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.