Why Asia can no longer just stand back and watch

OPTIONAL PIC: Resilient: In a fractured world, Asean’s value lies in being a connector that welcomes investment from East and West -- because resilience depends on diversification. -- Filepic/The Star

AT the Congress Centre in Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum had just concluded, the atmosphere was thick with anxiety, irritability, and a palpable sense of anger mixed with helplessness. The polite fiction that the old international order could be patched up has finally evaporated. The message was stark: the structural shift isn’t coming – it’s already here, and there is a deep frustration that we allowed it to happen.

European Commission Presi-dent Ursula von der Leyen didn’t mince words when she warned that if this transformation is “permanent”, our responses must be too. French President Emma-nuel Macron went further, painting a grim picture of a drift towards a “lawless” state.