Wednesday, August 06, 2008 Media policy, charter issue keep Asean ‘insignificant’ to masses By Karlon N. Rama Sun.Star Staff Reporter
JAKARTA – While occupied with getting member-countries to ratify its charter, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) remains a concept foreign to the people of each member state.
Journalists from nine of the 10 Asean-member states admit that the association is “under-reported” in their respective countries and that Asean mainly gains coverage during summits or ministerial meetings.
Thus, Asean and its implications remain insignificant to the masses.
The journalists, who are here for a training organized by the Asean Secretariat and the International Institute of Journalism of the German group InWent, said Asean is itself at fault.
The Asean Secretariat, they said, has wrapped itself in a lot of diplomatic “rituals” and, by doing so, kept itself aloof to the media.
Moreover, they added, it does not yet understand the workings of the press that the media, in some member-states at least, are independent from government control and can report extensively on the subject and can comment for or against it.
“They are letting a lot of opportunities pass,” said Dr. Martin Loffelholz, chairman of the Department of Media Studies at Ilmenau University of Technology and head of a consulting firm in Erfurt, Germany.
Political issue
Citing the subject of charter ratification as example, Loffelholz said the process in each member-country would have gone faster had the issue been political, something the governments of each member state realizes that the general public wants.
Among the 10 Asean member-states, three countries have yet to ratify the charter – the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand – and all of them are original founding members.
One issue that the general public in member states could have identified with is the Asean Investment Area and one of its economic components – the Asean Single Window.
Quang Anh Le, Assistant Director for Asean’s Bureau of Economic Integration and Finance, lectured on the subject in the ongoing two-week course.
Journalists, in turn, furiously took down notes, only to be told later by Aveline Low Bee Hui, Senior Officer of Asean’s Public Affairs Office, that the lecture is “not cleared” for use by the press.
Journalists had better treatment from Indonesian Customs officials at a tour of its Tanjung Priok International Port.
Single window
The single window project – to which Tanjung Priok is the pilot area on the Indonesian side – aims to digitize the import and export procedures at international ports.
Through it, one may file an application or the issuance of a customs clearance online.
The processing, too, is done electronically, with the customs bureau and all other related agencies – the agriculture and livestock quarantine office, the health
department, the law enforcement sector and others – are connected via a network.
The procedure is paperless and securely logged, providing better protection against mis-declared or undeclared cargo.
Both the import or export clearance applicant and customs bureau officials can track the status of their documents via a website and can even seek updates via Yahoo! messenger, said Muwasiq Noor, vice president of PT EDI Indonesia, the company that helped set up the system.
Noor said that through the system, transactions at the Tanjung Priok International Port now take no more than three days.
This means products that the Indonesian market needs get in faster. Likewise, products that the international market needs from Indonesia get shipped out quicker.
The Asean single window concept requires all 10 member-states to institutionalize the procedure in their international ports and then integrate all of these into one system.
By doing so, it is hoped that Asean presents itself as a more attractive place to do business.
Still, Loffelholz told the journalists representing the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Brunei Darussalam, the Asean Secretariat is in the process of changing.
The seminar participants will meet Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan on Friday, Asean Day, at the Asean Secretariat Office.
