By Bilveer Singh
Today Onlline
Peace cannot be taken for granted. The ongoing border skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia are challenging the very essence of ASEAN’s existence – a no-war policy between its member states. Since its inception in August 1967, while found wanting in many areas, the one area where ASEAN has stood tall was the fact that no member state had gone to war with another.
While there have been threats of war among its members (such as the conflict over Ambalat), these were eventually always defused, preserving ASEAN’s status as a “zone of peace”. To its credit, none of the group’s original founder member-members – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines – have gone to war with each other since its founding, despite tense relations at times. As such, what is transpiring along the Thai-Khmer border is undermining the very raison d’etre of ASEAN.
This four-decade-old culture of “no war” has, however, been broken by the lack of restraint by both Thailand and Cambodia; when national interest is at stake, important principles can become victims regardless of the costs, in this case, to ASEAN.
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