6/01/2015

Asean - 50 years of peace and stability




The Asean region enjoyed 50 years of peace and stability and the countries made good with the time to pursue economic development that made Asean the up and coming new rich nations of the world. The only blemish during this period of peace and prosperity was the Vietnam War where the Americans attempted to maintain their military presence in the region and to keep Vietnam as a semi colony, replacing the French, Fortunately they were defeated by the Vietnamese and chased out of the region. This was followed up by the nationalists in the Philippines. They took back Subic Naval Base and Clark Air Base from the Americans, leaving the region free of American military bases and free from warfare for the last 50 years.

The founding fathers of Asean were wary of the rivalry between big powers and adopted a policy of neutrality, formalised under the concept of peace, freedom and neutrality or Zopfan. The big powers were kept out of the region and dealt at arms length to prevent them from doing mischief and inciting interstate rivalry among the Asean countries. Asean leaders played the game well and enjoyed the fruit of peace and stability without the big powers messing around in the region.

Today, with silly and ambitious leaders that have forgotten how Asean came about, and the hardearned peace, some of these jokers are itching to go to war, to be heroes and to make dead heroes of their people. War and glory appear to be a very attractive fancy and with the money they wasted on all the military hardware, they wanted to give a good display of the destructive power of the weapons they have paid for, believing that they could kill others and would not be killed. To them war is fun and a very macho thing like in Hollywood. Some have shown tendencies of being trigger happy by shooting at fishing boats and even provoking other countries to engage in arm conflict.

Some Asean states have willingly invited the Americans back to boss around in the region, demanding acceptance as the de facto Empire and calling the shot on regional affairs, appointing themselves as the uninvited policeman of the region, a role that the founding fathers of Asean had rejected and would not allow it to happen. Asean countries can look after themselves and do not need big powers to come here to dictate to them. For the last 50 years this was the case.

What is happening today, with some Asean states happily offering to host American soldiers and unashamingly calling the Americans masters, have turned Asean into the pawns of big power rivalry again. Asean’s neutrality has been compromised and the consequences of forgetting how they got here is to see open military conflict in the region, something that Asean has avoided for so long. The stupidity and shallowness of the Asean leaders would find Asean caught in the crossfire of big power rivalry, a price they have to pay for prostituting to the big powers.

It would be a sad day when the region is embroiled and engulfed by the fire and destruction of war. Asean countries got only themselves to blamed for betraying the principles of their founding fathers. The last 50 years were peaceful. The next 50 years could be war and conflict and their money would be needed to buy more military hardware, their people would become collaterals of wars, and the stability for economic development gone. Asean countries could end up like the Middle East, thanks for inviting the Empire to roost and incite tension and war in the name of peace.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Asean countries could end up like the Middle East, thanks for inviting the Empire to roost and incite tension and war in the name of peace.
RB

Please lah, if Asean countries could end up like the Middle East, it would have already happened by now.

If RB wanted to join opposition, he would have already joined by now. And if he wanted to contest elections, he would have already contested in the last election. Tio bo, RB?

So u still think Asean countries could end up like the Middle East?


Anonymous said...

I don't understand why Middle East countries want to make war when they could make money. Especially when some even have lots of oil given by their God for them to make lots of money. Or ironically, is it precisely because of their oil, that they make war?

If so, Sinkies are lucky that their land and sea have no oil. Only limited, expensive land for PAP to make money from Sinkies by selling high price public pigeonholes (and getting smaller and more expensive) called HDB flat built out of it.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

I would say ASEAN has been luckier with stability, than with peace.

Redbean has a BONER, a raging hard-on to blame the Americans and paint them as "evil" with his tar brush of morality.

For me I look at the US Federal Govt as a 300lb (Imperial Units), 6'7" cousin, armed to the teeth with awesome weaponry. He also has Aspergers Syndrome. Our "Aspy" cousin---who also has endearing qualities and can be "funny"---clumsily moves around inadvertently destroying things he bumps into (Collateral Damage), his mind being totally oblivious with shit happening around him, or the concerns of others (America is #1), and laser-focused only on his own narrow interests (American Exceptionalism), looks at the world as "black and white" (The American analysis is the "correct" analysis), and speaks in a tenor of JUDGEMENT on everyone else, condescending and laced with hues of "morality"---using words like "human rights", "freedom" and "democracy".

So IMO, you can't really blame an "Aspy" for behaving like an "Aspy"---unless treated, Aspies can't help themselves. They live in their own binary world: something is either "right" or "wrong", true or false, beneficial or detrimental. and this is locked down by the doctrine/ myth/ religiosity/ bigotry / etc.etc. of American Exceptionalism (American Interests FIRST because America is SPECIAL, fuck everyone else!), which is an ABSOLUTE and thus never scrutinised or examined. So once a situation appears to be against American Interests, the US Govt and its Pentagon will formulate policies and protocols to protect American Interests.

