2007年VOA标准英语-Analysts: ASEAN Unlikely to Change to EU Model

By Claudia Blume
Hong Kong
05 February 2007

Protesters burn a mock ASEAN logo and a US flag during their "jogging for jobs and justice" protest,Cebu, Philippines (File)

Many leaders in Asia see a European model of integration¹ as the way forward for Southeast Asia. But while the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has taken steps toward greater regional economic integration, experts doubt whether the organization will be able to follow the European Union's example any time soon. Claudia Blume reports from VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong.

Forty years after the founding of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, there is a growing acknowledgment that the organization needs to reinvent itself to remain relevant. Many believe that the way to go for ASEAN is to push for European Union-like integration.

Benito Lim is a political scientist at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. He says ASEAN's goal is to become a unified² market similar to the E.U.

"That is the eventual³ aspiration⁴ of all member nations, that once we are integrated we will be able to act as a bloc⁵, especially for negotiating with other countries on the selling of our products, on tariffs⁶ and all other issues pertaining⁷ to economic and trade relations," said Lim.

At last month's ASEAN summit in the Philippine city of Cebu, the organization moved a step closer toward regional integration. Leaders of the 10 member countries agreed to create a free-trade zone by 2015. They approved a blueprint⁸ for the group's first charter, which would make ASEAN a more legally defined organization and allow it to impose sanctions on members who do not follow its rules. Currently, ASEAN resolutions are not binding⁹ on the members.

But there are many stumbling blocks that make it difficult for ASEAN to integrate as fully¹⁰ as the E.U.

Masahiro Kawai is dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo. He says the disparities among ASEAN member countries are enormous - unlike the European Union.

"The development gaps among countries are huge - Singapore versus¹¹ Laos or Cambodia," he said. "The income disparities are huge, institutional differences are big, of course political regimes are different across countries, whereas in the case of Europe even 50 years ago there was a lot of homogeneity among core countries in Europe."

While the average per capita gross domestic product in Singapore, one of the richest countries in the world, was more than $26,000 last year, the per capita GDP in Burma, the poorest ASEAN member, was less than $200. Laos and Cambodia are not far above Burma.

Malcolm Cook, program director of the Lowy Institute, a Sydney international policy institute, says another major problem in Southeast Asia that makes integration difficult is that the region's economies compete against each other. Most have similar exports, such as textiles and natural resources, which are exported to similar markets.

"Almost all the economies of Southeast Asia minus Singapore are competing economies," said Cook. "They are not particularly complimentary¹², which is different than Europe, especially when Spain, Greece and Portugal joined. So the economies don't trade much amongst each other and compete against each other on world markets - that makes integration both less beneficial and more difficult to achieve."

Lack of economic freedom is another weakness of several ASEAN member countries. This year's "Index of Economic Freedom" - released by the U.S. policy research center the Heritage Foundation in January - ranked Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam as "mostly unfree" economies.

Vietnam, for example, was only placed 138 on an index of 157 countries surveyed for their level of economic freedom because of the government's tight controls of most assets and the financial sector¹³. Laos and Burma's economies ranked as "repressed".

Development in the region is hampered¹⁴ by widespread corruption¹⁶, which scares away investors¹⁷ and can restrict economic growth. According to a 2006 Index released by the corruption watchdog Transparency International, six of the 10 ASEAN countries were among the 50 most corrupt¹⁵ countries in the world: Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia and Burma.

Political integration in the region is made difficult by the large differences among government systems, ranging from multi-party democracies such as Indonesia to communist regimes in Vietnam and Laos. Benito Lim says because of this, the proposed introduction of majority voting, replacing ASEAN's customary decision-making by consensus¹⁸, is a thorny¹⁹ issue.

"It is controversial because one of the principles they are committed to would be commitment to democracy, human rights - and you know most of the ASEAN states are not real democracies so that would be a big problem," added Lim.

Traditionally, ASEAN members have stuck to the principle of not intervening in their neighbors' affairs. The organization has been accused of not taking a strong enough stance against human rights abuses, particularly by Burma.

Masahiro Kawai says, however, that the grouping has started to become more vocal²⁰.

"They had [an] implicit²¹ agreement not to interfere²² with each others' domestic affairs. But in order to make further progress for integration of course you have to talk about countries' businesses economic issues, and to some extent political issues," said Kawai. "So things are moving in the right direction."

Kawai thinks that to strengthen integration, considerable economic, institutional and political convergence has to take place, and that will take time.

Kawai and other experts say that the introduction of a single Asian currency, similar to the euro, is even further away on the horizon.

Talk about an Asian currency unit, aimed at bolstering²³ monetary²⁴ stability, spurring economic growth and evening out disparities, has gone on for years. It particularly gained momentum²⁵ during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990's. But ASEAN has pushed the topic off the table for now. Malcolm Cook says the organization is focusing first on less ambitious goals such as Asian bond markets and on encouraging countries in the region to borrow regional currencies instead of relying on dollar loans.

1 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

2 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

3 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

4 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。

5 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

6 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

7 pertaining   

与…有关系的，附属…的，为…固有的(to)

参考例句：

• Living conditions are vastly different from those pertaining in their country of origin. 生活条件与他们祖国大不相同。
• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school. 视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。

8 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

9 binding   

有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的

参考例句：

• The contract was not signed and has no binding force. 合同没有签署因而没有约束力。
• Both sides have agreed that the arbitration will be binding. 双方都赞同仲裁具有约束力。

10 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

11 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

12 complimentary   

adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的

参考例句：

• She made some highly complimentary remarks about their school.她对他们的学校给予高度的评价。
• The supermarket operates a complimentary shuttle service.这家超市提供免费购物班车。

13 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

14 hampered   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。

15 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

16 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

17 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

18 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

19 thorny   

adj.多刺的，棘手的

参考例句：

• The young captain is pondering over a thorny problem.年轻的上尉正在思考一个棘手的问题。
• The boys argued over the thorny points in the lesson.孩子们辩论功课中的难点。

20 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

21 implicit   

a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的

参考例句：

• A soldier must give implicit obedience to his officers. 士兵必须绝对服从他的长官。
• Her silence gave implicit consent. 她的沉默表示默许。

22 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

23 bolstering   

v.支持( bolster的现在分词 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助

参考例句：

• Why should Donahue's people concern themselves with bolstering your image? 唐纳休的人为什么要费心维护你的形象？ 来自辞典例句
• He needed bolstering and support. 他需要别人助他一臂之力。 来自辞典例句

24 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

25 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。