Rather than dismissing Asean integration as an “illusion” and condemning five decades of efforts put into building a community, I would take a more realistic approach and opt for the route that Institute of Southeast Asian Studies researcher Moe Thuzar has suggested, that is bridging the missing links in the integration process. As she puts it, “it is all about changing mindsets and cultivating an outlook that sees the benefit of working regionally (“Asean’s missing links need to be bridged”; last Thursday).
On the occasion of the launch of the $100 million S. Rajaratnam Endowment by Temasek Holdings last year, it was observed in an editorial in The Straits Times that investing in promoting regional cooperation and development is the natural impulse of a small state with an open economy, which needs to stay engaged with its neighbours and others farther afield.
Pioneers like Mr S. Rajaratnam nurtured this instinct and laboured to institutionalise linkages. Illusion or not, Asean is here to stay and we, the inheritors of the legacy of Mr Rajaratnam and the other founding fathers of Asean, are duty-bound to make Asean integration a reality, however long it takes.