The political future of ASEAN after the Asian crisis

International Affairs

Volumn 75, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 759-778

  Ahmad, Zakaria Haji ^a   Ghoshal, Baladas ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0039775943     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2346.00107     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. Rodolfo C. Severino, Jr, ASEAN at a time of change: a selection of speeches (Jakarta: ASEAN Secretariat, 1998), pp. 90-1.
2. Quoted in Michael Richardson, 'ASEAN struggles to change its reputation as weak, helpless and divided', International Herald Tribune, 22 April 1999.
3. Jakarta Post, 24 July 1999.
4. Jakarta Post, 25 July 1999.
5. Even a recent editorial in Jakarta Post has expressed scepticism about Indonesia's ability to handle the problem of haze: 'this recurrence of the 1997 environmental disaster sends out a clear signal that much more serious attention must be given to the preservation of our environment . . . while logging companies, plantation owners and others must be held responsible for the proper management of our environmental resources the main responsibility rests with the government. Foreign companies recently have threatened to boycott Indonesian palm oil product, and Brunei had threatened to sue Indonesia for the haze problem, and other fellow members of ASEAN are complaining so much that it is not too far-fetched to imagine it could erode ASEAN's cherished principle of non-interference.' Jakarta Post, 7 August 1999.
6. Severino, ASEAN at a time of change, p. 91.
7. Severino's warning followed a rise in bilateral disputes between ASEAN members over issues of sovereignty, human rights, pollution and the pace of economic integration. It came at a time when Philippines officials said in early July 1999 that they would reject calls by ASEAN to abolish tariffs on 60 per cent of the country's imports by 2000 as part of the group's commitment to a free trade area, a move that some saw as a retreat from regionalism amid mounting pressure to protect domestic markets.
8. International Herald Tribune, 2 July 1999.
9. Far Eastern Economic Review, 25 February 1999.
10. Ibid.
11. For other measures ASEAN has undertaken since the onset of the economic crisis to facilitate integration of the region, e.g., acceleration of AFTA and further promotion of industrial cooperation, see Severino, ASEAN at a time of change, pp. 96-8; also Severino, 'For an efficient Southeast Asia', International Herald Tribune, 15 December 1998.
12. For other measures ASEAN has undertaken since the onset of the economic crisis to facilitate integration of the region, e.g., acceleration of AFTA and further promotion of industrial cooperation, see Severino, ASEAN at a time of change, pp. 96-8; also Severino, 'For an efficient Southeast Asia', International Herald Tribune, 15 December 1998.
13. Quoted in Asiaweek, 6 August 1999.
14. Ian Stewart, 'Stirring communiqué fails to mask internal disunity', The Star (Malaysia), 25 July 1999.
15. Quoted ibid.
16. Leszek Buszynski has identified 'new regionalism, a recognition of the inadequacy not only of the sovereign state but of past efforts at regionalism, incapable of satisfying the enhanced political and economic demands of the past-Cold War era', as one of the future challenges ASEAN faces. See his 'ASEAN's new challenges', Pacific Affairs, Spring 1997.
17. See Philip Segal, 'Asian tigers bare their colours again', International Herald Tribune, 8 July 1999.
18. One commentator has reviewed dozens of academic papers, official reports and a handful of books and suggested that no coherent and clear explanation exists of what went wrong. However, policy-makers and academics have made some progress on three crucial points. While much disagreement remains on these issues, that disagreement is much less than prevailed a year ago. First, commercial bankers are the most dangerous animal in the financial jungle because they always follow the herd. Second, the inflow of foreign capital - especially short-term loans from commercial banks - should be monitored closely and, if necessary, regulated or limited by taxes or other barriers. Third, over-investment is just as bad as over-consumption. See G. Pierre Goad, 'Reasons for Asian economic crisis start to emerge', Asian Wall Street Journal, Weekly Edition, 29 March-4 April 1999.
19. Paul Dibb, David D. Hale and Peter Prince, 'The strategic implications of Asian's economic crisis', Survival 40: 2, Summer 1998, pp. 5-25.
20. See Stephen D. Wrage, 'Examining the "authoritarian advantage" in Southeast Asian development in the wake of Asian economic failures', Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 22: 3, 1999, pp. 21-31.
21. When Sumallee Limpaovart's six-year-old daughter was rejected by an exclusive government school in Bangkok this year, she did something that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. She challenged the decision, using a freedom-of-information law to demand the test score of the other children. In the end she found what she had suspected. Fully one-third of the students admitted had failed the entrance exam: they got in because of their families' status or gifts to the school. See Seth Mydans, 'Asian defying old rules: after financial crisis middle class speaks out', International Herald Tribune, 11 August 1999.
22. Surin Pitsuwan, the Thai foreign minister, suggested at the recent Singapore meeting that provision for a social safety net and human resource management, particularly for the poorer ASEAN nations, should be the main focus of the activities of the association in the coming years. Interview with Rodolfo Severino, Secretary-General of ASEAN, 2 August 1999.
23. Mukul G. Asher, 'Challenges before ASEAN after the economic crisis', unpublished paper, Singapore, 1999.
24. See James H. Mittelman, 'Rethinking the "new regionalism" in the context of globalization', Global Governance 2: 2, May-August 1996.
25. Quoted in The Hindu (Madras), 6 August 1997. See also Jusuf Wanandi, 'A lesson for ASEAN', Far Eastern Economic Review, 24 July 1997, p. 34. Wanandi pleaded then, as he does now, for a change in the ASEAN policy of non-interference.
26. Quoted in The Hindu (Madras), 6 August 1997. See also Jusuf Wanandi, 'A lesson for ASEAN', Far Eastern Economic Review, 24 July 1997, p. 34. Wanandi pleaded then, as he does now, for a change in the ASEAN policy of non-interference.
27. Quoted in Times of India (New Delhi), 18 July 1997.
28. For details see Peter Eng, 'Transforming ASEAN', Washington Quarterly 22: 1, 1999, pp. 49-65; and David B. H. Denoon and Evelyn Colbert, 'Challenges for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations', Pacific Affairs 71: 4, Winter 1998-9, pp. 505-23.
29. For details see Peter Eng, 'Transforming ASEAN', Washington Quarterly 22: 1, 1999, pp. 49-65; and David B. H. Denoon and Evelyn Colbert, 'Challenges for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations', Pacific Affairs 71: 4, Winter 1998-9, pp. 505-23.
30. Quoted in Richardson, 'ASEAN struggles'.
31. See Jusuf Wanandi, 'ASEAN 10: challenges and implications for the wider region', unpublished paper presented at the Asia-Pacific Round Table, Kuala Lumpur, 5-8 June 1997.
32. Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, at the recent ASEAN meeting in July 1999 openly called the Myanmar rights abuse a threat to Asian security. See Asian Wall Street Journal, 26 July 1999.