ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly

Ten years after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed in 1967 there was realization among the ASEAN parliamentarians that the strength of ASEAN emanates from the roots of its societies. Therefore, closer cooperation among the respective legislatures and the parliamentarians (being the representatives of the peoples of ASEAN), would result in greater participation by the peoples of the ASEAN countries in the efforts to achieve ASEAN’s three main original objectives: to promote the economic, social and cultural development of the region through various programmes of cooperation; to safeguard the political and economic stability of the region against Big Power rivalry; and to serve as a forum for the resolution of intra-regional differences as enunciated in the ASEAN Declaration adopted on 8thAugust 1967 in Bangkok.

It was to significantly contribute through inter-parliamentary cooperation in the attainment of the goals and aspirations of ASEAN that the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) was formed.

The establishment of AIPO was at the initiative of Indonesia. In the early 1970’s, encouraged by the progress being made by ASEAN, the Indonesian House of Representatives came up with the idea of setting up an organization consisting the parliaments of the then five ASEAN member countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The visits to Indonesia by a Malaysian parliamentary delegation in August 1973 and by a Singapore parliamentary delegation in November of the same year gave impetus to the idea of establishing parliamentary cooperation among the ASEAN parliaments. In the following year, 1974, the Indonesian House of Representatives sent a special mission to Thailand and the Philippines in May as well as to Malaysia and Singapore in September to seek support for the establishment of an ASEAN inter-parliamentary forum, and received a positive response.

Following the initial contacts, the Parliaments of ASEAN member-states agreed to hold the first meeting in Jakarta to further discuss the realization of the idea to form a parliamentary cooperation forum, and Indonesia was chosen as the host of the First ASEAN Parliamentary Meeting (APM) from 8th to 11th January, 1975.

Indonesia as host of the First APM proposed the formulation and signing of the “Statutes of the ASEAN Parliamentary Cooperation". The First APM agreed on the following:

As a follow up to the First APM, the Working Committee meeting was held at Tugu, Puncak, Bogor; in May, 1975. The outcome was a proposal on the form and structure of the forum for inter-parliamentary cooperation and the proposed Statutes to be discussed at the Second APM.

The Second APM was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 20th to 23rd August, 1975. The Kuala Lumpur meeting agreed on a change in the name of the proposed forum from the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation to the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO), but failed to reach consensus on the criteria and procedures for the organization’s membership.

The Third APM was held in Manila, the Philippines from 29th August to 2nd September, 1977. The meeting unanimously agreed on the draft Statutes of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO).

At the closure of the Third APM on 2nd September 1977, the Statutes of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) were signed by the Heads of Delegation of the Parliaments of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand which marked the birth of AIPO.

According to Article 10 of the Statutes of AIPO, the General Assembly of AIPO shall be held annually, unless decided otherwise whereas Article 11 stipulated that the venue of the General Assembly shall be rotated among the Member Parliaments in alphabetical order. As the Third APM was held in the Philippines, next in the alphabetical order was Singapore. Therefore, the First AIPO General Assembly was held in Singapore in September 1978.

Since its inception in 1977, AIPO has held annual meetings of its General Assembly as follows:

At each AIPO General Assembly, AIPO has dialogues with its dialogue partners, namely the parliaments of Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation, and the European Parliament. The participation of the dialogue partners at the AIPO General Assemblies in addition to the exchange of visits had helped established a network of relationships, closer contacts and understanding among parliamentarians.

The history of the development of AIPO was closely linked to that of ASEAN. Countries in the Southeast Asian region would join AIPO as members or special observers after they became members of ASEAN. Thus as the membership of ASEAN expanded, AIPO’s membership likewise increased.

In 1995Vietnam was admitted as an AIPO member followed by Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999.Brunei and the Union of Myanmar have no legislatures and as such they had been accredited Special Observer status. Since joining ASEAN in 1984Brunei had attended AIPO General Assemblies as an observer and participated as a permanent Special Observer from 1993 onwards. The Union of Myanmar first participated in AIPA activities as Special Observer in 1997 and was accorded permanent Special Observer status since 1999.

Hence by year 2000, AIPO comprised of 8 (eight) Member Parliaments in ASEAN, namely, the parliaments of Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. As mentioned earlier, Brunei Darussalam and the Union of Myanmar have no legislatures, and as such they were accredited Special Observer status participating fully in AIPO activities.

As ASEAN progress towards the building of an ASEAN community by 2015, the aspiration of establishing an ASEAN Parliament resurfaced. The idea of an ASEAN Parliament was first proposed by the Philippines delegation at the 3rd AIPO General Assembly held in Jakarta in 1980. However, at the 27th AIPO General Assembly held in Cebu City, the Philippines in 2006, there was consensus that the ASEAN Parliament would be a long term goal. It was further concurred that it would be more appropriate at this juncture to first proceed with the transformation of the organization into a more effective and closely integrated institution and along with it to change the organization’s name from the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) to the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) including amending the Statutes of AIPO to become the Statutes of AIPA.

The new Statutes of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) was signed on 17th April 2007 by the member countries of AIPO, namely, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam as well as the Special Observer Country of Brunei Darussalam during the Extraordinary Meeting of the Executive Committee of AIPO held in Kuala Lumpur from 16th to 19th April 2007. AIPO member country, the Philippines, did not attend the meeting due to its national elections and is expected to sign the new Statutes of AIPA in due course. Likewise Special Observer Country, Myanmar has yet to sign the new Statutes.

The signing of the Statutes of AIPA on 17th April 2007 in Kuala Lumpur replacing the previous Statutes of AIPO marked the transformation of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization or AIPO into the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly or AIPA. A new era of a more closely integrated ASEAN inter-parliamentary cooperation has set in.