KUALA LUMPUR: A prominent Thai Asean analyst has praised Malaysia for a job well done during its tenure as Asean chair for 2015, saying that right from day one, the nation had taken extra efforts to ensure smooth proceedings of the 27th Asean Summits and Related Summits.
Kavi Chongkittavorn said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who helmed the chairmanship, Malaysia had taken the lead to make sure that an Asean Community would be set up by year end.
“I think Malaysia has done a good job as the Asean chair,” he said in a written reply to questions posed by Bernama.
On the last day of the five-day summit yesterday, the leaders of the 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.
However, Kavi, who is a fellow at Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Security and International Studies, felt that there still remained some ‘unfinished business’ for Asean members regarding the Asean Community.
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And these required political will and courage to overcome, especially those concerning non-tariff measures related to services and investment, he said.
“Asean also needs a better and fast decision making process to cope with challenges facing the community,” he opined.
Asked on how Asean should deal with the emerging extremist ideologies within the region, Kavi said that there was a need to generate a community-based support to combat extremism from spreading.
When a community was strong and united, it would be difficult for outside elements to cause havoc and disunity, he explained.
“It is important to have effective counter narratives to fight against violent extremism in this part of the world and in this aspect, Malaysia is well positioned to do so with its experience on anti-terrorism,” he said.
Malaysia, which had chosen the theme “Our People, Our Community, Our Vision,” for its chairmanship yesterday handed over the Asean Chairmanship to Laos which takes over as the 2016 chair with the theme ‘Turning Vision into Reality for a Dynamic Asean Community.’--BERNAMA