9/07/2012

Asean farting nonsense



Asean lately is preoccupied with its quarrel with China, and the main issues stated are freedom of sea navigation, territorial dispute and Asean’s unity. Let me just deal with the strawman within Asean, its unity as a regional bloc of countries trying to present a single view or position to other blocs or big countries.

The differences within the Asean bloc of countries need no further clarification, from social, political, economic and religious angles, Asean countries are like oil and water. For Asean countries to come together, the glue is at best the lowest common denominator. The only area that Asean could ever think of gelling together as one in a lose way is economic cooperation. Politically, with the entry of Vietnam, another ambitious regional power, the level of complexities increases by leaps and bounds.

Vietnam and the Philippines have territorial claims with China and their willingness to drag in the Americans will only raise the temperature and tension in the region. It is increasing daily with the Americans fanning the fire and waiting to make the most out of this regional dispute. Asean unity is now in the frying pan. Can Asean countries afford to take sides as a united bloc on such national and territorial issues? Fat hope. But some Asean countries seem to differ and wanted Asean to be united as one in its negotiation and claims against Chinese territories. Only foolish govt will think that the Chinese will allow their territories to be taken from them because some jokers decided to make a claim for it. The Filipino mentality of claims did not fade away with the Marcos. And they really think that with the American gunboats behind them they could succeed. The same kind of thinking applies to Vietnam. China will go to war with the US if its territorial sovereignty is challenged. They are tolerating the Japanese to maintain good relations, but some Japanese are seeing this as a weakness to be exploited. Think of the eventualities if there is a war between China and Japan today?

The most silly issue Asean is farting around is freedom of navigation. This is an issue that has never been an issue until the Philippines and Vietnamese started to harass and arrest Chinese ships. Funny isn’t it? The trouble makers are pointing the fingers at the Chinese. But when the real devil has its fingers in the region, tension will rise and non existence conflict will simply flare up.

The real threat to freedom of navigation at one time was the Malacca and Sunda Straits. But with regime changed, pragmatism and common sense prevail and the two waterways are now free for ships to cross as international highways.

What about east Africa? Is there a problem that threatens freedom of navigation? Why is there a problem and the Empire with all its resources is unable to quell it? Why are the 6th or 7th Fleets of the world’s most powerful navy not there to clear the waterway to ensure freedom of navigation? Where is Hillary? Still cooking her soup in the kitchen?

There is a clear and present danger, and threats to freedom of navigation in the east African sea. Instead of defending the freedom of navigation there, the Americans are harping up a threat in South China Sea when there was none except when the Vietnamese and the Filipinos start to behave like pirates. And Asean, as usual, have to act on someone else’s agenda, acting on an imaginery threat that is non existence before. And they are blowing hot and cold, from Manila, Jakarta, Singapore, Hanoi to Beijing. The ill wind actually came from across the Pacific Ocean in the guise of peace and stability, and the hegemonic umbrella of the Empire. So Asean now has a monster to fight and the Asean countries are having sleepless nights, sharing the same bed and the same nightmare. The threat of freedom to navigation is as real as they make it and want to believe it in, or as spun by the Empire.

Asean can go on farting and act important. It is as good as NATO in credibility in forming a united front against any super power. Its agenda in the annual Asean Summit Meeting has been hijacked unceremoniously without it knowing what has happened.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why Asean never go to Washington to tell Obama and Clinton to stop meddling in the region's affairs?

Anonymous said...

No need. The Americans are bringing peace to the region and will make Asean more powerful.

Anonymous said...

All these groupings are waste of time. Little achievements but lots of talk and entertainment.

Anonymous said...

Whose side are you on? Why do you always seem to take China's side in the south China Sea dispute even at the expense of Singapore's interests. And based on the available evidence why do you think that China has legal claim to the land in the South China Sea that it says it does?

Anonymous said...

When alot of seemingly serious people are banging tables with their shoes. In my experience, it is always wise to suspend disbelief and simply ask:

What is the goal here? What motivates them to do the things they do?

The process.For lack of a better word. Is really not so different from neutralizing the internet brigade. Once you know what is their goal? It is very easy to make out their modus operandi. Very easy.


