Edge of Tomorrow: ASEAN’s Existential Crossroads
Adelina Kamal, a recent podcast guest, believes the Myanmar crisis represents an existential crisis for ASEAN due to its profound implications on the organization's credibility and relevance. She argues that ASEAN's inability to effectively address the crisis undermines its foundational principles of promoting peace, stability, and cooperation in the region. The junta's blatant disregard for ASEAN's Five-Point Consensus and continued atrocities highlight ASEAN's lack of enforcement mechanisms and its struggle with internal unity. Kamal stresses that ASEAN's historical commitment to non-interference now appears as indifference, allowing gross human rights violations to persist. This crisis, she contends, not only erodes trust in ASEAN's humanitarian capacities but also questions its legitimacy as a regional leader. For ASEAN to remain relevant, it must adapt, assertively confront the Myanmar situation, and genuinely embody its commitment to being a people-centered organization. Failure to do so, Kamal warns, could result in ASEAN’s irrelevance and its eventual disintegration.
“Unless we are doing something about the Myanmar crisis, we are complicit in the humanitarian crisis. We are complicit in ongoing genocides and all crimes against humanity committed by the military junta.”
It is the existential crisis of ASEAN! Not only Myanmar is in crisis, ASEAN is in crisis too. I hope that ASEAN will continue to exist because the relevance of ASEAN is being questioned here. With what's happening on the ground in Myanmar and the nature of the spring revolution, they are teaching us a lot of things about this older generation. I think it is really the time for us for ASEAN to do so. If we want to make ASEAN matters to the people, we need to handle the Myanmar crisis directly and efficiently. It is an opportunity to do it and that opportunity comes when Malaysia become the chair of ASEAN next year. Malaysia has openly recognized NUG as the legitimate governing body of Myanmar and has had meetings with the NUG. So, I hope that Malaysia will become the next leader of ASEAN, considering Indonesia have not been responsible. Under the Malaysia’s chairmanship, Malaysia, with its own democracy, could bring a diplomacy among the ASEAN members to acknowledge the NUG and acknowledge those who are chosen by the people. From there, we will be able to see that the Myanmar crisis is a threat to credibility of ASEAN. Unless we are doing something about the Myanmar crisis, we are complicit in the humanitarian crisis. We are complicit in ongoing genocides and all crimes against humanity committed by the military junta. The crisis could have been resolved faster if only ASEAN stops prolonging the crisis by inaction and non-interference
We, in ASEAN, we always think that Myanmar should have listened to us and that Min Aung Hlaing, the military junta leader, should have listened to us. In the past, we thought that they would listen to us in regards to following the five-point consensus agreed between SAC and ASEAN. Clearly, our calculations were wrong. The miliary junta did not follow any of the requests from the five-point consensus. Hence, I think ASEAN need to make a new calculation. ASEAN is facing an existential crisis in an era of weak global order and a fading regional order. In terms of resolving our own problems inside our border, the regional order is disappearing slowly. Now, we cannot, we can also expect those outside ASEAN to pick us up and lead us. Everyone is busy with their own thing in their own countries.
Naturally, ASEAN is placed at the front line in the Myanmar crisis, and thus, we should take this opportunity to save ASEAN from disappearing. ASEAN could actually use the opportunity to show the world that we are capable of handling the problem in our own backyard and that we can show different ways of doing things politically across borders. Whatever it is, we are able to do so and we will offer new alternatives to restore the global order. It's going to be a lost opportunity if ASEAN does not exercise our leadership and show the world that we can handle the Myanmar crisis in the ASEAN way. And that we have matured; ASEAN is over 50 years of age. When it comes to consensus and consolidation, we redefine it to fit the situation on the ground of crisis and our organization’s values. We redefine what non-interference mean. We redefine what proactive leadership means. We redefine how we should respect the people. We redefine what democracy is.
Right now, however, things are very difficult. Meanwhile, the world is fixated on the Gaza crisis and the Ukraine war. The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore found that people are more concerned with the Gaza conflict and the Ukraine war than the civil war in Myanmar right now. With what's happening in Myanmar, many people from authoritarian countries feel that ASEAN has done enough for the people of Myanmar. I think this sentiment is probably coming more from other authoritarian countries than from countries with democratic government. They think that we have exercise our muscles enough.
It is actually the contrary!
ASEAN has not been using the right machine and the tools in the gym and consuming the right protein. We have not optimized our mechanism. Despite that, I have not lost my hope though. There may be things happening and this is also the chance and the time for people of ASEAN to really push hard on their governments. In a webinar I participated, there was a question on how we, as people of ASEAN, share the responsibility to protect each other as person to person, rather than just fixating on seeing the Myanmar as just a country waiting to be protected by an international community. It is also the right time for us to practice the so-called active learning. In other words, fact-based learning like in a classroom where we take notes on what should be done and doing it. Instead of worrying over things we lack, how about we look at what the international community like the UN has to offer? I think that is also the kind of leadership the international community is looking for – for ASEAN to clearly tell them what to do to help ASEAN deal with the Myanmar crisis effectively.
But how can ASEAN do that in the first place when we are not united?