The establishment of an ASEAN parliament

A long journey

Certain conditions would have to met before such an ambitious project can be undertaken, conditions that may take years to be fulfilled. Just because it seems inconceivable that these conditions can exist today does not mean that they someday will not. After all, it was barely 60 years ago that the French and the Germans were killing each other by the hundreds of thousands; today, they share a common currency, the very pinnacle of fiscal cooperation between nations.

The first condition is that ASEAN would have to enjoy a high degree of economic integration among its member nations. The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) should be firmly in place for a number of years, long enough for certain level of acceptance and trust to filter down to the ground level from such economic cooperation. The second condition is that ASEAN member nations should be established democracies with a high respect to the rule of democratic law. Among the ASEAN nations currently, probably only the Philippines has made a definitive step towards this ideal with other nations still needing more time for their political systems to mature. Even then, this maturing process may take a few more decades to complete but it must be said that without this vital condition in place, an ASEAN parliament will remain unfeasible; a respect for the rule of democratic law is necessary for any legislative body that an ASEAN parliament wishes to be to have any meaningful effect. Respect for the rule of democrative law at a national level will then be translated to a respect for the rule of law on a supra-national level. The third, and final, condition will have to be the existence of a multitude of non-Governmental initiatives between the ASEAN nations that will foster, at the grass roots level, a high degree of trust between the societies of the various nations. Learning from the experience of the EU, its early formative years were hampered by a strong distrust between traditional enemies – England, France, Spain, and Germany. Fortunately, this distrust has been eventually overcome, but not without tremendous effort on the part of each government to bridge the grass root divides between the nations.

Nothing is beyond us

These conditions seem like a very tall order, but they are certainly targets that ASEAN governments would be able to meet in the next four or five decades. Once they have been met, then a door will open for them to exploit the potential benefits of a common legislative body.

The benefits of the venture will immediately become obvious. From its outset, such a body will give ASEAN the legitimacy and influence on global affairs that it has been seeking since its inception. Up to this point, such influence has been difficult to obtain with the world’s super powers considering ASEAN no more than a second-bit regional organisation. Instead of having any real influence, ASEAN has been more often than not, used as a platform to host larger global initiatives such as the ASEAN Regional Forum – a security round-table that serves as an excuse for the Europeans, Chinese and Americans to talk to each other on security issues. It is hardly a surprise that ASEAN itself, although playing host to the event, is hardly more than a peripheral contributor to the discussions. But with a common voice, a voice that it is currently lacking, a voice that can only come through the legitimacy of a supra-national legislative body that the ASEAN parliament will represent, the rest of the world will have to sit up and take notice of what ASEAN has to say.

Baby steps

The first few years of the ASEAN parliament’s existence will probably see its jurisdiction limited to a very narrow scope, possibly only on social affairs or affairs of environmental cooperation. This time is needed to allow a certain level of inter-governmental trust to grow. Given some time, this trust will enable the body to move into the governance of areas traditionally reserved to the jurisdiction of national legislatures. For example, a common policy on capital punishment. Or legislature putting in place common environmental policies. When such common legislature becomes increasingly accepted as law across all the ASEAN nations, a standardisation of rule will begin to emerge. For so many reasons, including law enforcement and regional stability, this standardisation of rule can only serve to improve the standard of living and quality of life in the region.

Never say never

When anyone argues that the existence of an ASEAN parliament will never come into existence, they often do not argue against the demerits of the establishment of such a body. Rather they would be arguing against the sheer feasibility of such an organisation. They will argue that cultural differences between ASEAN nations will make such integration impossible. For a response to this argument, they should look at how culturally diverse Europe was (and still is) during the establishment of the European parliament. The French and Germans are like water and oil – yet they have been able to put aside their differences. Why can’t ASEAN nations do the same?

The people will remain

Other detractors may argue that democratic rule does not exist in a majority of ASEAN nations. If they can’t respect simple issues such as human rights and democratic rule, how can they conform to the demands of a common legislative body? Such arguments are pessimistic in nature and assume that society does not evolve; it assumes that political systems are static entities that do not change. History has shown that these assumptions are not true. Feudal and monarchial rule in Europe evolved into the current democratic systems we see today. Certainly, a few nations experimented with alternative systems along the way – fascist Italy and Germany – but given time, it seems clear that democratic systems have become the norm. The convergence to such systems will certainly take time, possibly a tremendous amount of time, possibly a generation or more. But there is no doubt that that convergence is occurring. The Philippines is already moving towards that direction. With the removal of Wahid in Indonesia, one hopes that it marks a new beginning for them. Malaysia is in the process of political maturity as a growing middle class begins to realise the boundaries of democracy and the rule of law. Thailand is on a similar path and is only a matter of time before Cambodia and Vietnam follow suit. Kings and dictators do not last forever, and when they are gone what will remain are the people.

A final group of nay-sayers will focus on the inability of ASEAN nations to cooperate in the past on relatively simple issues such as the environment. They will point at the recent forest fires in Indonesia and how ASEAN nations, due to their non-interventionist policies, did nothing to solve the problem. Again, such arguments miss the point: an ASEAN parliament is not an immediate goal; it is not even an intermediate goal but rather a long-term objective that is more than plausible considering the fact that all the problems we see today between ASEAN nations are merely symptomatic of a maturing process in political thought and ideology. This process will eventually end and the result will be a political ideal that will make such a union as a common legislative body more than a simple theoretical concept.

At the end of the day, ASEAN nations will look at themselves and realise that they are becoming increasingly isolated in an increasingly globalised world where partnerships and inter-networking are the only paths to survival and prosperity. Notwithstanding their teething problems, the European Union gets stronger and more stable everyday and within a generation their integrative process will be complete. A similar union between North and South America is to be expected within the next decade. Already, NAFTA and MERCOSUR are in serious negotiations to form the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a stepping-stone towards closer political cooperation. It would take a brave man to bet that some form of Trans-Pacific organization between the Pacific superpowers – US, Japan, China and Taiwan – will not someday come into existence, eclipsing the worth and value of APEC, the current organization. With all of these initiatives in place or on the verge of taking off, ASEAN will have to take a long, hard look at themselves and realise that by not banding together, they will never have the strength to keep up.

Appearing in www.renungan.com 8 June 2001