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How ASEAN and SAARC have stood the test of time

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How ASEAN and SAARC have stood the test of time

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders and scholars are deeply cognisant of the fact that in the 21st century with the geopolitical and geo-economic renaissance of Asia, as the centre of gravity of global affairs, they could be hemmed in — between China and India.

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SAARC is driven more by political considerations and regional fundamentals. (Source: Reuters)

Also, the risk is quite high for them to lose their pride of place in international affairs with the trend towards closer integration of the Eurasian land mass with various high speed railway projects, and oil and gas pipelines.

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To reverse the situation, the ASEAN countries have to be the prime movers of globalisation with high technology innovations as well as high finance innovations nurtured by recourse to a pan-Asian development paradigm based on Asian values.

Thus Singapore seeks to be the financial and intellectual hub to further the ‘ASEAN spirit’ with huge investments in world class universities, service industries deeply involved in science and technology and research and development, as well as investing in policy think tanks that come forth with alternative global and regional paradigms.

ASEAN visualises itself as the prime mover or catalyst for Asian integration by judiciously juxtaposing itself to benefit from and contribute to opportunities arising from emergent China and Indian civilisations by drawing upon its Indo-Chinese civilisational heritage.

ASEAN diplomacy is about positioning the group as a prime mover in regional and international diplomacy by ensuring that regional, sub-regional and bilateral arrangements are nested into the global framework under World Trade Organisation (WTO) — and not be like ‘Chinese noodles’ enmeshed in a complicated rigmarole.

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ASEAN believes more in equality of nations. (Source: Reuters)

However, this will be severely tested as the US comes forth with its ‘pivot to Asia’ strategic policy and the proposed Trans-Pacific Economic Partnership that seeks to embrace both north-east Asia as well as south-east Asia, including Australasia and New Zealand.

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ASEAN allowed its Chinese diaspora to be regional entrepreneurs, whereas the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) left very little space to the subcontinent’s entrepreneurs par excellence during the British Raj and in post-colonial times. Probably, this is why ASEAN is far more business-driven as compared to SAARC, which tends to be more driven by political considerations and regional fundamentals. 

Its brilliant weathering of the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1999 cast doubts on the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its capacity to come forth with the right policy remedies to safeguard ASEAN interests over the West’s.  

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ASEAN weathered the 1997-1999 Asian financial crisis brilliantly. (Source: Reuters)

ASEAN welcomes the funding and participation by international financial institutions such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has immensely contributed financially and well as technically, as an honest broker, in the creation of the Greater Mekong Subregional Cooperation (GMSRC). SAARC, as seen in the behaviour of bureaucrats, is deeply suspicious that any foreign organ can actually be an honest broker!

This is how the South Asia Growth Quadrangle (SAGQ) initiative was renamed the South Asia Subregional Cooperation (SASEC) programme and now with India exerting, hopefully, proactive leadership which it refrained from during 1985-2018, matters will change for the good of the entire region.  

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SAARC is, in principle, far more equity-oriented than ASEAN, which believes more in equality of nations. Thus, all counties pay the same membership fee.

Thus, all countries pay the same membership fee — there is no recourse to the universally recognised United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) call for Special and Different Treatment (SDT) for the least developed countries (LDCs) like Laos and Myanmar. 

ASEAN achieved its goal set in 2003 in 2015, and is now in search of a new vision 2030.

It will be a Free Trade Area (FTA) soon with freedom to regional travel for all its citizens. It now seeks greater integration to go beyond markets and production networks, to include macroeconomic policy coordination and social policies to correct for the ‘development divide’ between growth corridors and regional hinterlands, including between developed countries (DCs) and LDCs.

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ASEAN countries are working towards creating a free trade area. (Source: Reuters)

More impressively, given that much of the developing countries’ economy is Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) driven, it had enunciated the ASEAN Strategic Action Plan for SME Development (2010-2015). Its mission statement says that SMEs shall be world class with the capacity to be integrated with regional and global supply chains, including developing MNCs.

ASEAN’s new aspiration is to be a fully developed industrial society by 2030; have a Customs and Currency Union; build strong regional institutions (here SAARC is far ahead of ASEAN with its regional centres which are now streamlined for greater efficiency, effectiveness and excellence as think tanks); harmonise cultures and security perceptions; improve governance; build regional identity as ASEAN citizens; move away from consensus in decision taking; seek strong intellectual capital to advance innovation and technological creativity; facilitate labour migration intra regionally (Note: this is being tested by the Rohingya migrants).  

As a final word, far more ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking is required by both ASEAN and SAARC’s key policy stakeholders to re-examine the appropriateness of the European Union (EU) model as historical pathfinders to the Asian region.

Both ASEAN and SAARC as regional organisations must share experiences and learn from each other and deeply be engaged in delving into our own history and geography and culture to derive relevant solutions than simply to copy and paste from EU for lessons or even, as for SAARC, do the same thing from those from ASEAN.

Both ASEAN and SAARC should, and must, be guided by the need to move towards an Asian Community of Nations with due role for all its major powers — China, India, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Indonesia and Australasia. Assuming that the globalisation of the 21st century will be a globalised regional world order, so one may ask: how will ASEAN and SAARC collectively deal with China, Japan and South Korea? How will ASEAN and SAARC move the regional process in the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) towards this noble aim of an Asian Community of Nations?

All these issues remain unknown. However, perhaps if Japan revives the long-standing visionary projects to create Asian highways, railways and waterways, we shall be a step closer to regional peace, harmony and development for the benefit of all mankind.

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More highways, railways and waterways will contribute towards regional peace. (Source: Reuters)

Also, the decisive step would be the working of emerging Asian economies with a positive spirit to fulfil the regional and sub-regional developmental dreams.

Here, the role of India and China are going to be that of catalysts.

Nepal, strategically placed, has its own share of responsibility to stimulate its economy at home and help shape the greater economic engagement with its giant neighbours with them its interdependence is a natural reality.

The time to relook at ASEAN and SAARC — the associations of hope for realising the ‘Asian dream’ — is yet not over.

Last updated: December 25, 2018 | 14:23
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