Preserving the Asian Century

AS the tag for this column shows, I am loyal to the idea of promoting Asian identity, harmony and unity, hence “Asian Century” signifying the rise of the region that encompasses at least 50 percent of humanity and up to 60 percent of the global economy – and growing, promising to rise to the height of pre-eminence as it once had been, some 500 to a thousand years ago.

It is not an ethnic or racial concept, as Australian former Labor prime minister John Keating in turning his fury on incumbent Liberal Party PM Scott Morrison’s AUKUS deal said it, “as it led Australia away from the Asian century and back towards a ‘jaded and faded Anglosphere’” according, to The Sydney Morning Herald.

“Anglosphere” is the term UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson invoked to give an identity to the AUKUS alliance, effectively shutting out the non-English speaking peoples of the world and even of Europe where the English language was incubated. How much impact this cultural slight has aside from the “stab in the back” on Europe and France related to its suddenly aborted nuke sub deal with Australia remains to be seen.

ASEAN in the Asian Century.

The Asian Century emerged from the ashes of the second half of the second millennium’s Age of Western Imperialism and Colonialism as China modernized along with Korea and Japan, as well as the advent of the developing ASEAN lying in the vital routes of trade – especially the South China Sea and its regions – giving rise to ASEAN centrality in the Asia-Pacific equilibrium.

ASEAN has been a major factor in creating harmony and economic progress amongst its 10 member states, and a key in forging mechanisms with Northeast Asian states such as China, South Korea and Japan, opening interactions and cooperation among all the regional players. One example is RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) that consolidated the world’s largest trading bloc.

ASEAN has achieved its centrality by carefully managing consensus building, skirting internally contentious issues and maintaining unity. The only fly in the ointment the past decade has frequently been the Philippines with the many American Boys – Quisling-like Locsin– infesting the post-colonial political-economic elite sabotaging ASEAN and Asian efforts towards durable harmony and prosperity.

(Samahan si Ka Mentong Laurel at mga panauhin sa “Power Thinks” tuwing Miyerkules @6pm Live Global Talk News Radio (GTNR) sa Facebook at sa Talk News TV sa You Tube; at tuwing Linggo 8 to 10am sa RP1 738khz AM sa radyo).