JAKARTA: ASEAN's outgoing Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan has made an impassioned plea for the grouping to re-examine its decision-making process.
Dr Surin said the grouping's chief should be given a bigger mandate to represent and act on behalf of the 10-member organisation.
This will be the last major briefing by 63-year-old Dr Surin as ASEAN's secretary-general, capping what has probably been the toughest year of his five-year term.
The former Thai foreign minister was considered one of the most qualified to head the ASEAN Secretariat at a time when the world's attention is on the region.
But the seasoned diplomat said he could have done more.
Dr Surin said: "I don't have the space, the power, the authority to enter into even an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding). That's difficult to drive the place if it's going to be the nerve centre, if it's going to be the central mechanism of this place."
That structural shortcoming was exposed twice this year during Cambodia's chairmanship of ASEAN.
In July, the regional grouping failed to issue a joint communique - the first time in ASEAN's 45-year history.
And earlier this month, several member states publicly dismissed the summit's statement by Cambodia before it was eventually amended.
On both occasions, the issue related to the overlapping claims on the South China Sea.
Dr Surin said, "I think if the secretariat has been given a larger space, more engagement - the impasse in July could have been avoided - not that I did not try but it is the structure that would not allow me to be involved."
He believes the ASEAN secretary-general should have the mandate to play a more active role and make decisions on behalf of the grouping.
The Harvard graduate said he has submitted a comprehensive proposal to ASEAN leaders.
"And I call my proposal The ASEAN Challenge. And that is how to move the organisation forward into the future - within all these demands, expectations that we are facing as we grow. We are now having a problem of our own success on how to manage it," he said.
And it seems ASEAN's dialogue partners and institutions too hope to see this change - including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Dr Surin said: "She expressed it in a very clear, precise, short - and that is we would like to discuss policies with you here. I think what she meant by that is we certainly don't want to come here and have to wait few weeks, few months until you get all the answers from the capitals. That's not quite community, that's not quite ASEAN. And that's not quite the behaviour of what we call a central mechanism for a regional organisation. It should be more effective than that."
He believes overall, member-states are aware of the need to stay united despite pressures from within and outside of the groupings.
Dr Surin said: "If we can't manage well here, we have problems contending among them and between them, external parties around them in our region. We are going to be in what you call a rock and a hard place, which we don't want. And that ASEAN ministers and leaders are very much aware of. And I have certainly contributed to that awareness. Shape up!"
ASEAN's next Secretary-General - Vietnam's deputy foreign minister - has his work cut out for him. Among his first major tasks would be to put the ASEAN house in order as the grouping prepares to become an ASEAN Community in 2015. And that includes getting the governments and related agencies in the 10-member states to embrace a new mindset and think ASEAN.
- CNA/de
Sec-Gen Surin seeks bigger mandate to represent ASEAN
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Sec-Gen Surin seeks bigger mandate to represent ASEAN
