Manila: South-east Asian nations and their key allies, including Australia, have blown an opportunity to force Myanmar to end the worst atrocities committed against a civilian population in Asia for decades.
Imagine this: Men, woman and children hacked to death.
Women, girls and boys raped en-masse.
Families gunned down on land and from the sky.
Families locked in their homes and burnt to death.
More than 600,000 people forced to flee their homes to squalid refugee camps, where there is an unfolding humanitarian emergency.
But at their annual summit and related meetings, this year in Manila, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations refused to discuss as a bloc, in any strongly critical manner, the ethnic cleansing of 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine State.
Sure, some leaders expressed alarm at the violence against Muslims in the Buddhist-majority country, with de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi sitting among them.
But ASEAN and its key allies failed to deliver a united ultimatum to Suu Kyi's government to immediately cease all atrocities in Rakhine and investigate and prosecute those responsible.
Given the extent of the slaughter, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's response in Manila will disappoint thousands of Rohingya victims.
In a private meeting Mr Turnbull held with Suu Kyi, the prime minister welcomed her "efforts to solve the crisis," reiterated Australia's concerns and confirmed Australia's offer to assist by co-leading a group to co-ordinate international assistance, an official said.
On the same day, Myanmar's military claimed on Facebook no innocent Rohingya civilians had been killed, no houses had been razed and there were no rapes, despite UN and other investigators having meticulously documented widespread atrocities.
ASEAN's failure to forcefully confront the Rohingya crisis and Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's drugs crackdown, that has left more than 14,000 mostly poor Filipinos dead, will fuel criticism the grouping has reached use-by date, in the year of its 50th anniversary.
As they have done for almost every of the last 15 years, ASEAN and China announced progress on a "code of conduct" for the South China Sea, this time agreeing to discuss the fine print.
But China, which claims almost all the flashpoint waters, will continue to play on the weaknesses that separate ASEAN members on the territorial claims of other nations, if its previous behaviour is any guide.
The threat of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile program and the terrorism threat were the focus of talks in the ASEAN-linked East Asia Summit on Tuesday.
Malcolm Turnbull spoke out forcefully there on the need for wider financial and other sanctions on the rogue state. ASEAN also concluded a free trade agreement with Hong Kong and agreed on the need to protect migrant workers.
But the grouping's inability to address Asia's most serious humanitarian crises in decades comes at a time of the growing risk of conflict, which makes its long-held policy of non-interference among member states appear increasingly irrelevant.
There is little confidence that ASEAN can build trust about the region's future stability.
ASEAN leaders are failing to comply with their own charter that commits members to the pursuit of democracy and the rule of law.
Cambodia is rapidly descending into dictatorship .Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos and increasingly the Philippines have strong-arm governments where political freedoms are routinely silenced.
Extremism and xenophobia is rising in Indonesia.
For years, ASEAN has shown a propensity to dither, has been slow to arrive at a workable consensus and has no ability to compel member states' compliance with principles and agreements reached among them.
World leaders who fly into the region for the ASEAN summit season hold important meetings on the sidelines, and get the opportunity to press south-east Asian nations on issues like human rights and democracy.
But only Canada's Justin Trudeau forcefully and publicly raised the Rohingya crisis and the Philippine killings in meetings.
For his trouble he copped a tongue-lashing from Duterte, who declared early on Wednesday "I will not answer to any bullshit, especially foreigners, lay off."
In a press conference wrapping up the summits Duterte made no mention of the Rohingya crisis.
The sideshow in Manila was US President Donald Trump, who seemed to revel in the red carpets, extravagant meals and flattery, and who flew back to Washington with few concrete accomplishments at hand.
Asian leaders were left uncertain about the US's future role in their region.
Mr Trump skipped the final session of the East Asia Summit, instead handing reporters on his plane a statement saying he supports efforts "to ensure accountability for atrocities committed and the facilitate the safe and voluntary return" of Rohingya refugees.
Before the summits former Philippine foreign secretary Albert del Rosario criticised the "lack of leadership" in ASEAN, saying states "have found themselves pulled in different directions."
"In the broader context, one can say that ASEAN is adrift," he said.
Marty Natalegawa, a former Indonesian foreign minister, said recently "nowhere is the need for collaborative action that transcends domestic considerations more evident" than the Rohingya crisis.
He said that clearly the crisis is another litmus test for ASEAN and other regional institutions like the partly-Australian led Bali Process, which focuses on refugees.
"The challenge is for these institutions, and the countries leading them, like Indonesia and Australia, to demonstrate relevance, to be part of the solution," he said.
Clearly, once more, they have failed.
