Malaysian foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar delivers a speech before unveiling the 11th ASEAN Summit logo in Putrajaya last week. The summit will be held in Kuala Lumpur from 12-14 December 2005.

MYANMAR and its partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations marked the 38th anniversary of the grouping’s foundation on August 8 by reiterating the importance of establishing an ASEAN Community.

In a message to the nation to mark the anniversary, the Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, Senior General Than Shwe, said the establishment of the ASEAN Community would pave a way for the grouping to become “a concert of Southeast Asian Nations bonded together in partnership, in dynamic development and in a community of caring societies”.

“The emergence of an ASEAN Community will benefit the people of Myanmar along with other ASEAN citizens in sharing the fruits of peace and stability, development and prosperity and socio-cultural development,” Senior General Than Shwe said.

The 10-member grouping agreed last year to establish the ASEAN Community by 2020. It is aimed at transforming ASEAN into a more democratic and outward-looking grouping as well as increasing peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

As a part of the plan to establish the community, ASEAN is drafting a charter which is expected to be completed in five years.

In his message, Senior General Than Shwe also underscored Myanmar’s role in ASEAN.

He said Myanmar, which joined ASEAN in 1997, had contributed to ASEAN’s quest to maintain peace and security and support economic and socio-cultural development among its members.

Senior General Than Shwe said Myanmar had joined the regional grouping because ASEAN’s objectives and vision matched the political, economic and social objectives of Myanmar.

“ASEAN has firmly laid down a code of conduct for the relations among nations ...which is based on the principles of mutual respect for independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity and the right of every State to lead its national existence free from external interference, non-interference in the internal affairs of one another, settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful means, renunciation of the threat or use of force, and effective cooperation among themselves,” he said.

The highlight of the day’s commemorative events was a ceremony at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, which included an address by the Indonesian President, Mr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Mr Yudhoyono described ASEAN as one of the world’s most successful regional groupings and said its handling of internal issues demonstrated maturity and wisdom.

“A distinctive mark of maturity is the recent decision of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting to allow Myanmar to forego its turn as (ASEAN) chairman so that it could focus on an internal process of reconciliation and democratisation that is crucial to the national life,” Mr Yudhoyono said, referring to the annual meeting of the grouping’s foreign ministers in Vientiane last month.

“This demonstrates ASEAN’s fully developed capability to solve its own problems. It shows a delicate sense of balance between non-interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and upholding human rights and fundamental freedoms,” Mr Yudhoyono said

Myanmar said it decided to forego the rotating ASEAN chair, which it was due to assume in 2006, as it wanted to concentrate on its reconciliation and democratisation process.

Mr Yudhoyono also called for greater public participation in ASEAN activities as the grouping progresses towards its transformation to a community.

“It was inevitably realised that in the end the backbone of any community of nations is not governments, but the people who make up the nations,” he said.
Similar comments were made by the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mr Abdullah Badawi, in a televised address to his nation to mark the anniversary.

Mr Abdullah said pursuing greater involvement of the public in ASEAN activities was a priority for his country, the current ASEAN chair.

Mr Abdullah said other priorities for the grouping included narrowing the development gap between its new members – Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam – and its older members: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Brunei.