ASEAN Unity remains paramount

August 20, 2012

ASEAN Unity stays paramount

by Ben Ahmad Hamzah (08-18-12) @www.thesundaily.my

TRUE, ASEAN should tighten ranks after Phnom Penh. Nonetheless, the sceptics have been as well discerning to pass judgment. Some say ASEAN has lost the centrality, others consider ASEAN will sink after the Foreign Ministers fail to issue the corner communiqu in 45 years. Many have ridiculed ASEAN's credibility.

So what if ASEAN cannot cobble the consensus? Does it mean ASEAN will close emporium after it fails to determine upon the communiqu? Is the communiqu so critical which but it, the entire ASEAN mild mechanism will tumble apart?

It is puzzling how critics could ignore the record of ASEAN's accomplishment, together with forging the security village by 2015. True which intra-ASEAN trade stays indolent during 26%. But as the region, it has the colourful market. Its vibrancy does not occur by chance.

I beg to talk about with the sceptics. Everything must be seen in the correct context. Looking during the Scarborough Shoal but the great of the incomparable geo-strategic pattern as well as landscape would distort the story. The confinement about ASEAN is misplaced.

ASEAN is not the single-issue organisation. The Scarborough Shoal corner in between China as well as the Philippines will resolve itself as well as not dent ASEAN unity. The two countries will patch up soon if third parties stop instigating them.

ASEAN has weathered misfortune storms as well as has become stronger after each crisis. we have seen it all from the difficult bieing born in 1967. Relations in between Philippines as well as Malaysia was bedevilled by the former's explain to part of Sabah when Malaysia was formed in 1963. The lingering explain did not cause ASEAN to collapse.

In 1968, for example, critics cried foul when Singapore hanged two Indonesian marines for the bombing of MacDonald House in 1965. The nationalists in Indonesia demanded retribution. Diplomatic family were ruffled.

In 1991, the Philippines removed the Ambassador from Singapore for the hanging of the maid who had confessed to the crime. When the situation cooled, both countries resumed diplomatic relations.

In 1979, Vietnam reoccupied Amboyna Cay which Malaysia enclosed in the 1979 continental shelf map. The same year, Armed forces from the Philippines additionally reclaimed Commodore Reef in the South China Sea from Malaysia.

ASEAN has seen some-more serious territorial disputes in between the neighbours. Indonesia as well as Malaysia went to the International Court of Justice to determine who owns Sipadan as well as Ligitan. The ICJ in 2002 decided which Malaysia has better title as well as awarded the two islands to Malaysia.

Singapore as well as Malaysia took their territorial disputes for lawsuit twice. In September 2003, Malaysia sought subject to measures from the International Tribunal upon Law of the Sea during Hamburg upon Singapore's land reclamation in as well as around the Straits of Johor. In May 2008, the ICJ rendered the decision upon Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Putih). When the justice fou! nd which Singapore has sovereignty over Pedra Branca, it brought to the closure the problem which has been the thorn in family in between both states.

And ASEAN moved on. None of these territorial disputes has undermined ASEAN unity. On the contrary, ASEAN wisdom reigned. In February 1979, Thailand as well as Malaysia concluded to jointly rise the disputed area in the Gulf of Thailand; similarly, in 1992, Vietnam as well as Malaysia sealed the memorandum of understanding to jointly feat vegetable resources in an overlapping nautical area.

In 2009, Malaysia as well as Vietnam made the corner submission to the United Nations Commission upon the Limits of the Continental Shelf for their continental shelf over 200 nautical miles in the South China Sea.

Both these corner development agreements have withstood the exam of time as well as right away all parties have been reaping the returns from their blurb ventures.

Because territories have been sacrosanct, many would have suspicion which claimant parties in the South China Sea would come to blows. Malaysia maintains considerate family with the Philippines despite the Sabah explain as well as the occupation of the Commodore Reef.

The Scarborough Shoal incident is considerate compared with the territorial problems. The Scarborough Shoal corner is in between China as well as the Philippines as well as it could be amicably resolved. In 1996, President Ramos as well as Jang Zemin concluded in Manila to shelve their brawl in favour of corner development. In 1992, Manila sealed the ASEAN Declaration upon the South China Sea as well as gave the undertaking which it would resolve all sovereignty as well as jurisdictional issues in the South China Sea by peaceful means.

In 2005, China as well as the Philippines (an! d later Vietnam) concluded to undertake the ephemeral Joint Maritime Seismic Survey in the Palawan nautical area. One management upon the South China Sea even hailed Arroyo's Presidency as the golden epoch in Manila-Beijing relations. Those were the great days.

Failure to craft the corner communiqu is similarly considerate if you perspective ASEAN in the incomparable geo-strategic as well as geo-economic context. In light of the new accord upon the six-point beliefs announced by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers following the Phnom Penh impasse, we consider you should tighten the Cambodian chapter as well as move upon as ASEAN states have usually done.

Few have removed how ASEAN overcame the difficult days. One of the most difficult times in Asean history was in 1986 when the ASEAN Heads of States/Governments summoned their dignified strength to attend the Third ASEAN limit in Manila after the relapse of 10 years.

Credit for reinvigorating the Bangkok Declaration during Manila must go to ASEAN leaders, in sold President Corazon Aquino for her tenacity to get ASEAN behind upon the track. She bent backwards to greatfully many ASEAN leaders; she concluded to singular carry out of the airspace over Manila during the summit. She permitted the little states to send warships to Manila Bay in case something went wrong during the summit. Looking back, the 1986 limit was ASEAN's branch point; it renewed the suggestion of regionalism. And, it was possible partly since of Aquino.

Let us hope which her son, incumbent President Ninoy Aquino, will not let ASEAN down in the difficult time similar to this. He binds the key to Scarborough Shoal as well as the suggestion of regionalism.

Let us additionally hope which the 21st ASEAN Summit in Nov during Phnom Penh will not get bogged down with another considerate e! pisode.< /p>

For the time being, ASEAN unity is stronger than the sum of the parts. It stays intact. Closing ranks will reinforce ASEAN unity as in 1986. we see no reason why ASEAN cannot unite over the little protruding rocks in the Scarborough Shoal when it survived tribulations but the limit for the decade.

I remain bullish upon ASEAN as the regional security as well as economic organisation. ASEAN will not buckle down over trivia.

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