All must understand horizontal and vertical integration of Asean — Phar Kim Being and Luthfy Hamzah

Malay Mail

a day ago

JULY 5 — As Malaysia's Asean Chairmanship under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim reaches its midpoint in 2025, a more rigorous appraisal is necessary.
Malaysia's efforts, including championing Timor Leste's entry into Asean and orchestrating the successful Asean-GCC-China Economic Summit from May 23 to 27, have drawn wide praise.
But the real question remains: what structural reforms or regional frameworks have been solidified to ensure Asean's strategic direction is not only symbolic, but sustainable?
Too often, Asean's Group Chairmanship has been assessed through a ceremonial lens — the number of summits hosted, joint communiqués released, or bilaterals scheduled.
These are valid barometers, but insufficient. The more substantive measure should be how well the Chair understands and executes horizontal and vertical integration of Asean's regional architecture. All analysts must apply these metrics too, rather than focus solely on perennial issues such as tensions between Thailand and Cambodia or the South China Sea. These challenges will always be present for Asean and the related summits to address. A more scientific approach lies in understanding the horizontal and vertical integration of Asean.
Horizontal expansion: Lessons from the past
Since its founding on August 8, 1967, Asean's trajectory has been defined by periodic expansions. Brunei Darussalam joined in 1984, marking the second major phase of Asean's evolution after the original five members: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Brunei, with its stable polity and hydrocarbon wealth, added value to Asean without posing internal or sub-systemic challenges.
But the subsequent inclusion of Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam (CMLV) between 1997 and 1999 — often praised as the third horizontal expansion — brought deeper and more enduring complications.
Despite the noble intentions of 'One Vision, One Identity, One Community,' the development gap between maritime Southeast Asia and continental Indochina remains unresolved.
The Myanmar conundrum alone continues to haunt Asean. Each Group Chair, including Malaysia in 2025, inherits the same headache. The Five-Point Consensus forged in Jakarta during Brunei's 2021 chairmanship remains unfulfilled, especially its first commitment: a cessation of violence. In 2025, the Group Chair, namely Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, has had to employ quiet diplomacy, leveraging Thailand's channels to engage both Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and hold a separate online dialogue with the National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar.
Though there were indications of the Tatmadaw's willingness to consider a longer ceasefire process, Malaysia was unfairly criticised for 'legitimising' the military junta — a criticism that ignores the humanitarian collapse inside Myanmar, compounded by a devastating earthquake and the rise of cybercriminal syndicates.
Indeed, the rise of 'scamdemics' — criminal activities involving fraud, online scams, and forced labour in digital slavery — has become an alarming security and reputational threat to Asean. The United Nations now estimates these cross-border operations generate nearly US$70 billion annually. With operations rooted along the porous frontiers of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and increasingly northern Thailand, these groups have undermined regional tourism and trust.
Eighty to ninety per cent of mainland Chinese tourists now shun Thailand, especially Bangkok and Chiang Mai, citing safety concerns — an invisible but potent cost to Asean's brand equity.
Another horizontal expansion: PNG?
Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto recently suggested at the Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur that Papua New Guinea (PNG) could be embraced into Asean in the future. PNG, after all, has long been an observer of the Asean Regional Forum — a status shared by Timor Leste.
This could potentially mark Asean's fourth horizontal expansion, pushing the bloc further into the Pacific. PNG shares land borders with Indonesia's Papua province. However, before enlarging the tent again, Asean must first ensure the house is in order.
This is where vertical integration becomes the essential litmus test for a mature and future-ready Asean.
Since its founding on August 8, 1967, Asean's trajectory has been defined by periodic expansions. — AFP pic
Vertical integration: The real test of Asean Centrality
The Asean Charter, adopted in 2008, enshrines the principle of Asean Centrality — the notion that Asean must lead in shaping the region's norms, policies, and institutional interactions.
However, the substance of this centrality lies not in speeches or summitry, but in the actual vertical integration of institutions and systems.
For example, AseanPOL must evolve beyond annual meetings into a transnational enforcement mechanism. It should resemble INTERPOL in its interoperability, facilitating real-time cooperation among national police forces to counter transnational crimes, human trafficking, cyber fraud, and illegal contraband.
The recent surge in digital slavery and trafficking scams has exposed glaring holes in Asean's policing capabilities and inter-agency coordination.
Similarly, strategic infrastructure such as the Asean Power Grid and the Trans-Asean Railway Network — both longstanding items on Asean's master plans — cannot succeed without policy alignment and skilled labour mobility.
These megaprojects require a liberalised flow of blue- and white-collar workers across Asean borders. But current barriers, including immigration bottlenecks, labour certification issues, and mutual recognition gaps, continue to inhibit such mobility.
Moreover, vertical integration demands digital interconnectivity. Asean aspires to be a single digital market, and Malaysia aims to be its AI-driven digital hub. This requires seamless internet backbone connections, cybersecurity protocols, and regulatory harmonisation across the region.
In today's Fourth Industrial Revolution, data is power — and Asean must secure and synchronise its digital governance accordingly.
Here, Malaysia has a real chance to lead. As Group Chair, it must accelerate Asean's mastery of the six As of the digital age: Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Algorithm, Apps-driven economy, Augmented Reality, and Analysis of Big Data.
From blueprint to execution
Much of this agenda is already embedded in Asean's various roadmaps: the Asean Master Plan on Connectivity 2010, the Asean 2025: Forging Ahead Together blueprint, and the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Asean 2045. But these plans must now be matched by political will and policy execution.
Hosting 330 meetings annually does not guarantee progress. Asean must shift from being a conference community to a community of action. That shift begins with recognising that horizontal expansion without vertical consolidation only deepens the bloc's structural weakness. In contrast, meaningful vertical integration — from security cooperation and human capital development to infrastructure and digital harmonisation — can deliver the 'People-Oriented, People-Centred' Asean that every Chair claims to support.
Preparing the ground for future chairs
As Malaysia prepares to hand over the Group Chair role to the Philippines in 2026, and then Singapore in 2027, the legacy it leaves matters. If Malaysia's chairmanship is remembered solely for ceremonial milestones or photo opportunities, then Asean has missed another chance for renewal.
But if Malaysia can demonstrate that deep institutional reforms and regional integration strategies were seeded and cultivated in 2025, then it would have set a powerful precedent — not just for Asean's future, but for the credibility of Asean's Group Chairmanship itself.
Ultimately, Asean cannot afford to remain a loosely integrated bloc held together by communiqués and camaraderie. It must evolve — by design, not by crisis.
And that evolution depends on chairmanships that understand the delicate but urgent balance between expanding the bloc horizontally and integrating it vertically.
* Phar Kim Beng, PhD, is the Director of the Institute of Internationalisation and Asean Studies (IINTAS) at IIUM, and Lutfy Hamzah is a Senior Research Fellow at IINTAS.
** This is the personal opinion of the writers or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.