The countries of Southeast Asia are embarking on an exciting new journey; it's a pity they are going to be slowed down by extra baggage that they ought never to have agreed to carry: Burma.
At a meeting this week in Singapore, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a four-decade-old loosely organized grouping, became a legal entity to, among other things, "create a single market and production base which is stable, prosperous, highly competitive and economically integrated."
This is a significant step. A constitution for Asean paves the way for the creation of regional rule-making and dispute-settlement organizations, broadening the scope for cross-border economic integration in Southeast Asia.
Those who drafted the Asean legal charter couldn't keep it focused purely on economic goals; doing that would have made the document look like a commercial pamphlet. To give the charter some gravitas, they wrote into it an agreement to set up an Asean human-rights body. And that's where things became farcical.
One of the signatories to the document, which promised to promote personal freedoms, was Thein Sein, the prime minister of Burma and a representative of the military junta that in September killed democracy activists.
On Sept. 27, the foreign ministers of Asean were saying how appalled they were to learn that the junta had been using automatic weapons to quell protests. Two months later, they have allowed a member of the same oppressive regime to swear allegiance alongside them "to the principles of democracy, the rule of law and good governance, respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms."
This doubletalk is going to hurt Asean.
As for Burma, there can be only one explanation for its willingness to sign the pact: The country reckons - quite correctly - that Asean is in no shape to punish it for any lapse as long as China remains a friend and benefactor.
Burma has been a source of constant embarrassment for Asean since 1997, when a former Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, pulled the country into the grouping.
Asean's policy of noninterference in a member country's domestic affairs hasn't helped.
Singapore, the host of the summit this week, wanted Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special envoy to Burma, to brief the leaders jointly. At the minimum, it would have signaled to the international community that Asean's self-avowed policy of "constructive engagement" with Burma - a brainchild of Thailand - doesn't just mean cozying up to the generals.
The Burmese delegation complained about the plan, and the briefing had to be canceled.
This is just how badly Burma has come to terrorize Asean.
But why just blame Asean? India, which shares a border with Burma, is also courting the junta to counter the influence of China and secure access to energy resources in the nation.
To her credit, President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines was brave enough to link the support of the Philippines for the Asean accord with Burma's behavior.
The junta, she said at the summit, would have to take its commitment on human rights seriously by releasing Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, from house arrest. "Unless the Philippine Senate sees that happen, it would have extreme difficulty in ratifying the Asean charter," she said.
Can one really blame Philippine lawmakers if they refuse to ratify the code? Asean ought not to have allowed a Burmese general to sully its constitution by putting his signature on it.
The credibility of the Asean charter would have been enhanced if the leaders had begun the Singapore summit by suspending Burma until the process of mediation started by Gambari reaches its logical conclusion.
Southeast Asia is a compact region, eminently suitable to become a common market. As Standard & Poor's noted last month: "About 3,000 kilometers, or less than four hours of flying time, separate Hanoi and Jakarta, between which the bulk of Asean's wealth resides."
Besides, the seven main economies of Asean - Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines - have 500 million people between them with a per-capita income of $2,100. If they can come together as a single market and production unit, they won't get completely marginalized by the economic rise of China and India.
The process of becoming a common market is bound to create friction and pain, both real and imagined. There will be gainers and losers. Take the proposal to turn the entire Southeast Asian region into a single aviation market by 2015.
That will surely bankrupt some of the inefficient, state-owned carriers in the region that have managed to stay afloat in protected markets.
It is expected that it will be easier to enforce the timeline for regional integration now that Asean's legal charter makes it possible for disputes to be settled through arbitration.
This is the wrong time for Asean to get bogged down by Burma. Besides, the "caring and sharing community" that Asean wants to build can't have a place for regimes that use automatic weapons on unarmed people and then have the audacity to sign lofty declarations on human rights.