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Community Building at the Time of Nargis: the ASEAN Response, In: Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 28, 4, 3-22

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Community Building at the Time of Nargis: the ASEAN Response, In: Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 28, 4, 3-22 Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs Amador III, Julio Santiago (2009), Community Building at the Time of Nargis: The ASEAN Response, in: Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 28, 4, 3-22. ISSN: 1868-4882 (online), ISSN: 1868-1034 (print) The online version of this article can be found at: <www.CurrentSoutheastAsianAffairs.org> Published by GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Institute of Asian Studies and Hamburg University Press. The Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs is an Open Access publication. It may be read, copied and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To subscribe to the print edition: <[email protected]> For an e-mail alert please register at: <www.CurrentSoutheastAsianAffairs.org> The Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs is part of the GIGA Journal Family which includes: Africa Spectrum • Journal of Current Chinese Affairs • Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs • Journal of Politics in Latin America • <www.giga-journal-family.org> Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 4/2009: 3-22 Community Building at the Time of Nargis: The ASEAN Response Julio Santiago Amador III Abstract: Cyclone Nargis was one of the most powerful disasters to hit Myanmar and Southeast Asia. Myanmar was criticized internationally for its allegedly slow effort in allowing international aid to enter into the country. This paper examines the criticism levelled against the ASEAN for its slow response in providing aid to the beleaguered in Myanmar and relates that criticism to ASEAN’s disaster management policy. It focuses on ASEAN’s engagement with Myanmar in order to allow humanitarian aid to flow into the country. The paper suggests that in time ASEAN will have to move from its doctrine of non-intervention in the affairs of a sovereign state to one of non-indifference if it wishes to remain relevant. Ultimately, ASEAN will have to re-evaluate its own goals in order to be a more successful apparatus for interstate and regional affairs, especially with respect to humanitarian crises brought about by natural disasters. Manuscript received October 29, 2009; accepted December 4, 2009 Keywords: Myanmar, Burma, ASEAN, humanitarian intervention, Nargis, regional organization Julio Santiago Amador III is currently a foreign affairs research specialist at the Centre for International Relations and Strategic Studies of the Foreign Service Institute, Philippines. He specializes on the governance and political security of the ASEAN and Philippine foreign policy. 4 Julio Santiago Amador III Introduction More than a year has passed since Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar.1 This natural disaster took a terrible toll on both the population and the economy of the country. This toll was made even greater by the reluctance of the ruling junta to accept international relief efforts.2 Even its closest neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) strongly suggested that Myanmar was not acting in its own best interests by restricting such aid. The foreign ministers of ASEAN countries stated that “Myanmar should allow more international relief workers into the stricken areas, as the need is most urgent, given the unprecedented scale of the humanitarian disaster” (SAFMMCS 2008). The ASEAN Emergency Rapid Assessment Team (ASEAN-ERAT) agreed with this observation and found that access to the affected areas was an overarching issue. In fact, even the ASEAN-ERAT was not allowed to conduct assessments in the areas it had selected, and it noted that its report could have been more reflective of the realities on the ground had it been allowed to do so (ASEAN-ERAT 2009). This seems to second the observa- tion by the rest of the international community that Myanmar neglected its people by not fully accessing international aid (UPI 2008). Myanmar’s intransigence in closing itself off to international aid seems to be in conflict with ASEAN’s vision of a community engaging in regional cooperation and integration, something which is enshrined in the ASEAN Charter. In light of these observations, there is a need to study how the ASEAN will be able to, in its own words, become one sharing and caring community (ASEAN Secretariat 2008a). ASEAN’s lofty ambitions, embodied in its various declarations and agreements, need to be transformed into action. This paper3 examines ASEAN’s efforts to effectively respond to natural disasters in its member states. In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, ASEAN has been able to be a mechanism for the facilitation of relief efforts into a 1 Critical reports use the name Burma for the state that Cyclone Nargis devastated. For the purposes of this paper, Myanmar is used, since it is by that name that the ASEAN recognizes that state. 