ASEAN Urged to Turn Fragile Ceasefire Into Lasting Peace, says Jakarta Post

JAKARTA, Aug 1 (Bernama) -- The ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, brokered by Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim after nearly a week of armed hostilities along their shared border, is a welcome development for a region desperate to hold onto a sense of stability, The Jakarta Post said.

In an editorial titled ‘ASEAN Diplomacy Delivers’ published on Thursday (July 31), the Indonesian daily hailed Anwar, this year’s ASEAN Chair, for his swift action that led to an agreement in Putrajaya on Monday, crediting his longstanding relationships with Cambodian and Thai leaders for averting a wider regional crisis.

“That the guns have now fallen silent is no small achievement. It was, in Anwar’s own words, a ‘triumph for all of ASEAN’,” the daily wrote.

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According to its editorial board, the clashes displaced hundreds of thousands, killed dozens, and damaged trust between neighbours, but the breakthrough came not through ASEAN’s formal mechanisms, but rather through Anwar’s personal ties with leaders in Cambodia and Thailand.

“No ASEAN conflict resolution frameworks were invoked… Instead, it was Anwar’s longstanding relationships, including longstanding ties to both Hun Sen in Cambodia and Thaksin Shinawatra’s faction in Thailand, that made the difference,” the paper said.

While personal diplomacy succeeded this time, the editorial highlighted the limits of ASEAN’s institutional capacity, stating that this was not a failure of ASEAN “but rather an opportunity to reflect on the limits of our current instruments.”

The paper urged ASEAN, as a community, to reduce its dependence on elite networks and to strengthen formal dispute-resolution tools as the next crisis may not afford the region such good fortune.

For Indonesia, the conflict’s fragility is a warning that, although the fighting stayed outside its borders, ASEAN’s credibility depends on peace among its members.

“When neighbours go to war, even briefly, ASEAN’s appeal to investors and its role in the Indo-Pacific are at risk,” it said.

The editorial board said reports of renewed accusations just 24 hours after the ceasefire highlight the expected reality that armies act on their own logic and that the burden of peace must not rest with soldiers alone.

“What we need is a lasting political commitment, supported by trusted civilian institutions, to make peace not just possible, but permanent. The fragility of the current truce speaks to a broader global trend,” it stressed.

The paper connected this fragile ceasefire to a global pattern described by one analyst in a recent commentary on The Diplomat as an “age of ceasefires”, where diplomacy pauses but does not resolve conflict.

“The war in Ukraine, the unfathomable violence in Gaza and now the clashes in our own backyard, have all fallen into this pattern,” it said.

Citing the Financial Times, which wrote on the neighbourly conflict, the editorial board said the conflict reflected a structural failure marked by a lack of enforceable norms and effective forums, despite existing frameworks.

“If we in ASEAN accept this trend as inevitable, we will only ever reach for the lowest common denominator in moments of crisis. We will settle for fragile pauses instead of forging durable peace,” the paper added.

The Jakarta Post concluded with a call to action, urging that the ceasefire be viewed not as an endpoint but as an opportunity to recommit to a regional order grounded in principles rather than personalities.

“Only then can ASEAN truly claim to be a community, not just of governments, but of peoples,” the editorial board said.

-- BERNAMA