The parade of talk going nowhere
Mar 4, 2024
ASEAN has been around for so long media outlets rarely spell the full name – Association of Southeast Asian Nations. That sounds significant and grand. It’s not.
A better title for the acronym would be Association of Supercilious Egoists and Nationalists. Even that snide put down wouldn’t do enough injustice to a ten-member group that likes to think it’s a local version of the European Economic Community.
ASEAN is not Asia’s Common Market, but this week Australians will be bamboozled into thinking otherwise.
Summit delegates[will meet in Melbourne this morning ]for a two-day bun fight that will generate indigestion, photos of ranks of mostly plump men and a mass of verbiage. The taxpayers of the region who fund this knees-up will be served commentary that means nothing because ASEAN does nothing.
The African Union has shown it can take “collective action against coups and other breaches of democratic rule, as well as taking collective action in the face of other political crises.” ASEAN can’t, according to US journalist Joshua Kurlantzick, a Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Some background: In 1967 during the Vietnam War Indonesia with US support set up ASEAN with Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. The idea was to block the advance of Communism.
Ironically two latecomers are Red – Vietnam – subtly backing Russia – and Laos, with feudal Cambodia sticking close to China. The absolute monarchy of tiny Brunei (population less than half-a-million) signed up in 1984. Despotic Myanmar, now a military dictatorship, became a member in 1997.
Talk of Australia joining this Cold War relic long past its use-by date is academic because decisions must be unanimous.
We’re a Western nation aligned with Northern Hemisphere powers, superior and racist – an image already hardened by the Voice result. On the other side we’re democratic and follow the rule of law. That makes us out of place in ASEAN.
Only Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines follow forms of ‘flawed democracy’ as assessed by the Economist Intelligence Unit. That doesn’t mean they’re goodies, just not so bad as the rest.
The US found AUD$142 million this year to support ‘the robust implementation of the ASEAN Outlook’ whatever that’s supposed to mean.
The only frayed twine stringing the ten disparate nations together isn’t language (meetings are in English), culture, history, ideologies, total population (672 million) or economies. It’s geography.
Is the continent and Commonwealth of Australia in Southeast Asia? Most ASEAN citizens and Australians wouldn’t think so despite our politicians from Whitlam onwards claiming otherwise.
Eleven years ago then PM Julia Gillard released Australia in the Asian Century White Paper ’nurturing deeper and broader relationships … by taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the Asian century.’
It vanished from government websites following the election of Tony Abbott but has now reappeared.
The truth is we relate better to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, countries that provide us with visitors and workers mainly using the same language and having similar faiths.
To soften up Melburnians to tolerate traffic snarls caused by summiteers’ sightseeings, locals have been told by the PM’s office that the show celebrates Australia becoming ‘ASEAN’s first Dialogue Partner in 1974.’ There’s more:
‘Australia and ASEAN have worked together to address the complex challenges facing our region. Our practical cooperation contributes to making the region more peaceful, open, stable and prosperous.’
Maybe the words will comfort the activists fighting for their lives, villages and a return to democracy in Myanmar, a member state of ASEAN and now a vile military dictatorship.
The PM’s office blurbs use the word ‘bloc’ as though all member states coalesce. That’s another misnomer – distrust among neighbours is widespread and ancient.
In 2021 Australia and ASEAN set up a ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’. What this means in terms of dollars spent, paid and understood by citizens is another blur of obfuscation:
‘We’ve been working with our ASEAN partners on giving effect to our partnership, agreeing shared priorities, increasing resources and advancing new programs. Our Plan of Action guides the implementation of the goals and objectives of the partnership.’
There is some business underway but whether this has much to do with ASEAN is doubtful. Our trade in 2021 with ASEAN states was AUD178 billion, but almost a third was with or through Singapore.
Two-way investment with that tiny island nation (population six million) was AUD 225 billion. The figure for ASEAN is AUD 249 billion – and that includes Singapore. Whoops. Not a stat the host nation wants to spread.
Supporters of ASEAN rightly promote the importance of regional unity, but warn: ‘Diversity, divisions and disputes remain consequential features of the region that pose a significant threat to unity.’
In 2012, ASEAN delegates declared they supported an “ASEAN Human Rights Declaration”. Fifty-five civil rights organisations were furious, claiming the statement implied ‘their people are less deserving of human rights than the people of Europe, Africa or the Americas’.
Cambodia is this year’s ASEAN chair and PM Hun Sen seems indifferent to the Myanmar coup that so distresses Western democracies. ‘He has essentially invited Myanmar’s military leaders to just return to the ASEAN fold, provided they meet laughably easy markers,’ writes Kurlantzick.
The truth behind the hoopla is that Australia has no idea of how to relate to the region. It has a Free Trade Agreement with Indonesia, the burgeoning and largest state in ASEAN with a population 500 times bigger than Brunei. But this FTA is moving so slowly that Canberra regularly pushes businesses to do more.
Western investors are reluctant because of political instability and corruption throughout ASEAN. Today’s show will be another attempt to breathe some purpose into the old pact while hoping some other more credible association can arise.
That’s unlikely.
Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia.
Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.
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