It is essential that the citizens of each and every Asean member country understand the importance of having the charter. The reason is simply that the Asean Charter needs to be ratified by each member's parliament. The sooner this happens the better. There is no guarantee at present that, once the draft is signed by Asean leaders and goes to national referendums, the public will vote for it. For certain Asean would like to avoid the pitfall encountered by the European Union, when the citizens of key members such as France and the Netherlands refused to endorse a draft constitution. That inevitably led to the collapse of a common EuropeanUnion charter. So far, Asean has tried to consult representatives from non-governmental organisations as well as those from the private sector to include opinions from all sides.

In the past four decades Asean countries have lived and worked together without any binding document but on the basis of gentlemen's agreements, which sometimes have been completely ignored. That is why the Asean leaders want to make sure now that all their colleagues will take their membership and obligations seriously. In the past, they could always simply promise to follow agreements. If they did not fulfil their pledges, for whatever reason, no rules or regulations within Asean could punish them. That partly explains why less than half of all agreements within the grouping were implemented. The charter is being devised as a tool to ensure compliance by all members, in order to ensure that all members follow the same path.

If the charter is signed by Asean leaders in November as planned, any member that subsequently fails to follow the grouping's rules and regulations will be reprimanded. This is an important step - for the first time ever an Asean member could be punished for its actions or lack of action. Although this is not as severe as other regional organisations, where penalties for non-compliance include expulsion and suspension of membership, it does at least take the offending member to task. With the charter, Asean members will certainly comply more with their agreements.

Finally, to be an effective organisation that can protect and promote regional interests, Asean needs money. For a long time, the expenses of the Asean Secretariat have been capped at around US$7.5 million (Bt262 million) per year. Asean members could afford to pay more for the betterment of Asean objectives and purposes, but somehow there is a high level of reluctance among some members to pay more than others. At the moment, each member pays an annual fee of $750,000.

Asean prides itself on the fact that each member has one vote. There is no plan to follow the European community's complicated structure of financial contributions, but ways must be found to supplement the Secretariat's limited annual budget. Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei with their strong economies should contribute more to help other members. Asean is currently looking for a system to raise more money from its richer members and dialogue partners.