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182 Chandra Muzaffar By: ROS Size: 7.5" x 10.25" J/No: 03-14474 Fonts: New Baskerville 41. ASEAN, THE WIDER REGION AND THE WORLD The Social Agenda CHANDRA MUZAFFAR Reprinted in abridged form from Chandra Muzaffar, “ASEAN, the Wider Region and the World: The Social Agenda”, in ASEAN Towards 2020: Strategic Goals and Future Directions, edited by Stephen Leong (Kuala Lumpur: Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia; and London: ASEAN Academic Press, 1998), pp. 221–24, by permission of the author and the publishers. ASEAN as a regional organisation does not have a social agenda. It may have some idea of the sort of economic tenets it should follow as it pursues economic prosperity; it may have some notion of the political institutions that should develop within the region; it may have reflected on the collective security arrangements that are needed to protect the sovereignty and integrity of the individual states that constitute Southeast Asia. But Asean has yet to work out a social programme for the region — a programme which will spell out in lucid language the aspirations of Southeast Asians in various spheres of social life related to inter-personal relations, intergender ties, family, community, education, health, welfare, environment and so on. At the heart of this social programme would be a profound concern for the quality of life of the ordinary Southeast Asian. There are certain important prerequisites for an Asean social agenda. Asean as an entity should resolve to eliminate absolute poverty in the region by the year 2020. This is not an impossible task. A number of Asean states have succeeded in the course of the last two-and-a-half decades to reduce absolute poverty by significant margins. Of course, the challenge of eradicating absolute poverty is a challenge that individual states will have to take up but there should also be at the regional level a comprehensive policy and programme to help the poorer segments of the Southeast Asian community. In other words, the eradication of absolute poverty within Asean should become a regional concern and commitment. There should be an Asean budget operated through the Asean Secretariat for this purpose. The richer states in Asean should be required to contribute a percentage of their Gross National Product (GNP) for the region’s poverty eradication programme. Appropriate structures should be established and personnel assigned at the Asean level for this purpose. Mechanisms should be created 041 AR Ch 41 22/9/03, 12:47 PM 182 ASEAN, the Wider Region and the World: The Social Agenda 183 By: ROS Size: 7.5" x 10.25" J/No: 03-14474 Fonts: New Baskerville within the Asean Economic Ministers caucus to review the poverty programme from time to time. An Asean poverty eradication programme will not only raise the standard of living of millions of Southeast Asians but will also prevent the growth of two Southeast Asias — one rich, the other poor. The danger of this happening has become all the more imminent with the admission of Laos and Myanmar (and eventually Cambodia) into Asean. Besides, it will strengthen the sinews of solidarity within Asean. A collective effort against poverty would be the most tangible demonstration yet of Asean’s commitment to values such as justice and compassion — values which are fundamental to the illustrious religious philosophies that are part of Asean’s patrimony. Poverty eradication is one — albeit the most crucial — prerequisite for an effective social agenda. Asean should also set as its common goal the provision of piped water, electricity and modern sanitation to all its people by the year 2020. Here again we recognise that it is the responsibility of each and every government in the region to ensure that these basic amenities are available to its citizens but there is no reason why Asean cannot commit itself to such a goal for the collective well-being of Southeast Asians. By the same token, should not Asean aim to eliminate illiteracy in the entire region and allocate financial resources for this purpose through some common fund administered by some central Asean agency? Once the basic needs of all Southeast Asians are taken care of through both national and regional efforts, Asean should try to develop a social agenda which addresses the major challenges facing the different countries in the region. Should not Asean as a collectivity examine the problem of environmental degradation which has reached alarming proportions and its consequences for the Asean community ? There is perhaps no alternative...

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