Anwar’s transfer to nominate international advisers on Malaysia’s ASEAN chairmanship ‘unusual’ and ‘maverick’. Will it work? | USAEMALL.com

“UNUSUAL” MOVE AIMED AT BREAKTHROUGHS?

No ASEAN chair “in recent memory” has appointed a team of informal advisers although it is quite common for ASEAN to appoint eminent persons or high-level task forces to focus on specific issues, said Sharon Seah, senior fellow and coordinator at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s ASEAN Studies Centre. 

“In that sense, it is quite unusual for an ASEAN country chair to appoint its own informal group,” she said.

“Perhaps PM Anwar feels that he would benefit from the experience of those who have been engaged with ASEAN in their ministerial capacities to advise and help to strategise issues relevant for Malaysia’s chairmanship.”

Bilahari Kausikan, former permanent secretary at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told CNA it is unclear what implications Anwar’s move could have on ASEAN.

“Nobody really knows as this is unprecedented and it is not entirely clear why Malaysia decided to do this – but it is advisory in nature and it gives advice to the chair and not to ASEAN as a whole,” he noted.

Even if the chair accepts the team’s advice, ASEAN’s consensus-based nature means no member state needs to be bound by it, he added.

The retired diplomat personally feels Anwar’s move is “more performative than anything else”.

“Anwar has a record of making gestures that he does not necessarily follow through. So rather than speculate, I suggest we all just wait and see what happens if anything happens at all,” he added.

Anwar’s move has already drawn some criticism in Malaysia, with a politician from the opposition Parti Islam Se-Malaysia questioning his pick of Thaksin – who was convicted in Thailand of corruption and abuse of power – and whether it was for the Malaysian premier’s personal gain.

Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan leapt to Anwar’s defence, noting that Thaksin, as someone who is accepted by the United States, close to China and influential in Thailand, could foster greater cooperation between ASEAN and global powers.

Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in the United States, called the Myanmar crisis and tensions in the South China Sea – where several ASEAN members have overlapping claims with China – “big issues” that the regional bloc lacks capacity in tackling.

“I think Anwar is trying to get around some of the bureaucracy and normal ASEAN efforts and make breakthroughs with the informal group,” he said.

“I think his aim is to build consensus and make ASEAN more powerful, but I’m not sure that is going to happen. Because the South China Sea and Myanmar are almost intractable issues, no matter what Anwar does.”