Bambú Guadua angustifolia Kunth

One of the most important objectives of the establishment of ASEAN was to bring about regional reconciliation between Indonesia and its neighbours, especially Malaysia (Haacke, 2006:130). The establishment of ASEAN did not erode its members’ sovereignty over their own countries, as in the case of the European Union, but instead reinforced it with the guarantee of the other member states. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines became more stable individually, which meant that they could concentrate on nation-building and fighting internal insurgency without worrying about interference from neighbouring countries.

It is, in a way, to ASEAN’s credit that since its inception forty years ago, no intra-regional war has occurred. Moreover, if there have been any kinds of fallouts or tensions, these have been resolved diplomatically and amicably. Bilateral disputes between members will not be placed on the ASEAN agenda – some cases, for example, the Sipadan-Ligitan Island case between Malaysia and Indonesia ⁸³and the

83 Malaysia and Indonesia brought their disagreement to The Hague in 1998 and in December 2002, the Court awarded the island with Ligitan Island to Malaysia. The judgment was reached on the basis of

‘effective occupation’ by Malaysia’s predecessor (the United Kingdom) against Indonesia’s argument of claims on the Northern Borneo which was rejected as void. Please refer to Fabio Spadi (2003)

"Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan: New Parameters for the Concept of Dependency in the Maritime Environment? The ICJ judgment of 17 December 2002",The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 18: 295-310 for further readings. For brief information on the trial and judgments, please refer to ICJ Press release no 2002/39bis dated 20 December 2003.

Batu Putih Island claims between Malaysia and Singapore⁸⁴, have been settled at the International Court of Justice, the Hague. This is the extent to which ASEAN members will go to preserve regional order and stability.

For the first two decades of ASEAN existence, cooperation in the Association mainly focused on political and security issues instead of economic and social activities. This was due to the internal situation of member countries and individual nation-building processes. Singapore emerged as the first country to excel in trade and services, attributed to its successful entreport⁸⁵ business. Singapore relies on an extended concept of entreport trade, by purchasing raw goods and refining them for re-export to sectors such as the water fabrication industry and oil refining⁸⁶. Singapore also has a strategic port, which makes it more competitive than many of its neighbours in carrying out such entreport activities⁸⁷.

84 On 24 July 2003, Malaysia and Singapore jointly seized the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a dispute concerning sovereignty over Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge.

On 23 November 2007, the Court ended its proceedings and started it deliberation stage. It was anticipated that judgement would be made by the end of 2008. For more information into the case, please refer to www.icj-cij.org under pending cases.

85 An entrepôt (from the French "warehouse") is a trading post where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit. This profit is possible because of trade conditions, for example, the reluctance of ships to travel the entire length of a long trading route, and selling to the entrepôt instead. The entrepôt then sells at a higher price to ships travelling the other segment of the route.

86 Singapore imports raw water from Johor, Malaysia for 3 sen for every 1000 gallons. In return, she sells the processed water back to Malaysia for 50 sen per a thousand gallons and this has been one of the sources of conflict between the two nations. This transaction followed an agreement signed by both parties in 1961 and 1962 which will end by the year 2061. For a comprehensive reading for Singapore economy, please read L Low (1998) ‘ The Political Economy of a City State: Government-made Singapore’ Oxford Press, London , and G. Peebles & P. Wilson, (1996), ‘ The Singapore Economy’, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.

87 Singapore has one of the busiest ports in the world, surpassing even Hong Kong. Singapore's strategic locations on major sea lanes and industrious population have given the country an economic importance in Southeast Asia, disproportionate to its small size. Currently the world's busiest port in terms of total shipping tonnage, it also handles a quarter of the world's shipping containers as the world's busiest container port, half of the world's annual supply of crude oil, and is the world's busiest transshipment port.

Politics and security have always unconsciously been the core business of ASEAN, even since its inception. Severino (2004) argued that although five out of the seven

‘aims and purposes’ of establishing ASEAN were economic and trade, socio-welfare, administrative, communications and transportation purposes, security was the main objective. This, however, was purposely muted to avoid the notions that ASEAN was going to be a military force or a pact alliance, because such a perception would be detrimental to the future of the Association and invite unnecessary rivalry from other military alliances such as NATO or the Warsaw Pact.

The then Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, declared in an ASEAN economic conference in 1987:

“You will agree with me that in its first 20 years, the main thrust of Asean has been political. This is as it should be and we have no need for regrets. We should remember that it was political problems between us as neighbours that first brought us together”⁸⁸.

In terms of regional security cooperation, several platforms and dialogues take place regularly and annually. Among these are the ASEAN Chief of Arms Forces Meeting, ASEAN Chief of Police Meeting and ASEAN Chief of Intelligence Meeting. The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is another notable mode of cooperation in respect of peace and security in the region.

88Keynote address in eds. Noordin Sopiee, Chew Lay See and Lim Siang Jin (1987)’ASEAN at the Crossroads’ , Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.