NST Leader: Cambodia's Way

ASEAN is just 54 years old, but cracks in the regional bloc are beginning to come into public view. The biggest of the fissures is caused by Cambodia, the last Southeast Asian country to embrace the regional bloc.

On Monday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen shocked fellow Asean leaders with his announcement of wanting to work with Myanmar's coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, who is implicated in the ethnic cleansing of his fellow men and women.

What is worse, Hun Sen thinks the junta leader has the right to attend Asean summits. "If there is a meeting, we have to invite all. If it is the meeting of the leaders, we invite a leader," he was quoted by AFP as having said in a speech in Phnom Penh.

True, Mr Prime Minister, but first the leader must be elected, especially in a nation that has opted to choose its government by ballots and not bullets.

Min Aung Hlaing has chosen bullets. Besides, he is being accused of genocides by no less than the United Nations. This must amount to something. Genocides aren't petty crimes, especially when they are committed by leaders.

Plus, as recently as last week the UN refused a seat in the world body to the military regime led by Min Aung Hlaing, thereby denying legitimacy of his government. Hun Sen must surely know this.

It will be a shame to invite one as tainted as Min Aung Hlaing to Asean's summits. Hun Sen is sending all the wrong signals to the murderous general. Nay, the premier is encouraging him to continue in his wayward ways.

A better thing to do is for Hun Sen to get the International Criminal Court to investigate the allegations of genocide and other war crimes that are piling up against him and the Tatmadaw.

Anyway, Asean has already taken a decision to bar Min Aung Hlaing from its summits. Cambodia should respect this, especially when the general has refused to cooperate with Asean. Be that as it may, difficult days are ahead for Asean next year when Cambodia chairs the regional bloc.

How difficult it would be for the region was shown by Cambodia when it last chaired Asean in 2012. For the first time in the 45-year history of the organisation, Asean failed to issue a joint statement.

If the Australia-based digital platform East Asia Forum is right, Cambodia reportedly refused to include language criticising China's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea. Small wonder, Cambodia is seen as an overly China-friendly state.

If Myanmar is a hot potato for Asean, the equally anticipated Code of Conduct for the South China Sea will be worse under the chair of Cambodia. Interestingly, Phnom Penh isn't involved in the conflicting territorial claims, but it pushes for a bilateral approach to the disputes, one favoured by China.

Claimant nations, if not all, prefer an Asean multilateral approach. Expect another failure of Asean diplomacy if Cambodia can't reconcile the diverse interests of the 10 member states, writes Kimkong Heng, a research fellow at the Cambodia Development Centre, in the East Asia Forum.

This issue, he says, could cause divisions between Asean members and potentially undermine the bloc's centrality, unity and relevance to Asia-Pacific governance more broadly. Or at best Asean will earn the reputation of being "habitually timid", as The Guardian puts it. With or without Cambodia's chairmanship, that is.

This article was published in The New Straits Times dated 8 December 2021. Republished with permission from The New Straits Times.