Is ASEAN Falling Short, or Are We Expecting Too Much?
“What do Cambodia and Brunei have in common, historically and in the present day, except the happenstance of geography? However much people continue to think that by saying it, it will be so, Southeast Asianess isn’t a concept that makes sense for the majority of Southeast Asians. There’s no notion that, say, an Indonesian should suffer a little so that a Malaysian benefits. How’s there going to be an ASEAN-led response to the South China Sea when, quite frankly, the likes of Laos or Myanmar don’t really care about the outcome? Will Vientiane or Phnom Penh voluntarily relinquish billions of dollars of Chinese investment in an act of solidarity with Manila? Maybe some Singaporean politicians might prefer a democratic Myanmar, but the ongoing civil war and barbarism haven’t stopped Singaporean companies from being among the biggest investors in Myanmar since 2021. How goes Islamic solidarity when it comes to China and the Uyghurs?”
https://thediplomat.com/2025/05/is-asean-falling-short-or-are-we-expecting-too-much/