THE 50-YEAR-OLD Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is seen entering the “middle age” crisis especially in the face of new challenges such as growing doubts on globalisation and fast-changing socioeconomic landscapes, raising questions on whether the so-called “Asean way” or the slow process of decision-making would still work in the years ahead.

Western Myanmar is under the world’s spotlight for what the United Nations calls a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people. From the other side of the globe, the European Union has slammed the crackdown in Rakhine state as “a human rights crisis with serious humanitarian consequences”.