By Kavi Chongkittavorn
The Nation
Now the ball is in the Asean’s court, any protract of ongoing Thai-Cambodian dispute can further delay the realization of grouping’s one community in the next 1417 days.
Regardless of the outcomes, when the Asean foreign ministers meet on the afternoon of February 22, in Jakarta, it will mark a historic moment for Asean as a rule-based organization’s efforts to pursue effective dialogues to help warring members to find a workable solution. Asean’s future actions will be utmost cautious and yet forward-looking. Consensus would be required for any Asean collective endeavor, which will essentially be based on lowest denominators.
Indonesia, the current rotating chair, understands very well this Asean reality. Before the people’s revolution in 1998, which overthrew the strongman president Suharto, the grouping’s largest member was infamous for dragging its feet on various Asean economic and political schemes of cooperation. Now the chair has been the main driving force to move Asean forward and create new Asean way that would go beyond the Asean Community. Absolutely, no Asean chairs in recent memory have such a comprehensive and ambitious plan for Asean as advocated by Indonesia.
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