compensates for the anaemic growth
of the world economy.
And how to enhance intra–
ASEAN trade and investment, and
generate domestic consumption in
individual ASEAN economies.
There is also, of course, the
thorny South China Sea issues which
worry the Laotian foreign minister
who was in Kuala Lumpur for a
couple of the big discussion events.
He will be chairing the next ASEAN
foreign ministers in Vientiane in
July. Clearly Laos wishes to avoid an
acrimonious meeting, let alone one
which ends in disarray like the one in
Cambodia in 2012.
SOLVING DISPUTES
One positive development on this
matter I picked up was an early
prospective meeting on the Code
of Conduct in the South China Sea –
actually initiated by China which has
hitherto been dragging its feet on
finalising the code.
If a target date for the
finalisation of the code this year
can be agreed on, it will remove
perhaps the main source of
disagreement
among
ASEAN
states and set them to address
more vigorously – and also more
honestly – the so many outstanding
issues of ASEAN integration.
Indeed, of all the events
that took place in Kuala Lumpur,
including the usual grand one by
the World Economic Forum, it was
the 30th Asia-Pacific Roundtable
(APR) organised by ISIS Malaysia
that was the most focused,
substantive and sober.
It gave me such pride as a
member of the board of ISIS Malaysia
to see how the current chairman Tan
Sri Rastam Isa carried through what
was started by my dear departed
friend and colleague Tan Sri Noordin
Sopiee in 1987.
As I said at the APR when
addressing the subject “The
ASEAN Community in an Age of
Contending Interests,” the most
important thing is to have a sense
of perspective in expectations of
the ASEAN community.
Just because the community
has been proclaimed, we all know it
does not mean there is one. Not by
a long chalk.
The ASEAN rhetoric may
mislead, but it serves as a benchmark
– many benchmarks – that make
it very difficult for member states
to act violently against the ASEAN
community idea, however ill–formed.
There is word and spirit capture.
Acting
positively
toward
realisation of the community,
however, is completely another
matter. Too often too slow. Not
always steady. And so frustrating,
particularly to the business sector,
although so many, especially from
outside the region, have bought into
the direction ASEAN is going.
If we remember ASEAN is an
association of states seeking to
become a community of nations,
we would become less agitated. But
impatient we must remain.
The modern nation state
first established by the Treaty of
Westphalia in 1648 remains the
strongest social organisation in the
world. If states that emerged then –
nearly 370 years ago – still are driven
by concerns of sovereignty and
national interests, what more states
born since the end of the Second
World War, like almost all members
of ASEAN, just 70 years ago.
The passionate and emotional
Brexit debate is just the more
ISSUE 2 : 2016 | ASEAN COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS
49