Face Reality in Jakarta

It’s hard to take ASEAN seriously when all of the good news is a dream. Some sense of community does exist among the elites of most member states, and there are many examples of cooperation that would not have been possible without Asean’s existence. Once the Burmese begin to reform their economy, membership of Asean will be a help, just as it has been for Vietnam. But Asean’s pretense that it is more important than it actually is only invites bigger countries to exploit the organization’s

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