The great diversity of the countries of
Southeast Asia, their widely different historical legacies, their divergent strategic
outlooks, the diverse compositions of their populations, the uneasy nature of
their recent relations, and the lack of a regional identity among their peoples have
led their governments to prefer informal processes, weak regional institutions,
and decisions by consensus (Rodolfo Severino, 2005). This loose, informal
arrangement has been popularly described as the 'ASEAN Way' of doing things.