Notes from my ASEAN coverage

Ports and casino tycoon Enrique “EKR” Razon, known for his unmatched wit and dark humor, hit the nail on the head once again, as he usually does, when he talked about why some things don’t work in ASEAN.

Razon, in his trademark brazenness, always says the right things at the right time.

Monday morning in his Solaire Resort’s elegant and glittering grand ballroom was no exception.

He said while ASEAN meetings are good, nothing happens during the rest of the year.

“ASEAN is a good thing. One week every year, we have these big meetings. We’ve been seeing this in the last 25 years. Everybody is united. There are 600 million people. But the other 51 weeks, nobody does anything about it. People just concentrate on their own businesses,” said Razon, drawing laughter from the crowd of business leaders from all over the world.

It was the second day of the ASEAN Business & Investment Summit and Razon was among the top brass in the panel on infrastructure development.

Razon, known for not mincing words, said there are certain things the Philippines needs to change for it to succeed in terms of development and getting things done, such as having massive and crucial infrastructure. 

He noted, for instance, the need for government to change some culture and the way it does business.

“We need to change the culture of how things get done in this country,” he said.

While Razon did not cite specific hurdles to doing business, the private sector’s laundry list to almost every new administration has always included corruption and massive red tape in the bureaucracy.

The private sector, he said, has always been ready to pour in money but is waiting for government to improve the business environment.

“We have to be on the same boat and until that happens, we will just be ahead of Laos and Cambodia,” Razon said, drawing laughter again.

The Philippines, he lamented, has a lot of catching up to do.

“We have a lot of catching up on certain infrastructure which governments have to do.”

When I asked the indefatigable Joey Concepcion, chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, about Razon’s observation, he said almost every week there are so many ASEAN meetings.

“It takes time to develop a community but this is how we develop a community. It’s about relationships that we’re building,” he said.

But aside from the meetings and exchange of ideas, is it really worth all the trouble hosting the ASEAN Summit?

I was lucky to be seated beside the no non-sense Arsenio Balisacan, chairman of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) so I asked him about it.

Balisacan, a world-renowned economist, said one has to look at it in the long term.

“Businessmen should use it to network with people. It’s where deals can be made,” he said.

What about the pink elephants?

When I first set foot in Myanmar in 2013 to study ASEAN integration, I was beaming with excitement.

And it’s not just because I was in the Golden Land where gilded spires and towering pagodas glisten under the yellow sun, or where Buddha lies demurely with pink colored nails.

I was excited because I couldn’t wait to see Aung San Suu Kyi, an icon of courage, leadership and non-violent struggle. I saw her in a protest rally in Yangon and I was amazed by her courage to fight the military junta.

But listening to her here in Manila on Monday, I wondered why she continues to keep silent on the situation of the Rohingyas.

She has previously downplayed the gravity of the exodus and the civilian government that she heads has defended the army’s actions in the northern Rakhine state.

During a recent lunch with Bangladesh Ambassador to the Philippines Asad Alam Siam, he also lamented the Myanmar government’s inaction.

When will Suu Kyi stand up against the genocide of the Rohingyas? 

There were other pink elephants, which I was hoping were given more attention. These include the Thai junta’s crackdown on the media, Indonesia’s state violence against the Papuans, President Duterte’s war on drugs and the human rights situation in the Philippines.

I hope the next time the Philippines becomes chairman of ASEAN again and hosts the big party once more, we would see a region where growth has finally become inclusive and meaningful and where we don’t sweep real issues under the rug.

A security nightmare?

Back in Solaire, I was in awe of the way Razon’s team secured the three-day event with no hassle at all to regular hotel guests.

It was business as usual downstairs for the regular casino players while world leaders and businessmen gathered upstairs in the glitzy ballroom.

Kudos to Solaire’s security team of around 450 men and women led by former intelligence officer Michael Ray Aquino and vice president of security John Ross Laing.

I congratulated Aquino and Laing and they told me it was no mean feat. They prepared for two weeks and had to postpone some scheduled leaves of some members of the security team to keep the place secured.

On the first day, there were more than 2,100 guests including VIPs and on the second day, around 1,600 participants with the combined net worth of these people at about a trillion dollars. 

Was it a security nightmare? Not if you have experts who know what they’re doing and are always a step ahead.