ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH EAST ASIAN NATIONS (ASEAN) CHAPTER 1 1 INTRODUCTION

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by five original member countries namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined 8 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Laos and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999. Thus, ASEAN is a geo-political and economic organisation of 10 countries. ASEAN encompass almost the whole of South-East Asia. Ason 2010, the ASEAN has a population of about 600 million, a total area of 4.5 million square kilometers, a combined dross domestic product of US $ 1.8 Trillion and a total trade of US $ 1400 billion. Its aims include accelerating economic growth, social progress, cultural development among its members, protection of regional peace and stability, and opportunities for member countries to discuss differences peacefully. ASEAN contains several of the so called Asian tiger-economies, most of which have suffered in the Asian financial crisis. Its member nations lie close to the sea lanes between Europe and China and Japan. ASEAN is sometimes seen as political counter weight to china`s dominance in the region. ASEAN does not function as a regional trade arrangement, but it has become abn effective means for cooperation in economic matters and foreign affaris with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The economics growth rate of the ASEAN has been very high. This regions in endowed with natural resources and account for larger share of the world`s natural rubber, plam oil, and tin. Most of the countries of South-East Asia belong to ASEAN. The cultural characteristics of the countries of South-East Asia are not very similar. There are significant political and religious differences among the countries of ASEAN. Democracy is well established in the philippines but more restricted in Malaysia and Indonesia. Authoritarian leaders still hold away its communist regime, to Burma

(now Myanmar), with its military dictatorship. The region`s religions are also varied,consisting of Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and Animism. Several countries have a less homogenous population. For example, Malaysia has significant Chinese and Indian minorities as well as its native Malay people. Despite their political, economic and cultural diversity, the countries of ASEAN are close neighbours. They recognise their mutual need to promote, the regions developments while generally preferring to resprct each others independence in internal politics. In 2007, ASEAN has celebrated its 40th anniversary since its inception. On 26 August 2007 ASEAN has also stated that it aims to complete all its Free Trade Agreements with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand by 2013. On 27 Feburary 2009 a Free Trade Agreement with the ASEAN regional block of 10 countries and New Zealand and Austraqlia was signed. It is estimated that this FTA would boost aggregate GDP across the 12countries by more than US $48 billion over the period 2000-2020. Besides the members the ASEAN, there are six "dialogue partner" which have have been participating in its deliberations. They are China, Japan, India, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia

1.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND BEFORE "ASEAN" FORMED. At the time Indochina war began 1945, Thailand was the only independent state in South-East Asia. The Philippines, which had suffered great devastation in the war, achieved independence in 1946 from the United States. In Mayanmar, the war hit hard as

well, and independence from Britain came in 1947. Indonesian independence was declared in 1945, but the Dutch sought to regain colonial control. It took four years of fighting plus United Nations (UN) intervention before Dutch fores withdrew in 1949. British colonial control was reimposed over peninsular Malay, Singapore, and the British possessions of North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak. Following the adoption of armed struggle tactics by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) in 1946, the British defeated the MCP in a protracted guerrilla war that culminated with the declaration of Malayan independence in 1957, and the end of national emergency in 1960. The Federation of Malaysia was established in 1963 comprising all the former British territories except Brunei. Singapore separated from the federation in1965 and became an independent state. Brunei became independent in1984. Loking back at developments in the period of the mid 1960s, it is difficult to see why contemporary accounts emphasized the fragility of the political structures in the region . Vietnamese Communist forces were battling U.S. and South Vietnamese forces to an apparent stalemate.Malaysia and Indonesia were locked in a bitter political and military struggle known as "confrontation."Progress was in slow in Mayanmar, and Thailand was subject to periodic and ofen mystifying, military cops. The Philippines had relapsed into business as-usual, interenecine, intre-elite scrambling for power following the dyanic Magsaysay era. Maoism was triumphant in China and revolutionary contagion appeared ready to spread in SouthEast Asia. And yet, beneath the superficial fragilities of the Southeast Asian political structures, leaving aside Indo-china, it is apparent that these traditional and hierarchical societies were undergoing changes that strengthened them in 1960s. These changes actually began in the 1950s, when conservative governments, with commitments to development, increased in investments in infrastructure generally and especially in education and rural development. of all execpt for Myanmar had market orientations. In the 1960s, many manufacturing industries, particularly for import substitution, were established inthe region. In analysing the factor that laid the basis for growth and eventual stability in the

Southeast Asia, it is to note that the bureaucratic leadership that led individual nations of the region during the dynamic 1970s were solidly in place by the mid-1960s. The Mmonarchy has provided a stable foundation for the Thai political system. Lee Kuan Yew and his People`s Action party have dominated Singapore`s political life since 1956. the Indonesian military led by general Suharto has been in power since 1965. Malaysia has had remarkably stable leadership under the Alliance government of Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman 1957-1970 and subsequently under the Malay-controlled National Front. President Ferdinand Marcos lede the Philippines for 21 years before being overthrown by the movement that installed Corazon Aquino as president in 1986. The achievement of political stability and continuity required sustained economic growth and the reduction of poverty. In fact, gross domestic product GD throughout the region grew steadily in the 1960s and continued into the 1970s. For example,Indonesia grew an average 3.9 percent a year in the 1960s and 7.8 percent in the 1970s; the Philippines grew 5.1 percent a year in the 1960s and 6.1 percent in the 1970s. An important feature of this sustained growth pattern has been a steady growth of U.S. investment in the ASEAN region, particularly in Indonesia and Singapore. Moreover, while the growth of Japanese investment has been spectacualar.