ASEAN is well aware of this. They are the ones who in their own Asian cultural styles of deceit, seduction and exploitation of America's Asperger's charateristics courted the USA for many reasons. From receiving US Foreign Aid, to foreign investment, technology transfer (Silicon Valley helped many ASEAN economies grow by setting up computer and other high tech manufacturing), education opportunities (US universities are full of fee-paying ASEAN students), and of course US military presence in the region.

All of the above accords with US Interests. So an Aspy who sees the world in only "black and white" has no problem in determining his "answer".

So the lumbering, well-armed giant is going to be his clumsy self in Asia. What to do?

Absolutely nothing.

ASEAN is completely to blame, and now it is STUCK. ASEAN are the only ones who can throw the US out of the region by just telling them to leave, and not take any investment or aid form the USA. But they won't do it because they are heavily ENTANGLED not only with Washington, but with American business, familial and cultural ties from immigration and inter-marrying etc.

The said...

/// ℳatilah_$ingapura said...
He also has Aspergers Syndrome. ///

And you, Matilah, also has Coprolalia Syndrome.

;)

Anonymous said...

Eh pondek, you are miss using, abusing the photo.
You want to go for reformative training?

b said...

Actually the asean elites very smart leh. They made the two big giants fight among themselves so they can reap as much benefits as possible. A bit of wayang wayang and billions landed in their bank accounts. No wayang where got the billions.

Anonymous said...

Cacolalia is likely the case.

Upbringing could oso be

another cause.

Anonymous said...

westerner often told us that peace in asian was largely due to strong US military presence

it is totally nonsense

before western colonialism in asian,
the south china sea had always been peaceful

only with arrival of spanish invader, dutch invader, portugues invader, later, france, british and american invader.

the whole territory of asian had undergone extreme revision.

and led to rise of JAPAN

when china become weaker after opium war
france begin to invade vietnam and turn into their colony
japan invade Ryukyu and turn into their colony

later, japan turned korea into their colony

vietnam and korea belongs to CHINA influence
no foreign nation dare to touch them .

same principle applied to oversea chinese kingdom, LANFANG

the dutch did not publicly abolish the kingdom till china lost opium war.
after opium war, ducth abolished the kingdom and turn it into DUTCH colony.

rise of japan always comes with serious consequences - WAR, AGGRESSION, DEATH

1. the first rise of japan during ming dynasty
japan invade korea peninsula twice.

2. second rise of japan during meiji restoration
japan invade korea peninsula

3. after japan defeat russia,
japan invade manchuria and shandong.

4. after the pearl harbor bombing
japan invade southeast asian

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@ 316:

>> you are miss using, abusing the photo. <<

Yah, I know. Relac, it is just pixels. Pixels don't have feelings ;-_


>> You want to go for reformative training? <<

Yessir! I will reform for Singapore. I will obey all the words from the Leeders without question. I will IMMEDIATELY report to police anyone who doesn't obey the Leeders, or shows them or merely the idea of them even the smallest disrespect. I will enslave myself to the Leeders and the e-Lee-t, for they are divine and special and know what is good for me and everyone else who is not an e-Lee-t.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@316:

OK OK, maybe you have a point there. So I've changed the photo. Hope it's to your satisfactication, approvalmentarity...and that it conformifies to your nationalisification standards.

patriot said...

I say so long as the Asian annd Asean Countries do not invite, accept or allow the USA Military in the Regions, there will NEVER be war.

patriot

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@ patriot:

>> there will NEVER be war.

I don't think we can be certain about anything. Not having the USA in the region will probably not result in war or fighting with US Forces.

However, there will still be a good chance of intra-Asian fighting, maybe war, maybe even civil war because there are still "disputes" in the region, like, the Spratley Islands (of course!), India's borders with China and Pakistan, Japan with China and N Korea, N Korea and S Korea...plus the disputes which haven't been "created" yet.

patriot said...

@Matilah Singapura:

Those internal conflicts and border skirmishes are like family quarrel and neighbour squabble. Normal and are to be expected, as I had said; there can never be peace with beings.

War today got to mean use of weapons of mass destruction with damages to life and infrastructure on a large scale.

patriot

Anonymous said...

These border disputes would have been settled through wars but not happening as China is restraining itself from using force. China could retake Diaoyu Island and the borders with India, the latter could be settled in the 1962 war, but China did not take advantage of that war.