Time for a Cultural Revolution

Bankkot Post
14/10/2009

Surin Pitsuwan has a dream. In his five-year term as Asean secretary-general, the former Thai foreign minister wants to unite a diverse region of some 570 million people along a common identity.

Unveiling this when he took up office in the 10-member regional grouping last year, Mr Surin intends to focus on Asean's hitherto ignored third pillar of being, the socio-cultural, as much as its other two, the economic and defence.

Of late though, his lofty dream is fast unravelling. Asean's unity is at stake as its member states find themselves embroiled in what has been dubbed as a "culture war," where bickering over cultural heritage have seen Asean leaders and its peoples engage in a state of continuing socio-political, even military, tension that is almost reminiscent of the Cold War.

In the Malay archipelago, Indonesians vied to wrest from Malaysia the cultural ownership of a fabric (the intricately-patterned "batik") and a dance (the mesmerising "pendet"). Meanwhile, Malaysia started a food fight after claiming its stake on popular regional dishes like "nasi lemak" (coconut cream rice) and "laksa" (spicy noodles soup).

Save for the "pendet" controversy which saw Indonesians forming armed vigilante groups to hunt down Malaysians in its capital Jakarta, the "culture war" in this part of Asean are largely proclamations of bravado. Even as Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Hassan put its national security forces on alert over an invasion threat by a motley group of Indonesians this week, ordinary Malaysians scoffed at this menace over the internet.

The same could not be said of the Indochina part of Asean where Thailand and Cambodia are disputing the ownership of the Preah Vihear temple located at their borders.

A Unesco decision last year to designate the temple as a World Heritage Site for Cambodia has irked a disgruntled Thailand. Clashes between their troops last October and this April left soldiers on both sides dead.

With no end in sight to this "culture war," is Mr Surin's dream utopian?

Not if Asean's leadership could instil a much-needed paradigm shift that will see its people no longer defining culture as a static phenomenon but one that is evolutionary. Instead of being fixated on a distinct dish, dress or dance, Southeast Asians have to start seeing culture from a socio-historical perspective.

That is, their region was once part of the Silk Road where traders from all over Asia moved freely between what are today Asean member-states.

When these traders intermingle or settle down in neighbouring foreign lands, they brought their way of life with them that includes not just clothing and dishes but also intellectual traditions and social values. Some of these get assimilated while others become hybridised. Only when such an interpretation of culture is entrenched in their psyche could Southeast Asians decry parochial views of national culture for the notion of interculturality.

This week's forum by historians from Malaysia and Indonesia to suss out common cultural links is thus laudable. This must surely be the foremost task of the Asean Secretariat if it wishes to stick to Mr Surin's deadline of building an Asean Socio-Cultural Community by 2015.

One way could be to develop an educational programme highlighting Asean's multiculturalism based on a sense of shared history that could be adapted by schools in the different member-states. This could help mitigate the seeding of cultural exclusivity in future generations.

Another way is to institutionalise an international summit on socio-cultural affairs that is akin in magnitude to the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit to be held in Singapore. Such a forum would be dedicated to reaching a resolution on difficult socio-cultural issues within the region such as religious extremism or human rights.

Yet Asean's "culture war" demands an immediacy of action. Here, Asean leaders should consider setting up a legal committee of cultural experts to rule on cultural disputes between member states.

The same committee could also advise the Unesco which had inadvertently fuelled Asean's "culture war" when it awarded Indonesia the exclusive rights to "batik" this year and recognised the Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage site for Cambodia last year.

But Mr Surin's dream of a united people is also hinged on one fundamental matter that may be outside his sphere of influence: the "culture war" within some of Asean's member states that has pit Muslims against Christians in the case of Indonesia, or Malays against Thais in the case of southern Thailand.

Lest he wishes for his dream to regress into a nightmare, Mr Surin may need to transcend Asean's sacred non-intervention policy, and intercede into the sphere of domestic politics.

The writer is an independent journalist from Singapore who is currently pursuing a doctoral degree.