Ng Hui Yan Jolyn (10) Chew Yi Jie (21)

Willianto (39) Justin Yeo (41)

Asean Summit logo

Asean is an example of an organisation tapping on regional diplomacy in SEA region.

Regional diplomacy refers to the conduct of relations between states that belong to an identifiable geographic region.

Established on 8 August 1967.

Comprises 10 member countries of SEA.

Education and professional exchange.

Environmental collaboration.

ASEAN Free Trade Area.

Singapore provided training for people in member countries.

Singapore also offers scholarships to students who are from ASEAN countries without bonds.

Providing scholarships to other ASEAN countries will foster better relations.

By providing scholarships to ASEAN countries will help to educate the younger generation will nurture better leaders and bring ASEAN to greater heights.

ASEAN devised a Regional Haze Action Plan (RHAP) in December 1997.

Singapore assisted Indonesia in the monitoring of forest fires.

This would reduce the amount of haze reaching Singapore.

Resulting in lesser environmental and health problem for people in Singapore and in the region. (Environmental problems bring about hurdle to economic development as well.)

Countries in ASEAN engage in free trade.

Taxes implemented on goods imported and exported are reduced to 0% - 5%.

Singapore will be able to import products at a lower price.

Products will be available at an affordable price to people.

Effective number of members Bilateral diplomacy is only between two countries

Conflicts in relationship may not be settled and aggravate

Thus more members will allow discussion of solutions to be brought up to a higher level and prevent the use of violence

Two countries’ efforts may be minute in large scale situation and therefore,

regional diplomacy al lows more countr ies to come together to solve the problem

“On Mar. 26, the Malaysian government reportedly froze all fresh bilateral ties with Singapore in response to some disparaging remarks made about the Malaysian state of Johor by Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's senior political leader.He called it a place ‘notorious for shooting, muggings and car-jackings.’The controversy, although apparently exaggerated, has sunk bilateral relations between the two countries to their lowest level since Singapore was obliged to withdraw from the Malaysian Federation in 1965.”

An excerpt from “Sticks and Stones and Lee Kuan Yew”, an online journal that looks into nationalism between Malaysia and Singapore.

Bilateral relations is not effective in this case because conflicts can easily happen between two countries and there will be no ‘third-party member’ to stand into the problem and mediate between the two countries .

This leads to ineff ic iency of the ties and hence Singapore for instance, does not benefit much in this s ituation.

Effective number of members On the other hand, international diplomacy consists of too many countries

e.g. United Nations with 192 members

There are bound to be strong forces within the organization wanting the issues to be in their favours

This will result in many different opinions and difficulty in reaching a common stand

Effective number of members

Such situations will be inefficient and therefore,

international diplomacy has an ineffect ive number of members and solutions wil l be more on benefit ing the whole region than individuals

“Seldom in the 60 years of its existence has the UN been entirely free of crisis and controversy. Debate over the UN's role and future is a sign of its continued engagement with the issues of our day.A worse fate than controversy is indifference.We may complain about the UN. Yet we instinctively turn to the UN as we seek to organise life in a never more interdependent world….

The real problem is perhaps not that the UN is ignored, but that all too often we demand too much of the UN. It is not a panacea.“

An excerpt of the statement of The United Nations General Assembly at its 60th session by His Excellency Professor S Jayakumar

Too many opinions have to be taken into considerations. The UN has too many members involved and this results in many member countries overly-relying on it and turning to it whenever they have problems but at the same time complain of it or even show apathy towards it when their problems cannot be solved in a win-win manner.

If countries continue to treat UN as the remedy for all their problems, Singapore does not stand to benefit much in such an organisation as due to the presence of many problems, some issues may not be placed as top priority.

A statement of The United Nations General Assembly at its 60th session: http://www.un.org/webcast/summit2005/statements16/sin050916eng.pdf

“Sticks and Stones and Lee Kuan Yew”, an online journal at nationalism of Malaysia and Singapore: http://http-server.carleton.ca/~gfrajkor/zine97/group2/kerr.html

Background on ASEAN scholarships: http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/scholarships/asean/

Information on Southeast Asian Nations: http://www.state.gov/p/eap/regional/asean/

Overview of the AFTA: http://www.fta.gov.sg/fta_afta.asp?hl=1