He also noted that more than half the population of the 10-member Asean is Muslim.
The Asean Economic Community (AEC) will be introduced in 2015, and will allow residents of the 10 Asean countries to freely travel and work within the region. In addition, a number of agreements covering free trade in services, air travel, investment and goods will come into full effect.
Mr Surin – a former foreign minister of Thailand – made his remarks during a speech attended by 765 representatives from Phuket’s 51 mosques. Also in attendance were Komol Doomlaks, chairman of the Phuket Islamic Council, and the chairman of Krabi’s Islamic Council.
Phuket’s Provincial Office and the Phuket Provincial Office of Islam jointly sponsored the talk, held at the Phuket School of Muslim Science (Muslim Wittaya) in Koh Kaew.
“The total population of Asean’s 10 member states currently is about 600 million, of which more than 300 million are Muslim,” said Dr Surin. “People are quite excited about 2015, when the community [design] will stand complete.
“However that may be, inevitably the six Andaman Sea provinces of Thailand will feel the impact from increased trade in goods, investment, services, tourism and movement of populations among member states.
“Thus, local people must prepare themselves for changes that will occur. These, I believe, will present an important opportunity to work together more on an international level, for which knowledge and ability are requisite.”
Mr Surin said that to truly participate in the community, people must have some understanding of languages used by member states and must, moreover, excel in “knowing what it means to be good and perfect Muslims” and “how to play a role in society, and work in differing occupations.”
He noted that there are about 400 Muslim schools in Thailand, producing some 5,000 high school graduates who go on to higher education. “People involved in these schools need to consider whether that number should be increased,” he said.
Dr Suirn, 62, whose full name is Surin Abdul Halim bin Ismail Pitsuwan, was born in Nakorn Sri Thammarat of an ethnic Malay family.
He was educated at Thammasat University in Bangkok, and graduated with honours in political science from the prestigious Claremont McKenna College in California.
He holds both a Master’s Degree and a PhD from Harvard, has worked with the Ford Foundation and is a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation.
He also worked in the United States Congress as a fellow in the Congressional Fellowship Program, and taught International Relations at the American University in Washington, DC.
Surin has had a considerable political career as a leading member of Thailand’s Democrat Party: he was elected MP for Nakorn Sri Thammarat, and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1997 till 2001, during the last Chuan Leekpai government.
He previously served as secretary to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and assistant secretary to the Interior Minister.
At the American University in Cairo, he was a scholar of the Institute of the Higher Council for Islamic Affairs from 1975 until 1977. Surin was chosen Asean Secretary General in 2007, and assumed office the following year.
He is reputedly the first Asean secretary general with a significant background in politics.
Asean was formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, but membership has since expanded to include Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Were Asean a sovereign state, it would have – with nominal GDP of US1.8 trillion dollars – the world’s ninth largest economy, behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil, Britain, and Italy.
An orphan arising from Vietnam War-era US diplomacy, Asean has never functioned as a cohesive economic unit because community members viewed each other with suspicion. The major trading partners for each of them have always been outside the community.
Toppling of tariffs is bound to have important – and perhaps dislocating – effects on agriculture, manufacturing and services, but if all goes according to plan, sky-rocketing trade will transform the community from diplomatic and economic non-entity into one of the world’s leading trade blocs.