Transforming the 'Southeast Asian Sea' into a 'Shared Regional Area of Essential Commons' by Rasti Delizo

Hence, the Southeast Asian Sea’s strategic mineral and aquatic resources cannot be claimed by just a few and in the name of ancient empires that have long ago disappeared into the library of world history.  In the context of today’s global environmental realities, the Southeast Asian Sea must by now be claimed by the many and in the name of a 21st Century world order shared by all of humankind. - Rasti Delizo

TRANSFORMING THE ‘SOUTHEAST ASIAN SEA’ INTO A 
‘SHARED REGIONAL AREA OF ESSENTIAL COMMONS’

RASTI DELIZO*
12 April 2012

The regionally contentious body of water predominantly known throughout Asia as the South China Sea can yet be transformed into a more mutually beneficial regional asset.  Geographically located in Southeastern Asia, this vastly huge oceanic area is a historically recognized maritime route which expediently acts as a gateway between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.  Many governments currently acknowledge its vital importance due to a vast abundance of natural undersea resources with potential wells of alternative energy supplies.  And for obvious strategic reasons, this prime bio-diversity spot has long become a regional magnet of attraction to various littoral states and major powers surrounding the area.

As such, China, Taiwan and four ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member-countries are now contesting certain sections of the South China Sea for these same reasons. These territorial claims have characteristically alerted other powerful states and multilateral organizations to the pending disputes as they certainly have the potential to spark off a future military conflict.  Since such a war could further conflagrate the entire Asia-Pacific region and inevitably become a dangerous global threat, this overarching regional issue continues to remain a top priority question begging for an immediate solution.

Fundamentally, such an answer must be part of any longer term comprehensive resolution that aims for a more people-centered developmental agenda rather than a purely state-driven one. This is because the latter is usually focused on the interests of the ruling elites while the former is premised on the social-economic needs and aspirations of the region’s peoples who comprise the social majority. In other words, it is the overall common interests of the area’s collective citizenry that must prevail over any short-sighted and narrow aims of the presently ruling regimes.

This ultimately remains both a crux and a dilemma underlying a strategic regional question confounding the East Asian region today. With China now playing a very influential and critical role as the region’s preeminent power, most countries of Southeast Asia are in a quandary as to how to balance their individual and joint relations with Beijing without sacrificing any sovereign interests or attracting the latter’s ire. On the other hand, the United States as a global hegemonic power has recently reinserted its geostrategic weight into the regional equation.  More than two decades after the Cold War ended in December 1991, and nearly twenty years after US military forces were ousted from their longtime military bases in the Philippines in November 1992 America is once again re-pivoting its might all around Asia in an apparent encircling-containment of China.

At present, the regional environmental situation contains a wide range of economic-political-security issues, concerns and challenges.  This broad mix of overlapping interests and multi-pressure points continue to affect the nature and character of the external policy responses of the East Asian countries concerned. Nevertheless, it is the relative positioning of some of the area’s key power centers, specifically China, the US and the ASEAN that tend to influence major events for now.

Hence, any fundamental changes in East Asia’s future regional strategic architecture will have to take into full consideration the directional thrusts of these regional power centers. While both China and the US can be expected to maintain and pursue their respective counter-positional moves against each other for obvious reasons, it is the ASEAN that will have to be the one to initiate and push for an alternative balance in the region.  As a regional association whose member-states are all located in Southeast Asia, ASEAN has to strike an independent path from that of Beijing and Washington. And for it to do so, ASEAN will have to secure a more regionally focused position that is fully centered on the genuine aspirations of the peoples of Southeast Asia and not on the tactical and strategic objectives of the Chinese or the Americans.

A ‘SHARED REGIONAL AREA OF ESSENTIAL COMMONS’

Toward this directional setting, the ASEAN should now rethink and reinvent its currently accepted view of, and attitude to, the South China Sea. This has now become fundamentally imperative after no regional unity was reached in terms of a so-called ‘Code of Conduct’ on this question after the recently concluded 20th ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh last April 2-4, 2012.  This latest regional setback is definitely a communal problem which the ASEAN has yet to overcome and soon.

(Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS). ASEAN delegation members attend the concluding session at the 20th ASEAN Summit at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith). From here.

