Politics

通往以人民为中心的东盟社会

Nov 10, 2017 Moon Jae-in

首尔—很高兴我与东南亚国家联盟领导人的第一次会晤正逢历史时刻：东盟成立50周年。在这50年里，我的祖国韩国以及几乎整个亚洲都发生了翻天覆地的变化。东盟在促进和传播经济活力方面所起到的作用，对于亚洲地区的成功至关重要。

对韩国来说，东盟是毋庸置疑的宝贵的特殊朋友。光是在去年，就有约六百万韩国人来到东盟成员国旅行，他们当中既有游客，也有商务人士。大约500,000东盟成员国公民现在在韩国生活和工作，大约300,000韩国人在东盟国家生活和工作。

这是韩国与东盟的关系不仅局限于政府间关系的一个例子。我们的关系因为如此多个体生活之间的牵挂，而通过最为个人化的方式得到了深化。

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Yoshimichi Moriyama Nov 17, 2017

President Roh Moo-hyun, whom Mr. Moon served as a top adviser, said that South Korea should act as a balancer between the United States and China for peace in East Asia. The question was if it would have been realistic. All that had a lot to do with Korean historical and cultural addiction to Neo-Confucianism.

"No professional historian of South Korea says that Japanese abducted Korean women or girls and forced them to work as comfort women with Japanese soldiers. There were about three hundred thousand South Korean comfort women, and about fifty thousand of them were engaged or forced to engage in prostitution with South Korean and UN soldiers at the time of the Korean War. The South Korean government keeps hushed and South Korean mass media do not report it (from Michi's comment, American Humanism, on Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Imperial Japan's Sex Slaves, amazon usa.)"
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Hahn-June Yeon Nov 13, 2017

South Korean relationship with ASEAN countries will strengthen through re-negotiating the FTA agreements. However, it should not end there. As the author pointed out, "people to people interactions" between the two is essential. Korean government should widen and lower border access to foreign investers, immigrants, and workers. S.Korean soft power is a major influence to many of the ASEAN nations. It only needs to prove that the N.Korean nuclear threat can be eased and managed. More emphasis and attention on foreign relations policy and planning out new economic growth model is crucial for S.Korea. S.Korean government should not only continue but promote the Eurasia Initiative, a Korean version of One Belt One Road. Reconstructing domestic socio-political system is necessary, but industries and economic system ought not be halted in the way. As for ASEAN, economic and political cooperation is needed as the Pacific Alliance in west coast S.America is carrying out.
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j. von Hettlingen Nov 12, 2017

President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea expresses his optimism about the new ties forged between South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which was founded in 1967 by Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, and later joined by Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. South Korea is not member, but began sectoral dialogues with ASEAN in 1989, and became a full dialogue partner later in 1991.
Since 2010, South Korea and ASEAN "have made significant strides together as strategic partners." Cooperation between the two sides has expanded to cover a wide range of issues from political-security, socio-cultural, to the economy. To mark ASEAN's 50th anniversary, the author hopes that the regional body would become a “people-centered, people-oriented community” that aims to "build a caring and sharing society which is inclusive and where the well-being, livelihood, and welfare of the people are enhanced."
This year's ASEAN summit is being held in Manila and Trump has decided to meet political and business leaders from the region to discuss its future. The author looks forward to attending for the first time with regional leaders, hoping he can enthuse autocratic regimes with his "longstanding political philosophy" - the idea of "placing a high priority on the 'people.'" He claims, his vision is "to create, in cooperation with ASEAN, a 'peace-loving, people-centered community where all members are better off together.' This can be summed up in 'three Ps' : People, Prosperity, and Peace."
The question is how realistic are the author's “people-centered diplomacy” and other "People first" initiatives? South Korea has designated 2017 as "Korea-ASEAN Cultural Exchange Year,” and "actively promoted various cultural and people-to-people exchanges." The ASEAN Culture House (ACH) was opened recently in Busan, Korea’s southern port city, and it remains to be seen whether this hub would promote "people-to-people exchanges between Korea and ASEAN members."
It is praiseworthy that the Seoul spares "no effort to expand these exchanges, especially among the young people who will lead Korea-ASEAN relations in the future." But ASEAN is deeply diverse, and each of the 10 countries is different in terms of development, political systems, economic structure, ethnicity, language and culture. Five decades on, ASEAN has achieved little. There are no Asean institutions to rival the EU's Commission. Council of Ministers and Court of Justice. The so-called ASEAN Economic Community, launched with great fanfare in Malaysia in 2015, is little more than a set of distant aspirations.
The region saw rapid economic growth in the decades after ASEAN was formed. While peace and prosperity flourished and benefited some, poverty is still widespread. A younger and more educated generation is questioning the values of the ASEAN Way, whether it is a block to human rights, political representation and quality of governance. It is asking what the people want from their governments and for their future, and whether it is time for change, civic reform and greater political representation and personal freedom.
Critics say ASEAN has not been able to stand up to China, as there are no strong leadership and mechanism to ensure solidarity, except for a seemingly endless series of meetings - more than 1,000 every year - in which backroom diplomacy can undo a hard-won consensus decision in minutes. As ASEAN lacks leaders of the stature of its founding fathers or the charisma of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad to drive the bloc forward, perhaps President Moon Jae-in could give himself a try.
Two months ahead of the Winter Games in February 2018 in South Korea, the author wants to "deliver a message of reconciliation, peace, mutual understanding, and cooperation throughout the world," urging the international community to "find out and enjoy what Korea and ASEAN share in common." It remains to be seen whether the spirit remains high long after the Games, and how the nuclear crisis will further develop on the Korean Peninsula, which would pre-occupy much of his time and energy.
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