The Malaysian Insider :
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak handing over the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the Asean Community signed by 10 leaders to Asean secretary-general, Le Luong Minh, at the 27th Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur. Activists say the new grouping’s success would depend much on how it solves the annual smoke problem in caused by Indonesian forest fires. – Reuters pic, November 23, 2015.Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak handing over the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the Asean Community signed by 10 leaders to Asean secretary-general, Le Luong Minh, at the 27th Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur. Activists say the new grouping’s success would depend much on how it solves the annual smoke problem in caused by Indonesian forest fires. – Reuters pic, November 23, 2015.The Asean Economic Community (AEC) launched with much fanfare yesterday seeks to offer prosperity to its 625 million people, but a civil society leader cites the region’s annual smoke problem as a symbol and test of whether it can live up to the promise. Jerald Joseph, the head of local rights group Pusat Komas, part of the Asean People’s Forum (APF) 2015 attended by the region’s biggest civil society organisations last April, cited the smoke problem as an example when talking about AEC.
It is a symbol because it is the by-product of what AEC plans to achieve on a grander scale: allow Asean businesses the freedom and ease to set up shop in any of the 10-member countries to take advantage of cheaper labour and untapped resources.
It is also a test in that Asean has so far failed to ensure that companies do not profit at the expense of everyone else.
The profit, at the cost of clean air, goes to oil palm plantation companies while everyone else suffers the consequences.
So as political and business leaders in Asean announced the birth of AEC on November 22, critics and civil society groups warn that just like the smoke caused by forest fires in Indonesia, the union could end up benefitting the region’s elites, not the masses. AEC seeks to turn the region into a single borderless economic bloc, much like the European Union (EU), minus a common currency, with the official catch phrase “One Vision, One Identity, One Community”.
It wants to tap a huge regional market of consumers and businesses, which according to a Reuters report, would make AEC the world’s seventh largest economy. Political and business leaders behind AEC say the wealth it hopes to generate will be “people-centred”. Semi-skilled and skilled workers, money and businesses can move freely between member states. Countries also promise to integrate their economies, improve transport, banking and communication links, as well as boost growth driven by the private sector.
This will be done by removing tariffs and barriers such as duties, taxes and visas. Professional standards will also be streamlined such as in accounting, engineering and architecture among member countries. N. Gopal Kishnam (pic, right) of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) said AEC would also allow semi-skilled workers to move around for jobs.
Citizens of a member state, for instance, can seek employment in any of the other member countries without the need for complicated visas, said Gopal.
Large national firms too can open branch offices in other Asean countries with little hassle.
It all looks good on the surface, but according to APF, these freedoms don’t come with adequate protections for workers or the communities impacted by businesses.
“The liberalisation of the labour market has increased the number of precarious jobs and will continue to adversely impact the rights of workers, especially women, locals and migrants,” said a statement by APF on AEC last April.