1.2- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF "ASEAN"

Formation of ASEAN On 8 August 1967, five leaders - the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines , singapore and Thailand - sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN was born. The five Foreign Ministers who signed it - Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore, and

ThanatKhoman of Thailand - Would subsequently be hailed as the Founding Fathers of probably the most sucessful inter-government organisation in the developing world today. And the document that they signed world be know as the ASEAN Declaration. It was a short, simply-worded document containing just five articles. It declared the establishment of an Association of Regional Cooperation among the Countries of Southeast Asia to be known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN and spelled out aims and purpose were of that Association . These aims and purposes were about cooperation in the economic, social, cultural, technical, educational and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter. It stipulated that the Association would be open for participation by all States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims , principles and purpose .It proclaimed ASEAN as representing "the collective will of the nation of Southeast to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessing of peace, the blessing of peace, freedom and prosperity." It was while Thailand was brokering reconiliation among Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia over certain disputes that it dawned on the four countries that the moment for regional cooperation had come or the future of the regionwould remain uncertain. And so in early August 1967, the five Foreign Ministers spent four days in the relative isolation of a beach resort in Bangsaen, a coastal town less than a hunred kilometers southeast of Bangkok. There they negotiated over that document in an informal manner which they would later delight in describing as "sports-shirt diplomacy." Yet it was by no means an easy process : each man brought into the deliberations a historical and political perspective that had no resemblance to that of any of the others. But with goodwill and good humor, they found their way through their differences as they traded wisecracks on one anothe`s game, a style of deliberation which would eventually become the ASEAN ministerial tradition. During the past year, he said, the Ministers had all worked together toward the realisation of thrASEAN idea, "making haste slowly, in order to bulid a new association for regional cooperation."

1.3- AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Economic growth and social progress : To accelerate the economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in the region through joint endeavors inthe spirit of equality and partnership in order to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian Nations. Regional peace and stability : To promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries of the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter. Collaboration and assistance : To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest in the economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific, and administrative fields. Training and research : To provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities in the educational, professional, technical, scientific, and administrative fields. Overall improvements : To collaborate more effectively for the greater utilisation of their agriculture and industries, the expansion of their trade including the study of the problems of international commodity trade, the improvement of their transportation and communications facilities and the raising of the living standards of their peoples. To Studies : promote Southeast Asian studies. Cooperatibon : To maintain close and benefical cooperation with existing international and regional organisations with similar aims and purposes, and explore all avenues for even closer cooperation among themselves.

1.4 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

At the First Asian Summit in Bali in February 1976 the member countries signed the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation in Southeast Asia. It spelled out the basic principles for their relations with one another and the conduct of the association`s programme for cooperation.The fundamental principles are the following : 1. Political Meeting of the heads of government of the member states as and when necessary; Signing of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia; Settlement of intraregional disputes by peaceful means as soon as possible; Improvement of ASEAN machinery to strengthen political cooperation; Study on how to develop judicial cooperation, including the possibility of an ASEAN extradition treaty; Strengthening of political solidartity by promoting the harmonisation of views, coordinating positions and where possible and desirable, taking common actions. B. Economic

2. Cooperation on basic commodities, particularly food and energy; a. Member states shall assist each other by according priority to the supply of individual country`s need in critical circumstances and to the acquisition of export`s from member states, particularly food and energy. b. Member states shall also intensify cooperation in the production of basic commodities particularly food and energy in the individual member states of the region. 2. Industrial cooperation a. Member states shall cooperate to establish large scale ASEAN industrial plants, particularly to meet regional requriements of essential commodities; b. Priority shall be given to projects that utilize the available materials in the

member states, contribute to the increase of food prodution, increase foreign exchange earnings or save foreign exchange and create employment.

3. Cooperation in Trade
a. Member states shall promote development and growth of new production, improve the trade structures of individual states, and increase their foreign exchange earnings and reserves; b. Member states shall progress toward the establishment of preferential trading arrangements as a long-term objective on a basis deemed to be at any particular time appropriate through rounds of negotiations subject to the unanimous agreement of member states. c. The expansion of the trade among member states shall facilitated through cooperation on the basic commodities, particularly in food and energy, and through cooperation in ASEAN industrial project; d. Member states shall accelerate joint efforts to improve acess to markets outside ASEAN for their raw materials and finished products by skeeing the elimination of all trade barriers in those markets, developing new usage for these products, and adopting common apporaches and actions in dealing with regional groupings and individual economics powers; e. Such efforts shall also lead to cooperation in the field of technology and production methods to increase the production and to improve the quality of export products as well as to develop new export products with a view to diversifying exports.

4. Joint Approach to international Commodity Problems and Other World Economics

Problems a. The principle of ASEAN cooperation on trade shall also be reflected on a priority basis in joint approaches to international commodity problems and other world economic problems such as the reform of international trading system, the reform of the international monetary system, and transfer of real resources, in the United Nations and other relevant multilateral fora, with a view to contributing to the establishment of the New International Economic order; b. Member states shall give priority to the stabilization and increase of export

earnings of these commodities produced and exported by them through such commity agreements as bufferstock schemes.

5. Machinery for Economic Cooperation

a. Formulate recommendations for the consideration of governments of member states for the strengthening of ASEAN economic consideration; b. Review the coordination and implementation of agreed ASEAN programs and projecton economic cooperation; c. Exchange views and consult on national development plans and policies as as step towards harmonizing regional development; B. Social 3. Cooperation in the field of social development, with emphasis on the wellbeing of the low-income groups and of the rural population, through the expansion of opportunities for productive employment with fair remuneration. 4. Support for the active involvement of all sectors and levels of the 5.