Charting a course for Asean’s future

It also managed to persuade a wavering American president to attend the parallel East Asia Summit, where Asean meets its dialogue partners. Given this year marks the grouping’s 50th birthday, it’s a time to cheer the little victories of a sustained project that has seen the original four members grow to 10 today. Like a small flotilla in treacherous currents, Asean has survived the occasional buffeting in remarkable fashion.
Now is also the time to ponder Asean’s future direction as it looks at the next 50 years. As incoming chair of Asean and host of its next summit, Singapore has laid out its vision for that future. It sees Asean as balancing on the tripod of a more stable world, a safer Southeast Asia and a more prosperous region. Using a maritime metaphor, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has described the bloc as a “lifeboat” for Southeast Asia to come together, have its voice heard on the world stage and crucially, “to manage our own issues among ourselves”. This is why the theme for Singapore’s chairmanship is “resilience and innovation” – the first dealing with known challenges, and the second clearly aimed at a future to be revolutionised by the digital economy, automation and artificial intelligence.
Being pragmatic, Singapore has no illusions about the journey ahead. As new strategic and economic vistas unfold, many hazards will arise that might wreck even an individual vessel determined to follow its own course, never mind a group of 10 moving at different speeds and perhaps sometimes different directions. China has made it clear that while it endorses an Asean economic union, it takes a dim view of Southeast Asian political unity. On the sidelines of the Asean Summit, the meeting of the so-called Quad nations – the US, Japan, Australia and India – underscores the attempts to build new formations in the neighbourhood. As big-power rivalry in the region grows, Asean risks yielding its cherished centrality to being the stuffing in the sandwich.
In this fraught environment, it is imperative to ensure parochial and nationalistic considerations do not undermine Asean’s collective pursuit of regional public goods. These include security in the neighbourhood, protection of the environment, free and safe passage in international waters, and an open climate which fosters trade and investment. The prevailing spirit must be to shut out none and welcome all to contribute – as in the building of an economic community. Politically, it is time to drop its “all on board or nothing” approach and allow more scope for the majority to air their positions on issues affecting all. Remaining silent when things are seriously amiss would breed cynicism.