Chairman's Circle on 21 January – Event summary – Human Development Forum Foundation

on January 23, 2014

Group photo at the end of the day, top row has representatives from private enterprise, non-profit organisations and embassies, in the middle row two of HDFF’s staff and a representative from Mahidol University, in the front row from the left, Dr. Wilfried Herrmann, Executive Director of HDFF, Dr. Peter Lehr, Panel chair of the event from University of St Andrews, Scotland, General (ret.) Bunchon Chawansin, HDFF’s Chairman, General (ret.) Boonsrang Niumpradit, keynote speaker at the event, Mr. Kavi Chongkittavorn, panelist on South China Sea and Prof. Rommel Banlaoi, core panelist of the event.

ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) – Local and Regional Security Challenges

A group of 35+ representatives of embassies, (inter)national non-governmental organisations and private businesses had gathered for this first Chairman’s Circle of 2014, organised by the Human Development Forum Foundation (HDFF) with the support of The Asia Foundation.

General (retired) Bunchon Chawansin, HDFF’s Chairman, giving his welcoming remarks.

Following welcoming remarks by HDFF Chairman General (retired) Bunchon Chawansin and the Country Representative to Thailand of The Asia Foundation, Mr Kim McQuay, the event opened with a keynote speech by General (retired) Boonsrang Niumpradit. General (ret) Niumpradit has extensive experience of peacekeeping in Timor Leste and was the Supreme Commander of the Royal Thai Army from 2006-2008. He feels that ASEAN has a distinctive and important role to play through the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) and that several important steps have been taken to develop ASEAN’s security policy over the past 20 years. Major developments were the events leading to Timor Leste’s independence and the 2004 Tsunami. These events gave ASEAN member states a push towards integrated security capacities and improved disaster coordination/management. Nevertheless, there is still a need for improvement in the direction of joint Peace Keeping Operations. General (ret.) Niumpradit concluded his section of the event with a presentation featuring pictures from his time in Timor Leste.

Download General (ret.) Boonsrang Niumpradit’s presentation

HDFF Narathiwat were present to display their work from the three Southern Border Provinces in south Thailand.

Prof. Rommel Banlaoi, making a presentation about the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao

The first panel of the day started with a presentation by Professor Rommel Banlaoi, the Executive Director of the Institute of Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research in the Philippines. The theme for the panel was local security challenges and the potential role of ASEAN in these. Prof. Banlaoi’s presentation concerned the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which has suffered from internal conflict and segmentation of fighting groups for a long time. He raised several important questions among which where how to deal with this large amount of different groups that often have specific and self-interested agendas? How to handle conflict when a government does not have a realistic image of the actual situation?

Although ASEAN has a strong principle of non-intervention, Prof. Banlaoi raised crucial issues regarding the potential future transnational effects of the conflict as international jihadist groups have a stronger influence in the region. He concluded by discussing the current involvement by a few ASEAN member states in the International Monitoring Team (IMT) but regretted their lacking capacity and their limited approach. Following Prof. Banlaoi’s presentation, distinguished Thammasat scholar Dr. Thanet Aphornsuvan provided insightful comments regarding the likenesses and differences between the conflict in the ARMM and that of Southern Thailand, commenting specifically on the more localised nature of the conflict in Thailand.

Download Prof. Rommel Banlaoi’s presentation

After the lunch break, the second panel started on the topic of the South China Sea conflict. Prof. Banlaoi started a strong presentation with a clear illustration of the development of the Chinese presence in the area over the past years. As Chinese maritime forces grow stronger, the Philippine defence capacities remain very weak. Prof. Banlaoi showed the progression of the conflict, from 12 years of bilateral talks regarding a Code of Conduct, to run-ins between navy operators until today when the Philippines have filed an international arbitration case, in the hope that international justice will rule in their behalf. ASEAN has yet to speak with a united voice on this issue as the member states’ loyalties lie with different parties. Mr. Kavi Chongkittavorn from the Nation Media Group, then highlighted Thailand’s role as a coordinator of peace talks and discussed the role of ASEAN in the future conflict. Although Thailand is a non-conflicting party, and therefore should be well suited to act as a coordinator, the country has a history of partiality on the issue, according to Mr. Chongkittavorn.

Discussions and debate during the event.

Mr. Kavi Chonkittavorn, receiving a token of appreciation from HDFF’s Chairman General (ret.) Bunchon Chawansin, for his presentation on Thailand’s role as a coordinator in the South China Sea conflict.