Asia's growing defense clout questioned

Asia's growing defense clout questioned

SINGAPORE (AFP): Growing military influence in non-security
matters and spiralling weapons spending in a period of peace pose
serious political and economic problems for Asian countries,
according to a regional think-tank.

The Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. (PERC) said
the dangers of a major military conflict in the foreseeable
future were low in the region despite "hot spots" in the Korean
peninsula and the Taiwan Strait.

"This raises the question, therefore, of why defense spending
in Asia is growing more rapidly than in any other region in the
world ...," said the PERC's fortnightly Asian Intelligence,
received here over the weekend.

It said the buying spree "could jeopardize regional harmony by
sowing the seeds of distrust among neighboring governments and
making consensus and compromise more difficult."

Southeast Asia, with US$9 billion in weapons purchases or 22
percent of global sales, overtook the Middle East in 1995 as the
world's third largest defense market after the United States and
Europe, the report noted.

"It's almost as if buying an F-18 (fighter) is a matter of
national pride, " it said.

"Growing military clout could also adversely affect the
political stability within the countries doing the spending as
well as be a source of eventual economic problems for these
nations," the report said.

"While regional wars are not a prospect we rate as very high
in the coming decade, military risks could take other forms that
are nevertheless worrying."

Warning of "military ineptness" in Asia, PERC said only four
economies had put forward "a really coordinated, forward-looking
military development program" -- Japan, China, Singapore and Hong
Kong.

The report rated tiny Singapore's armed forces as the best-
equipped and one of the most professionally run in Asia, noting
not only the city-state's modern weapons but also its mandatory
military service of two-and-a-half years for all able-bodied
young men.

Hong Kong, which reverts to Chinese rule in July 1997, is
expected to work out an arrangement with China under which the
colony would shoulder much of the maintenance costs of defense
forces, somewhat similar to the way it is now paying for 65
percent of the upkeep of the British Garrison, the report said.

The Indonesian armed forces, long preoccupied more with
internal matters, came under strong criticism in the report.

"If ever there was a military which was not quite able to
bring itself to focus on its primary role of defending the
country against external aggression, the Indonesian armed forces
is surely a good candidate," PERC said.

Malaysia is determined to accelerate the transformation of its
military into a modern defense force "capable of backing up the
nation's territorial claims in the South China Sea and
elsewhere," it said.

The Philippines, which closed a major U.S. naval base in 1992,
has one of the weakest armed forces in the region, with troops
lacking discipline and a clear focus, but the modernizing
military has ceased to be a "tool of repression" and a source of
coup plots.

PERC said increasingly prosperous Thailand was wary of its
neighbors and planning its defenses accordingly.

"Spectacular economic growth has not produced a sense of
security in defense terms but instead is perceived as dangerous
because, with the country so much richer, poorer neighboring
nations may find it an inviting target," it said.

Bangkok is worried by unresolved disputes over fishing rights,
as well as ethnic and other insurgences in Myanmar, Laos and
Cambodia which could drag in Thai forces, the report said.

In Vietnam, where wars against foreign invaders have been a
constant of history, the military is adjusting to a peacetime
environment and has gone into business while remaining a key
element in the ruling communist politburo and central committee,
PERC said.