Awareness on ASEAN is low among its own citizens, let alone the world. The recent incident with the Indonesian flag at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games 2017 and the backlash of the Indonesian online community are recent proofs that reflect the lack of understanding between the ASEAN nations.
This intensifies the needs to gauge awareness among citizens of ASEAN member nations on the significance of creating an ASEAN-centric community. The ASEAN initiative is not merely about enhancing economic and trading relationships between the countries, but it is also meant to create a tight-knitted community who understands and respects the unique variations in culture, food, people, religion and language within the region. It is worrying to note that many citizens of these nations, especially the youths, still lack proper knowledge of the ASEAN initiative and its members 50 years since its inception. Hence, the governments should seriously consider integrating ASEAN-based knowledge into their respective education systems to create a stronger understanding amongst their citizens.
When contacted by The ASEAN Post, Malaysia’s leading historian Prof Emeritus Dr Khoo Kay Kim said there is a need to inculcate ASEAN as a subject to create awareness about the ASEAN community. Every government in ASEAN should get together to create awareness and stress on the importance of building a community. Khoo, who is attached with University Malaya – a leading educational institution in Malaysia - said there is a need to look into the social aspects as well; ASEAN is more than trades and businesses alone. He believes that Malaysia can play a bigger role in creating better awareness across ASEAN region as historically, it has maintained good relationships with most of the ASEAN countries and it shares common boundaries. “The youth in ASEAN should know more about ASEAN in more ways like its culture, people, food and religion. At the moment, there is no attempt to make people to understand ASEAN as whole.”
Creating an ASEAN community is not an easy task and it requires continuous cooperation between ASEAN nations. There is a need to have ASEAN studies implemented into school syllabus, which will educate students about the ASEAN states, region and their culture. This is how the region will be able to promote greater integration between these nations.
A survey on “Attitudes and Awareness toward ASEAN: Findings of a Ten Nation” also pointed out that students from all around the region have a positive outlook on the ASEAN initiative with the most positive respondents coming from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. On the other hand, students from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines exhibit largely positive attitude toward ASEAN. Results from Singapore suggested a perspective best described as somewhat ambivalent toward the region. “Only in Myanmar to we find evidence for substantial “ASEAN scepticism”. Moreover, the results very strongly suggest a distinctive divergence of opinion within Myanmar. A substantial minority of respondents appear to be confirmed ASEAN-sceptics, but a slightly larger plurality tends toward the positive outlook most common in the rest of the region,” the survey added. The survey was conducted by the National University of Singapore and Chulalongkorn University on behalf of the ASEAN Foundation.