Introduction


IN A WORLD plagued by unresolved conflicts and a deepening sense of insecurity, Southeast Asia continued to be a focal point of international tension. Vietnamese occupation forces retained their iron grip on Kampuchea, in defiance of Resolution 35/6 of the United Nations General Assembly calling for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Kampuchea to enable the Kampuchean people to exercise their fundamental right to self-determination free from out side interference, subversion and coercion. Kampuchean resistance to Vietnamese domination continued; sporadic fighting, particularly along the Thai-Kampuchean border, underlined the persisting threat to the peace and stability of the area.

In the face of this pressing danger, ASEAN countries continued their determined effort to find a just political solution to the Kampuchean problem.

In August 1980, ASEAN welcomed the visit to Southeast Asia of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Dr. Kurt Waldheim. The visit has focussed international attention on the threat to peace arising from the continuing Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea.

In October 1980, the UN General Assembly reconfirmed the seat of the legitimate government of Democratic Kampuchea in the United Nations. It also adopted by overwhelming majority a resolution sponsored by ASEAN and a number of friendly governments from various regions of the world calling for the withdrawal of all foreign troops and the holding of free internationally-supervised elections as essential elements of the desired political solution to the Kampuchean problem. The resolution also mandated the UN Secretary General to convene as soon as possible an international conference on Kampuchea.

In February 1981, the Foreign Minister of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, speaking in behalf of ASEAN at the Non-Aligned Meeting in New Delhi, succeeded in getting the Non-Aligned Movement to take cognizance for the first time of the Kampuchean problem and of the ASEAN position on the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Kampuchea. The joint declaration issued at the conclusion of the Meeting disproved the Vietnamese claim that there is no such thing as a Kampuchean problem.

These ASEAN achievements have a notable aspect that even the critics of ASEAN cannot deny or ignore; they are significant victories of moral and political power. ASEAN uncompromisingly upholding the UN Charter and the Bandung principles of peaceful co-existence, has aroused mankind's conscience and marshalled world opinion in support of its just insistence that those principles be applied to a member state of the United Nations and of the Non-Aligned Movement which has fallen victim to aggression.

ASEAN's initiatives have had far-reaching implications. They have strengthened the conviction of the international community that blatant aggression cannot be allowed to run rampant in today's closely knit and increasingly interdependent world. They emphasized the linkage between the situation in Kampuchea and Afghanistan and stressed that such blatant aggression in both these countries ,is unacceptable to a world community striving to establish a new international community under the rule of law prescribed in the United Nations Charter. A clear line against aggression has been drawn which must henceforth give pause even to the most rabid of expansionist powers.

While Vietnam tries, fraudulently, to legitimize the Vietnamese-installed Heng Samrin regime by means of the so-called "elections" ASEAN seeks to galvanise world opinion for a political solution to the Kampuchean problem through the convening of a UN International Conference on Kampuchea.

The Soviet Union, which has refused to recognize ASEAN, attempted to persuade the ASEAN countries to accept the so-called Ho Chi Minh City proposal of Vietnam, Laos and occupied Kampuchea for a conference with ASEAN on regional problems presumably including that of Kampuchea. ASEAN replied with a joint statement, issued by the Chairman of the Standing Committee, which had the dual effect of affirming the identity and solidarity of ASEAN while rejecting a proposal which Vietnam had earlier withdrawn from the UN General Assembly where it had been exposed as a transparent effort to gain back-door recognition for the proxy Heng Samrin regime.

Responding to ASEAN's request, UN Secretary General Waldheim in April 1981 sent a special representative, Mr. Mohamed Essafl, to various Asian capitals for consultations on the convening of the proposed International Conference on Kampuchea. 'The results of these consultations, together with the soundings made by ASEAN leaders in the capitals of important prospective Annual Report of The ASEAN Standing Committee 1980 - 1981 participants in the Conference, were assessed by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers at their informal meeting in Jakarta in May 1981 on the occasion of the formal inauguration of the new ASEAN Secretariat building. They also expressed ASEAN support for the right of the Kampuchean people to choose their own leaders and to form a united front of resistance against foreign domination. They were of one mind in maintaining that while bilateral talks, such as those held with the Laotian Foreign Minister in several ASEAN capitals, were useful as preliminary steps towards the proposed International Conference on Kampuchea they could never be regarded as a substitute for the Conference itself.

