January 8, 2013
Brunei no foreigner to helming ASEAN
by BA Hamzah[1]
With 3 prior chairmanships, Brunei is no foreigner to helming ASEAN. To a credit, Brunei has attended all a ASEAN Summits given 1987 as good as participated actively in all ASEAN activities given then. Moreover, in July 1986, a Bruneian headed a ASEAN Secretariat for 3 years, a task he performed with distinction.
Brunei to illustrate understands a ASEAN domestic enlightenment really well. Its chairmanship of ASEAN comes during a really challenging moment in informal geo-political chess house as good as internally. Externally, ASEAN has to bargain with new leaders in China, Japan as good as South Korea whose expectations of ASEAN have been still unknown. Brunei is approaching to yield care during high-level talks upon a innumerable of complex outmost issues that challenge immediate resolution.
The US-China relations as good as their impact upon a segment as good as a broader Middle East Pacific segment have been during a forefront of these concerns.
Internally, Brunei will travel a tight wire dealing with a little really sensitive issues in ASEAN
as good as a fact that Asean has a new Secretary General does not help matter. For example, how should ASEAN bargain with contemptuous tellurian right violations in a little part of countries without be seen as interfering in a inner affairs of a respective countries? More significantl! y, Brune i assumes a care when cracks in a ASEAN-house have been beginning to show, albeit repairable. Nonetheless, a lack of intra-ASEAN accord in sure delicate issues, if not ironed out early, may undermine ASEAN togetherness as good as solidarity.
The issues of ASEAN togetherness as good as a centrality in general dialogues generally in Middle East Pacific affairs as good as a purpose of brawl government will go upon to feature significantly as good as it calls for organisation hands.
The informal grouping's centrality in general dialogues is some-more of a novella than reality. The usually arise where ASEAN hold court in general relations was during a Cambodian predicament in a 1990s. At that time, a five original ASEAN countries succeeded to shape metal a solid accord as good as assured a Security Council to start a routine of reconciliation, that finished up with a UN substantiating a United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNCTAC) in 1992. The rest is history.
Other Actors
ASEAN is no longer a sole informal institution for outsiders to bargain with; others with some-more punch as good as relevance have proliferated. Among them have been a Middle East Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), a East Middle East Summit forum as good as a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). Above all, a inlet of a post-Cold War geopolitics as good as geo-economics (e.g.,the tellurian monetary crisis) in a segment has made ASEAN reduction applicable as a "fixer".
In a disorderly world, ASEAN has mislaid precedence generally over geopolitical issues outward Southeast Asia. Recent confidence developments in East Middle East have solemnly shifted concentration from Southeast Middle East to China, Japan as good as Korea.
Of course, as leader Brunei contingency concentration upon making a 3 ASEAN pillars some-more viable. The 3 inter-related pillars or programmes have been a political-security community, a mercantile pillar, as good as a soci! al-cultu ral agenda. If these programmes, generally a political- confidence village pillar, that have been so vicious to ASEAN's existence, were to collapse, a complete routine of regionalism will have to go back to a drawing house again. That will indeed be a sad day for Southeast Middle East as good as a general community.
While bargain a nexus between a inner factors as good as a outmost dynamics is key to a survivability of a complete ASEAN process, it is not a task of Brunei alone to generate it. All ASEAN states contingency give a assurance that a overriding element is a collective village interest.
As someone who complicated Brunei governing body for some-more than 3 decades, I have been tender with how Brunei conducts a unfamiliar policy. The Sultan-cum-Prime Minister as good as his diplomats have skilfully managed to steer a balanced unfamiliar policy, generally in a Southeast Asian choppy waters. Leading a ASEAN organisation gives Brunei another event to put a tactful as good as negotiating skills to in effect use.
Diplomacy has turn second inlet to Brunei, that has a long story of slicing deals with outmost powers. Of course, in hindsight, similar to many other Malay states, Brunei unsuccessful to stop Great Britain from colonising a oil-rich Sultanate (1888-1984). Brunei mislaid a first territory in 1846 when Great Britain acquired Labuan. By 1890, a British swallowed almost a complete Brunei Kingdom; today, Brunei is a single forty-fourth of a original size.
Brunei has, given a independence in 1984, some-more than made up for what it lacked in conditions of tactful competence in a colonial period by precision a people in a art of diplomacy. Some of a stream diplomats in Brunei complicated during world's heading schools of tact together with a Fletcher School of Law as good as Diplomacy during Tufts University in Medford, USA. Many complicated during Oxford, Cambridge as good as a London School of Economics.
In 1989, a late Peter Ly! on (auth or of War as good as Peace in Southeast Asia, Oxford University Press, 1979), an expert upon Brunei affairs, told me a late SultanOmar Ali Saifuddien was a single of a many in effect negotiators he has ever met. Peter Lyon was referring to a time when a Sultan was negotiating with Great Britain for self-rule in 1959; a Agreement was later nice in 1971 to give Brunei "full inner self Government" as good as a merger talks with Singapore as good as a Malay states upon Malaysia (1962-1963).
Sultan Omar continued to participate in all agreements involving Brunei, long after he abdicated in 1967 together with a talks to keep a Regiment of Gurkhas in Brunei, that a British Government longed for to disperse for mercantile reasons. According to Peter Lyon, in face- to- face diplomacy, Sultan Omar was regularly "mersmerisingly influential."
Like his late father, the benefaction Sandhurst- lerned Sultan-cum-Prime Minster, is also skilful during tact as good as in negotiation. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is a many senior Head of State in ASEAN; he became Sultan in 1967 following his father's abdication. Within a single year of independence, he successfully negotiated for Brunei to join a London-based Commonwealth of Nations, ASEAN, a Jeddah- formed Organistaion of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as good as a United Nations. In 1989, Brunei assimilated a Middle East Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) as good as hosted a summit with great aplomb in 2000.
In 2002, Brunei hosted a ASEAN Regional Forum. In 2006, alongside Chile, New Zealand as good as Singapore, Brunei was instrumental in substantiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Australia, Malaysia, Peru, Vietnam, Mexico as good as Canada have assimilated a TPP to foster free trade. With such tactful achievements, no a single should cast any doubt or aspersions upon Brunei's tactful certification anymore.
It took a little years for Brunei to sight a diplomats. Today, there is no shortage of skill in Brunei Ministry of Foreign Affairs as good as Trade (MOFAT). The tactful choice during Bandar Seri Begawan is impressive. The Senior Minister of Foreign Affairs, a Sultan's brother, Pengiran Mohamed Bolkiah (left), is a longest portion Foreign Minister in ASEAN. Knowledgeable as good as seasoned in ASEAN politics, a Sandhurst-trained Minister is good respected by his peers.
The Second Minister of Foreign Affairs as good as Trade is an accomplished shrewd person who maintains a low profile. He has been a backbone of a Ministry of Foreign Affairs given 1984; first, as a Permanent Secretary as good as in 2005 he became Minister. He has an considerable private collection of books upon Islamic history, universe affairs as good as Southeast Asian politics.
Finally, although Brunei is no feather- weight when it comes to diplomacy, no a single expects Brunei to lift a ASEAN torch alone. Brunei can count upon a undivided support of a complete ASEAN village via a tenure of office in 2013 in line with a chosen sign of "Our People, Our Future Together".
[1] Student of politics.E-mail: bahamzah@pd.jaring.my.
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