By Mong Palatino
UPI Asia Online
Column: Peripheries
Manila, Philippines — Regional kinship in Southeast Asia is weak or nonexistent. We perceive ourselves as Asians in general; but not residents of the Southeast Asian region. There is little interaction among people in the region. Economic cooperation is minimal. Political events in one country hardly make an impact on the politics of a neighboring country.
Filipinos are so busy being Filipinos that they have forgotten their shared heritage with the rest of the people in Southeast Asia. The same can be said of other nationalities in the region. But nationalism is not the only reason why regional affinity is practically absent in Southeast Asia.
The colonial experience of countries in the region is partly to blame for the problem. Foreign occupation interrupted the long and productive relations of small and big kingdoms in the region. Centuries of Western domination have blurred this important historical period.
There was an opportunity to promote regional solidarity through the various national struggles for independence in the last century. But this was never achieved. Intellectuals and revolutionary leaders like Jose Rizal and Ho Chi Minh were able to inspire many people in the region. But in the end, each country was left to fight for its own interests. In short, Southeast Asians could not invoke a single memorable event when people in the region fought together against a common enemy.
The formation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was significant in some ways; but ASEAN remains an impotent political body. It is a regional grouping whose constituents do not appreciate its objectives. ASEAN is merely a joint venture between governments and its programs rarely involve the participation of the people.
Disunity in Southeast Asia is also indicated by the lack of interest among its people to know more about the social conditions and cultures of their neighbors. Southeast Asians are more knowledgeable about the lives of Americans or Europeans than about the people in their own region. The effect is the inability of the people to empathize with the problems of Southeast Asian countries. Clueless to the situations of their neighbors, even governments fail to determine the right time to act in assisting countries which need help.
For example, the rising prices of rice, food and petroleum products could have had less negative impact in Southeast Asia if there was genuine regional cooperation.
Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of rice. Vietnam and Cambodia are also producing rice in large quantities. But their neighbor, the Philippines, is the biggest rice importer in the world. Singapore and Brunei are also rice importers. If from the very beginning there was a regional initiative to assure rice supplies in Southeast Asia, price speculation in the market would have been minimized. But rice producing countries have inflamed public panic by restricting rice exports even within the region.
Oil prices continue to climb higher, hurting the economies of many developing countries. Instead of sharing energy sources, Southeast Asian countries are closing the doors on their neighbors. Brunei wants to limit the number of cars from Malaysia which can pump gas from the tiny but oil-rich nation. For its part, Malaysia also wants fewer Singapore cars queuing at its gas stations.
There is no regional effort to develop new gas and oil fields. Alternative energy has a lot of potential in the region. Geothermal power can be harnessed in Indonesia and the Philippines. Thailand has numerous projects which aim to tap solar power. If ASEAN were truly about cooperation, it could start discussions on how to stabilize energy supplies in the region.
Rescue efforts spearheaded by ASEAN in the aftermath of the cyclone disaster in Myanmar in May were disorganized, negligible and very late. The slow response of governments and civic organizations was further proof of the lack of unity in the region and the failure of the people of Southeast Asia to imagine themselves as belonging to one regional community.
Perhaps the best example of the deep division in the region is the ongoing campaign of Malaysia to evict more than 300,000 illegal immigrants on the island of Borneo. Most of these workers come from the Philippines and Indonesia. The crackdown has been violent in the past. During times of economic crisis, the migrants are blamed for crimes, lack of jobs and worsening poverty in Malaysia. It is peculiar that within Southeast Asia, a racial campaign to drive out illegal migrants is taking place. This usually happens in Europe.
Rich countries like the United States have been exploiting the lack of unity in the region to further their political and economic agenda. For example the Philippines, which once hosted the biggest U.S. military bases, was used as a launching pad by the Americans to attack Vietnam and many parts of Indochina four decades ago.
Emerging superpower China taunts ASEAN by maintaining close relations with the ruling junta of Myanmar. China is almost succeeding in its bid to claim ownership of the Spratly Islands since ASEAN countries are not united on the issue.
One way to counteract the hegemony of the United States, China or any other superpower in the region is to build a unified Southeast Asia. A unified Southeast Asia could also match the economic and political clout of bigger and richer countries in Asia like China, Japan and South Korea.
