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Multiple Official Languages and Translation Service:
The Key to Successful ASEAN Integration
Wilaiwan Khanittanan
Anuraj Manibhandu
Pridi Banomyong International College, Thammasat University
Abstract
This paper examines a conflict in the ASEAN Charter regarding language use, notably
Article 34 which states that “The working language of ASEAN shall be English”. The paper
argues that this directive undermines items 13 and 14 of Article 1, Purposes, and the
parenthesis (a) of item 2 of Article 2, Principles . By specifying communication in English,
ASEAN cannot claim to be either ‘people-oriented’ (item 13) or ‘fostering awareness of the
diverse culture and heritage of the region’ (item 14). The English language ability of the
majority of people in ASEAN is not on par with the Charter’s background assumptions and
the English proficiency levels of the 10 member states vary greatly. By communicating in
English only, as prescribed, amounts to an expression of disrespect for ASEAN member
states’ equality. To reverse this, the paper proposes that the national languages of each
member country be recognized as official languages along with English, and that a
translation service be introduced.
Introduction
Southeast Asia has the largest multilingual population in the world, with over one thousand
languages spoken in the region. Indonesia alone has speakers of more than 700 languages.
The Philippines and Myanmar combined speak over 200 languages, each communicating in
over one hundred languages. Five language families – Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic, TaiKadai, Indo-European, and Austronesian – can be found in Myanmar alone. However, despite
the region’s rich ethnic and language diversity, the ASEAN Charter stipulates English as the
sole “working language” for the ASEAN member states :
Article 34
Working Language of ASEAN
The working language of ASEAN shall be English.
At first glance, English does appear to be a choice that makes sense. Five of the 10 member
states of ASEAN were colonized by English speaking countries. Malaysia, Myanmar,
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Singapore and Brunei were under Britain and the Philippines the United States. English is a
medium of instruction in schools and universities in those member states. Besides, English is
taught in school as a subject in all 10 ASEAN member countries, the remaining five states
being Cambodia, Laos. Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. But on closer scrutiny of the
details, it becomes clear that Article 34 seriously undermines the purposes and principles of
ASEAN as stated in the Charter. In what follows, the paper argues that the stipulation of
English as the working language brings into question the purposes and principles stated in the
ASEAN Charter, and the sincerity of authors to deliver on them. The paper proposes that the
national languages of all member countries be recognized as official languages, along with
English, and that a translation service be introduced to open up two-way communication
between ASEAN governments and their peoples .
The Undermined Purposes and Principles
Though designated as the working language of ASEAN, English is not the mother tongue of
any ASEAN-born person. The results of the past Test of English as a Foreign Language,
TOEFL, separate students of member states into two groups. The group from member states
once colonized by English speaking countries did well in the tests while the other group’s
scores fell below average. Of relevance is the prevalence in Thailand of advertisements for
English tutorials showing Thais running away from westerners when they are asked questions
in English. This commonly happens in ASEAN countries, not only in Thailand, when western
nationals venture into rural areas. The fact that the practice is ASEAN-wide shows that the
majority of ASEAN people’s English is not on par with the Charter’s background
assumptions. At present, English still cannot be said, in any way, to be the language of
everyday communication, let alone the language of wider, formal communication in the
ASEAN Community. However, English could be said to be the most popular foreign
language, and undoubtedly is the language of working elites in ASEAN. Given these facts,
Article 34 brings into question the meaningfulness of three other items in the Charter,
Articles 1 and 2, the Purposes and Principle, and the sincerity of ASEAN governments to
deliver them:
“Article 1 Purposes
…….13. To promote a people-oriented ASEAN in which all sectors of society are encouraged
to participate in and benefit from the process of ASEAN integration and community building.
14. To promote an ASEAN identity through the fostering of greater awareness of the
diverse culture and heritage of the region; and
…….
Article 2 Principles
……..2. ASEAN and its Member States shall act in accordance with the following Principles:
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(a) respect for independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity and
national identity of all ASEAN Member States.
