With the December 31, 2015, effective date for
the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) coming up, all of the ASEAN member states
are holding conferences and symposia on ASEAN integration. Hence this
report from the Star newspaper in Malaysia on a public outreach event held
by the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) was
particularly exceptional, mainly because it reflects a general lack of
understanding of the AEC in Malaysia. This is remarkable because Malaysia is the
2015 ASEAN chair, the lead country on ASEAN institutional reform, and the home
of two of the ASEAN companies most supportive of ASEAN economic integration,
Air Asia and CIMB bank.
According to the article, last week MITI
minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed gamely dealt with about 100 representatives
of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who either did not understand or did
not want to understand the AEC process:
Given that readers from Malaysia rank #7 in
page views among the readers of this blog, far behind those from Singapore,
Indonesia and Thailand and even behind Cambodia, I am more inclined to be
charitable and say that the former is more likely. Here are some of the claims made by the NGOs:
A representative from the Persatuan Pengguna Islam Malaysia
spoke about ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas in Myanmar, asking Asean to put
more pressure on Myanmar and insisting that the message must be stated when
Malaysia assumes the Asean chair next year.
Comment: at first glance,
this is not an AEC matter but a political-security pillar matter. However, the basic issue of movement of natural persons across national borders in the AEC, and the fundamental rights created by such movement, is a long-term issue for ASEAN. Hopefully ASEAN
leaders can understand this as the AEC process continues.
Another spoke of uncontrolled inflow of unskilled labour
flooding the local market once the AEC comes into effect.
The subject on the
movement of professionals within the region was raised several times during the
question and answer session with the speakers expressing concern over the fate
of local workers and their confusion over the terms of reference of skilled
labour.
Comment: again the issue of
movement of natural persons comes up. In
the short-term the issue of unskilled labor movement is not ripe, as the ASEAN Movement of Natural Persons Agreement only deals with skilled and professional workers, and not unskilled workers. But in the long run, movement of persons
across national borders in the AEC will have far-reaching consequences for
ASEAN and its member states.
A representative from
the Malaysian Aids Council called for improving the government’s engagement
with the civil society while the spokesperson from the Women Aid Organisation
said the Asean women caucus had done a good analysis on women, the economy and
their rights in Asean and asked who to submit the paper to.
Comment:
these issues fall under the socio-cultural pillar of ASEAN and thus not within
the immediate ambit of the AEC. On the
other hand, these comments do raise concerns about governance of ASEAN and the interaction between the private sector and the ASEAN institutions, another
long-term issue for ASEAN.
The
minister (and the reporter) summarized the sentiment from the meeting as
follows:
“It is a big
embarrassment if we keep on talking about AEC but many people in Malaysia do
not know what Asean is all about.”
How do you explain to
them that the AEC is not a monster to be feared but to be embraced, as many
aspects of it are already part and parcel of us for some time now?
And
therein lies the problem for Malaysia and other ASEAN member states as end-2015
approaches. How will they deal with the
increasing anxiety about the AEC? As the
above comments indicate, many of these fears are not about the AEC itself, as
they deal with non-economic matters. However, to the extent that they deal with
general issues of governance regarding all of the ASEAN Community, they will
eventually have to be resolved, including but not limited to strengthening the
ASEAN institutions.
Thus,
December 31, 2015, is not the end of the AEC process, not even the beginning of
the end but merely the end of the beginning.
What happens after December 31, 2015, requires much greater
consideration by ASEAN member states and their constituents because that is the
true test of whether ASEAN can deal with its many challenges.
