ASEAN Founding Father Denounces

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

ASEAN founding father denounces 'flexible engagement'

 .c Kyodo News Service    

BANGKOK, July 17 (Kyodo) - A founding father of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) Friday denounced a Thai-Philippine proposal that ASEAN
adopt a new policy of ''flexible engagement'' in the region in such
transnational matters as drugs, the environment, and migrants. 

Former Thai Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman told Kyodo News that the new policy
contravenes ASEAN's core principle of nonintervention in the affairs of member
states. 

''ASEAN was created to prevent intervention from outside powers, so it is not
for ASEAN to intervene somewhere else,'' said Thanat, 84. 

Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan insisted Friday he would press ahead with
his proposal in a meeting with foreign ministers of other ASEAN members next
week in Manila. 

Surin has proposed that ASEAN adopt a policy of flexible engagement that would
allow members to comment on internal affairs of other members if those affairs
affect the region. 

So far, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Malaysia have voiced opposition to the
policy. Only the Philippines has aligned with Thailand. 

ASEAN also includes Brunei, Laos and Singapore. 

Thanat, who served as Thailand's foreign minister between 1959 and 1971,
called the proposed policy ''completely illusory and unrealistic'' for ASEAN. 

''We do not have the power to intervene anywhere, whether you call it
'constructive engagement' or anything else. We don't have the means, we don't
have the power, we don't have the clout to intervene anywhere.'' 

Instead, he suggested that ASEAN countries use friendly persuasion as a means
to effect change in other ASEAN countries' offensive attitudes or policies. 

''There is no justification to try to intervene either in Cambodia or Burma
(Myanmar) or anywhere in the world. We can use our forces of persuasion to try
to convince some of our friends that something is not acceptable by everybody
so we would like them to change,'' he said. 

Thanat reiterated that he opposed ASEAN's decision to admit Myanmar into the
group last year. He also voiced opposition to letting Cambodia join later this
year. 

Both countries have too many domestic problems that complicate ASEAN's
relations with other partners, Thanat said, alluding to an ongoing rift
between ASEAN and the European Union over Myanmar's admission.