Sitting here in South East Asia, one cannot be blamed for musing on the sudden interest shown by the US to our small part of the world.

During the Asian crisis, the US withdrew attention from South East Asia, despite being a leading investor and profit-maker in our 10 year bubble. There were other places to focus on - a South Korea more strategically regionally, other emerging markets, and a China which makes yankees go gaga at the profit potential. Suddenly the US seems interested.. but business is not the reason...

The Asian crisis gave the US a chance to skite about their corporate governance in their top companies like Enron, transparancy, controls and accountability that only auditing companies like Anderson could provide. Political stability too and the lack of crony capitalism.

In no small way an instigator of the Asian bubble economy, American investors and their government cronies looked the other way when things went bad. The Asian consumers who had contributed to their profits were left to pickup the pieces.

Some things seemed wrong however. Singapore was still sitting atop the list of least corrupt and competitive nations in the world - the US was struggling to stay at the bottom of the Top Ten.

Suddenly, things look different. The new battle cry is China for the favoured developing market and East Asian markets such as Korea and Taiwan for the developed. The new battle ground in the increasingly incredible "war against terrorism" is shifting to the Philippines, and the inexorable movement is also towards Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia.

But the movement is spurred, again in no small part, by the US's need for security in the region. Vietnam again. (That was a war, not a country wasnt it?) Business is secondary, because better business opportunities are in larger economies. But the US needs our help in containing political global terrorism.

Even the US-based International Herald Tribune alludes to the possibility of a perception of a US lack of integrity on the part of South East Asian nations in particular. Southeast Asia needs more attention trumpets the Tribune...

Resentment of U.S. policy during the crisis still simmers. With China's entry into the World Trade Organization, Southeast Asians fear that the United States, the largest trading partner and investor for several countries in the region, will shift its trade and investment to Northeast Asia.

This is even more likely if Southeast Asia is viewed as an unstable or dangerous place to do business. The Bush administration needs to assure Southeast Asian countries that economic development remains a priority, even as attention shifts to the terrorist threat. Part of the problem is in the United States. Washington lacks expertise on the region in both official and unofficial sectors.

A wakeup call indeed. Some are less willing now in retrospect to act as a pawn in the global game. And this time send people over who at least know a little bit about South East Asia and how it works...