South-east Asia had a decent 2025. So why does no one feel like celebrating?

Home-grown dysfunction is clouding the region's genuine gains this year - and 2026 will be less forgiving.

- Bhavan Jaipragas Deputy Opinion Editor

Hypothetically, which Asean country would be confident enough to put its hand up and say: yes, all things considered, we had a pretty good 2025?

A few strong contenders come to mind. Vietnam, adroitly managing superpower ties, negotiating United States President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs down from 46 to 20 per cent, its economy roaring. Easily East Asia's trade war winner.

Malaysia, recipient of multiple attaboys from global commentators for one of the liveliest - productive, even - Asean chairmanships in recent years. And Singapore, central to efforts such as the launch of the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership, has won plaudits for standing up, as the little guy, for free trade amid Mr Trump's sweeping protectionist agenda.

Chances are none of these contenders are in a back-patting mood. They must have enough self-awareness to know that, rightly or wrongly, the world often looks at Southeast Asia as a whole, rather than as its various parts.

The overall message from here will, strikingly, not be one of resilience in the face of US-induced daily gyrations, but of internal dysfunction - to varying degrees, yet more pronounced this year.

Scroll across the region on Google Maps, pausing at most of the countries, and the learned observer's first instinct will not be: here is a region humming along just fine. Quite the opposite - there is ample evidence of own goals.

For the most obvious of these, hover your cursor first over the Thai-Cambodian border. Why has fighting between the neighbours flared up this year after years of peace? And after much ado about a Trump-brokered truce in October, why have skirmishes been rekindled over the past two weeks?

Colonial-era cartography and centuries-old attachment to temple ruins in the disputed area do not, on their own, explain it.

OWN GOALS GALORE