BOOK REVIEW Birds of a feather Asia Alone: The Dangerous Post-Crisis Divide from America by Simon
SC Tay
Reviewed by Muhammad Cohen
More than ever, it appears the 21st century will belong to Asia. More
specifically, it will belong to China, with the rest of Asia scrambling to find
a secure orbit within the giant's enormous gravitational pull. For author Simon
Tay, it's crucial that the United States remains part of the Asian geopolitical
solar system.
A self-described public intellectual, Tay is a card-carrying member of
Singapore's great and good. He's a former member of parliament, chairman of the
Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and double professor at the
National University, with global street cred as a darling of the Asia Society
and (the World Economic Forum at Davos), plus a book cover quote from world
heavyweight champion public intellectual, Fareed Zakaria (Newsweek, Time et
al).
Despite his pretensions of globalism and pan-Asianism, in the end, Tay's
prescriptions and conclusions in Asia Alone reveal him as just another
Singa-parrot, a well-educated, well-traveled one for sure (if you forget, he'll
remind you). Tay is a bird of a feather with Lee Kuan Yew and a blatant
proponent of Singapore's national interests while pretending (or assuming) they
represent what's best for all of Asia. Singa-parrots function as an echo
chamber for the only voice in Singapore that matters, repeating Lee's ideas so
it appears that scores of other great minds have reached the same conclusions
independently.
Tale
of two crises Asia Alone gets off to a great start, presenting a tale of two crises.
When Asian economies tanked starting in 1997, the US and Western-led
institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescribed
austerity. The IMF insisted on government budget cuts and market reform
measures, such as reducing aid to and even ownership stakes in government-owned
enterprises, slashing subsidies to consumers on essentials such as food, fuel
and electricity, and raising interest rates.
Those prescriptions from the so-called Washington Consensus seemingly made the
situation worse, adding social and political unrest to the economic woes across
Asia. Tightened lending policies forced bankruptcies, further raising
unemployment. "IMF means I M Fired" proclaimed protest signs on the streets of
Seoul. Price hikes on staples such as rice and petrol led to mass
demonstrations in Jakarta and other capitals.
Eleven years later, the US faced its own version of the Asian meltdown. After
taking a tough line reminiscent of 1997 to force the shotgun marriage of Bear
Stearns and JPMorgan Chase and then the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers,
policymakers reversed course. The US government bailed out banks and even took
ownership of fallen industrial giant General Motors. The US and other Western
governments cut interests rates and went on an unprecedented spending spree,
doling out trillions in stimulus funds to consumers and public works.
Many Asians, still resentful over the Washington Consensus directives of 1997,
saw a glaring double standard in the US response to its own crisis, Tay
explains. It's a useful point for Westerners to understand, even though the
comparison is inexact. Currency exchange rates were a key element of the Asian
crisis; government austerity and high interest rates were believed necessary to
support currencies. But even if the premise is flawed, Asian indignation is
real.
Breaking up is hard to do
That sentiment, along with the weakened economic position of the US and the
relative strength of Asian economies, fuels calls for Asia to turn away from
engagement with the US. On the other side of the Pacific, the economic crisis
has increased support for protectionism and isolationism in the US. Tay makes
the case that the two sides need each other, and he is undoubtedly correct.
The global recession of 2008 proved that Asia and the US remain economically
interdependent. Asian economies - or those in other regions - can't muster the
buying power of the American consumer to absorb Asian exports, and the US can't
do without goods from Asia to keep domestic inflation in check. That's what
globalization is all about.
The geopolitical argument is simple, too: the US needs to be engaged in Asia to
be a great power, and no matter how you try to say it nicely, Asia needs the US
as a counterweight to China. Since the end of World War II, much of Asia has
been a US sphere of influence, and some Asians see little difference in
becoming a Chinese sphere of influence. Tay correctly notes that the US has no
territorial ambitions in Asia, while China might. He doesn't mention another
key difference, wealthy and influential ethnic Chinese communities in many
Asian countries that, in its role as the big motherland, China can try to
exploit, not unlike Israel's appeals to overseas Jews.
Tay correctly suggests that the US and China don't have to compete openly, and
that cooperation rather than confrontation will serve both powers and Asia far
better. He suggests a "constructive tone" to US-China relations that includes
both sides working to stabilize the global financial system; freer trade
including more latitude to invest and operate in each other's markets; and
accepting that unilateralism has no place in a globalized, interdependent
world. Between these twin suns, the rest of Asia can benefit from closer
engagement and integration within its own ranks and with the great powers.
Wild about Harry
No prizes for realizing the above sounds remarkably similar to Singapore's
world view as formulated by Lee Kuan Yew (in colonial days, Lee Kuan Yew was
known as Harry Lee). Rehashing a Singapore Foreign Ministry background briefing
is hardly sufficient to justify a magazine article, let alone a book supported
by a cushy fellowship at the Asia Society in New York. So Tay tries a number of
devices to add value, to little avail.
He stirs the alphabet soup of Asian diplomacy, from the Asia-Pacific Economic
Forum to the Group of 20 to the United Nations. Singapore is among the
strongest advocates of these cooperative groupings (when it's a member),
particularly those that give small states equal weight, as a way to increase
influence on the regional and global stages beyond what they can achieve
individually.
US legislator Tip O'Neill famously declared, "All politics are local". Tay
inadvertently undercuts the case for group diplomacy by repeatedly
demonstrating that all foreign relations are bilateral. For example, Tay
contends that the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations remains
important because it facilitates cooperation between (non-members) Japan and
China. Multilateralist Singapore's strategic plan for the 21st century,
according to Tay, is to position itself as the southernmost province of China
and the 51st US state, based on its strong bilateral relationship with each
power.
Tay spins clever phrases to bring some spark to his unoriginal thoughts.
Singapore's relationship with China and the US is described as
"equi-proximate". Rather than American-led globalization, Tay suggests the
region adopt a more syncretic "Global-as-Asian".
Sometimes, Tay's wordcraft descends to outright foolishness. He coins "the
Power of &" to describe deploying an array of what might seem to be
competing or even contradictory initiatives, banking on benefiting from the
divergence of thinking and battle of ideas to create favorable outcomes.
It's an appealing proposition that becomes laughable when Tay states,
"Singapore is a city based on the Power of &." Only a true believer could
fail to see the irony of thinking Singapore welcomes a diversity of opinions,
rather than a flock of Singa-parrots.
Asia Alone: The Dangerous Post-Crisis Divide from America by Simon SC
Tay. Singapore, John Wiley & Sons (Asia), 2010. ISBN: 978-0-470-82582-2.
US$24.95; 256 pages (paper).
Former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen told America’s story to the
world as a US diplomat and is author of
Hong Kong On Air,
a novel set during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal,
financial crisis, and cheap lingerie. Follow
Muhammad Cohen’s blog for more on the media and Asia, his adopted home.
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Tale
of two crises
,
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