ASEAN
member states (AMS) are facing challenging political and security
issues in the region, including an arms race, corruption, the
development gap and the impact of it, ethnic clashes and intolerance,
human trafficking, human rights abuses, an illicit drug trade,
migration, money laundering, social injustice, terrorism, territorial
maritime disputes, and other forms of transnational crimes.
Through
political and security development cooperation among the AMS, the ASEAN
Political-Security Community (APSC) is institutionally framed to
effectively manage these issues. The APSC constitutes one of the three
pillars supporting the ASEAN Community ─ alongside ASEAN Economic
Community (AEC) and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC). Under the
APSC blueprint, which provides a roadmap and timetable, the APSC will be
established by 2015.
One of the major problems impeding
the progress of establishing the ASEAN Community and the APSC is the
slow pace of ratification and program implementation by the AMS.
In
addition to the weak political commitment of the AMS, this slow
progress may also be attributed to the insufficient power of the ASEAN
Secretariat to coordinate, monitor and “direct” the policies, programs
and activities of the ASEAN and the AMS in achieving the APSC. With its
inadequate operational budget, the ASEAN Secretariat functions like an
ASEAN post or liaison office.
To enforce these
conventions, ASEAN must have a court that has the power to adjudicate
disputes among the AMS and punish (transnational) crimes committed in
ASEAN’s jurisdiction. Therefore, to make this court work effectively,
the AMS should carefully and clearly redefine and reinterpret the scope
and definitions of “sovereignty”, “non-interference”, and “territorial
integrity” principles stipulated in the ASEAN Charter.
Source:
1.
Roby, A 2013, Building the ASEAN Political-Security Community, viewed
10 July 2015, <
www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/02/05/building-asean-political-security-community.html>
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