2 EAT and JHU CPHHR 2008. This report was an independent effort by the Emer- gency Assistance Team (EAT-Burma) and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to “provide an independent, community-based assessment of health and human rights in the Cyclone Nargis response” (p. 1). 3 The author would like to thank his colleagues Ms. Rhodora M. Joaquin, Luningning Camoying and Ariel Bacol, as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their com- ments and support. The Foreign Service Institute’s support is gratefully acknowl- edged. The opinions stated in this paper do not reflect the official positions of the organizations and countries discussed. Community Building at the Time of Nargis 5 country that has a strong suspicion of the international community (see EAT and JHU CPHHR 2008: 63). Beyond the individual efforts of neigh- bour countries, there is also a need to examine how ASEAN responded to the crisis, and its activities, in order to ensure that the massive loss of life and property can be mitigated in future events. This paper is guided by the following key questions: 1. What efforts did ASEAN undertake to respond to the impact of Cy- clone Nargis? 2. What lessons did it learn from the crisis? 3. Are current norms for responding to natural disasters in the ASEAN region sufficient, or is it necessary to invoke the necessity of non- indifference because the protection required by the people in an af- fected state is not within the capacity of the respective national govern- ment to provide? 4. Should principles or policies that will allow ASEAN to effectively ren- der aid during natural disasters be institutionalized, especially when such disasters result in the massive loss of human life and security? There are several issues that this paper tackles. First, it outlines the ASEAN response to Cyclone Nargis, noting its successes and failures and identifying where the best practices have occurred, as well as areas for improvement. It also looks into the sustainability of ASEAN’s collective efforts to respond to natural disasters in the region. The paper also examines the principle of non- interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and the possibility that such a principle will have to provide space for collective non-indifference where the concern is the loss of human life, due not to the irresponsibility of a government but to its incapacity to respond to natural disasters. This paper posits that ASEAN member countries have the responsibil- ity not to be indifferent to the peoples of ASEAN member states during periods of humanitarian disaster, especially when those disasters are not man-made but natural. Thus, it argues that the regional organization, while not intervening in national governments’ affairs, cannot be indifferent to the plight of the affected people and must make an effort to respond to their situation. This is, in fact, an appeal to their common and shared humanity, according to which the safety and well-being of the affected populace should be given precedence over traditional diplomatic and international relations practice and norms. This principle of non-indifference has origi- nated from another regional organization: the African Union (AU). The AU constitution allows the AU to intervene in countries where atrocities are being committed, thus enabling the organization to be the ultimate guaran- tor and protector of the rights and well-being of the African peoples 6 Julio Santiago Amador III (Murithi 2009). While ASEAN has not looked beyond the EU for models of regional cooperation, it is worthwhile to note that the AU has been more progressive than ASEAN with regard to human rights. Cyclone Nargis and Its Aftermath Most of the information in this part of the paper was culled from the Post Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report, which was prepared by the Tripartite Core Group, composed of representatives from ASEAN, the government of Myanmar, and the United Nations (Tripartite Core Group 2008). Cyclone Nargis made landfall on 2 May 2008 in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Division, south-west of Yangon. Its wind speed was 200km/h and it brought heavy rains. Unfortunately, the cyclone not only hit the country’s poorest region but also destroyed its “rice bowl”, which produced 25 per cent of the rice in that area, thereby compounding the direct impacts of the disaster with a food shortage for other areas of Myanmar. The cyclone was unarguably the worst disaster to hit Myanmar to date. As the following table demonstrates, Myanmar’s people were severely im- pacted by it. Table 1: Human Impact of Nargis Impact Number of People Official Death Toll 84,537 Missing 53,836 Displaced 800,000 Source: Tripartite Core Group 2008. Other sources point out that in addition to the death toll and the missing victims, 2.4 million more were severely affected by Cyclone Nargis (Coordinating Office n.d.). This number includes those whose homes were submerged or lost permanently; those who were affected by the loss of electricity and other basic infrastructure; and those whose livelihoods were affected, such as farmers and fishermen.
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