ASEAN miracle
FIFTY years ago the Association of Southeast Asian countries was a dream with almost no foundation. It was a suntok sa buwan. Now it is a thriving miracle but still waiting for a bigger miracle of complementing each other. Next week we celebrate 50 years of trying to help each other. We have done quite well. but big obstacles and real hurdles are before us. The advantage we look for in ASEAN is first of all a common market with numbers. Why do you think China or the US are powerful? It starts with having the numbers. If you have a big market then the economy can produce and it will have the buyers. Like the European Union, they were looking towards, big market for their goods and complementarity. They have problems but not as much as we have.
The next problem we have is that we do not have a common language or a lingua franca. To some extent we have English. We also have made the effort to have a common language in the individual countries: Bahasa Indonesia for Indonesia and Bahasa Malaya for Malaysia. We have decided to use Tagalog even though more citizens speak Binisaya in our country. But since Manila the seat of government is in Manila and Manila uses Tagalog the choice was Tagalog. The Tagalog movies have helped a lot to propagate the lingua franca. But we still have English and to some extent Spanish to fall back on for legal and scientific matters. Will we stick to English as a common ASEAN language? It may be good, for besides being a language for commerce, it opens to us a huge library in the English language and helps us in technology. We may want a more nationalistic language but this is question that the nations of the ASEAN have to decide.
As we say we are still waiting for a greater miracle of complementarity. The Philippines imports a lot of rice from Vietnam and Thailand. Thailand has many agricultural systems that could be useful here and in other members of the ASEAN. Myanmar has great potential for hydro power resources and the Philippines could be a good catalyst for these. Indonesia has geothermal resources that it has hardly touched. Again we could help develop them. Brunei has financial resources which can help to develop our natural potential of the other ASEAN nations. The Philippines is supplying manpower all over the world in its overseas workers and in maritime personnel. We could develop the trade routes that had been traditional before the Europeans came to colonize us. We have an example in the Sulawesi agreement to develop these routes. There are fantastic potentials for complementation and this would be a real miracle if we help each other in the ASEAN.
Poverty is still endemic in our countries and we can help each other to get out of this predicament. A brother helped by brother can be powerful. Complementarity is what can make this miracle come true. And this needs a lot of trust that has to be built up before this can happen. But we have to start and we have started. We can be as big as the European Union or China or the United States but we have to help and trust each other. We have started and the next 50 years will tell if we have taken advantage of the opportunities that have been given us.
Next week we have the ceremonials but the important thing is the reality of being able to help each other. ASEAN is basically a Malay region with a smattering of Chinese. We can do it. We want to complement each other and congratulate each other that we have come to this point. To those who are working to make ASEAN a great place of prosperity and joy, may they live forever. Bless them, Lord.