The ASEAN Foreign Ministers agreed to suggest to the UN Secretary General a convenient date and venue for the proposed Conference and to ensure a broad and representative participation of concerned countries.

THE URGENCY and political prominence of the Kampuchean problem have overshadowed but not impeded ASEAN's cooperative efforts in other fields. During the year under review, ASEAN not only continued to consolidate previous gains made in the various field of social and economic cooperation but further strengthened its organizational ties and opened up new fields of cooperative endeavor in non-political areas.

ASEAN Ministers of Industry, Energy, Environment, Health and Science and Technology met for the first time during the year and formulated various wide-ranging and far-reaching programmes of cooperation in the fields under their jurisdiction.

With regard to the industrial projects, construction of the urea fertilizer plant in Indonesia has started, and the financing agreement o a similar project for Malaysia is being finalized. A copper fabrication plant was adopted as the ASEAN Industrial Project for the Philippines. For Thailand the site for its soda ash plant has been finalized, and the diesel engine project allocated for Singapore is being considered.

Progress was also registered in third country relations with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United States and the European Economic Community. A major new project in human resources development, in support of which the Prime Minister of Japan offered a fund of US$ 100 million, is under priority study by the ASEAN Governments.

The increasing importance attached to ASEAN by its third country partners in economic cooperation was highlighted by two significant visits. Immediately upon his assumption of office, the new Australian Foreign Minister, Mr. Anthony Street, made a goodwill tour of the ASEAN countries. The new Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Zenko Suzuki, upon his election set aside the precedent established by his predecessors by visiting the ASEAN capitals before going to Washington D.C.

Within ASEAN itself, parliamentarians, jurists, private associations of professionals, traders, entrepreneurs, media representatives and others were busy forming ASEAN links and developing regional modes of cooperation amidst a cultural ferment symptomatic of a dynamic ASEAN community in the making.

The rapid growth of ASEAN's activities necessitated a study of how to restructure ASEAN in order to enable the organization to function more efficiently. A task force has been formed to consider ways of strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat, now permanently housed in the new Secretariat building in Jakarta which was formally inaugurated on 9 May 1981 by the President of the Republic of Indonesia in the presence of ASEAN Foreign Ministers and the signatories of the Bangkok Declaration in solemn ceremonies at which it was hailed as a symbol of faith in ASEAN and of confidence that ASEAN's lofty aims will be attained.

IT HAS BEEN aptly remarked that the best way to appreciate ASEAN is to imagine Southeast Asia without it. One can then immediately see that the security problem in the area would be severely aggravated. The strategic Malacca Strait, which is as crucially important to the region as the Persian Gulf is to the Middle East, would be more exposed and vulnerable. The resulting vacuum would be an open invitation to great- power intervention and surrogate invasion, subversion and intimidation.

ASEAN constitutes the cohesive center, the stable core which is helping to hold Southeast Asia together. It is emerging as one of the potential cornerstones of the proposed New Inter- national Economic Order. And because it is a dynamic Association, its constructive influence, radiating outwards, is being felt in other parts of the world.

Like the European Economic Community, member countries of the South Pacific Forum have proposed closer links and a programme of economic cooperation with ASEAN. A study group from the Economic Community of West Annual Report of The ASEAN Standing Committee 1980 - 1981 African States (ECOWAS) is visiting ASEAN countries in July this year to observe ASEAN activities and institutions. Among international agencies, IMCO (Inter-Goverenmental Maritime Consultative Organization) is the latest to propose an expanded program of cooperation with ASEAN. Interest in ASEAN is stirring in neutral Switzerland. A high-level seminar on ASEAN is scheduled to be held in Zurich in September 1981 at which a wide range of ASEAN activities will be examimed by a joint panel of European and ASEAN scholars and experts.

In April 1981, the Foreign Secretaries of seven South Asian nations met in Colombo, Sri Lanka to consider the feasibility of forming an association for economic cooperation frankly patterned after ASEAN. The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, in economic cooperation frankly patterned after ASEAN. The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, in expressing his country's readiness to join ASEAN during his visits in Manila and Jakarta, suggested that Sri Lanka might serve as a link between the two groups of Asian nations.

THE SUCCESS of ASEAN is thus opening up the prospect of an era of peaceful, constructive and mutually beneficial ties across regional frontiers under the aegis of the United Nations, forming a network of stability and prosperity which might in time prove stronger and more attractive than the divisive and disruptive forces at work in the world today.