Observations on Asean, East Asian summits

Yesterday, China's Chinese-language Guangming Daily published excerpts of its interview with me on the Asean Summit and East Asian Summit (EAS). Its Manila Bureau's Chief Correspondence Burd Wang met me on the evening of 7 Dec in PJ Hilton for the one-hour exchange.

The published report quotes me as saying that because EAS's membership has been over-extended and Asean's coherence has been eroded, EAS would become a "talkshop".

My friend Abdul Razak Baginda, the Executive Director of Malaysia Strategic Reserach Centre (MSRC) who was interviewed separately is also quoted as saying even more critically that EAS is " another failure" of Asean and that it is also an "empty shell" that would not "bear fruits" because of its "over-emphasis on form rather than substance".

Of course, it also quotes what our former PM Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and also Singapore's Minister Mentor Mr. Lee Kuan Yew have said on the same subject. Their views are well-known and I don't think I should waste time to reproduce them here.

However, it is noteworthy at least for myself that Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Abdul Razak Baginda and I share the same pessimism, although our assessments may be based on different modes or lines of reasoning.

My more detailed analysis of Asean is available at:
http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinionsfeatures/44249