Page 22 - Rights beautiful : collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik

Rights Beautiful Collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik

China through increased trade – so-called “free trade” for that matter. That
is to say, “to catch the express train” in the current Thai jargon.
Now that it is time for presentation of the outcomes of the
previous two-day seminar, I beg all of us, if I may, to pause for a moment
to do some hard rethinking about the whole matter. For, in spite of the
specific focus on the Mekong river basin involving such problematics
like the inter-state relations and the equitable and sustainable use of
natural resources, as pointed out in the seminar programme, the real
issue and challenge goes far beyond that. It is not just the matter of
specific cases or circumstances, but involves the whole spectrum of
human world view and understanding. In other words, the Mekong
river basin issue and solution just could not possibly serve as an end
unto itself. In view of current globalization and along with it, regionalization,
it inevitably forms part of global perspective and challenge. It is indeed
the fundamental question of what kind of regional order is desirable
appropriate for Asia to develop and progress with freedom, justice, and
peace vis-à-vis the Hobbesian-styled politics of domination that has been
going on for so long under the impact of century-old globalization and
self-aggrandizement. Asia, including China as dominant power, certainly
can no longer afford that kind of contradictions and divisiveness from
within imposed upon itself.
The point is that this dialogue on the Mekong region should
not confine itself to mere specifics and technicalities where one more
often than not gets lost with no effective and long-term solution in sight.
Let me just elaborate a little further.
The fact is that China and Southeast Asian nations have come
a long, long way since after collapse of the Soviet empire and end of
the cold war in early 1990s. All are practically free and independent
from the heavy burden of polarization and ideological and armed rivalry
and confrontation. This is not just for the absence of big power play
of some twenty years ago. It is basically the built-in quality inherent

16 OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF THAILAND