And yet, with the currently brewing confrontation between China and the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal, this has once again created a new tension point unsettling the area. The present situation is a pressing matter which demands for a positively united response from various parties involved.  Given this developing context, a new regional framework has to urgently be asserted by the Southeast Asian organization to push for the area’s peacefully cooperative stability.

For a start, the ASEAN must immediately propose that the area already be declared a ‘Shared Regional Area of Essential Commons’ or SRAEC.  In the same manner, this SRAEC entity must also be outlined according to its factually precise and geographic location on the global map.  Because it is essentially and practically located within an area bounded by at least seven littoral Southeast Asian states, and all belonging to the ASEAN, it should therefore be renamed as the ‘Southeast Asian Sea’ instead.  Only China and Taiwan are the remaining states bordering the Southeast Asian Sea that do not belong to the ASEAN.

In broad strokes, the SRAEC has to be recognized and upheld by all the common stakeholders presently involved in the region’s long term future.  These will have to include state and non-state entities, together with various regional organizations and even global institutions.  Its basic premise and thrust must be to ensure that all the commonly essential natural maritime resources that are now presently found (and have yet to be discovered) within the parameters of the Southeast Asian Sea have to be collectively shared by all stakeholders, especially the region’s vast humanity and not merely a handful of states and their ruling leaders.

(Photo: Reuters) Tanker Yuri Senkevich sails near the Lufeng oil field, 250 kilometers south-east of
[Hong Kong] in the South China Sea. Photo from here.

Hence, the Southeast Asian Sea’s strategic mineral and aquatic resources cannot be claimed by just a few and in the name of ancient empires that have long ago disappeared into the library of world history.  In the context of today’s global environmental realities, the Southeast Asian Sea must by now be claimed by the many and in the name of a 21st Century world order shared by all of humankind.

AN INDEPENDENTLY NEUTRAL SRAEC

In pursuing the conceptual framework of a Shared Regional Area of Essential Commons, the ASEAN and proponents of a Southeast Asian Sea-based SRAEC will also have to principally ensure its independence and neutrality. That means, the SRAEC should assert from its declared onset that it cannot be absolutely claimed (wholly or partially) by any one state or regional entity, such as China or the ASEAN. And even more so, the SRAEC must not become a conflict zone under the geopolitical maneuverings of any global superpower, specifically the imperialist thrusts of the US.

No to US imperialism, Chinese expansionism! Photo from here.

The greater challenge in this regard remains the need to break free from the reactionary mindset of realpolitik still guiding the key players on the Southeast Asian Sea question.  It will certainly not be very easy to change the counter-posed views of both Beijing and Washington in relation to their respective hegemonic agendas over the broader Asia-Pacific region.  At the same time, ASEAN is not collectively united in taking a more independently neutral stance toward both China and the US.  This is because it is primarily the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam that are highly prone to lean on to the US as a counterforce to China and as such, this imbalance inside the ASEAN is now being exploited by Beijing.

In this regard, China continues to strongly push its demands for a more bilateral and regionally-focused solution to the current regional dilemma affecting the Southeast Asian Sea area.  In contrast to this, the US is pushing for a more multilateral approach to solve the regional contradiction.  In effect, the Chinese want to ensure their clear dominance over their Southeast Asian neighbors without any interference from another superpower rival across the Pacific Ocean.  And in an almost similar manner, the Americans also aim to once more intervene within the area by realigning pro-US countries from Southeast Asia behind its imperialist dictation through a geostrategic coalition to contain the Chinese expansionist actions and aimed at enhancing American control over the Southeast Asian region.

A Caring and Sharing ASEAN. See Cebu declaration here.

At the end of the day, only a progressive direction and an openly participative process within the framework of a Shared Regional Area of Essential Commons for the peoples living around the Southeast Asian Sea can radically alter the balance of power in this highly contentious but vital corner of the world.  And maybe perhaps this could become a critically necessary step toward genuinely building a more ‘caring and sharing’ ASEAN common area for all. RTD

*Rasti Delizo is a former head of the Political/Security Affairs Staff of the Macroeconomy and Political Affairs Office (MPO) of the Presidential Management Staff - Office of the President (PMS-OP). He used to teach international politics and Philippine foreign policy.