Same here. The answer Chin Leng boils down to age old struggle for materiale in an age of acute resource scarcity.

When we juxtapose this reality ontu the geo-politico canvas, The Spratlys archipelagos is strategic.

It may at first seem petulant that nations are fighting over this remote collection of islands that seem to have so little economic value in themselves, except maybe to serve as penal colonies. But when you consider the economic dimensions such as rich fishing ground - and the possibility that these far off islands may contain significant reserves of oil and natural gas.

Then like the internet brigade, it is easy to make out what the fuss is all about.

The question is always Cui bono?

Darkness 2012

Anonymous said...

The word is....there must be "earthquakesS" before you see real changes..or you want to see peace.....who is going to set it off?

You decide.

Anonymous said...

And it makes perfect sense..at least to me :)

Anonymous said...

12.24 please go read up your history book before spewing rubbish out of your mouth lar knn ok

Anonymous said...

all of us are farting hoor...lol

patriot said...

A well thought out article.

If the Somalia Pirates can hijack ships from all nations and the US, China and other super powers are near impotent against them. The question must be, which nation can be called super power?

As for Asean, let just say that diplomacy is keeping them at peace for the moment. The next second, anything can happen. Religion is a big and thorny issue in many of the Asean Countries and their gods will not be able to solve. On the contrary, their gods will cause them to fight each other.

patriot

Anonymous said...

Who is talk about religion? Please lah...read between the lines. Got eyes..see...got ears....hear

No see...you blind...no hear..you deaf

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Just had my lunch and see a conversation taking place. History is important. Until the founding of the Americas, and an island called Temasek, the rules of nation states were quite different. Many countries/islands were not countries in the definition of European powers. There was no govt or organs of statehood, but villages and tribes.

So whichever developed country set foot on the soil, with guns in hand, they could claim, this is now my land, the land of my king or queen. So you have Europeans owning the Americas, Africas, India and the cluster of islands called Indonesia. And also the Pacific Islands. Indonesia is an artificiality brought together by the Dutch. Like the Philippines, there were thousands of islands and islanders living their own lives, not as a country.

When Admiral Zheng He sailed the South China Seas and Indian Ocean, they named and mapped out lands and islands. They did not claim, like the European powers, land that have already been occupied by the natives. They respected their rights.

The principle of ownership of the Spratleys and Paracels could fall under the principles of finder's keepers. When Zheng He was sailing the seas, these islands were no man's land. The Philippines and many Asean islands were just islanders and natives. Statehood was unheard of. How could a new construct like the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, claim territories that were discovered by the Chinese centuries ago, at a time when they don't exist as nations or countries?

The economic value of these islands have encouraged everyone to want a piece of it today. The American interest is more geopolitics, their hegemony and empire across the world.

Singapore only exists as a colony of the British in 1819 and an independent nation in 1965. Can Singapore join the fray to claim a piece of the islands as well?

Anonymous said...

so...bye bye...next better thinker

Anonymous said...

Only the next great movement can solve this geopolitical conundrum .

Think out of the box!

Anonymous said...

err.. better get their professors and academics to think for them...so solve problem lol

Anonymous said...

Yah...better pay them well or get peanuts advise...muahahahaha

Anonymous said...

It is simple...either you solve the problem or you fart a lot of academic stuff and the problems remain....because at the end of the day...the fruits will decide you are talking cock or not....

With that...you go talk to the powers all over the world lah...see who would listen to you..... LoL

Anonymous said...

RB, this is a good thread...the FART thread...talking nonsense...hahaha...yah, we are talking nonsense hahaha

Anonymous said...

No, no Chin Leng. It is certainly not based on:

"The principle of ownership of the Spratleys and Paracels could fall under the principles of finder's keepers."

If anything it is based on only one governing reality military might. And the intelligent use of it to carve a competitive advantage.

Many people persist in perpetuating the fairytale that Zheng Hu was just sailing around the world to say neighbors their neighbors.

But even historians are divided as to the actual motivation of these extended voyages. Bear in mind for it's time, this was really not so different from rocketing to Mars and back again.

