SINGAPORE—It’s D-Day! It’s 08-08-08 today. For the millions of sports fans throughout the world, this auspicious day marks the formal kick off of the Olympic Games in Bejing, China. More than 80 heads of state and government, including our own President Arroyo are among the very important persons (V.I.P.s) who flew to Beijing to attend the traditional parade of participating athletes, coaches and other sports officials from all over the world in the grandiose opening ceremonies to take place at the newly constructed Bird’s Nest.
While all the hoopla takes place today in Beijing, the date 08-08-08 is also an important historic occasion. Coinciding with the opening of the Beijing Olympics today is the 41st founding anniversary of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).
This “happy coincidence” was highlighted by George Yeo, minister of Foreign Affairs of Singapore who hosted yesterday the Asean Day reception held here on the eve of its founding anniversary. In his brief remarks here, Yeo noted with some tinge of frustration when he rued “those who do not know the region dismiss Asean as being a little more than a talk shop.” He candidly admitted, though, that Asean indeed conducted a lot of meetings, in fact, it averaged at more than 600 meetings a year.
These are the regular Asean Foreign Ministers meeting and the meetings of the other Asean ministers, parliamentarians, government officials, businessmen, artists, and other sectors like media practitioners in the region, one of which is this one that I am participating in, the 3rd Asean Journalists Programme being hosted by Singapore. The mother of all these meetings is the Asean Leaders’ summit held every year.
“But these meetings are important because they facilitate cooperation in the region,” Yeo pointed out. He rightly cited the most important achievement of Asean — the peace that it has helped foster in these parts of the world during the last four decades. Just recently, he said, the Asean Foreign Ministers “helped to ease tensions at the Cambodian and Thai border even though the risk of a flare-up remains high.”
Exactly 41 years ago, the Asean was established on Aug. 8, 1967 in Bangkok. The Philippines, along with Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore are the five founding members of this regional bloc. Later, Brunei Darussalam joined on Jan. 8, 1984, followed by Vietnam on July 28, 1995. Laos and Myanmar were accepted as members of the Asean on July 23, 1997. The 10th member to join the Asean was Cambodia on April 30,1999.
But as the regional bloc celebrates its founding anniversary, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia have not yet ratified the Asean Charter that will give legal personality to this regional architecture after all these years. Brunei, Malaysia, Laos, Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia have already ratified the Charter, which ironically is the brainchild of the Philippines.
The military-ruled Myanmar beat them to the draw when it ratified last month the Asean.Constitution. Myanmar, earlier perceived to block and shelve the document’s ratification, has ratified the Charter after the Asean slammed the nation’s ruling junta for extending the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi who is the acknowledged leader of pro-democracy groups in Burma.
While it boasts of being the prime mover of the creation of a human rights body within the Asean, the Philippines still has to fulfil its commitment to ratify the Charter in time for the Bangkok Summit in December. The Senate, as the treaty-ratifying body in our country, have not indicated any urgency to front-load the Asean Charter as a priority item of their legislative calendar. But now that Myanmar ratified it, what is still stopping our Senators? Whatever are the underlying reasons that cause delayed action on the Asean Charter, the lawmakers must act with dispatch to include it in their priority legislative agenda.
Actually, they are on the bind after they passed a Senate Resolution in support of the calls by the international community for the Myanmar junta leaders to free Suu Kyi. In the meantime, Sen.Miriam Defensor Santiago, chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations, has so far succeeded getting 12 Senators to support the ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). She is just one vote shy to get it ratified sooner than later. Instead of attending to much divisive and contentious debate over the Philippine Baseline bill, the Senate should address the more urgent ratification of the Asean Charter that would give our country a greater boost in the international community as an influential member of this regional group.
As the Singaporean Foreign Minister aptly pointed out yesterday, “each of us by himself carries too small a weight on the scale of international affairs. Together, our views and our interests have to be taken into account by the major powers,” he stressed to underscore the growing sphere of influence of the Asean.
The Asean Day celebration here was attended yesterday by the entire diplomatic community and Foreign Minister Yeo was backed up by the Asean ambassadors who came in full force, including our very own Philippine Ambassador to Singapore, Belen Anota who I learned is ending her four-year tour of duty here. She will be replaced by incoming Ambassador Minda Cruz. She is the wife of Luis Cruz, Philippine Ambassador to South Korea.
By the way, Singapore just turned over to Thailand the chairmanship of the Asean as Bangkok prepares to host this Leaders’ summit later this year. In the meantime, Singapore has started preparations for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ summit, the meeting of which they will host in November 2009.
After today’s gala opening of the Beijing Olympics, the people here in the island state of Singapore are looking forward to their own grand parade. Celebrating its National Day tomorrow, Singapore is holding their traditional pomp and pageantry to observe this special day of their 43rd founding anniversary. But for today, many Singaporeans are wishing for the lucky 08-08-08 state-run lottery which has S$8 million in the pot at stake for the winning numbers. As the Singaporean Chinese say, their lucky character is fatt-fatt-fatt, as in eight-eight-eight.