PHNO-ASEAN: NO ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

ASEAN: NO ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM


[PHOTO -Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa,
(left), talks to Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, (right), during a
meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Phnom Penh on July 19, 2012.
Natalegawa top diplomat is making a Southeast Asian tour in an effort to mend an
internal rift within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) group
over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. -- PHOTO:
AFP]
MANILA, JULY 21, 2012
(INQUIRER) Passion For Reason By: Raul C. Pangalangan -
Foreign Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio did well to explain—in print—"[w]hy
there's no Asean joint communiqué" that came out of last week's big regional
meeting at Phnom Penh. Until I read her essay yesterday, all I had read about
was China's going to town with its "success" at the Asean, portraying the
Philippines as an isolated state pathetically abandoned by its fellow Asean
countries, all of them bowing before China's might and meekly going along with
the regional bully.
Basilio explodes that myth in categorical yet sober language (and even that
level of restrained candor, I am unused to getting from our diplomats). No, the
Philippines wasn't abandoned by its Asean neighbors who, in fact, already
supported an earlier statement circulated by Foreign Secretary Albert del
Rosario on the standoff at Scarborough Shoal. One foreign minister wrote the
Asean chair on the "necessity for Asean to issue a timely statement by the
foreign ministers… as our common effort to contribute to the maintenance of an
environment conducive in the region which is of interest [to] all of us."
The Singaporean foreign minister, K. Shanmugan, wondered aloud on his website
how the Asean "was unable to deal with something that is happening in [its]
neighborhood and not say something about it." In other words, it was as if the
Asean pretended there was no elephant in the room. He added: "There's no point
in papering over it. There was a consensus among the majority of countries. The
role of the chair in the context is to forge a complete consensus amongst all.
But that did not happen."
But therein lay the problem. The chair happened to be occupied by Cambodia,
obviously beholden to China, and it was determined to exclude any mention of
Scarborough altogether. Indeed, from Basilio's account, it was Cambodia which
invoked the chair's prerogative to quash any reference to Scarborough in the
communiqué, in effect, a de facto veto on the majority's support for the
Philippine position.
Whatever happened to China's much-touted "peaceful rise"? Since when did it
become vicious, and why? China's leaders devised the term "peaceful rise," later
on replaced by the less suggestive "peaceful development," to reassure its Asian
neighbors and the United States that its breakneck economic prosperity and
corresponding military modernization should pose no threat to them, and that it
was after all in China's interest to have peace and stability. For a while, it
led to the muting of territorial feistiness over barren islands and rocks in the
South China Sea.
Basilio also exposes the canard that Secretary Del Rosario walked out of the
meeting. Far from it. (In another report, I read that it was Cambodia's foreign
minister who walked out after the Philippines had already accepted a draft
compromise.) Indeed, the scenario was quite the opposite. Del Rosario stayed on
to say his piece. His microphone went dead, but he continued speaking to
complete the Philippine statement.
Basilio diplomatically fudges whether Cambodian microphones usually conk out
when foreign ministers speak but, since I am not a diplomat, I am completely
free to speculate that Secretary Del Rosario's microphone being cut off was not
innocent at all.
Finally, Basilio shows that the disagreement at Phnom Penh was narrow and
specific, but the consensus that the Philippines won was actually broad and
substantial. The disagreement—the one that stalled and finally killed the
Asean's joint communiqué—was on whether there will be an express reference to
Scarborough. The consensus—on which basis the Asean can move forward despite the
Cambodia-engineered debacle at Phnom Penh—is on the key elements of a proposed
Code of Conduct. I have read other reports saying that consensus affirms
international law as the framework for resolving the territorial disputes. That
in itself is a major step forward.
But the real triumph there is that the Code of Conduct recognizes the
multilateral nature of the South China Sea problem. Again, given the game of
shadows that is Asean diplomacy, it might have otherwise been wiser to hush up
on this triumph. When it comes to victory, what's important is to win it, not to
revel in it. A little humility should be good. But the situation is different
now.
The first Asean declaration calling for a code of conduct on the territorial
disputes in the South China Sea was adopted in 1992, and it took 10 years before
that declaration was joined by China in 2002. The 2002 declaration was a major
step forward, and must have coincided with the time when China indeed took its
"peaceful rise" to heart. Today, another 10 years have passed and obviously
things have changed for China.
China has portrayed the Asean's failure to adopt a joint statement at Phnom
Penh as China's triumph, but it merely succeeded in portraying it as the Asean's
defeat. In other words, by gloating about how it prevailed in Phnom Penh, this
sordid episode should remind other Asean countries why it is so important for
them to band together against their biggest, most powerful neighbor. Already,
just days after Phnom Penh, China has upped the ante and announced newer
initiatives in islands belonging to the Kalayaan Islands Group that are covered
as part of Philippine territory under our latest Baselines Law.
In other words, China is using the Cambodian veto over the Asean joint
communiqué to build momentum not just over the five scattered rocks at
Scarborough but over the Spratly islands archipelago themselves. We should
capitalize on China's aggressive streak to galvanize further international
support for our position. Let the Phnom Penh meeting be one step backward, and
foster global outrage to push us two steps forward.


Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved




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