As the century goes by, criminal activities have gone through an evolution of appearances. Its motives varied according to the increase of their personal necessities and interests. Transnational Organized Crime, or TOC is a term for a worldwide lawbreaking action involving several countries by means of gaining profit. It serves a wide scope of activities ranging from drug trafficking, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, money laundering, corruption, and so forth. The data from UNODC denotes that the annual revenue of drug trafficking has reached a total of $320 billion, making it the most profitable illegal business. TOC is flexible due to the fact that their systems are always creating alterations to modern markets as well as constructing new shapes of crimes. Their groups operate in multiple countries and have a massive impact on other nations. The damage caused by TOC differs as it affects multiple crucial aspects of a country, mainly social, economic, political, cultural, and civil growth. Millions of people died, suffered, were injured, and were mistreated every year as a consequence of organized crime activities. The act of TOC is a violation of human rights and a menace to human security and peace. TOC is a worldwide issue with disparate forms that appear in most regions of the world. One of many interesting cases is the Chinese Triads, which then broadened their footprints across Southeast Asia.
China is among the superpower countries that have a long history of illegal acts. The most phenomenal and ancient is the confidential community of society called the Chinese Triads. The establishment of it is known to be traced to about 2.000 years ago and has a function to strive against warlords. As time passed by, the Triads experienced a shift in their aims, which was towards organized crime. They turn into an opportunist group built by avarice that operates drug trafficking, illegal gambling, money laundering, prostitution, and other gangster motions (Bancroft, 2018). Its huge influence then spreads nationwide, infecting Southeast Asian countries. The concrete practice of Triads is the growing of a large amount of opium in the Golden Triangle, a mountainous area within the borders of northeastern Myanmar, northern Laos, northwestern Thailand, and north Vietnam. It successfully produced 80 tons of heroin per year and is distributed across the globe by control of the Triads chief in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. This illicit act remained undiscovered and undetected until the 1970’s when the western police officials unraveled the hidden (Robertson, 1977). The Chinese Triads became one of the largest Transnational Organized Crime to ever be written in history.
As the activity shockingly affects the world, mainly Southeast Asian countries, measures towards this issue need to be taken. One of the best ways we can do this is to deploy a collective action. In this case, through organization. ASEAN, as an organization that focuses on Southeast Asian countries, is expected to address this matter. Several efforts have been made since the 1970s. Declarations were made as a response upon this case, namely the ASEAN Declaration on Transnational Crime of 20 December 1997, the Manila Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Transnational Crime of 25 March 1998, and the ASEAN Plan of Action to Combat Transnational Crime of 23 June 1999. In October 2000, ASEAN also declared Drug-Free ASEAN 2015 in partnership with the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNDCP). The Chinese Triads phenomenon is urgently concerning, as some cases recently occurred, making the TOC a contemporary issue facing ASEAN today. On top of that, this occurrence could be a perfect momentum for ASEAN to prove itself on the global scale of what this organization can do.
Chinese Triads and Their Operation in Southeast Asia
The biggest, most horrendous mafia-type group, the Chinese Triads, originated from Southern China and was formed in the early 19th century. Its initial purpose was political, specifically to advocate for the needs of Haan citizens and oppose the Manchu dynasty. The downfall of the Manchu dynasty in 1912 marked the Chinese Triads’ transition from political demonstrator to organized crime. Members of the triads then found a ‘home’ as the new base for their operations to practically run and spread worldwide, which is Hong Kong. In the present times, their organization is heavily bolstered by the economy. There are three primary groups that run nowadays: the 14K, the Wo Shing Wo, and the Sun Yee On (Van Oudenaren, 2014). Their work includes drug trafficking, killings, gambling, extortions, and many more (Bancroft, 2018).
The criminal activities in Southeast Asia vary from drug cartels to online scams. However, their actions are centralized on gambling. After covid-19 occurred, they discovered a new strategy: online fraud. Countries that are affected the most are Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. These online scams are known to be managed by armed gangs that oppressed people into doing it, making them illegal labor workers. Moreover, they are also backed up by national authorities as well as elites across the country. For instance, the frauds in Myanmar are supported by the Myanmar military with the existence of an addition in armed protection. Elites are underpinning the real estate investments in Cambodia by reutilizing casinos that were abandoned due to covid for online crimes. A research study conducted by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Senior Study Group in May 2024 has resulted in the estimated number of elite-owned online scams in Cambodia annually for approximately $12.5 billion, which is 50% of the country’s official GDP. Furthermore, the research also showed that illegal earnings of these gangsters in Mekong areas reached more or less 40% of Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos’ GDP incorporated, which is over $43.8 billion per year. Those financial gains are distributed for the controlling elites of Laos and Cambodia along with the Myanmar military. Other countries, such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, are also contaminated by criminal activities but are rather economical, such as money laundering.
