Revisiting regional security

Sin Chew Daily, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

The issue of the Straits of Malacca has brought the attendees at the three-day Asia Security Conference in Singapore to deliberate on whether the United States should station its troops in the region.

Malaysia holds a very different view from Singapore. Singapore is of the opinion that international cooperation is essential to ensure the safety of the Straits while Malaysia's attitude is one of reservation.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak reminded the other participants at the conference of what had been taking place in Iraq, and that foreign forces should not be simply allowed to be stationed in the region.

In the past half a century, the United States has emerged as the single most significant power in Asia. America was at the pinnacle of power in Asia throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with a strength that only during the period shortly after World War II could match. To some extent, America has come back to the starting point all over again.

The proponents of troop stationing say the U.S. offers a gigantic long-term market for resource-rich Asia. Additionally, Asian countries are used to the presence of U.S. forces in the region while the U.S. has repeatedly assured that it wants to maintain a power balance in the region, and it has indeed done that.

Only America is seen to have the ability to dissolve any potential invasive move in Asia.

Nevertheless, the sustenance of Asia Pacific peace depends very much on regional countries' input. Moreover, America's might is currently being debilitated by its own economic problems and social woes arising from excessive freedom, beyond what its economic might can support, let alone large-scale military deployments. The invasion of Iraq has only exacerbated the situation.

At the same time, economic development is the key to a country's survival. As such, a system of regional collective development will emerge as a dominating political and economic force. The active implementation of NAFTA and European Union is aimed at consolidating the bonds of the world's two most powerful economic blocs.

East Asia is one of the world's three most important economic regions. Other than North America and Europe, nowhere else in the world can match this region in terms of economic vibrance.

Although the region still pales by comparison to North America and Europe, its potentials are vast and the speed with which it advances is insurmountable. Without a collective security system to preserve the interests of countries within the region, and when the cooperation between North America and European states has been enhanced, the future of regional countries will be bleak.

In this security convention, participants have offered many precious views on the issue of regional security, which will have a positive impact on promoting mutual understanding on the issue.

Although regional countries may hold very different views on security, if they are able to sit down and talk, interaction and cooperation will be further enhanced, as the fundamental spirit of a new world order is "cooperation in the place of conflict, and reconciliation in the place of confrontation".