Asean as a “neighbourhood watch group”

Contemporary Southeast Asia

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 279-301

  San, Khoo How ^a  

^a Ministry of Defence Government of Singapore   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84881936681     PISSN: 0129797X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1355/CS22-2C     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. This term was used by Eric Teo Chu Cheow, an international banker who was formerly a Singapore diplomat. See his “The Dynamics of ASEAN”, Asian Affairs 1, no. 2 (Winter 1997/98): 20.
2. Extracted from the mission statement, “Welcome to Syracuse Neighbourhood Watch”, issued by the City of Syracuse (New York) Police Department on behalf of the Neighbourhood Watch Groups of Syracuse, at http://www.syracuse.ny.us/syrmayor/Services/Police/neigwatch.html, accessed on 3 February 2000.
3. Reuter News Service, 13 April 1995, quoting Jakarta Post.
4. Lee Kuan Yew, quoted in Straits Times, 3 July 1987.
5. See, for example, Sheldon W. Simon, The ASEAN States and Regional Security (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1982).
6. Far Eastern Economic Review, 9 August 1991.
7. Defence of Singapore 1992-1993 (Singapore: Ministry of Defence, 1992), p. 64.
8. B.A. Hamzah, “ASEAN Military Co-operation Without Pact or Threat”, Asia Pacific Community, no. 22 (Fall 1983), pp. 33-47.
9. Hans H. Indorf, Impediments to Regionalism in Southeast Asia: Bilateral Constraints Among ASEAN Member States (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1984).
10. Michael Leifer, ASEAN and the Security of Southeast Asia (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), p. 39.
11. Arnfinn Jorgensen-Dahl, Regional Organization and Order in Southeast Asia (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982), p. 107.
12. nd ed. (Singapore: World Scientific, 1993), pp. 1-30.
13. Jorgensen-Dahl, op. cit., pp. 197-98.
14. For some cautionary advice against rushing to quick judgement about ASEAN’s resilience, see John Funston, “Challenges Facing ASEAN in a More Complex Age”, Contemporary Southeast Asia 21, no. 2 (August 1999), especially pp. 207-9.
15. The security complex idea was suggested by Barry Buzan. See his “The Southeast Asian Security Complex”, Contemporary Southeast Asia 10, no. 1 (June 1988): 1-16. A security complex or security cluster is made up of a group of states whose individual national securities cannot be meaningfully addressed or analysed in isolation from those of the others in the group. Alagappa, in applying this idea, disaggregated the Southeast Asian complex into several sub-complexes. Alagappa’s Malay Archipelago sub-complex comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. See his “The Dynamics of International Security in Southeast Asia: Change and Continuity”, Australian Journal of International Affairs 45, no. 1 (May 1991): 1-37.
16. For a summary of the Herzog affair, see Michael Leifer, Dictionary of the Modern Politics of South-east Asia (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), p. 108.
17. Interview, Asian Wall Street Journal, 4 August 1998.
18. However, a few days after the interview with the Asian Wall Street Journal, Habibie told visiting Singapore Second Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean that he had a “vested interest” in building good relations and close ties with Singapore. Straits Times, 7 August 1998.
19. For example, Malaysia unilaterally cancelled a joint naval exercise (Malapura) in 1990. Cited in N. Ganesan, “Malaysia-Singapore Relations: Some Recent Developments”, Asian Affairs: An American Review 25, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 29. In August 1998, Malaysia pulled out of an FPDA exercise in the South China Sea, citing budgetary problems as a result of the Asian economic crisis, but analysts saw it as a spillover from Singapore-Malaysia political tensions. Eight months later, in April 1999, however, the two countries conducted a joint defence exercise under the FPDA rubric. See Sheila McNulty, “KL Cools Spat with Singapore”, Financial Times, 14 April 1999.
