Thailand’s pivotal role in the birth of AEC

THE concept of an ASEAN Troika to facilitate the process of achieving consensus is now embedded in what is known as ASEAN Vision 2025 . . .

THAILAND has played a pivotal — but sometimes frustrating ­— role in the creation of ASEAN, and its latest incarnation, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).
ASEAN was born out of what was known as the Bangkok Declaration in 1967, but no one mentions it these days, as it has become known simply as the ASEAN Declaration.
The ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, forerunner to the AEC, came out of a blueprint produced by Thailand.
In its October 2013 issue, ATI featured an extensive interview with the author of that blueprint, Anand Panyarachun, who was twice Prime Minister of Thailand.
In that interview, Anand recounted how, as Chair of an ASEAN Taskforce, he worked on a plan to integrate the region. But when he submitted the plan to ASEAN Foreign Ministers, none would pick it up and run with it. It was effectively shelved, he said.
When Anand became Thailand’s Prime Minister for the first time, he called on the late Singapore leader, Lee Kuan Yew, during a State visit to Singapore. Lee steered their conversation to ASEAN, and reminded Anand that he was the first ASEAN leader to have public and private sector experience. Lee was aware that Anand, a Cambridge-trained lawyer-turned-businessman, had previously worked on a free trade proposal for ASEAN.
Anand was rejuvenated, and set in motion the necessary political discussions and the political machinery to revisit the proposal. When ASEAN Heads of State met for their
annual summit in Singapore in 1991, Anand unveiled his blueprint for an ASEAN Free Trade Area. This led to leaders formally signing the AFTA agreement the following year.
So one can say that, without Anand, with Lee’s encouragement, the AEC may well not be here today. It took one man’s persistence and initiative, then a lot of hard talking, to make a dream come true.
Now that the dream is here, the job is to make it work for all.
Sihasak Phuangketkeow, one of Thailand’s most highly-decorated senior diplomats, (he is currently Chair of the High Level Task Force on ASEAN Vision 2015), says ASEAN has many obstacles ahead, not least the cumbersome consensus required in decision-making.
To get around this problem years ago, Thailand, in 2000, produced a working paper on the establishment of a troika to facilitate the process of achieving consensus in ASEAN.
But, Phuangketkeow says, as is the ASEAN way, the paper was watered down and was then only to be reactivated by consensus. That consensus did not come and the paper did not see the light of day after that.
This year, the concept of an ASEAN Troika was revived, and is embedded in what is now known as ASEAN Vision 2025.
In this version, an ASEAN Troika will be made up of Foreign Ministers of the previous, present and future Chair countries of the group. The Troika will be tasked with dealing with
special issues, particularly political problems and conflicts.
Sihasak says ruefully: “It has been brought back. Now let’s see how it will operate.”
In coming years, Thailand will undoubtedly keep a watching brief on how the AEC pans out. Already, Sihasak can see many hurdles, including the challenge of an evolution to give the people of ASEAN more say in its running. That truly will be a big ask.
But perhaps Thailand will continue in its own imitable way to shepherd an organisation to which, frankly, it does have some claim of ownership.