ASEAN’s
Treaty of Amity and Cooperation :
Nobel
Peace Prize nominee for 2015
Ibrahim Almuttaqi ;
ASEAN
Studies Program coordinator
at
The Habibie Center in Jakarta
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JAKARTA
POST, 21 September 2014
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As the great and good of the region
gathered in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, last month for the 21st ASEAN Regional Forum,
there was a rather predictable if not dull feeling to it all. They arrived —
with bold promises; they talked — about the South China Sea, as always, and
they went home — after the obligatory photo session, of course.
For critics, the whole spectacle was
nothing more than a “talking shop”. As a former lecturer once joked to me,
the ASEAN acronym stood for “all sitting, eating and nodding”. Yet as any
diplomat (or sane person for that matter) would agree, talking is always
better than fighting — and this is where ASEAN should be praised.
While there have been occasional outbreaks
of violence in the region, including among ASEAN member states themselves,
the regional organization has always been consistent in its emphasis on
dialogue, negotiation and non-violent means to resolve differences between
states in the region. Enshrining this belief is ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and
Cooperation, which to date has 27 signatories including the United States,
China, Russia and the European Union. Among the key principles found in the
treaty are: (1) the settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful means,
and (2) the renunciation of the threat or use of force.
While detractors may point out that the
treaty’s high council has never been utilized — only a few years ago Thailand
and Cambodia came to deadly blows — and that the South China Sea issue
continues to dog the region, they cannot deny that in the absence of ASEAN,
the region would be a much darker place than the peaceful, stable and
prosperous Southeast Asia that we know today. This speaks to the
counterfactual value of ASEAN.
To demonstrate, one only needs to look at
Indonesia. As the biggest country in Southeast Asia, Indonesia was not afraid
in the past to use force to get its way in the region — launching military
offensives in Malaysia, Timor Leste and West Papua — in moves that
destabilized the region. Fast forward to this year, and Indonesia has signed
historic agreements with the Philippines and just recently with Singapore to
settle their maritime border disputes after years of negotiations in the
spirit of ASEAN and its Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.
Another interesting development to take
place this year was news that Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution has been
nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. A win for the article, which
renounces Japan’s sovereign right to wage war and use/threaten to use force
to settle disputes, would build upon 2012, when the EU was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize. Recalling that the EU was awarded the Nobel prize in recognition
of turning a “continent of war” into a “continent of peace”, a question
emerged in this author’s mind: “Why not award the Nobel Peace Prize to ASEAN
and its Treaty of Amity and Cooperation?”
Certainly the above has demonstrated that
ASEAN would be a fitting recipient. ASEAN has turned a region beset by war,
conflict and violent political upheavals into one striving toward the ASEAN
Community 2015. So, if the 21st ASEAN Regional Forum had a predictable and
dull feeling to it, it is worth remembering that the so-called “talking shop”
illustrates the laudable fact that former enemies now trade with one another,
governments now talk with one another at the negotiating table and young men
are now no longer being sent to pointlessly die on a battlefield.
With Dec. 31, 2015, being the date when
Southeast Asia ushers in the ASEAN Community, the year 2015 may very well be
a timely moment for ASEAN and its Treaty of Amity and Cooperation to be
recognized for its achievement in securing peace for the peoples of the
region — with a Nobel Peace Prize of its own. ●
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