Muhammed Abdul Khalid said Asean, unlike the European Union, lacked mechanisms to enforce and align laws and standards.
He said EU could demand compliance across 27 states because it had a legal enforcement regime and a supranational court.
“Does Asean have (any of) these mechanisms? Zero. It’s not realistic to expect 10 countries with very different systems and policies to agree on technical areas like AI, data governance, or cross-border standards within 24 months.
“So, to be overly optimistic that we can use regulations to achieve Asean objectives, I think, is a fantasy.”
Muhammed, an economic adviser to Dr Mahathir Mohamad during the latter’s second stint as prime minister, said to expect less developed economies, such as Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, to realign their national laws toward joint regulation would be a very difficult task.
He also questioned a top-down approach, which overly focused on the private sector to drive Asean unity.
“Where is the perspective of Asean’s 250 million informal workers? Or the 27 million underemployed youth? If Asean wants to avoid the backlash seen in parts of the EU – where economic integration doesn’t seem to lift all boats and resulting in right-wing politics dominating, we must be inclusive,” he added.
Muhammed said one of the biggest challenges for collaboration among Asean nations was the wide gap between the richest and poorest member countries.
He compared Singapore’s gross domestic product to that of Myanmar’s, and the gap between countries in the eurozone which is much less than those in Asean.
In 2023, Singapore registered a GDP of US$501 billion, while Myanmar’s GDP stood at US$66.76 billion.
“To ensure inclusiveness in Asean, we must talk about money. The EU collects over 1% of its GDP as a regional budget, while Asean collects nothing. We must stop pretending regional cooperation is free.”
Earlier today, the Social and Economic Research Initiative, alongside the US-Asean Business Council, launched a White Paper titled “Driving Asean Unity”.
In his address at the event, deputy investment, trade and industry minister, Liew Chin Tong, said he hoped to see Asean become a middle-class society by 2045, adding that the bloc needed to “put their money where their mouth is” in terms of future collaborations.
Separately, Muhammed agreed with fellow panellist, TalentCorp chief strategy officer Nazrul Aziz, that Asean needed to see freer cross-border movement between member countries, particularly in terms of students, and in the workforce.
Muhammed said that over 10 million people work across borders in Asean without proper social protection and less than 1% of Asean students study in another Asean country.
“Malaysia can champion regional standards for minimum wage, safety nets, and cross-border portability, which requires collaborations with other countries, otherwise we are wasting our chairmanship of Asean.”