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Asia's Diversity Poses Challenge in Efforts to Form East Asian community: MM Lee

By: Michiyo Ishida
Date Posted: May 29, 2007
News Source: Channel NewsAsia

TOKYO: Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew says it will be difficult for East Asia to form an integrated community based on the European model.

He was speaking at the "Future of Asia" symposium in Tokyo attended by Asian leaders.

"If you expand too quickly as they did in Europe, suddenly they became 27 from six. So the French people suddenly felt unhappy that they have Poles, Romanians, Czechoslovakians going to take their jobs. They rejected the constitution in a referendum. Similarly the Dutch.

"So that was the result of too ambitious a political plan. People were not ready for it. So I think studying the essence of Europe, we should proceed cautiously, step by step, but always towards closer integration and cooperation," said Mr Lee.

While China, Japan and Korea share common roots, Mr Lee notes that Southeast Asia is made up of different races and ethnic groups which do not share the same history, language and religion.

Read the full article at Channel NewsAsia

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