Page 23 - Rights beautiful : collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik

Rights Beautiful Collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik

in the indigenous aspirations, resourcefulness and resilience as
demonstrated in their life-time and persistent struggles. On my then
optimistic note, it is the fundamental question of how these potential
qualities can be mobilized to bring about cohesiveness and solidarity.
Mind you, this is not only to serve as countervailing force thereby warding
off the politics of domination from outside, both politically and economically,
but also to create a new and positive sense of regionalism.** Along this
line of perception and thinking, then, the existing inter-state relationships
could be transformed into the bridge for mutual understanding and
co-existence, instead of mutual insecurity and rivalry.
All this clearly has great relevance to what is being attempted
at this dialogue on the Mekong region. The way one sees it, it could
very well serve as starting point for furthering the cause for Asia
as whole, somewhere along the line of European Union development. It is
all the more significant and necessary in the case of Asia as tropical
resource-rich region. So first and foremost, an objective knowledge and
understanding of our natural resource base needs to be sufficiently grasped.
The Mekong river basin, for instance, must needs be seen as forming part
of the whole tropical resource base of Asia, not for its own sake. All are
inherently inter-related. Any adverse repercussions on one part are bound
to affect the rest. The implication here is that it is far from enough to
see into the Mekong issue as a mere problem of specific inter-state
relations and equitable use of resources. It is the question of resource-base
integrity as a whole that really matters. And this tells a lot of things
about the so-called assessment of social and environmental impacts,
which more often than not tends to serve economic growth.
This brings us to another problematic concerning the idea of
economic growth. It is historically an ideology of self-aggrandizement

**Saneh Chamarik, “Towards Positive Regionalism in Southeast Asia”, paper delivered
at the conference on Peace and Transformation in the Asia-Pacific Region, Yokohama,
Kanagawa, Japan, 26-29 March, 1984.

OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF THAILAND 17