WITHOUT ENFORCEMENT, ASEAN CHARTER MEANINGLESS, SAYS MIER

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 (Bernama) -- The ASEAN Charter is an important
beginning to shore up Asean's credibility as a bloc, but without enforcement, it
will merely remain "a piece of paper", says a senior economic analyst.

Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) executive director,
Professor Emeritus Dr Mohamed Ariff Abdul Kareem said the ASEAN Charter itself
was a controversial document as many people were still not clear about it.

The ASEAN Charter marks the new beginning of Asean as a legal-binding
organisation, where members must comply with all the rules and regulations
agreed upon by their leaders without fail.

Mohamed Ariff nevertheless said that the charter was an important beginning.

"Even ASEAN itself admits that this is just an experiment that can be
revamped and revisited after some time. It is an important beginning, but it is
lacking in some, or soft in human rights (issues) and so on," he told Bernama
recently.

There are issues that must be tightened, he said.

After a lengthy process, all 10 members of the regional grouping finally
ratified the ASEAN Charter, making it possible for the leaders to put
into force their basic document.

The charter is also the key instrument to promoting the realisation of an
ASEAN community in 2015.
Asked on how effectively it could be implemented, Mohamed Ariff said: "The
ASEAN Charter as it stands is a highly imperfect document but an important
beginning. We need some kind of a chart...for an organisation which had
existed for more than 40 years. Not having a charter would sound very ridiculous
and it will also question the credibility of the seriousness of ASEAN as a
whole."
Explaining his view, he said that having a charter, the important thing
would be enforcement.
What if there is a member nation like Myanmar which continues to be as it
is, ignores the charter and does what it wants and gets away with it, he asked.
In such a situation, the charter will remain just a piece of paper, he said,
adding "we really need to act on it."
The ASEAN Charter is a constitution for the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), adopted at the 13th ASEAN Summit in November 2007.
Principles set out in the charter include emphasizing the centrality of
ASEAN in regional cooperation, respect for the principles of territorial
integrity, sovereignty, non-interference and national identities of ASEAN
members, as well as the promotion of regional peace and integration of regional
trade.
Under the charter, serious breaches of the charter would empower ASEAN
leaders to impose sanctions including suspension or expulsion in extreme cases.
The Association of South East Asia Nations (Asean) comprises Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.
-- BERNAMA