The quoted purposes and principles show the idealism of ASEAN’s core values but the
substance of their content is placed in doubt by Article 34 in four areas –
1. respect for equality of all Member States
2. respect for national identity of all Member States
3. the promoting of a people-oriented ASEAN and
4. the fostering of greater awareness of the diverse culture and heritage
Inequalities and contradictions resulting from (using) English only
That English is taught as a subject in schools in all ASEAN member countries shows that
English is, at best, the second language of the majority of the people of ASEAN. It is learned
in school not at home. Students living in bilingual environments are much luckier because
they have opportunities to use English outside their class rooms and schools. This partly
explains why students from member states such as Singapore and the Philippines score better
in TOEFL tests than students from other ASEAN countries where a bilingual environment or
bilingual education system is exclusive to elite families or non-existent in general.
English is the second language of the peoples of ASEAN and their English competence varies
greatly, from native-like fluency to virtually zero knowledge of English. If ASEAN were to
communicate directly to its more than 600 million people in English only, less than 10%
would be able to understand the message. With 14 million English speakers 1 out of the total
population of 96.7 million, the Philippines probably has the biggest number of people who
could understand ASEAN’s communication, bigger than those in Singapore, Brunei,
Myanmar, and Malaysia combined. With English as the sole working language, ASEAN
cannot communicate with or be communicated to by the majority of its people. This creates
immense inequality among the member states , causing non-English speakers to sink into
oblivion, unable to understand the communication from ASEAN or to question ASEAN in
their own languages. ASEAN governments for their part would emerge as insincere in their
stated intention to promote “a people-oriented ” community.
By speaking the native or official language, ASEAN people can identify themselves with
other speakers of the same language, their family members and their friends at school or at
work. By the same logic, those who cannot speak English certainly cannot identify with
ASEAN and in fact do not have anything in common with ASEAN. Where can we look for
the “sense of belonging” ASEAN pledges to promote under Article 35 from the majority of
those people who do not speak English? Because we use language to communicate our
thoughts, beliefs, ideas, and all other information, language is deeply intertwined in culture.
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British Council Philippines, 2016
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ASEAN cannot and will not be able to foster greater awareness of the diverse cultures and
heritage of the region, as stated in item 14 of article 14 of the ASEAN Charter, by using
English as the working language.
Solving the contradictions
The European Union ( EU), which is regarded as a model of regional integration by ASEAN,
states in its Charter of Fundamental Rights that the Union places the individual at the heart of
its activities and respects the diversity of cultures and traditions of the peoples of Europe as
well as the national identities of the member states2 . In keeping with these principles, the
EU recognizes all the 24 languages that the 28 member countries speak as official languages.
The rationale lies in the Charter’s assertion that Europeans have the right to know what is
being done in their name in order to be able to play an active part without having to learn
other languages. Every year the EU celebrates the European Day of Languages. On this day,
activities for and with children are organized across Europe, and Europeans, many of whom
are driven by competition for jobs, business, and opportunities in higher education, are
encouraged to learn more languages in and out of school.
ASEAN should follow the EU’s example on the matter of languages if it intends to
implement its purposes and principles to promote greater awareness of the diverse cultures
and heritage of the region, and to show respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality,
and national identity of all member states. Following the EU’s lead in this matter requires the
introduction of a translation service along the lines of the EU’s Directorate-General for
Translation which ensures that important documents, such as legislation and policy papers,
are available in all the 24 official languages, and that correspondence to or from the European
Commission is similarly available in these languages. The practice is based on precedent as
well as the EU’s respect for cultural diversity, and the promotion of representative
democracy. Hence the EU has always operated in the languages of its current members, with
more languages added as new members speaking different languages were admitted. Hence
Dutch, French, Italian, and German were the languages of the original members in 1958.
Danish and English were added in 1973, Greek in 1981, Portuguese and Spanish in 1986,
Finish and Swedish in 1995, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese,
Polish, Slovak and Slovenian in 2004, Bulgarian, Irish and Romanian in 2007, and Croatian
in 20133.
2
Preamble of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union http://europa.eu/eulaw/decisionmaking/treaties/pdf/treaty_establishing_a_constitution_for_europe/treaty_establishing_a_con
stitution_for_europe_en.pdf
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http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/translating/officiallanguages/index_en.htm
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ASEAN however, has not done the same. The Bangkok Declaration of 1967 was written and
signed in English by the founding five members – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand. Language was not a major issue with the accession to ASEAN of
Brunei in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997 and Cambodia 1999 though
there were suggestions of French being added in 1994 and Malay in 1997, on neither
occasions raising discussion4. But important ASEAN documents have been issued in the
languages of the member states, such as the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation (TAC) in
February1976, and the ASEAN Charter, which entered into force on December 15, 2008.
