YOGYAKARTA-On 7 and 8 May 2011, the 18th ASEAN Summit was held in Jakarta. In accordance with the mandate of the ASEAN charter, the Summit is the highest decision-making mechanism that is carried out two times a year. According to Muhammad Rum, SIP, IMAS, an observer from the Institute of International Studies (IIS), International Relations UGM, although the summit produced 10 agreements, there are still some national interests and milieu goals of Indonesia that have not been achieved. One of them is migrant worker protection issue that must be fought for.
"The protection of migrant workers must be fought for with firm, assertive and straightforward manner. Unfortunately, the Summit did not include commitment for migrant workers," Rum said on Tuesday (10/5).
The second problem, Rum added, is related to national interest to protect free trade. The government should be able to use this compromising mechanism in ASEAN to re-negotiate some details in the ASEAN-China FTA (ACFTA) agreement for the purpose of protecting the domestic industry. Moreover, seeing results of several studies, Indonesia’s trade balance is deficit toward China, so, a large number of domestic industries will face a severe blow.
"With a renegotiation in regional level, ACFTA renegotiation in bilateral level will be more meaningful and produce better results," he added.
Related to democracy and human rights issues in Myanmar, Rum hoped that ASEAN should not only be used as justification by the authoritarian regime of Myanmar for stalling the process towards democracy. Indonesia should be able to demonstrate a strong position to urge Myanmar’s democratization efforts. "Especially in 2014 (a year before the target of the ASEAN Community 2015), Myanmar will become Chairman of ASEAN," Rum explained.
Likewise, an UGM International Relations expert, Drs. Riza Noer Arfani, M.A said that although there are some things that have not been achieved at the ASEAN summit yesterday, optimistic attitude must be presented by Indonesia. Indonesia’s position as chairman of ASEAN is very strategic this time to re-enhance its diplomatic position in the region by leading and directing the development of economy, politics and socio-culture. And, the domestic public expectation for the government to drive the success of ASEAN towards better integration is big.
"Being progressive is better in the field of security-politics, economy, and socio-culture while affirming the national interests and milieu goals in the region," Riza said.
Riza also expected that there is no more complex problems being set aside for the sake of maintaining harmonization (swept the problem under the carpet). It is time to revise such a thing, because if a problem is ignored, the comprehensive solution will never be achieved. This includes resolving some existing conflicts such as conflict between Cambodia-Thailand.
"In addition to the formal way, informal mediators such as those in the time of Mr. Ali Alatas or Mr. Jusuf Kalla can also be tried," Riza said.