I read an interesting article in The New Paper today on the plan to materialize the proposed ASEAN charter. It was an attention-grabbing reading for me on this mundane Thursday afternoon due to my foot injury. Normally, I would already be at the gym or the basketball court for my daily workout.
What is the ASEAN charter by the way? Officially declared at the ASEAN Summit 2005 in Kuala Lumpur whereby the ASEAN leaders agreed to the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the ASEAN Charter, this charter will provide ASEAN grouping with a legal standing and signed constitution. If this to be happen soon (probably during the ASEAN Summit in Singapore) it will be a new milestone in ASEAN's development into a mature regional organization. In essence, the ASEAN Charter emphasizes, among others, promotion of democracy, human rights and obligations, transparency and good governance, strengthening democratic institutions and intensifying ASEAN’s competitiveness, to deepen and broaden ASEAN’s internal economic integration and linkages with the world economy.
Actually, I am more interested on how this piece of paper will be translated to people like me and ASEAN communities as a whole. I noted that Singapore Foreign Minister, George Yeo mentioned 5 main points on the benefits of stronger ASEAN which includes framework of peace and cooperation, visa-free movement which result in strong services sector, free trade area for goods, consular assistance and cheaper and easier regional travel for the young.
I have to say that I really like the last point whereby ASEAN should try to make the regional travel cheaper and easier for the young as in Europe. Heck! I have to admit that I have only been to Singapore and Thailand. What a pity! I have another 7 more ASEAN countries to finish the jigsaw.
As the young will be the cornerstone of one’s country, I believe it is the utmost important that for ASEAN communities to grow stronger in the future we should first need to be able to understand each other dynamics such as cultural differences and development needs. Between one country to another, the difference might be huge in term of economics development, political scenarios and social state of affairs. I guess we need to understand this properly in order to build a common ASEAN identity.
It will take a very long time (or maybe not at all) for ASEAN to achieve full pledge integration as per European Communities but then we need to start somewhere and this is probably a very good start!
Just my lousy two cents!
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