The TAC was “ drawn up in the official languages of the High Contracting Parties, all of
which are equally authoritative” with an “ agreed common translation of the texts” to be
provided “in the English language.”5 The so-called “official languages” were not specified al
though Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand then were speaking
Malay, English and Thai. The ASEAN Charter was drawn up in English, in line with English
being the “working language”, and translated into the 10 languages of the member states.
The fact that the ASEAN Charter reverses the practice adopted by the TAC in 1976, that is
by drawing up the original in English, and providing translations in the languages of the
member states, is a sign of the times. Information Technology has made it easier for drafters
of complex documents to work in English. At the same time, the translations into member
states’ respective languages shows progress towards equal treatment. Having come thus far,
ASEAN can go one step further, and deliver on its values and principles, by making English
and all the languages of the member states official languages .
Since translation into the 10 member states’ languages has been done, with Chinese permitted
for Singapore, there exists within ASEAN a pool of linguists who could become the core of a
translation service for all important documents, the parameters of which should be decided by
an inclusive process that extends to more people than the ASEAN elites living in capital
cities. ASEAN also should encourage people to communicate with it by enabling them to
correspond with their own governments or the ASEAN Secretariat in their own languages.
The translation service should be tailored to ASEAN’s needs and capacities, and could be
based in Jakarta, the seat of the ASEAN Secretariat, or in any other ASEAN capital that
possesses the competence in terms of linguists and logistics. By no means should the
translation service proposed for ASEAN be as large as that operated by the European
Commission in Brussels and Luxembourg. Collectively, the 10 ASEAN states are not as
affluent as the 28 EU member states combined although ASEAN is attractive economically,
4
Akiko Okudaira (1999) A Study on International Communication in Regional
Organizations: The Use of English as the “Official” Language of the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asian Englishes, 2:1, 91-107, DOI: 10.1080/13488678.1999.10801020
5
Ibid
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politically and socio-culturally, and could draw on the EC for technical advice, and on many
friendly dialogue partners for financial assistance.
The progress in terms of languages, which will increase knowledge about the workings of
ASEAN and lead to better intra-ASEAN communication, would help ASEAN to become
more “people-oriented” and give more people living in remote areas the confidence to
participate in shaping the ASEAN “community”.
Multilingualism is the way for ASEAN to go if it is to integrate effectively for the benefit of
the region. If the translation service engenders demand for more languages to be covered,
which is likely with word of mouth and information technology, ASEAN would be helping to
keep alive languages spoken by communities moving in and out of marginalized existences
with the imperatives of life in the 21st century. The fear that half of the 6,000 languages
spoken today will be lost by the end of the century if nothing is done6 has stirred some
interest, leading UNESCO to publish an atlas of endangered languages7. But the fear is based
on data that is retrospective, covering languages that have died since 1950 8. For ASEAN, it
would be sufficient to include the languages spoken by ASEAN peoples who care to
participate in regional processes.
6
UNESCO Endangered Languages http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/
http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/
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http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php?hl=en&page=atlasmap&lid=10
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References
Akiko Okudaira (1999) A Study on International Communication in Regional
Organizations: The Use of English as the “Official” Language of the Association of South
EastAsian Nations (ASEAN), Asian Englishes, 2:1, 91-107, DOI:
10.1080/13488678.1999.10801020
The ASEAN Charter Jakarta: ASEAN Secretariat, January 2008.
British Council Philippines, 2016
Preamble of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union http://europa.eu/eulaw/decisionmaking/treaties/pdf/treaty_establishing_a_constitution_for_europe/treaty_establishing_a_con
stitution_for_europe_en.pdf
Kirkpatrick, A. (2008). English as the official working language of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Features and strategies. English Today 24.2, 27–34.
Kirkpatrick, A. (2010).
English as a lingua franca in ASEAN: A multilingual model. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press.
UNESCO Endangered Languages http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangeredlanguages/
http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/
http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php?hl=en&page=atlasmap&lid=10
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