This is hard to pin point as Zheng Hu himself fell out of favor with the courtiers who didn't really see any point to many of his expensive voyages. So much of the history has been destroyed by the nation building press of their times. Today all we have about these forays are myths and a couple of maps that has survived this historical whitewash.

But what cannot be denied is these expeditions were certainly not just stabs in the dark. As many of the charts portrays features such as mountains, islands, bridges, temples, and cities. These ancient surveyors even went through the trouble of pin pointing strategic hubs, water sources, river confluences, datum charts, population census etc. All this suggest, these were meticulous preparations for one of worlds greatest intercontinental seaborne invasion that never took place.

Trust me life is never that straight forward and simple.

That is really like telling me Robert Kuok is just a planter at heart as he is planning to get one million hectares to plant palm oil in Africa.

But intelligent people will be asking. Who led the expeditionary team to Africa? What experiential knowledge and core competencies does this team have? Who even trained them? Who do they owe their loyalty too? What information and intelligence have they accumulated?

But most importantly, what is the goal?

Things are never what they appear to be it seems. Perhaps this is the only lesson that we can all take from this essay Chin Leng?

I must go to the field now.

Darkness 2012

Darkness 2012


Anonymous said...

hmmmm, ....

What really hidden in that island that so many nations want to get a hand of it ?

It is said that one who control the island control the world. If that is the truth, that leads us to .... erhhh GODZILLA. Maybe godzilla is hidden in that island waiting to be awaited upon its master call... we know how destructive and dangerous Godzilla can be ... not even a nuclear weapon can kill it because it makan on nuclear radiation ....

why can't they just leave the island alone and let godzilla rest in peace ? Do they really want to wakeup godzilla ? godzilla has neither friend nor foe, and no one can stop it, not even Redbean and pinky.


so leave the island alone whoever want it. It belong to godzilla, no one else. don't piss godzilla, okay ?

Anonymous said...

I think if China is not provoked, they will leave things as they are. Look at Taiwan under Chen Sui-bian. That idiot's persistance in declaring independence raised unnecessary tensions across the Straits. Similarly if Japan and Philippines had not stoked China's wrath by sending warships and shout idiotic nationalistic rhetorics on those islands in the first place , China would leave them alone. China leaders also need to play to their gallery or her citizens would see them as weaklings.
Now the Pinoys and Japs have to crawl on the knees to beg US protection when threatened by China for their actions.

Anonymous said...

The development of China proper will occupy the Chinese for centuries. They would like to leave the islands as status quo. But the devil is itching for a fight and are using the proxy countries to provoke China. Now China cannot do nothing and let the islands be grabbed away from her.

The more they provoke China, the most China would have to react.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Hi Darkness,

Zheng He sailed 5 times to the Indian Ocean. The mission, based on whatever was available, he did not conquered any of the countries visited nor station any soldiers there. No compromising of the countries sovereignty. Could be like the exploration to the moon or Mars in present day context.

Anonymous said...

"That is really like telling me Robert Kuok is just a planter at heart as he is planning to get one million hectares to plant palm oil in Africa."

LOL :). You are really the world's most unusual farmer to be able to read into what Wilmar, Olam and GMG Global, Sinochem are doing :).

Tell me. As I am in commodities. Trading. I want to know what is the outlook, medium and long term?





Anonymous said...

There is alot of burohuhahuha over the latest refining tech to purify Tocotrienols. What are your thoughts? Is this a game changer? Or is it just more hype and spin?

Many Thanks ;)

Anonymous said...

Small dragon jumps, big dragon jumps, small dragon runs, big dragon runs,...small dragon go and die, would big dragon go and die?

Hmmmm....

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Asians in ASEAN are corrupt motherfuckers.

However they are very small-time. I think it is related to the size of their dicks. However, correlation is not causation ;-)

If you look how corruption is conducted in westernised cuntrees, you will notice that in those cultures a lot more people "think big", as in "global domination and total conquest".

But is Asia, it is small time. "If I can rule my kampong, I am happy". What kind of low-frequency, ambition-deficient out-dated thinking, is this?

ASEAN needs to step up its game in the area of corruption and aspire more to Wall Street.

Got ambition?