What do you think about the Panel on ASEAN Scepticism @ICON-IR 2024?
The presentations and the work that I do are actually of the same subject matter, and therefore, these are–we come from different perspectives. I innovated from the views and the presentations, and hopefully also from the views that I brought.
The way forward, and this is something that I’ve also been pushing the Foreign Ministry to do gain lesson from India, because we need to get more information from what the academia does and what Professor Howe was saying about interdisciplinary.
Though various issues, that the Foreign Ministry is working with. Probably do some research on it in academia from various schools. It could be international relations, it could be international law, it could be anthropology, it could be economics.
So what I think the way forward would be is on issues–we need to have more discussion, perhaps in around one day. What the Foreign Ministry needs, not a paper, but a discussion because every academic, every expert would bring to the table some perspectives and vice versa, if an academic, a professor, or other from the teaching or the research agencies.
They need information, they can either request a roundtable with the Foreign Ministry, or the AESAN, and could be with my office. Or they can, you know, take two days, three days internship and therefore understand your perspective. This is to bring together perspective at how we can benefit; research will become a lot more purposeful, meaningful to those doing the actual work, and vice versa. Those doing the actual work can benefit from views of the horizon or beyond the bend.I think this is how the way forward should be in very practical terms.
Is skepticism on ASEAN Centrality somewhat reasonable?
Of course, skepticism is helpful, skepticism is useful. You need a healthy dose of skepticism in everything you do, you need a mirror to make sure, you know, you are never sure that you are doing it right, especially if you are establishing new paths, and in a region that is evolved very quickly without any precedence in the past, you know, we talk about way power politics et cetera.
Yes, this happens in history, but this is the only time in the past few centuries where independent states, like Indonesia, like ASEAN member states, are actually–they have evolved enough as independent states to insist on a voice that will not be swayed, or would be less swayed one way or another because they have their interest and they voice their interest.
So, there is no precedence in modern history to this, we are establishing new path so having discussions is important. At the same time, I will also say that due to the academic nature, it’s about theories, concepts. There’s the risk of academia’s choosing information to fit with the framework, and that runs the risk of disregarding other information that actually plays a role that should be a variable in the construct.
So that is an academic challenge, I will not dwell too much into it, but again, having a more intense interaction between government and academia should fill that void.
