The clarion call in a civil and free society is for fairness and justice, life and liberty, safety and security, and more - for brevity's sake, all those human values which reflect our common humanity, our human rights.

Out of the bitter fruits of mankind's inhumanity to mankind - the carnage, catastrophe and calamities of WWII, sprung the quintessential sap of human rights, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). For over 50 years, this convention has weathered the storms of socio-economic and political upheavals.

That was Europe. Looking at Asean and the goings-on, I see a frightful need for a similar convention forged by a common need to seek progress and stability in the region and founded upon common and universal values of human decency that will establish barriers and deterrents to mindless brutalities and arbitrary excesses of power - be it military, police, administrative or otherwise.

All diverse forms of government - from sultanate to republics to military regimes - must be subject to this convention. Derogation is possible but for compelling reasons and only for a season, not a season without any end in sight (like Burma).

A convention such as this will serve to curb outrageous infractions of the rule of law and abuses of human rights with impunity. There will be no kangaroo courts or cowboy justice. Imagine an Asean Court of Human Rights, funded and manned by representative judicial luminaries from among its members.

It is plain that humans can be depraved beyond belief. The fundamental reason we organise ourselves into societies is to exert some form of order in society. Europe saw the need and took a stand. Asean has a need. Let's not slosh around in rhetoric. Whether it is the police abuses in Malaysia or the military heavy-handedness in Burma or what else behind the curtains of individual countries, an Asean convention will be a plus, plus, plus.

The alternative is, I see, a zombie-like numbness and paralysis that will settle on the people's soul long after they have been repeatedly ripped, raped and rapped. Once you have been outraged and outraged again without any help or hope in the horizon, does that not make a people cowed into terrorised silence feel like zombies.

The cost of our dereliction of duty and not recognising our common humanity, inter alia, breeds pockets of resistance and effluxions of terrorism. I am outraged by the mere thought of it all. But most of us will return to our hibernation after reading this.

Which reminds me of my friend, Shakespeare and his apt words: "You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things. You hard hearts ...". You cruel men of Asean.