ASEAN at 50: So what?

Participants take part in the 'ASEAN 50 Parade' held in Jakarta to celebrate the regional organization's golden jubilee [Credit: Inquirer] 

This month ASEAN marks an enormous milestone as it celebrates 50 years since it was first established by the Bangkok Declaration of 1967. From its initial membership of five states, the regional organisation has come a long way from its rather uncertain and unassuming beginnings.

Over the years, ASEAN has grown in confidence, developing a number of ambitious initiatives and notching some important achievements. To what extent, however, is ASEAN’s confidence warranted? To what extent are the regional grouping’s achievements deserved? And to what extent does the ASEAN’s golden jubilee even matter to the more than 600 million people that call the region home?

Supporters of ASEAN would point to the adoption of the ASEAN Charter in 2007, the launching of the ASEAN Community at the end of 2015, and the decades of inter-state peace that the region has enjoyed. In addition, one could note the expansion of the ASEAN-led East Asian Summit (EAS) to include major powers such as the United States and Russia, the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation that now counts 34 signatories, and the 86 countries that have diplomatic representatives to ASEAN.

ASEAN, meanwhile, has confidently sought to actively position itself as a global actor. This was made abundantly clear in 2011 when ASEAN adopted the ‘Bali Declaration on ASEAN Community in a Global Community of Nations’ otherwise known as the Bali Concord III. At the time, then-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared, “I believe ASEAN is able to respond to global dynamics...ASEAN wants to play a bigger role...to reach out to the world.” Indonesian officials stated that the Concord was driven by the belief that the regional organization had “passed the tests of history...[and] become a mature association capable of creating regional stability and security, and able to increase its economic strength.”

That, though, was then. In the years that have since passed the regional grouping has experienced a number of failings. This was famously demonstrated in 2012 when Southeast Asian foreign ministers failed to issue a joint statenent for the first time in ASEAN’s history following disagreement over a passage criticizing Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea. Indeed, progress on a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea has been at a snail pace, with negotiators set to only agree on a ‘framework’ for the Code this month, two decades on after the idea for the Code was first mooted. In that time, ASEAN has been unable to do anything other than to watch on as China conducts reclamation in the disputed area, refuses to abide by the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling on a case brought forward by the Philippines, and continues to aggressively assert its claims to the waters.

ASEAN was also largely silent on last year’s assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, in Kuala Lumpur. The involvement of an Indonesian and a Vietnamese – allegedly duped by North Korean agents –did little to change ASEAN’s indifference. Neither did the extraordinary diplomatic fallout between Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur that saw North Korea ban Malaysian nationals from leaving the country and Malaysia responding in kind; a move that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak described as, “effectively holding our citizens hostage.”

If the above examples demonstrate ASEAN’s failings in response to incidents that originated externally, ASEAN’s handling of last year’s Rohingya migrant crisis is just as worrying as it suggests the grouping cannot even address an issue from within the region. Last year, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razaksparked a war of words when he spoke out against Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya; treatment that, in his view, amounted to ‘genocide’. The perceived act of megaphone diplomacy was unheard of among the ASEAN member states, especially coming from an ASEAN Leader, and represented a major departure from the ASEAN norm of not openly speaking about each other’s domestic affairs. In response, an official in Myanmar’s President’s Office warned, “A member country (of ASEAN) does not interfere in other member countries’ internal affairs”.

In the coming days, these aforementioned failings will be largely swept aside as ASEAN switches into celebratory mode, focusing on its achievements, and highlighting its gains. While one does not want to rain on ASEAN’s parade, one also cannot deny that there is much for the regional grouping to improve on. How soon until the public moves on and forgets about ASEAN once the celebrations are over? How long until the next incident that calls into question ASEAN’s unity and centrality? For how many years can ASEAN continue with the status quo in an ever-changing global environment with new emerging threats and opportunities?

The past few years have been difficult and trying ones for the region, with ASEAN struggling to address a multitude of problems it was confronted with. This was true not only for issues it had with actors outside of the region, such as was the case with the South China Sea or Korean Peninsula, but also with those involving and between its own member states. In other words, it has fallen short in its ambitions to be an ASEAN Community in a community of global nations.

That is not to say, however, that ASEAN was wrong to have such ambitions. As Yudhoyono mentioned in 2011, ASEAN must never again be a “passive spectator who can easily become a victim of problems arising in other parts of the world.” Its ambitions therefore were driven by the aspiration in which the peoples of Southeast Asia should determine their own political, economic and socio-cultural destiny. ASEAN and its member states must therefore refocus its efforts. This should begin with an acknowledgement of its shortcomings and be followed by rectifying its failures. On the occasion of ASEAN’s 50th anniversary, it should use this opportunity not only to celebrate but also to introspect. Now is a good time than ever for it to get its act together.

[This article was first published in The Jakarta Post on 8th August 2017 and can be found at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2017/08/08/asean-at-50-so-what.html]