The picture of unity among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been somewhat spoilt in recent months by bilateral spats between members.

Singapore and Malaysia argue over water, Malaysia offended Indonesia and the Philippines with the way its police expelled illegal Indonesian and Filipino migrants. Thailand and Myanmar continue to have border disputes.

Observers unacquainted with ASEAN ask if such public squabbling damages ASEAN. They are surprised when they find that the answer is: not much. Conceived in the throes of Cold War conflict, ASEAN has traditionally sought to avoid being held hostage to the bilateral quarrels of its members.

Rather, its attitude has been to seek and advance areas of common interest despite the existence of bilateral problems. Without this approach, the grouping of developing nations would not have been able to progress.

Consider for instance the fact that key members of ASEAN had been at war, near war or suffering from the trauma of separation (in the case of Singapore and Malaysia) only a few years before the organisation was established in 1967. It was necessary to stay clear of the legacy of bilateral bitterness and to focus instead on shared interests.

Bilateral problems between member states have occurred throughout ASEAN's history. They have included, just to mention a few, the Philippines-Malaysia dispute over Sabah; Indonesian claims to the Malaysian islands of Sipadan and Ligitan; the fracas between Singapore and the Philippines over the execution here of Filipina maid Flor Contemplacion; and the Malaysian-Singapore row over the state visit of Israeli president Herzog to Singapore.

These rows did not prevent ASEAN from making remarkable advances in regional cooperation and progressively enhancing its international stature from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s.

Indeed, the regional framework provided by ASEAN with its vast networking and commitments through formal agreements and informal understandings in many areas has served to contain bilateral disputes.

The ASEAN financial and economic crisis in 1997–98 left in its wake economic wreckage and political instability. Indeed, the worst period in this respect was 1998–99 when several bilateral relationships were strained simultaneously — between Singapore and Malaysia and the Philippines.

Yet the numerous ASEAN meetings continued, not just with a “business as usual” attitude but with even more focus, in an effort to find a way out of the problems afflicting the members.