Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy (SAPA) met in Indonesia on 15-16 April, to discuss and finalise its face to face submission to the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN charter (www.aseansec.org).

SAPA’s submission highlighted the perspectives of civil society which should be reflected in an ASEAN Charter, while focusing on the aspects of people’s security, in line with the agenda of the EPG meeting this week.Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy (SAPA) met in Indonesia on 15-16 April, to discuss and finalise its face to face submission to the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN charter (www.aseansec.org).

SAPA’s submission highlighted the perspectives of civil society which should be reflected in an ASEAN Charter, while focusing on the aspects of people’s security, in line with the agenda of the EPG meeting this week.

FORUM-ASIA representatives participated actively in the discussion and helped formulate two important chapters on human rights and dignity as well as clarified SAPA’s position on the ASEAN Security Community.

At the EPG-CSOs (Civil Society Organisations) Consultation on 17 April, only four groups were allowed to make official interventions. They were:

A representative from the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organisation (AIPO), whose intervention focused on the possibility of an ASEAN parliament. AIPO also clarified that parliamentarians should not be grouped together with CSOs.

The representatives from the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, represented by their Malaysian and Indonesian Vice Chairs, offered their brief thoughts on the ASEAN charter. They reiterated the need for ASEAN to live up to the International Standards Charter in order to be well-received and recognised by the world community. They explained that their written submission will be sent to the EPG soon.

Secretariat of the ASEAN People Assembly (APA), hosted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia, withdrew from making the representation at the eleventh hour, explaining that APA is an assembly and not a network or organisation, therefore, it did not have a mandate to represent the diverse CSOs.

SAPA – it was decided that SAPA be represented by an organisation working on human rights/ peace/ migrants/ Burma since the focus of the consultation was on security. It was also decided that SAPA be best represented by a woman—anticipating already that all the other speakers would be men, and that most, if not all EPG would be men. Thus, Anelyn de Luna of Altsean Burma read the Executive Summary of the SAPA submission.

At the consultation, EPG chairperson Tan Sri Musa Hitam from Malaysia was very open to the process, allowing interactive dialogues between the CSOs representations.

The session resulted in a very fruitful exchange of ideas between the representatives especially with the three EPG members: Tan Sri Musa Hitam from Malaysia, Pak Ali Alatas from Indonesia and Former President of Philippines Mr. Fidel Ramos.

As SAPA was the only group among the four who made a written and oral submission, the EPG as well as the ASEAN Secretariat expressed appreciation towards SAPA’s contribution and gave their commitment to engage with SAPA in their coming EPG meeting.

When asked if this process of engaging with CSOs would be the “first and last”, Musa joked that after looking at the faces of CSOs and listening to their presentations and interaction, his god feelings tell him “Yes! This process shall continue and we the EPG shall meet with you”.

As a follow up, SAPA has also expressed its keen intent to participate in the next EPG-CSO Consultation on the Economy and Trade in Singapore on June 27. The next SAPA face-to-face shall be held in Singapore on June 25-26, to be hosted by Think Centre, a FORUM-ASIA member in Singapore.

Below are the members of the Eminent Persons Group on the ASEAN Charter:

   1. Brunei Darussalam
      H.E. Pehin Dato Lim Jock Seng
      Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade II
   2. Cambodia
      H.E. Dr. Aun Porn Moniroth
      Advisor to the Prime Minister
      and Chairman of the Supreme National Economic Council of Cambodia
   3. Indonesia
      H.,E. Mr. Ali Alatas
      Former Minister for Foreign Affairs
   4. Lao PDR
      H.E. Mr. Khamphan Simmalavong
      Former Deputy Minister of Commerce
   5. Malaysia
      H.E. Tan Sri Musa Hitam
      Former Deputy Prime Minister
      Chairman of the EPG
   6. Myanmar
      H.E. Dr. Than Nyun
      Chairman of the Civil Service Selection and Training Board
   7. The Philippines
      H.E. Mr. Fidel V. Ramos
      Former President of the Philippines
   8. Singapore
      H.E. Prof. S. Jayakumar
      Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Law
   9. Thailand
      H.E. M.R. Kasemsamosorn Kasemsri
      Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs
  10. Viet Nam
      H.E. Mr. Nguyen Manh Cam
      Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs