‘ASEAN lost face in summit postponement’

[explorer]

‘ASEAN lost face in summit postponement’ -- Thai newspaper

First posted 07:51:28 (Mla time) December 17, 2006
Agence France-Presse

HONG KONG -- The following is a selection from the editorial page of The Nation newspaper of Thailand. The views expressed are those of the newspaper concerned.

The Nation (says the Philippines' decision to cancel this month's Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit looks bad for the organization.

Gone are the days when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was steered by Indonesia's Suharto, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, and Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad.
Call them dictators or whatever you like, but to be sure, these leaders did lead ASEAN and made it a real entity in world affairs.

This year's ASEAN summit, which was supposed to be held in Cebu, the Philippines' second largest city, from December 10-14, was postponed at the last minute because, according to the organizing committee, a great big rainstorm was on the horizon.

The real reason behind the abrupt and panicky cancellation, it turned out, was a terrorist threat. Just a few days before the summit was to begin, an intelligence report from Australia said that a terrorist attack in the Cebu area was in its "final stages". Following the report, six countries including Australia, the US, the UK and Japan issued warnings to their citizens advising them not to travel to the province during the summit.

But another reason behind the cancellation was the political situation in the Philippines.
For one thing, the government still has to deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines. Furthermore, the summit was taking place at a time of heightened political tension in Manila over the government's plans to push through radical changes to the constitution.

Meanwhile, the debacle has already caused considerable damage to the image of ASEAN as an organization. For one thing, it reflects poorly on the leadership of the Philippines as the host of the summit. Even if the typhoon was the real reason they shut it down, blaming it on the weather is just lame. Besides, if the weather in Cebu was a problem, why not move the summit to another city?

The non-event this year also shows that current ASEAN leaders are not as strong as their predecessors... Indeed, by backing down this year ASEAN has shown that it will cave in to terrorism. This is ironic because one of ASEAN's projects is tighter cooperation among its 10 members to fight terrorism.

It is sad that ASEAN lost face over the Cebu non-summit. It is sadder, however, that the winners in this are the terrorists themselves.

[number001]

This goes way beyond ASEAN. The cancellation is really bad for our country and La Gloria. It reflects on how inept our country and government are for not being able to deal with the real threat which is terrorism.

I dont know if any of these folks will be coming back here early next year bec. I'm sure their schedule must be pretty tight and fully booked already.

[Isuzoom]

GMA's trademark...laban or bawi

[niky]

Quite bad for the country, yes. The alarmism and jittery nature of the ASEAN Summit organizers will merely provide satisfaction to local terrorists... and make them even bolder.

[boybi]

nagsabi na yata ang Japan (though not a member of ASEAN, but was always present as guest member, like china) na hindi na sila makaka attend sa postponed summit due to prior commitments.

[oldblue]

maybe it was a serious threat

[CVT]

It was really a bad move by the Philippines to cancel the Summit. The excuses are lame, IMO.

However, take note that our Asian neighbors, like China, HongKong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia in their local dailies, would almost always publish bad news about their neighbors, specifically the Philippines. I always see these bad news about our country in my trips to these countries, nasa headline pa!

It looks like they're doing it so that they can attract foreign investments in their countries, not in their neighbors.

:starwars:

[j_avonni]

Why are we a member of the ASEAN? Somebody thought we were Pacific Islanders.

If not for typhoon Seniang, what would be their reason of postponement?

I agree with number001 about the ineptness of our government.

By the way, is the CICC construction fully completed?

[boybi]

di ba bumuhos din ng ulan sa loob ng CICC? buti pala hindi natuloy ang summit, kundi mas nakakahiya ang pinas

[mazdamazda]

To those that are saying that the typhoon was not a threat to the Summit... maybe you should have tried flying to the Visayas area during that time. My dad who was in Samar at that time was saying that the rain & wind is quite strong back there. I was also in a flight from Malaysia to Manila a few days before and the turbulence encountered by our aircraft was really BAD.

Now, would you risk the lives of several heads of states over a summit?

===

Btw, All ASEAN country leaders have already committed their attendance to the rescheduled summit.

===

Its funny that it seems that the only ones sourgrouping about the cancellation are those that will not be attending the summit in the first place. :rofl:

[Hanren]

To those that are saying that the typhoon was not a threat to the Summit... maybe you should have tried flying to the Visayas area during that time. My dad who was in Samar at that time was saying that the rain & wind is quite strong back there. I was also in a flight from Malaysia to Manila a few days before and the turbulence encountered by our aircraft was really BAD.

Now, would you risk the lives of several heads of states over a summit?

===

Btw, All ASEAN country leaders have already committed their attendance to the rescheduled summit.

===

Its funny that it seems that the only ones sourgrouping about the cancellation are those that will not be attending the summit in the first place. :rofl:

I agree...

I don't know why people (yes, Pinoys included) should inject other reasons for the postponement.. Shouldn't we just stand up and unite as one and say that it was due to the WEATHER? If ever there were other reasons, perhaps, we should have help our government in one way or the other. After all, it's our pride that's at stake. Even pagasa can't predict 100% the actual path of a typhoon.

To be branded as a "coward" by other countries for giving in to the terror threat is not something to be amused at.

People (and Japan) should have raised a howl if the summit was postponed due to a typhoon coming in June of next year. Iniintriga pa niyo pinas eh ang dami na ngang problema..

[Altis6453]

Thing is, there should always be a Plan B insofar as venues for these international summits are concerned. Let's face it, the government botched this thing because they either feared bad weather or bad political fallout brought about by the Chacha issue.

[BlueBimmer]

i studied in Cebu for 6yrs during my elementary days, and i can attest to the fact na the visayas region is very very prone to typhoons, there would be numerous days in a year where classes would be suspended due to typhoon. very typhoon prone ang cebu.

[oldblue]

It was really a bad move by the Philippines to cancel the Summit. The excuses are lame, IMO.

However, take note that our Asian neighbors, like China, HongKong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia in their local dailies, would almost always publish bad news about their neighbors, specifically the Philippines. I always see these bad news about our country in my trips to these countries, nasa headline pa!

It looks like they're doing it so that they can attract foreign investments in their countries, not in their neighbors.

:starwars:

kaya nga taka ako kumbakit ni-lilimit lang crab mentality sa'tin. I believe all Asians have this "disease".

[afrasay]

better safe than sorry.

[niky]

better safe than sorry.

Hmmm... if it was really the typhoon (which I am half-inclined to believe... we've been hit pretty hard here in the south these past few months), I suppose.

[IMm29]

ironically, Cebu was spared. heard over the radio from Cebu-based reporters during that weekend that "Cancelled ang Bagyo, Tuloy ang Summit!"

much as you would want to give the organizers the benefit of the doubt of blaming the postponement entirely on the storm, there being many other not-so-far-fetched reasons hovering in the wings makes you wonder why they really postponed the summit.

[theveed]

Weather-weather lang yan :D

[IMm29]

Weather-weather lang yan :D

Maswerti at stormy weather nun!