‘ASEAN massage parlor’

John Nery
Philippine Daily Inquirer
January 22, 2008

BANGKOK -- Surin Pitsuwan, the new ASEAN secretary-general, is an academic and a diplomat, but it may be for his skills as a politician that he was chosen to lead the regional grouping’s permanent secretariat. The Ph.D. from Harvard and former foreign minister of Thailand was elected to parliament nine times in the last 20-odd years. Now, as ASEAN’s fourth secretary-general, he has the opportunity to lead the association into a new era of community-building.

First things first. “They would like a stronger secretariat,” he said at a journalists’ forum in Bangkok on Sunday. He was referring to ASEAN’s 10 heads of government, and their expansive idea of his job description. It is true, he said, that he is the first politician to assume the Jakarta-based post.

“What would be the difference in the running of that nerve center [in Jakarta]?” He answered his own question: “I will do what politicians do best: energize, create a sense of belonging.” And promote a sense of the possible.

He drew a vivid picture of what he said will become “a network secretariat” during his term, “reaching out, roping in and working with” anyone who understands the role ASEAN can play in Asia.

But while Surin talks a good game (he is quite eloquent when it comes to vision-setting), the reality is that much of the agenda he will face in his five-year term (it ends in 2012) has already been set.

Case in point: His first official trip as secretary-general was a ministerial meeting in Naypyidaw, the capital-in-the-making of Burma (Myanmar). Despite all the talk of community-building, brutal, repressive Burma remains ASEAN’s odd man out. One truth of politics: There is a limit to everything, even constructive engagement.

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On Burma, Surin waxes and wanes. He is optimistic that, with ASEAN in its current state of evolution, “there is a very, very strong spirit of democracy in the system already.” He is sanguine about the prospects of a consolidating ASEAN, through the use of the proposed Charter (a document which Singapore has signed, but which the Philippines has threatened to reject, because of Aung San Suu Kyi’s continuing detention). He even offers a timetable for greater consolidation. “We want to do it by 2015, seven years from now.”

At the same time, he is realistic about the difficulty ASEAN finds itself in. “We ran into a stalemate,” he said, referring to the ultimately failed efforts to avert and then to mitigate Burma’s violent crackdown on protest actions late last year.

He spoke of a recent meeting with the Sultan of Brunei, where the Burma problem was discussed and his proposals were sought. His reply: “Your Majesty, I don’t know my role in this issue.”

“I’m still trying to find out my space,” he told the journalists gathered in Bangkok. “Is the secretary-general expected to play that role [of engaging Burma]?”

Ever the politician, he makes or rather suggests a prediction about the eventual resolution of ASEAN’s Burma problem: “I think it will come [down] to [the use of] regional mechanisms.”

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A sense of humor is one of Surin’s winning points. He spoke about how, after he was appointed secretary-general, he became more conscious of everything ASEAN. Once, somewhere in Pattaya, he saw a sign that began with “ASEAN.” Back up, he told his driver. I want to know what the sign says. Well, he certainly found out. The sign read: “ASEAN massage parlor.”