Can ASEAN Lead?: An Opportunity Not to be Squandered
First published as “An opportunity not to be squandered” in The Straits Times on November 12, 2002.
Last week's ASEAN summit in Cambodia was marked by multiple ironies.
ASEAN has been derided for some time now as a useless talk-fest, a dying, if not already dead, organisation. The name-calling, which began with the Asian economic crisis, turned into a mocking laugh with the growing instability of Indonesia, the Singapore-Malaysia squabbles and the terrorist threat to the region.