KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 – The leaders of 10 Southeast Asian countries inked a historic declaration on the formation of the ASEAN Community by Dec 31, 2015 that entails greater integration of this region of over 600 million people. Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is 2015 ASEAN chairman, was joined by the leaders of nine other Southeast Asian countries in signing the 2015 Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the Asean Community.
They also inked the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together, a document that spells out the way forward for the community in the next 10 years. After the signing, the leaders marked the occasion with a single simultaneous strike of 10 drums, symbolising ASEAN’s march towards a common destiny.
Besides Najib, the documents were inked by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong of Laos, Myanmar President U Thein Sein, Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung of Vietnam.
In the meantime, established after the grouping’s 48 years of existence, the ASEAN Community is based on this three pillars, namely as the ASEAN Political and Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community and also ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.
“There was so much that the community stood to gain economically that would benefit the daily lives of all its citizens. But, the notion of the ASEAN Community went beyond that. It’s also about all of us being ASEAN, recognising that something special binds us, and also making our citizens feel that the ASEAN courses through their veins,” he said in his opening remarks at the event.
Najib pointed out that the ASEAN Way had guided the regional grouping and would continue to be its compass as it sought to realise a politically cohesive, economically integrated, socially responsible, and a truly people-oriented, people-centred and rules-based ASEAN.
It has been forecast that ASEAN’s gross domestic product (GDP) would reach US$4.7 trillion (RM20 trillion) by 2020, and become the fourth largest economy in the world as early as 2030. Najib noted that in practice, the region had already virtually eliminated tariff barriers under the ASEAN Free Trade Area, making the manufacturing industry more competitive in the global market and reducing costs for everyone.
“We now have to ensure that we create a truly single market and production base, with freer movement of goods and services. In additional, I had also cited the advantages of common standards and far greater connectivity for the region,” he said. Besides that, the prime minister also went down memory lane as he recalled the historic role played by his father, Malaysia’s second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, in the formation of ASEAN back in 1967.
Najib said he was only 15 years old when his late father Tun Razak, together with Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore and Thanat Khoman of Thailand formed ASEAN. They were foreign ministers then. Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam joined the grouping at different stages later.
“Even at that age, I remember being well aware that it (ASEAN formation) represented an important change in the way the countries in our region dealt with one and other. We could have little idea, however, of just how historic and consequential a moment that was,” he added.
The seed of the idea of an ASEAN Community was planted in Bali in 2003. With the advent of the Community, Najib said: “We’ve now have raised the bar and expectations of our people, and we’re charged with meeting the aspirations of our younger generation, and of those to come.”
The prime minister pointed out that ASEAN leaders needed to echo the conclusion of the Bangkok Declaration of 1967 signalling the birth of ASEAN, by binding together in friendship and cooperation. He said this will be done through joint efforts and sacrifices to secure for our people and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity. He added that the ASEAN Community is a landmark achievement on the way to reaching those goals.
