Aquino’s dumb show in Kuala Lumpur

The most memorable message to come out of the 26th Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur had nothing to do with our desire to get our Asean partners to take a common stand against China’s reclamation activities on the disputed islets and reefs in the South China/West Philippine Sea.

Our success in that area lies in our having been able to tell the world what we wanted Asean to do before we had any chance of asking anyone, in private, to do it. In this unorthodox way of doing diplomacy, we were a spectacular success. No statement from the summit matched or supported our prodigious press releases on the subject.