AS THE United States and China continue to
play out their power struggle on the ASEAN stage, Brunei must play a pivotal
role in maintaining regional stability when it assumes the ASEAN chair next
year, a leading Southeast Asian studies expert said yesterday.
China
and the US competing to be the dominant influence in Southeast Asia will bring
about change in regional affairs, said Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid, a senior fellow
at London School of Economics' IDEAS (centre for the study of international
affairs, diplomacy and grand strategy).
Brunei
has the opportunity to act as a mediator and set the agenda for ASEAN meetings
and the East Asia Summit, in which the US and Russia will also participate, he
told The Brunei Times yesterday on the sidelines of Universiti Brunei Darussalam's
(UBD) eminent speakers series. "Brunei still has more than half a year
before it takes that (chairman) position. So there has to be internal
discussion about the major issues that are likely to crop up and different
scenarios that could happen."
With US
elections forthcoming and a change in China's leadership at the end of the
year, Brunei may face a new political landscape when it takes up the ASEAN
chairmanship in 2013.
"There's
got to be a lot of proactive thinking to be done by Brunei, even now. Have
discussions with Cambodia so there's continuity and at the same time, start
talking to China and the US very informally about how we're going to run the
East Asia Summit."
The
Spratlys Islands dispute is one issue that has prompted America's re-engagement
with the region after a decade of preoccupation with wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq, providing a counterbalance to China's dominant influence in Southeast
Asia. With multiple claimants to the resource-rich islands, including Brunei,
China, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, the US has pushed for a regional
solution with China saying the issue should be resolved bilaterally. Stating
there was "no need for provocateurs in Asean", Dr Munir suggested
that Brunei could play an important role in arbitrating the dispute as Asean
chair.
He
added the Spratlys issue could be resolved through "functional
sharing" of resources, a solution which could inculcate "trust and
confidence" between parties.
As both
major powers seek to exert their political and economic clout as Southeast Asia
enters a new era of power politics, the Asean chair must be proactive and
creative in engaging parties, said Dr Munir.
"Very
often the chair of ASEAN plays a critical role in how ASEAN relates to other
regions. You would notice when Indonesia was chair of ASEAN last year it played
a pretty active role and it was a very historic time in American-ASEAN ties
with America and Russia joining the East Asia Summit."
"At
the same time you got to make sure the meeting does not end in failure because
of all these things like South China Sea (dispute)... We must be very creative
in trying to ensure everything goes ahead without any disturbance."
QURATUL-AIN
BANDIAL
The
Brunei Times
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