Vision for a New Asia
7 Asian Leaders Speak on Economics, Trade & Terrorism
Edited by the Staff of the Cambodia Daily
October 2003
Pelanduk Publications
ISBN: 967-978-853-9
184 pages, Illustrated, 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"
$38.50 Paper Original
Just a little over five decades ago all but Thailand among the ten nations that comprise the Association of Southeastern Asian Nations (Asean) were colonized, impeding their economic and political development. The colonial powers exploited the natural resources of the region for their own gain, retarding industrialization, advanced education and any independence internal and external conflicts such as border disputes, the Vietnam war, the Indonesian-Malaysian Confrontation, the separation of Singapore from Malaysia, the breakup of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Malaysia, and the Khmer Rouge holocaust, followed by Vietnam's liberation and immediate occupation of Cambodia, robbed these countries of any opportunity to form an association that would help the speed reconstruction, cooperation and regional friendship. Not until 1974, when the first five member countries formed Asean, was there a beginning for regional unity. By November 2002, the occasion of the 8th Asean Summit, all ten nations in the region were members and a number of cooperative economic efforts had been forged, including plans to develop road and rail links aimed at leapfrogging regional cooperative development. On the eve of the summit, held in Cambodia - the last nation to join Asean - seven leaders of the region voiced their views in interviews with the editors of The Cambodia Daily on such issues as poverty reduction, women empowerment, competition from China, human rights, "Asian values", impact of the Internet, threats from terrorism, the responsibility of the richer nations towards the poorer, the potential of becoming another "European Union", and non-interference in each others' affairs. This book focuses on the issues facing these ten Southeastern nations and how their leaders assess the problems, solutions and the new direction Asean is moving in uncertain times.
Asian Studies
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