5.1. ASEAN development
While Europe was more oriented toward national economy and independency, due to the fact that in her history, differently from Asia, she didn‟t suffer because
of the colonialism, the main characteristic of Asia is that she ended having low regional institutions, much bigger territory than Europe with much more cultural
and ethnic diversity on it. With the exception of Japan, China and Thailand, all Asian countries are postcolonial and under the influence of western imperialism.
Long history of war between Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and process of decolonization made the system of weak states which soon became dominated
by foreign powers, “as the region was a main frontline in the superpower rivalry
.”
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Those countries will stay under the influence of ideological fights of communists and anti-communists which will divide China, Korea and Vietnam.
Similar situation we have in Indonesia during 1965 fight against communism or during the occupation of East Timor in 1975; in Burma, Philippines and
Cambodia with civil wars, from which today we have just questions over the confrontation between Cambodia and Thailand and the issues of South China Sea
as non-solved. With the situation of US deployments in 1962 and 1963 and military bases in
Vietnam by US and Soviet Union, Philippines by US, and Thailand by US, Indonesia was the first one to switch from confrontation with its neighbors to
“policy of promoting regional political stability in order to underpin region wide
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Buza B., Wae er O., , Regio s a d po ers. The stru ture of i ter atio al se urity ,
Cambridge University Press, p.128
economic development projects.”
71
That idea found it‟s roots in establishing The Association of Southeast Asian Nations - ASEAN as an organization with the
goal to “promote regional peace and stability; to promote active collaboration and
mutual assistance on matters of common interest in the economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific and administrative fields; to maintain close and beneficial
cooperation with existing international and regional organizations with similar aims and purposes
”
72
. Ideals were shared by the ASEAN Declaration Bangkok Declaration by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN: Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand. Brunei Darussalam then joined on 7 January 1984, Viet Nam on 28 July 1995,
Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up what is today the ten Member States of ASEAN.
But, the creation of ASEAN, didn‟t change the fact that states remained
divided into two groups: communist bloc, oriented toward Soviet Union which is dominated by Vietnam and includes and Laos and Cambodia, and second one,
anti-communist, which is oriented toward west. One of the main goals of that divided world is to bring to the reality an
ASEAN Community, by 2015. Its realization would put the accent on the security of more than 600 million citizens. The way that is going to be done depends on
the meaner terrorism is going to be dealt with.
71
Buza B., Wae er O., , Regio s a d po ers. The stru ture of inter atio al se urity ,
Cambridge University Press, p.134
72
The Asean
Declaration Bangkok
Declaration, Bangkok,
8 August
1967, http:www.asean.orgnewsitemthe-asean-declaration-bangkok-declaration
, [19.06.2013]
The way terrorism is going to be dealt with is influenced by the importance each member state is giving to the terrorism issues. As a phenomena that is in
South East Asia correlated to the Islamic movements, terrorism was present during the times of resistance in XIX century against westernized control and
protests against colonial government. During colonization Islam was a tool of rising awareness of the role of the individuals in society and human equality, but
tool in the form of wars, rebellion, protests against government in the attempt to establish Islam-based country. Even after the colonization, by the research report
“Motivation and root causes of terrorism”, it remained the manner of expressing radical ideological-religious beliefs, sense of communal solidarity, mob mentality,
revenge-seeking, situational, and separatist motives. In the case of Indonesia its roots were poverty and social inequality caused by monetary and financial crisis
in 1997-1998; in Thailand those were separatists movements in the southern provinces that were using bombs during their fight; in Malaysia the main issues
were students coming from the Middle East, with no intention of studying but recruiting new members of terrorist groups, members that are mainly influenced
by propaganda, medias, or growing up in a religious communities, although there are also ones involved in separatism and political terrorism; Philippines are
dealing with several c auses of terrorism: “communist insurgency, different groups
of rebels in Southern Philippines Bangsamoro, violent crimes related to the local and electoral politics.”
73
73
Neil J. Mel i , 7, Co fli t i “outher Thaila d: Isla is , Viole e a d the state i the
Pataki I surge y , “IPRI Poli y Paper No. , p. 81
Those were the reasons why most of the theories are concentrating just on a few states within ASEAN when they are talking about terrorism. Those are also
the reason why just a few states within ASEAN are putting an effort in dealing with terrorism. But, no matter of being present in only a few, terrorism still
remains the issue that can jeopardize the final ASEAN Community 2015 goal of all member states.
The first important step toward that goal was the moment of signing the ASEAN regional Convention on Counter-Terrorism, 13 January 2007. That
Convention made ASEAN as the first regional group in the world with a comprehensive convention countering terrorism, followed by the establishment of
the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime AMMTC and Senior Official Meeting on Transnational Crime SOMTC. With the similar role
ASEAN Regional Forum ARF and ASEAN Defense Ministerial Meeting ADMM and ADMM Plus were made.
Creation of the AMMTC, SOMTC, ARF, ADMM and ADMM Plus were signs that ASEAN is walking the right road, leading toward the necessary
cooperation in the fight against terrorism. But after only Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Viet Nam being countries from the organization that
submitted information on their implementation of the national WMD controls, international community started thinking that the counter-terrorism agenda
doesn‟t have the same importance among all ASEAN members. Concern is that informal and voluntary character of ASEAN
wouldn‟t be enough in the fight for a
safe, peaceful and stabile region, free of terrorism threats. Not if continues functioning without stronger and institutionalized enforcement structures,
mechanisms of verification or official sanctions for uncooperative members.
5.2. ASEAN region in a fight against bioterrorism
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