Surin Pitsuwan can quote from both the Quran and English poetry, in the same speech. The self-professed "cheerleader in chief of ASEAN" at times sounds like a preacher, and his outspoken style may seem at odds with the 41-year-old history of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), which he has led as secretary general since the start of the year.
ASEAN has long been criticised as little more than a "talking shop" unable to play a meaningful role in the region. But observers say that if anyone can make ASEAN more effective, it is Surin, 58, a Muslim former Thai foreign minister and academic who hails from his country's south. "He's much more dynamic," said Carl Thayer, a South-east Asian specialist at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of the Australian National University.
"He wants to do something. He's not serving time till retirement," Thayer said. "I would be more confident that ASEAN would advance under his leadership." Surin took over on January 1 for a five-year term with a beefed-up mandate to give the organisation a higher international profile from his base in Jakarta.
He has been promoting the ASEAN Charter, a landmark document that gives ASEAN a legal framework, sets out the principles and rules for members, and commits the region's disparate nations to promote human rights and democracy.
ASEAN has admitted that only about 30 per cent of its agreements and commitments have been implemented. But under the new charter, the secretary general is charged with monitoring implementation of the bloc's pledges, and reporting back to ASEAN's annual summit. He is also the public face of the grouping.
The 10 ASEAN members signed the charter at the group's summit last November but each country must ratify it domestically. Surin is optimistic that will be done by year's end. A former ASEAN secretary general, Rodolfo Severino, said Surin's activist inclination fits with the expanded mandate given to the ASEAN chief under the charter.
"Surin has been very good for the organisation," said Severino. As a former foreign minister, he brings a stature that those who preceded him did not, Severino said. "Second, he takes initiatives." Surin and the charter are a good fit, said Thayer, calling him "the best one to get behind the wheel."
Surin describes his style as "hands on, accessibility". He said ASEAN turned to him because they wanted a secretariat that is proactive and can communicate effectively. "And to that extent, I think they know that I need a space, I need some flexibility in order to execute the mandate, the responsibility, being added to the secretariat," he said during an interview with AFP at the close of ASEAN meetings earlier this year in Singapore.
ASEAN saw his previous political experience as an asset, Surin added. Since Surin took office, the Jakarta Secretariat has issued a stream of press releases about ASEAN activities and statements, helping to raise the bloc's profile. "He's a very smart guy," said Dave Mathieson, a consultant on Burma for the US-based Human Rights Watch. "He's a very good diplomat. He's been a leading Thai intellectual for years and years."
In one speech earlier this year, Surin quoted in Arabic from the Quran, and later also cited a verse from the 17th-century English poet, John Donne. Mathieson said ASEAN's response to a cyclone disaster in its member nation Myanmar this year was better than expected. "And I think that's due to Surin Pitsuwan."
Myanmar's isolated military regime largely barred foreign aid workers from the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta after Cyclone Nargis, but the junta later eased restrictions on access, and asked fellow ASEAN nations to co-ordinate the international relief effort.
Surin said he conducted "rather extensive legwork" to help secure the access, describing the efforts as the most difficult, most agonising challenge of his first few months in the job. ASEAN experts operated under a tripartite agreement with the United Nations and the Myanmar government. The crisis "baptised" ASEAN, Surin said, leaving the bloc more credible and more confident. "The ASEAN secretary general is a very capable person," said Trevor Wilson, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
Surin, wearing a navy pinstriped suit with two ASEAN pins on his lapel, said in the interview that he has not faced resistance to his leadership style, and he works together with member governments, carefully gauging their sentiments in order to reflect their aspirations. Surin is "a man of passion... who brings his own way of doing things," K. Kesavapany, director of Singapore's Institute of South-east Asian Studies (ISEAS) told a conference earlier this year.
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