Rights Beautiful Collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik in the indigenous aspirations, resourcefulness and resilience as demonstrated in their life-time and persistent struggles. On my then optimistic note, it is the fundamental question of how these potential qualities can be mobilized to bring about cohesiveness and solidarity. Mind you, this is not only to serve as countervailing force thereby warding off the politics of domination from outside, both politically and economically, but also to create a new and positive sense of regionalism.** Along this line of perception and thinking, then, the existing inter-state relationships could be transformed into the bridge for mutual understanding and co-existence, instead of mutual insecurity and rivalry. All this clearly has great relevance to what is being attempted at this dialogue on the Mekong region. The way one sees it, it could very well serve as starting point for furthering the cause for Asia as whole, somewhere along the line of European Union development. It is all the more significant and necessary in the case of Asia as tropical resource-rich region. So first and foremost, an objective knowledge and understanding of our natural resource base needs to be sufficiently grasped. The Mekong river basin, for instance, must needs be seen as forming part of the whole tropical resource base of Asia, not for its own sake. All are inherently inter-related. Any adverse repercussions on one part are bound to affect the rest. The implication here is that it is far from enough to see into the Mekong issue as a mere problem of specific inter-state relations and equitable use of resources. It is the question of resource-base integrity as a whole that really matters. And this tells a lot of things about the so-called assessment of social and environmental impacts, which more often than not tends to serve economic growth. This brings us to another problematic concerning the idea of economic growth. It is historically an ideology of self-aggrandizement **Saneh Chamarik, “Towards Positive Regionalism in Southeast Asia”, paper delivered at the conference on Peace and Transformation in the Asia-Pacific Region, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan, 26-29 March, 1984. OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF THAILAND 17