Low hopes for ASEAN

The Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) will gain some diplomatic teeth this week when its ten members sign their first charter. The trouble is that they may prove rather blunt.

Plans for more radical change -- such as a move away from consensus-based decision-making and the cherished principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs -- will be unfulfilled. While Singapore and Malaysia cautiously back such moves, Burma, Laos and Cambodia do not. So while ASEAN’s Jakarta secretariat is likely to be strengthened, it is unclear how members will be monitored or penalised for non-compliance with new rules (on democracy, for example), or on the establishment of a human rights body. This risks compromising the organisation, which has long been hampered by a lack of unity of purpose among its members.