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November 10, 2009
Peter Hartcher
Sydney Morning Herald political editor

With exquisite timing, the centrepiece of South-East Asia's claim to a unique "way" of conducting itself has been spectacularly exposed for what it is - a joke.

Two of the key members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, neighbours Thailand and Cambodia, cut diplomatic relations last Thursday.

It will be much discussed as a demonstration of the dysfunctionality of ASEAN just as the 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation group - which includes the leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries - meet for their annual summit this week.

For 32 years, ASEAN nations have boasted of a special spirit of harmony. It was "the ASEAN way" of doing things. In truth, "the ASEAN way" is an Orwellian cover for inaction and ineffectiveness, for tolerating bad policy and worse politics.

When a crisis strikes, whether it's the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis, the trauma of the 2004 tsunami, or the permanent stain of the military dictatorship in Burma, ASEAN specialises in standing by uselessly.

No matter the nature of the problem - economic, seismic or political - the "ASEAN way" is consistent in its utter failure to take effective action.

Recently, ASEAN blithely continued convening annual summits and posing its leaders for photo-ops while a military coup in Thailand brought down a democratic government.

Through the last two decades, ASEAN spins out a tropical cyclone of paper describing the alleged free trade zone it is creating, supposedly a precursor to a grand, seamless economic union in the model of the European Union. ASEAN's paralysis meant it was left to the International Monetary Fund to deal with the economic crisis. It was left to outside powers and charities to respond to the tsunami. The rupture in Thai democracy has degenerated into a costly and regional embarrassment.

The ASEAN "free trade zone" is another piece of ASEAN Orwellianism, so unfree that, despite hosting a population as big as the European Union's half-billion, it has become another reason for foreign investors to overlook South-East Asia in pursuit of opportunities in China and India.

In spite of this, ASEAN has kept up a straight-faced bluster that it is the natural basis for a bigger Asia-Pacific mechanism for political and strategic co-operation.

As the Asia-Pacific century takes off, ASEAN wants to be in the governance cockpit. The truth is that, with the exception of Indonesia's impressive president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the midget leaders of the other ASEAN countries would have trouble seeing over the dashboard, much less flying the plane.

The problem is that there is no central venue for solving problems.

The vacuum is so glaring that two Asia-Pacific leaders are proposing new groupings. Australia's Kevin Rudd is pitching an East Asia Community to bring together all the major countries, including those of ASEAN, to talk security and geopolitics.

Japan's Yukio Hatoyama advocates the same idea but with one big difference - the US would not be invited.

So it was an exquisite moment for the Thai-Cambodia rupture to break out. In an act of calculated provocation, the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, last week appointed as a personal adviser the fugitive former prime minister of Thailand, the billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra.

The Bangkok Post on Sunday described this as "the most irrational and potentially harmful step since the formation of ASEAN in 1967''.

Thaksin is the most divisive Thai alive. He now lives in Dubai to avoid arrest for corruption.

But his appointment by Hun Sen would allow him to set up a base in Cambodia. This could be highly destabilising for Thailand's unelected government. Thaksin retains a huge following among the Thai masses and loves to agitate for his return to power in Bangkok.

And Hun Sen? He is a thug, a former member of the Khmer Rouge who seized power by force, who loves to unsettle the Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva. The political morass in Bangkok has strengthened Hun Sen's Cambodia. He is enjoying his latest provocation. When Abhisit recalled his ambassador to Cambodia in protest on Thursday, Hun Sen recalled his ambassador to Thailand. So much for the "ASEAN way."

In the face of this humiliation, the secretary-general of ASEAN, Surin Pitsuwan, wrote to the foreign ministers of ASEAN countries calling for other members to help the two neighbours settle their differences.

"We, in ASEAN, cannot afford to be seen to be so seriously divided prior to the coming APEC economic leaders' meeting and the historic ASEAN-US leaders' meeting in Singapore," he wrote.

Note that he is not so much troubled about being divided as being "seen to be" divided. He seems less worried by the potential for violence between two countries that have already fought several bloody border skirmishes than he is by the need to pull off a nice photo-op this weekend in Singapore.

Perhaps ASEAN is about to discover newfound purpose and resolve. More likely, this latest rift is the dismal punchline to the joke that is the "ASEAN way."

Peter Hartcher is the Herald's political editor.