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Nobel Prize? Maybe not, but give Asean credit for Cambodia-Thailand ceasefire
The grouping has its flaws, but in preventing full-scale conflict between members, it continues to succeed.
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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (centre) in a meeting with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet (left) and Thailand's Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai (right) in Putrajaya on July 28.
PHOTO: IZZUDIN ABD RAZAK/PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE OF MALAYSIA
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Why has Asean gone missing? What happened to Asean centrality? Is Asean still relevant?
Such pointed questions about the regional grouping – its glacial decision-making, insistence on consensus and mealy-mouthed ways – are sometimes fully merited. But the criticisms can also border on the gratuitous, reflecting a sort of goading declinism: Predict failure, find data points to prove it, then declare, “Aha, see, I was right!”
