Rudd, Papua, Anwar, and ASEAN: The week in SEA

• There’s surely something bizarre in Kevin Rudd’s advice to firms to “wake up to Indonesia” (11 Jan) in the context of a continuing DFAT exhortation to “reconsider your need to travel”. Rudd “urged Australia's top 100 or so company boards to meet at least once a year in Jakarta ‘just to open their eyes to the new reality’.”
• Indonesian Vice President Boediono (12 Jan) has acknowledged the need for a different approach to Papua, insisting: “The people must be given a sense of safety, a sense of justice, not just be given new buildings.”
• A slew of comment greeted the acquittal of Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia. While welcoming the decision, many see significant potholes ahead. As Bridget Walsh points out: “Mr. Najib has to be able to show that the acquittal was a sign of strength, rather than one of weakness. Mr. Anwar on his part has to extend his reach beyond his base, and convince skeptics that his politics is not just about his persona or about being victimized.”
• There’s still lots of buzz about ASEAN’s economic potential. A bouncy article by Vincent Chin (9 Jan) proclaims: “The time is now, the place is ASEAN”. While acknowledging the difficulties inherent in realizing the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), he notes: “Momentum has been established, and a more conducive commercial environment has already been brought about. This is because businesses are being told that they can plan investments and jobs in a region that is getting more tightly interlinked. As major changes do come about, these firms will have real competitive advantages against their rivals… It's truly our turn now.”
• The governor of the bank of Thailand also warns against complacency (12 Jan): “Over the longer term, I also see it as very crucial that we address obstacles to integration at the root cause, which is the weak integration mindset... My concern is that many key stakeholders of ASEAN integration still view the AEC with cynicism – that life will go on, with few changes to the status quo. This complacency is very dangerous because we may wake up and find that we are already too late to catch the rising wave of ASEAN.”
• Meanwhile, moves to present ASEAN as a single tourist destination make sense both economically and in terms of bolstering SEA’s regional identity (12 Jan).
• The ASEAN Human Rights Declaration is supposed to be finalized this year. There has been heightened criticism of late that the process has so far failed to involve the full range of stakeholders.