Keeping 'One Asean' through education

Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
Learning Curve: Perspective
New Sunday Times - November 27, 2015

“One Asean” screamed a headline after a flurry of Asean-related activities ushering the forthcoming Asean Community. Why not? Since its inception the grouping has always adopted the motto: “One Vision, One Identity, One Community”. In other words, it is a unified region cemented by the single-mindedness of translating “unity in diversity” into reality beyond just the logic of doing business and commerce.

As a single entity, it ranks as the seventh largest economy in the world, behind the US, China, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. In 2015, the organisation’s combined nominal gross domestic product (GDP) reportedly had grown to more than US$2.6 trillion (RM10.9 trillion). Although the community is more formally known as the Asean Economic Community (AEC) — make no mistake that “economy” alone does not make One Asean.

This is obvious because apart from economic growth, it also aims at making social progress and promoting socio-cultural evolution among its members. Advancing and protecting regional peace and stability are equally important in the context of ZOPFAN — Zone of peace, freedom, and neutrality. In fact, Asean needs to emphasise on “the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity”.

This was made clear by our second prime minister the late Tun Abdul Razak when he spoke: “We the nations and peoples of Southeast Asia must get together and form by ourselves a new perspective and a new framework for our region.” He further stressed that the countries of the region should recognise that unless they assumed their common responsibility to shape their own destiny and to prevent external intervention and in

terference, Southeast Asia would remain fraught with danger and tension. Given Asean’s combined population of approximately 625 million people, that is, about nine per cent of the world’s population, with territorial waters covering an area about three times larger than its land counterpart, ZOPFAN can be an uphill battle to realise and keep. This is where the non-economic dimensions play a vital role, especially in the education sector. Yet, in terms of human development index (HDI) it is only considered as “medium.” Although literacy rates among 15- to 24-year-old youths from the 10 Asean member states can be considered as “good,” the educational infrastructure is generally less that satisfactory. It raises several concerns not least relating to standards and quality of education across the board.

Recognising this, the Asean education ministers have agreed to enhance regional cooperation in education through four priority areas: promoting Asean awareness among Asean citizens, particularly youth; strengthening Asean identity through education; building Asean human resources in the field of education; and strengthening the Asean University Network (AUN).

The Asean Education Ministers’ Meeting annually oversees Asean cooperation efforts on education at the ministerial level, while implementation, programmes and activities are carried out by the Asean Senior Officials on Education who also manage cooperation on higher education through the AUN.

There are, however, still issues that are pending going by the Asean Youth Forum (AYF) as late as 2012. Held in Phnom Penh, the AYF highlighted four common challenges in the region, including education and meaningful participation of young people, sexual and reproductive health and rights, peace, and environment. At the conclusion of the forum, a joint statement was issued urgently demanding for immediate action from Asean governments in facilitating the full actualisation of “our humanity”: Our Mind, Our Body and Our Heart.

More specifically, they raised evidence-based concern notably with regards to insufficient qualified teaching staff, poor educational facilities, unequal education opportunities for key populations, vulnerable and marginalised groups, and the lack of programmes that cater to the career wants of the youth. They have been demanding that young people in Asean must be empowered to access free and qualified basic education so that they can address their needs in order to find their own solutions, make their own decisions, and realise their own choices. They are equally concerned about the limitation and restriction on space for freedom of expression and meaningful participation among youth from diverse groups.

In tandem, they noted that the issues about conflict and violence still exist in many Asean countries brought about by political unrest, narrow national interest, unjust social benefits, and faulty historical teaching. These cause conflicts such as border disputes, labour rights violation, discrimination of migrant workers by state authorities and companies and natural resource exploitation such as land concessions, dams, deforestation, etc.

Allegedly this has some relationship with conflicts between government and civil society in many Asean countries. Consequently, the youth become victims to state, community and domestic violence which in turn threaten the “unified” region of One Asean.

In the final analysis, unless education in the Asean Community is well structured to deal with some of these major issues, One Asean will remain nothing more than a mere slogan.

The writer is honorary professor at the University of Nottingham and chair of Leadership at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia