Page 30 - The Ethics of ASEAN

The Ethics of ASEAN

offered more opportunities for GE, Dean called together his team and they agreed to
change the name to GE ASEAN. Here is how Stuart Dean describes the advantages. 13

The name Southeast Asia described the region as 10 different
markets, some of which were strategic and some not so strategic.
We thought that naming the region ASEAN better communicated
our vision that, instead of 10 countries, ASEAN should be seen as an
economic bloc of 600 million people. The second reason is that we
wanted headquarters to understand the potential that the region
had for GE, to change the mindset of our leaders from seeing 10
countries opportunistically to seeing the region strategically. Third,
we wanted to be consistent with Governments’ vision of ASEAN since
we did business with them. An unexpected benefit was that the
ASEAN approach brought the country teams together. So, instead of
competing, we started working more collaboratively for the region’s
success by sharing leads and best practices across borders.

ASEAN’s Ethics on the World Stage

Born out of a mosaic of colonies that had gained independence, coveted by cold war
powers and buffeted by a hot war in Vietnam, it is not obvious that a loose federation of
young nations would become a success story. As a region, ethics are hyperdiverse and
insufficiently developed in rules-based institutions. As with many regions made up of lower
and middle-income countries, the assumption was made that economic development
should come first, then questions of governance, human rights and sustainability could be
addressed. Yet during this time, ASEAN has come to realise that economic growth without
ethical maturity takes the region down a road that doesn’t lead to a good place.
There were no longer any ASEAN countries in absolute poverty, until the 2021
Myanmar military coup which sent the country’s development into sharp reverse. Even
so, the vast majority of the region’s population are in the lower or upper middle-income
economic categories. A host of fundamental ethical issues have emerged that require
leadership. These range from good governance to inequality to thought leadership. Unmet
ethical challenges put the region’s credibility into question. Effectively dealing with climate
change and regulating technology with ethical standards are two examples. Dealing with
the 2021 putsch in Myanmar is another, one that has called the centrality of ASEAN as a
regional organisation into question.
In today’s world ASEAN must develop a more integrated ethics as the region takes on
the responsibility of leadership. The region cannot adopt the ethics of one side or other in
the new geopolitical struggle that pits China’s Belt and Road expansion against American
and EU influence on democratic governance and human rights. Nor can it waffle in non-
decision dressed up as consensual politics. Ethics is just as essential to the future of
ASEAN as economics.
But what kind of ethics? How does ethics translate into action? What takes priority?
In the next chapter we will tackle these fundamental questions.

13 Stuart Dean, former CEO of the ASEAN region at GE, interview with the author 3 April 2016.
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