{"id":38242,"date":"2018-04-03T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T20:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=38242"},"modified":"2018-04-03T12:35:30","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T02:35:30","slug":"musing-australias-asean-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/musing-australias-asean-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Musing on Australia\u2019s ASEAN future"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Mahathir Mohamad thinks Australia might earn the right to join ASEAN. Indeed, Dr M. thinks Australia could be \u2018entitled\u2019 to ASEAN membership. Pause for a moment of amazement.<\/p>\n

This is Dr Mahathir, the Malaysian leader who delighted in throwing bombs and barbs at Oz\u2014most famously the \u2018recalcitrant<\/a>\u2019 row with Paul Keating over APEC, a previous reimagining of Asia\u2019s region.<\/p>\n

Campaigning to overthrow much of what he created in Malaysian politics, the 92-year-old is throwing lots overboard. Why not some of his old distaste for Australia?<\/p>\n

Mahathir always argued that Australia didn\u2019t belong in Asia. His line was that Australia was more interested in its Brit heritage and US alliance than in its Asian future. Dr M.\u2019s traditional taunts still tease, but now with a positive twist in the tail.<\/p>\n

In his interview with Jamese Massola<\/a>, Mahathir argued that Australia would have to prove itself more \u2018Asian than European\u2019 to join ASEAN. So far, so familiar. The shift, though, is Mahathir\u2019s acknowledgement of a different Oz. \u2018There are now more liberal attitudes by Australia,\u2019 Mahathir said. \u2018In the past of course, it was White Australia, but currently they admit people of other ethnic groups.\u2019<\/p>\n

In the future, if Asians and Africans were treated as well in Australia as \u2018white\u2019 Australians, Mahathir said, and \u2018if they understand the priorities of East Asia, then I think they are entitled to join ASEAN\u2019.<\/p>\n

As an endorsement of Australia joining ASEAN, Mahathir runs the gamut from tongue in cheek to lukewarm. Still, it\u2019s a notable echo of Indonesian President Joko Widodo\u2019s comment that Australia joining ASEAN is a \u2018good idea\u2019<\/a>. That Jokowi and Mahathir will nod towards the idea is a long way from saying its time has come\u2014more that it\u2019s timely to start thinking and talking about what it would mean for Australia and ASEAN.<\/p>\n

The argument I\u2019ve been mounting for Australia to join the ASEAN Community<\/a> describes a long process reaching out over the horizon. Still, the event horizon around here has been shifting fast as lots of nostrums fall into geopolitical black holes.<\/p>\n

Jokowi\u2019s surprising expression of support<\/a> ahead of the ASEAN\u2013Australia summit in Sydney produced a polite response of pleasure<\/a> from the Australian government\u2014plus lots of arguments from many others about why Oz membership can\u2019t happen. These unenthusiastic\/dismissive responses will frame the Oz\u2013ASEAN discussion. So let\u2019s group the negatives and offer responses.<\/p>\n

Not on the map<\/strong>: The geographic argument is that ASEAN is solely about Southeast Asia\u2014Australia isn\u2019t on that map. Well, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea are already part members of ASEAN. And ASEAN is stretching its geographic understanding, especially with the East Asia Summit. The idea of a new form of membership\u2014Australia and New Zealand joining as ASEAN Community partners\u2014is a means to sidestep geographic prescriptions.<\/p>\n

Abandon our principles<\/strong>: Australia would have to sit down and shut up to join the club. This is tosh\u2014a cautious counsel of engagement, not commitment. We should have more confidence in the strength and worth of Australia. And dismiss the strange argument that it\u2019s safer for Australia to stand outside and shout about our beliefs, not go inside and argue for them.<\/p>\n

One of the best lines on this was uttered more than 25 years ago by the distinguished historian of the Chinese diaspora, Wang Gungwu, who did Australia the honour of becoming an Australian citizen. Wang observed that Australia\u2019s liberal history gives it something special to contribute to the region:<\/p>\n

Paradoxically, what Australians value about their culture: the law, the respect for human rights, the parliamentary system, which are not features of Asian societies, are what attract Asians.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ASEAN would say \u2018no\u2019<\/strong>: Jokowi offers a \u2018maybe\u2019 answer to that \u2018no\u2019 assumption. The Indonesian president\u2019s \u2018maybe\u2019 responds to the challenges confronting ASEAN and what Australia could offer. Australia would join the act of creation that is the ASEAN Community, not Suharto\u2019s old ASEAN.<\/p>\n

The Southeast Asian future Australia wants is the one ASEAN proclaimed for itself in 2015 with the creation of its Community. The Community principles, expressed in three strands\u2014political-security, economic and socio-cultural\u2014comprise a vision that Australia, as a liberal democracy, can embrace, endorse and enlist for.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s veto<\/strong>: ASEAN\u2019s consensus principle means that if any of the 10 members says \u2018no\u2019, that would block Oz membership. China\u2019s hold over Cambodia and Laos would ensure the veto.<\/p>\n

China wasn\u2019t able to bar Australia from joining ASEAN\u2019s East Asia Summit. And China\u2019s grip has been known to slip, as it did when Myanmar rebelled against Beijing\u2019s suzerainty at the start of this decade. The tighter China grips ASEAN, the more it forces the association to ponder both symbolic and substantive moments of resistance.<\/p>\n

Identity<\/strong>: ASEAN manages to express a regional identity based on a series of strong and deeply different national identities. That extraordinary achievement is part of the ASEAN miracle<\/a>. Once, Australia failed the identity test\u2014today it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Even Dr Mahathir sees the multicultural nation that Australia has created. Dr M. grasps the reality of what George Megalogenis<\/a> calls the \u2018epic transformation\u2019 of Australia\u2019s population from white Anglo-European to Eurasian.<\/p>\n

Australia has crossed the population diversity threshold: we are a Eurasian society, with migration from China and India driving the change. Australia must build a Eurasian foreign policy that serves the new identity in our streets.<\/p>\n

Jokowi and Dr M. haven\u2019t offered Australia an invitation or a plan. Yet they have noted that Australia has changed, just as the times are changing fast for ASEAN. ASEAN can\u2019t merely rely on the old structures and well-tested habits to muddle through. Neither can we. That\u2019s the basis for a great conversation about our shared future. The discussion\u2014both aspiration and insurance\u2014is about where we might be in five to 10 years from now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mahathir Mohamad thinks Australia might earn the right to join ASEAN. Indeed, Dr M. thinks Australia could be \u2018entitled\u2019 to ASEAN membership. Pause for a moment of amazement. This is Dr Mahathir, the Malaysian leader …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":38257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[189,285],"class_list":["post-38242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-asean","tag-foreign-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMusing on Australia\u2019s ASEAN future | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/musing-australias-asean-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Musing on Australia\u2019s ASEAN future | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mahathir Mohamad thinks Australia might earn the right to join ASEAN. 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