KUCHING: Many Malaysians are still clueless about the functions and roles of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Pointing this out yesterday, Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Richard Riot said even the United States and Europe have given growing emphasis towards Asean, which has a combined population of 600 million.
Despite the diversity in religion and race, he said, Asean aimed to achieve the vision of one community, in line with the 1Malaysia concept mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
“A lot of people still do not know the functions and roles of Asean, which has 10 member states. Malaysia is one of the founding members of the 45-year-old organisation.
“Asean encompasses everything namely politics, security, culture and you name it,” he told a news conference after opening the ‘Asean Lecture Series’ – the first effort of its kind launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Riot said the ministry wanted to make the event an annual affair to create awareness on Asean’s functions and roles among Sarawakians.
“I hope to have it once a year in Sarawak, and we will try our best to make it happen.”
He stressed that more people need to be aware of Asean as a means to enhance peace and prosperity in the region.
Addressing participants earlier, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies political and security affairs senior fellow researcher Dr Termsak Chalermpalanupap conceded that “people still do not know what Asean is doing”.
“That is one of the key weaknesses of Asean. Also, it is a weak and poor organisation in the sense that it has no resources to mobilise.
“Asean has to wait for either budget allocation among the state members or external support. That is to say that Asean does not have its own resources as an organisation.”
Termsak said unlike the European Union (EU), Asean does not have common political ground and lacks unanimous decision and policies, be it politically or economically.
“All the member states have their respective policies, which makes it very different from the EU. Before a European nation can apply for membership, it has to prove itself to be multi-party functioning as well as having human rights protection.”
He said to bring Asean to the next level in terms of roles and functions, all member states must come together and be committed to serving the best interests of the region.