Kuala Lampur, May 12 -- As Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim assumes the ASEAN chairmanship in 2025, the region stands at a precipice of geopolitical instability and economic weaponisation unseen since the interwar years. Yet rather than rallying ASEAN to seize this moment of collective assertion, former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan has chosen, once again, to misrepresent bold regional leadership as strategic naivete. His criticism of Anwar's call for ASEAN to negotiate tariffs with Washington as a united bloc is not only diplomatically unhelpful - it is intellectually lazy.

Facile realism from a diplomatic pundit

Bilahari's worldview, consistent with what one might call facile realism, views ASEAN as forever condemned t...