeast Asia. The US has agreed to support the ASEAN implementation of an all
hazard disaster monitoring and response system.
This
will only go far if the proposed Rapid Disaster Response Agreement to create a
legal and procedural framework for accelerating deployment and acceptance of
assistance personnel, supplies and services proposed by President Obama in 2011
goes full swing. Both parties must then move fast in sharing best practices in
areas such risk assessment; early warning; monitoring, prevention and
mitigation; disaster preparedness and responses to ease regional setbacks in
the wake of natural calamities.
Finally,
ASEAN and the US can go even further by strengthening the ASEAN
Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, which is the overarching human
body for the regional organization.
The
country representatives call the attention of the heads of states to pressing
regional problems that endanger the peoples of ASEAN and are creating regional
human rights instruments that will combat human trafficking, the inhuman work
conditions of migrants and the abuse of women and children, to name just a few.
They
will eventually need a secretariat and a steady stream of funding to undertake
thematic studies and provide the framework for conventions on rights more
specific to the region. The birth of this institution is a clear example of how
influential the West has been in Southeast Asia.
The US
can now do the wider world a bigger favor if it can help it grow because this
institution safeguards the values and principles under which international
cooperation can make profound and lasting changes.
The
writer is a university research scholar at East Asian Studies and the School of
Politics and International Studies in the University of Leeds, UK. He is the
principal investigator of the LIAISON Project – Language and Power In Advocacy
in Southeast Asian Networks.
Kevin
H.R. Villanueva, Manila
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