ASEAN has to be overhauled. Malaysians, Filipinos, Indonesians and the rest of the people of Southeast Asia should also learn to identify themselves as Southeast Asians.
Failure to embark on this modernizing project will not only allow rich countries to retain their influence in the region, it will also give incentive to extremist groups who are already successful in ignoring national boundaries in order to recruit more members and launch terror attacks in the region.
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(Mong Palatino is a Filipino activist, news editor of Yehey!, a Philippine-based Web portal and Regional Editor for Southeast Asia of Global Voices Online. He can be reached at mongpalatino@gmail.com and his Web site is www.mongpalatino.motime.com. ©Copyright Mong Palatino.)
Filipinos are so busy being Filipinos that they have forgotten their shared heritage with the rest of the people in Southeast Asia. The same can be said of other nationalities in the region. But nationalism is not the only reason why regional affinity is practically absent in Southeast Asia.
The colonial experience of countries in the region is partly to blame for the problem. Foreign occupation interrupted the long and productive relations of small and big kingdoms in the region. Centuries of Western domination have blurred this important historical period.
There was an opportunity to promote regional solidarity through the various national struggles for independence in the last century. But this was never achieved. Intellectuals and revolutionary leaders like Jose Rizal and Ho Chi Minh were able to inspire many people in the region. But in the end, each country was left to fight for its own interests. In short, Southeast Asians could not invoke a single memorable event when people in the region fought together against a common enemy.
The formation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was significant in some ways; but ASEAN remains an impotent political body. It is a regional grouping whose constituents do not appreciate its objectives. ASEAN is merely a joint venture between governments and its programs rarely involve the participation of the people.
Disunity in Southeast Asia is also indicated by the lack of interest among its people to know more about the social conditions and cultures of their neighbors. Southeast Asians are more knowledgeable about the lives of Americans or Europeans than about the people in their own region. The effect is the inability of the people to empathize with the problems of Southeast Asian countries. Clueless to the situations of their neighbors, even governments fail to determine the right time to act in assisting countries which need help.
For example, the rising prices of rice, food and petroleum products could have had less negative impact in Southeast Asia if there was genuine regional cooperation.
Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of rice. Vietnam and Cambodia are also producing rice in large quantities. But their neighbor, the Philippines, is the biggest rice importer in the world. Singapore and Brunei are also rice importers. If from the very beginning there was a regional initiative to assure rice supplies in Southeast Asia, price speculation in the market would have been minimized. But rice producing countries have inflamed public panic by restricting rice exports even within the region.
Oil prices continue to climb higher, hurting the economies of many developing countries. Instead of sharing energy sources, Southeast Asian countries are closing the doors on their neighbors. Brunei wants to limit the number of cars from Malaysia which can pump gas from the tiny but oil-rich nation. For its part, Malaysia also wants fewer Singapore cars queuing at its gas stations.
There is no regional effort to develop new gas and oil fields. Alternative energy has a lot of potential in the region. Geothermal power can be harnessed in Indonesia and the Philippines. Thailand has numerous projects which aim to tap solar power. If ASEAN were truly about cooperation, it could start discussions on how to stabilize energy supplies in the region.
Rescue efforts spearheaded by ASEAN in the aftermath of the cyclone disaster in Myanmar in May were disorganized, negligible and very late. The slow response of governments and civic organizations was further proof of the lack of unity in the region and the failure of the people of Southeast Asia to imagine themselves as belonging to one regional community.
Perhaps the best example of the deep division in the region is the ongoing campaign of Malaysia to evict more than 300,000 illegal immigrants on the island of Borneo. Most of these workers come from the Philippines and Indonesia. The crackdown has been violent in the past. During times of economic crisis, the migrants are blamed for crimes, lack of jobs and worsening poverty in Malaysia. It is peculiar that within Southeast Asia, a racial campaign to drive out illegal migrants is taking place. This usually happens in Europe.
Rich countries like the United States have been exploiting the lack of unity in the region to further their political and economic agenda. For example the Philippines, which once hosted the biggest U.S. military bases, was used as a launching pad by the Americans to attack Vietnam and many parts of Indochina four decades ago.
Emerging superpower China taunts ASEAN by maintaining close relations with the ruling junta of Myanmar. China is almost succeeding in its bid to claim ownership of the Spratly Islands since ASEAN countries are not united on the issue.
