Asean: a Singapore perspective
'We're not doing
too badly'
Summit Day's coming, people may again talk about its slow pace but not someone who hailed from 1967. By Seah Chiang Nee
Dec 10, 2005

As a journalist who grew up with Asean, I have followed its fluctuating moods of high and low before arriving at today's relatively stable 21st Century.

Probably because of that, the new generation is often critical about the grouping's 'crawl' towards real cooperation. They would understand its achievements better, if they know the state of the neighbourhood during its birth.

Not many Singaporeans under the age of 40 have any recollection of the Southeast Asia in around 1967 when it was launched.

Being 65 and a regional journalist, I am luckier.

I've reported its summits in good times and bad, heard the leaders argue, challenge, chastise each other before this age when they serenade each other in songs at dinnertime when they let their hair down.

So whenever I hear people make discouraging remarks about Asean "being just a talk shop" I would simply remind them about the karaoke.

That regional leaders could sit together and sing to, instead of threatening, each other is the best testimony to Asean's stabilising progress.

I am not being flippant. It would have been unimaginable 38 years ago. It was then a world marred by wars, insurgencies, confrontasi, military coups, racial riots and economic backwardness.

I was going t add corruption except it still prevails today, may be worse.

At the time, whenever Singapore looked around this chaotic region it felt a sharp tinge of unease about its own future.

The Vietnam War was going badly for US-backed South Vietnam (for three years I helped report America's defeat). And after communist Vietnam won, it promptly invaded Cambodia; Thailand, 'the next domino', looked distinctly shaky.

Supported by China and Soviet Union, guerillas waged a jungle war in four of the five original Asean countries, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

Post-Suharto Indonesia, almost bankrupt, had just emerged bruised and almost bankrupt from its own civil war in which two million people were killed. Almost everywhere inflation was high and foreign investment existed only in government Master Plans.

One feature that happened regularly was something called a coup d'etat. Today probably few teenagers know what the word means.

In South Vietnam, generals grabbed power like it was a game of musical chairs. One day, one would be exercising power over millions and the next, he was washing dishes in Paris.

So was it in Thailand, where either the ruling generals or the constitution would change on an average twice every three years.

Once as a correspondent in Bangkok, I slept through one of these bloodless coups without realising it. I had returned to my hotel room at 1 am from a late Thai seafood meal and went to bed.

On the next morning, I picked up The Bangkok Post from under my door and found it splashed all over the front page.

The ruling generals, Thanom and Prapas had - as I slept - suspended the constitution, closed down Parliament and declared emergency rule. It was an eerie takeover. I drove around the capital and encountered Thais enjoying their normal Sunday morning outing.

Apart from a few tanks parked outside the palace and government buildings, nothing looked amiss.

Indonesia's Suharto and Philippine's Marcos were smarter; they at least staged elections that allowed them to win overwhelmingly.

When the Indonesian Communist Party staged its coup by murdering six generals and threw their bodies into a well it spelled its - and Suharto's - doom and lay the cornerstone for today's Asean stability.

At the launch of the grouping, none was more relieved than Singapore, the smallest and most vulnerable of the five.

Its survival depended on water from Malaysia with which race and political friction was a constant threat. In 1964 broke out in the city.

That feeling of vulnerability probably led Lee to ask whether Singapore would still be around in 50 years' time. He observed that few small thriving city-states along the ancient Silk Road disappeared into history.

"We must think of a way to keep the next generation rugged and tough inside," Lee said.

Asean's stable transformation - helped by the end of the Cold War - had been phenomenal. It expanded from five to 10 members, covering all of Southeast Asia.

Communist Vietnam, the feared predator, joined the group in 1995 contributed significantly. Others were Brunei (1984), Laos (1997), Myanmar (1999), and Cambodia (1999).

Realistically, however, the dangers have not disappeared - and probably never will.

Instead of facing pajama-clad communist guerillas in the jungle, the region now faces cross-border suicide bombers - equally fanatical - strapped with explosives blowing people up.

It is also threatened by invisible foes like SARS viruses or the bird flu or AIDS, all potentially much more deadly.

With the new dangers come fresh opportunities. Its political status has increased worldwide, with powers big and small seeking to work together with us.

Asean has, of course, no standing army, its defence ministers have never even met but nevertheless is a small soft power that can exert some influence on Asian matters.

Being the smallest member, Singapore pays special importance to membership in diplomatic and economic groupings, big and small. Indirectly, it provides diplomatic deterrence, however small, against would-be predators. Asean is therefore regarded here as a very crucial outfit.

From Day One of its history, its foreign policy had followed its trade routes. So it is a little impatient with Asean's pace of economic cooperation.

Asean has changed, so has Singapore.

Despite its size, it sees its role as a catalyst, a stimulant for change, a channel to connect with other regions. It had proposed and organised building a bridge to Europe.

The future looks a lot more promising than the horrid past. Two years ago, its leaders signed a declaration to create a free trade area by 2020.

From 1967 to 2005, it has been a long road but not more than 100 metres of a marathon race. But Asean seems to be taking it in stride, with each member running at a steady pace.

We haven't done too badly, really!
By Seah Chiang Nee