The motives of the Chinese Triads to operate in Southeast Asia are identified to be the state’s institutions and law enforcement weaknesses. This can be evidenced through China’s rigorous laws hostile to offline and online gambling. With the newly afflicted areas as their main ‘battleground,’ the criminal gang could shield themselves from the strict Chinese enforcement law. Nowadays, this gang member is still running mainly in Southeast Asia. This can be proven as police seize 43 perpetrators in Batam and the detainment of She Zhijian who launders money in Thailand (Aulia, 2023). The criminal cartels in Southeast Asia are estimated to gain $64 billion worth of illegal money from around the world. This phenomenon indicates that the Chinese Triads are one of the Transnational Organized Crime wandering today that should be overcome.
ASEAN Initiatives on TOC: Effective Enough?
The Chinese Triads have caught ASEAN’s attention, and ASEAN has already plunged into this matter long ago. Multiple efforts have been made with hopes to successfully tackle it. It is proven since the Bangkok Declaration contains: “Strengthening the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian Nations” which indicates the aims and purposes of ASEAN’s establishment (ASEAN, 1967). It is also stated in Article 1 No. 12 of the ASEAN Charter that the purpose of ASEAN is “to strengthen cooperation in building a safe, secure, and drug-free environment for the peoples of ASEAN”. This then became the foundation of many declarations made by ASEAN, including ASEAN Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Transnational Crime, the Manila Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Transnational Crime (1998), ASEAN Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons, particularly Women and Children, ASEAN Plan of Action to Combat Transnational Crime, and many more. These declarations contain the efforts of ASEAN in responding to transnational crimes. ASEAN also engaged in certain institutions, such as ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC), the Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC), ASEAN Secretariat, and pondered the establishment of ASEAN Centre for Combating Transnational Crime (ACTC). In 2011, ASEAN took part by joining the UN-ASEAN Comprehensive Partnership that emphasizes political-security, socio-cultural, and economic aspects (ASEAN-UN, 2016). ASEAN also collaborated with the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNDCP) in setting up an action plan and declaring Drug-Free ASEAN 2015.
Actors are now facing a new obstacle in security, naming drug trafficking, terrorism, and other security threats that require collective power to address. This is exactly what happened with ASEAN. They are cooperating internally and externally (through institutions) to eliminate transnational crimes in their region. Several countries in Southeast Asia share the same problem in the field of security. As a result, ASEAN as an organization of Southeast Asia, engaged in quite a few institutions. It is now safe to say that ASEAN has made numerous attempts to turn down transnational crime issues. But as we all know, the criminal gangs are still active to the present.
This reality has led to another discussion: Are those endeavors made by ASEAN considered effective in a way to solve the region’s problem? To answer this question, let’s take a closer look at what ventures are actually done and/or getting done. ASEAN, as stated in the action plan, has reinforced the rule of law by increasing cooperation in enforcing law and prevention along with legislative review. ASEAN is striving to improve information sharing and exchange, enforce laws, address legal matters, etc. Pragmatic actions by ASEAN consist of deportations, lawful abolition, and mutual legal assistance. On the other hand, its process has faced numerous difficulties, such as poor bureaucracy, weak law enforcement within states, rapid revolution of social and behaviors of people, and diverse legal systems of each ASEAN country. These domestic obstacles have a major effect on their performance in facing transnational affairs. Furthermore, there has been an absence of coordination and miscommunication within the disparate activities of governments between ASEAN and the UN (Qiao-Franco, 2023). It obviously had an impact on the performance of their cooperation. Therefore, it can be said that, unfortunately, ASEAN’s efforts have not been effective since it is still an ongoing issue. We should also note that there is not a single declaration that focuses on cyber crimes as it does nowadays. UN-ASEAN collaboration needs to be maximized and intensified. In addition, their non-interference principle also has an impact on limiting their actions when facing crimes. The productiveness and efficacy of the ASEAN Way need to be questioned.
Efforts have been made by ASEAN since the 1970s. During the process, ASEAN has gone through many internal challenges that affect its effectiveness in solving this issue. Subsequently, it raised a question on whether they are effective enough. By looking at the current condition that new cases of TOC still emerge, those endeavors are considered ineffective. ASEAN should manage to settle their domestic disputes first before they proceed on tackling transnational matters. They need to rethink their principle of non-interference and peaceful approaches towards global affairs. Based on this matter, it seems that they have failed to achieve Article 1 No. 12 of the ASEAN Charter and the Bangkok Declaration that they all agreed upon.