20. Reuters News Service, 25 October 1994.
21. Straits Times, 7 and 26 August 1998.
22. Straits Times, 10 August 1991.
23. Straits Times, 14 January 2000.
24. Leifer, op. cit.
25. Far Eastern Economic Review, 22 November 1990.
26. For a discussion of Thailand’s new business-oriented approach, see Katharaya Um, “Thailand and the Dynamics of Economics and Security Complex in Mainland Southeast Asia”, Contemporary Southeast Asia 13, no. 3 (December 1991): 245-70.
27. Straits Times, 29 July 1995.
28. Paul Bowles, “ASEAN, AFTA and the ‘New Regionalism’”, Pacific Affairs 70, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 219-33.
29. Paul Bowles, “ASEAN, AFTA and the ‘New Regionalism’”, Pacific Affairs 70, no. 2 (Summer 1997): p. 224.
30. Hadi Soesastro, “ASEAN Economic Co-operation in a Changed Regional and International Economy”, in ASEAN in a Changed Regional and International Political Economy, edited by Hadi Soesastro (Jakarta: Centre for Strategic and International Studies, 1995), p. 2.
31. Al Labita, “ASEAN wants to do too much, too fast”, Business Times (Singapore), 8 December 1999.
32. Donald E. Weatherbee, ASEAN After Cambodia: Reordering Southeast Asia (New York: The Asia Society, 1989).
33. George H. Quester, “The United States and Asia After the Cold War”, in Southeast Asian Affairs 1994 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1994), p. 42.
34. See, for example, Etel Solingen, “ASEAN, Quo Vadis? Domestic Coalitions and Regional Co-operation”, Contemporary Southeast Asia 21, no. 1 (April 1999): 30-53; Michael Wesley, “The Asian Crisis and the Adequacy of Regional Institutions”, Contemporary Southeast Asia 21, no. 1 (April 1999): 54-73; and John Funston, “ASEAN: Out of Its Depth?” Contemporary Southeast Asia 20, no. 1 (April 1998): 22-37.
35. Funston, “Challenges Facing ASEAN”.
36. For one analysis, see John Funston, “Malaysia: A Fateful September”, Southeast Asian Affairs 1999 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1999), pp. 165-84.
37. Funston, “Challenges Facing ASEAN”, p. 210.
38. International Monetary Fund director Michel Camdessus also attended this meeting.
39. This meeting was attended by the original ASEAN-6 plus other major states including the United States, Japan, and China.
40. Surin Pitsuwan, “Heeding ASEAN’s Legacy”, Far Eastern Economic Review, 17 February 2000.
41. For a discussion of other ASEAN initiatives on trade, finance and investment matters, see Wesley, op. cit.
42. Interview with Los Angeles Times, reprinted in Business Times (Singapore), 8 December 1999, headlined “New dimensions to the rise of the Asian century”.
43. Straits Times, 28, 29 and 30 November 1999.
44. Straits Times, 29 November 1999; ASEAN Summit Chairman’s Statement, BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 1 December 1999.
45. “Thinking ASEAN”, Interview with ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino, Philippine Graphic Magazine, 29 November 1999. Accessed from ASEAN website, 13 December 1999 (http://www.aseansec.org/secgen/articles/sg_gqa.htm)
46. This idea of “helping neighbouring governments and countries” in the manner of a mutual support group is seen as the “essence” of ASEAN by one analyst. Funston, “ASEAN: Out of Its Depth?”, p. 27.
47. In the aftermath of the 30 August referendum and as pro-Indonesian militiamen were wreaking havoc, one exiled East Timor leader, Jose Ramos-Horta, said he stridently opposed membership in ASEAN for the future mini-state. He also observed that ASEAN members had all along been sympathetic towards Indonesia rather than East Timor. But by December 1999, he had softened his stance and said an independent East Timor was likely to seek early membership in ASEAN, and to improve relations with Indonesia. Michael Richardson, “East Timor now looks to ASEAN”, International Herald Tribune, 8 December 1999.
48. Rodolfo Severino Jr., “Listen to Southeast Asia in Seattle”, International Herald Tribune, 25 November 1999.