One way to counteract the hegemony of the United States, China or any other superpower in the region is to build a unified Southeast Asia. A unified Southeast Asia could also match the economic and political clout of bigger and richer countries in Asia like China, Japan and South Korea.
ASEAN has to be overhauled. Malaysians, Filipinos, Indonesians and the rest of the people of Southeast Asia should also learn to identify themselves as Southeast Asians.
Failure to embark on this modernizing project will not only allow rich countries to retain their influence in the region, it will also give incentive to extremist groups who are already successful in ignoring national boundaries in order to recruit more members and launch terror attacks in the region.
--
(Mong Palatino is a Filipino activist, news editor of Yehey!, a Philippine-based Web portal and Regional Editor for Southeast Asia of Global Voices Online. He can be reached at mongpalatino@gmail.com and his Web site is www.mongpalatino.motime.com. ©Copyright Mong Palatino.)
8 comments:
we have to wait perhaps for 1000 year more for that day to come.
I am not surpised by the disunity among the countris in Southeast Asia. I wouldn't want to blame everything on United States, China or any other superpowers. If anybody really look deep into the history of Southeast Asian countries and they will see that the Southeast Asian history is one of war and conquest among themsleves! The Superpowers are there only to take side and to further their national interest to balance the power of other superpowers! But especially among the weaker Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia only use the Superpowers to balance the power of other Southeast Asian countries who want to behave like a predator toward a weaker nation!
The Southeast Asian countries have too much animosity and mistrust among themselves which is deep rooted in history and it can never be changed! In addition, many of the bigger Southeast Asian countries especially Thailand and Vietnam are still behaving as if they are the Superpowers in Southeast Asia at the expense of Cambodia and they want to dictate whatever the fuck they want including oppressing and deny million of Khmer Krom people basic human right while annexed large part Cambodia illegally through their occupation since 1979 ! And even in 21th century, the bigger Southeast Asian country such as Thailand still harboring blind ambition which go against international law to take what belong to Cambodian people such Khmer Phrea Vihear temple and even promote the killing of unarmed Cambodian civilians!
As long as the Southeast Asian leaders don't learn how to behave as good neighbor among themselves and the disunity, the mistrust, and the cycle of violent will continue!
Most of asian country leaders are law breaker. When they form asian countries, they need to make the rule and the law for every country to follow and they know they can't follow. The reasons that asian country and its people have never been close to each other like Europ because the asian leaders. Many asian leaders got the power from using force therefore they are murderer, cheater and invadeer.
These kind of animal leaders don't care about people and they scare the rule of law. To say that asian people don't like the western style of government is not true. If all asian people allowed to have the choice to send their children to be educated in western school, they would send all their children. Also if if asian people have a choice to choose the place to live of their own, they would prefer to live in the west.
Southeast Asian leaders have some of the highest levels of corruption. There is also just way too much animosity within history amongst the Southeast Asian nations that no one is willing to let go of. Also each nations tends to think they are better than the next nation.
i think southeast asian countries should think about finding solution to get along one another peaceful. i know, there were a lot of hates and resentments going on, and we can always find something or someone to blame for that. it is good to recognize the problem, however, it's won't solve it. i think everyone can help to solve problem if they want to be proactive. after all, it is in their neighborhood of countries. i suggest look hard at the EU, as once upon a time they all had bad blood between them, however now, they seem to be able to put their differences aside and look now, they instead are getting close to having only one currency for almost the whole of europe. why? i think because they smartened up as they all began to see the benefits that outweighed the adversary, and so on. i'm a khmer person in origin, and i sure hope and would like to see this is happening one day in our neck of the wood as well. is it possible? i like to believe that nothing is impossible. i think the more we talk about thing as in solving it, the more it will be possible. now everyone can contribute with ideas here.
Well, the problem between us and EU is the EU stole wealth from other country to solve their neighborhood dispute. When you have enough money, you tend to spend more time thinking about new car, boat, or PC instead of killing each other.
On the other hand, we are nothing like that. We're all poor, and all we can think about is how to steal from one another to satisfy our own dream.
5:13am, if what you are saying is true, then we need to be smarter and think in terms of competition so we can have be prosperous. not why? my dear, it's all in the head, if you ask me. god bless.
It's easier to say than done, 6:45. If it could be done it would have been done long ago.
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