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ASEAN lacks in leadership, needs reform: Malaysian Foreign Minister
Malaysia’s Foreign Minister has called for the Association of South East Asian Nations to be strengthened, saying it lacks leadership and needs to beef up its economic standing.
In an interview with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Dato Saifuddin Abdullah said ASEAN needed to make better use of its 650 million population as a market, increase trade between member states and have more joint-venture projects.
Australia is currently a dialogue partner of ASEAN, whose 10 member states include Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah and his wife Norlin Shamsul Bahri visit Queen Victoria Market on Sunday.Credit: Penny Stephens
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad last month told The Age "I think it will happen" when asked if Australia's full membership in the organisation was possible one day.
Mr Saifuddin, who visited Australia for the first time as foreign minister last week, said he did not think this had ever been discussed.
Asked if the association needed to be changed to make it a more effective body, Mr Saifuddin thought it needed to be strengthened in a couple of ways.
“We have to seriously look into the decision-making process in ASEAN,” he said, acknowledging this was a “sticky topic” that had been discussed among member states for some time.
“The way ASEAN makes decisions is by consensus - consensus is important but sometimes consensus can be difficult.”
In a Lowy Institute analysis published last month, Associate Professor Elina Noor said Myanmar’s intransigence over the Rohingya ethnic minority has been a slap in the face for Malaysia, which supported Myanmar’s 1997 entry into ASEAN despite widespread objections.
“Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah has even urged Malaysian lawmakers to reconsider the ASEAN norm of non-interference with respect to Myanmar,” she wrote.
Mr Saifuddin told The Age: “The other thing about ASEAN is I think we lack leadership”.
The minister said he was not suggesting changing ASEAN’s annually rotating chairmanship, which will be assumed by Vietnam next year.
“I think it works,” he said. “I am not saying there should be someone who is like a big brother in ASEAN.”
However he suggested that individual countries could assume leadership over pillars of ASEAN, such as economics and political security.
“Dr Mahathir is now trying to impress upon his counterparts in ASEAN that we need to work harder on the economic pillar of ASEAN.”
Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah in Melbourne.Credit: Penny Stephens
Mr Saifuddin said full use needed to be made of the large population of ASEAN countries as a viable market. “Not necessarily a single market like the EU, but 650 million is a huge market."
He also said there needed to be more trade within ASEAN and more joint ventures among its countries, including in manufacturing.
"We need to graduate from being a region that is known to be producing raw materials to a region that is known for something else ... it could be a service hub, education hub."
Mr Saifuddin said the association was “premium” as far as Malaysia was concerned but it was also looking to strengthen cooperation outside the region.
“We have done very well with east Asia, meaning South Korea, Japan and China. I think we can do much more with Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
“When it comes to the learning and sharing with the west, more often than not Malaysia literally looks west but we don’t look south. Australia is considered west but this is the west that is nearest to ASEAN.”
Mr Saifuddin said Australia already had pro-ASEAN policies, such as the New Colombo Plan, which provides scholarships for Australian undergraduates to study in the region.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who was in Bangkok recently for the ASEAN summit, has changed his stance on Australia's place in Asia.Credit: James Massola
Malaysia is Australia’s 10th largest trading partner, with two-way trade valued at $13.6 billion in 2018.
There are about 150,000 Australians of Malaysian descent and about 24,000 Malaysian students in Australia.
Mr Saifuddin said the bilateral relationship with Australia was “very good” but the countries hoped to create a “new milestone” in 2020, which will be the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.
Last week Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced Malaysia would be the 2020 focus country for Australia's flagship international public diplomacy program Australia Now, which coincided with Malaysia's Visit Malaysia 2020 tourist campaign.
The two countries signed a bilateral film co-production agreement and Mr Saifuddin said there were also new areas of cooperation in sports - basketball and soccer - and working together on how to peacefully exist as multicultural societies.