Is ASEAN Still Relevant?

The Myanmar coup has opened up a new front of debate about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its ability to response to urgent regional crises. Such questions are not new. The perennial challenge posed by the South China Sea disputes, and the deeper issue of growing China-U.S. rivalry, has critics wondering whether ASEAN can still function as a meaningful institution, or whether the days of ASEAN Centrality are numbered.

On April 19, Hoang Thi Ha, lead researcher for Political-Security Affairs at the ASEAN Studies Centre of ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute; Ja Ian Chong, associate professor of political science and an associate research fellow with the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore; and Evan A. Laksmana, a political scientist and senior researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta, Indonesia, joined a live webinar to discuss these questions.

[Khushi_R]

Thank you for all the valid points made in this discussion.

[lagrangewei]

ASEAN was not created to address the issue of the cold war, but the issue of imperialism, or more precisely the F up border created by imperialist power that divide us into nations that do not really follow ethnic or religous lines. example are muslim in south of thailand. indonesia and malaysia being 1 cultural entities divided by dutch and british interest. land that thailand lost to colonial expansion. philippines claim of sabah. the list goes on. the border of ASEAN is therefore already F up, and the goal of ASEAN is primarily to achieve "status quo".

when you consider the purpose and objective of ASEAN, it has been a very successful entity. it political and economic influence can clearly be seen in how it direct RCEP into existence. if it wasn't important, China, Japan and Australia will not have ceded to ASEAN in creating the trading bloc that would define Asia. there is a certain sourness when western analyst talk about ASEAN because they do not control us. they see it has been 'weak on China' when in reality, this is the will of ASEAN, it is not in our interest to become anti china or a tool of western influence. nor do we believe not in interventionalism, rather we believe in coexisting. and we have become very good at it.

Vietnam being a prime example, what has US with it entire might done other then to cause mass poisoning of civilian with the careless use of agent orange? US could not contain Vietnam nor stop Vietnam from occupying Cambodia... in the end, it was ASEAN that secured Cambodia independence by inviting Vietnam to join. if we have spend our energy trying to change Vietnam, we will probably have another 'North Korea' situation in Asia, and for what? so why you claim ASEAN is a "failure" what is that compared to? what other policies has the "great western world" implemented that is more successful in addressing these issue? the big failure here is not ASEAN, it is the US interventionalism. afghanistan is still F and now US call it quit just like Vietnam. what exactly has western policies been successful at? whereas today, we are friends with Vietnam, i think we are succesful enough. we are not miracle workers, the nations of ASEAN do not have deep institution thanks to a century of western imperialism. we could only work with what we have, and for an entity that has less power than US does, we done alot better than what US has achieve. that is just the reality and facts.

it is important to understand, ASEAN is not created to be a defender of "western values", especially when that "western values" has spend the last century colonizing our land. ASEAN is created to preserve peace between state which has been 100% successful at and it will continue to be successful in maintaining peace in the region. the same is for EU, people look at EU like it is an economic entity and if the economy is bad, then EU is a failure or has no value, that is not true, the reason EU exist is to avoid the costly world wars that has damage europe so badly, and it too succeed in that. of course if EU and ASEAN can do more, that is a bonus, but EU isn't a failure because UK left and ASEAN isn't a failure because one of the state has internal problems.

GWB dismiss and look down on ASEAN 2 decade ago, and he has to crawl back to us at the end of his term because all his dismissal has done, is to allow China to be more active in cooperation with ASEAN. and now we are back in this same stupid question that F US up 2 decade ago... do you guys never learn? this is why i have no hope for the west anymore.

[lagrangewei]

Hoang Thi Ha is largely accurate, but there is one mistake. the reason why ASEAN do not "endorse" the tribunal ruling was because the ruling itself has certain issues. it does not challenge China claim alone, it has a negative impact on Vietnamese claim which too based their claim on the concept that those island are land. so Philippines case while appear directed at China isn't really just about China. the fact that no ASEAN state address the court hearing shows that no one really wanted this. and it is important to understand that this case has more problems than it solve because it open up ASEAN member to using external system to address dispute between ASEAN members without consensus. this isn't like the Singapore-Malaysia dispute where both side agree to an external court, this is philippine unilaterally using an external system to address the issue. had philippine gotten malaysia, vietnam and every ASEAN member support to push a case that is fairer to all, it would not be so problematic for ASEAN to support it but as it stands, it is the opposite of the value of ASEAN which is consensus based.

[joenartca]

ASEAN is a fragile and egomaniacal club of disunited nations which guard their border with the most intensive fervor. The free trade and free movement of people between the nations are more or less symbolic than real. You need only to observe the markets between the ASEAN members then you could easily perceive the national protectionism among the members. Under the mask of anti-dumping fines are put upon non-local products. The distortion between rich and poor members is put aside. The cost of labor in Cambodia or in Myanmar is lower, for example, than in Malaysia or Singapore. And that is the nature of different pricing structure within the ASEAN. To protect the local products the local authority perfunctorily starts with an investigation of dumping. And as expected the results always ends up in a huge fine.

About politics, I don't know how long Sebastian Strangio has lived in Asia and how much he understands the Asian culture. The West in general loves to intermeddle into the internal affairs of the others with their "Christian values" as an inevitable schemata for a way of living. As a Westerner Sebastian is not an exception. Asians are usually reluctant to intervene into the (familial) internal affairs of their neighbors. China always tries to avoid intervention into the other's internal affairs. So do the ASEAN nations.

In short: Sebastian sees ASEAN members as some "uncultured" nations that need to be brought to Western culture with Christian values.

[AlgoNudger]

Even the world isn't, that's why we need The Great Reset ASAP!!! 😂😂😂