Face Reality in Jakarta
It's hard to take ASEAN seriously when all of the good news is a dream.
Some sense of community does exist among the elites of most member states, and there are many examples of cooperation that would not have been possible without Asean's existence. Once the Burmese begin to reform their economy, membership of Asean will be a help, just as it has been for Vietnam.
But Asean's pretense that it is more important than it actually is only invites bigger countries to exploit the organization's divisions. One day, Asean could have sufficient coherence to deal with China, India and the United States on roughly equal terms. But the group's 40th year has shown how not to get there.
Seriously, Beijing is the reason for ASEAN, and it's not a good thing when China is the winner at an ASEAN summit. Also, the last time I checked Thailand was run by a junta, so how does a Thai secretary-general help in the PR department? I can see the fork coming down!
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