Joanne Lin|Laura Lee
ASEAN regionalism is increasingly seen as being slow and ineffective. Minilateral cooperation could be the way forward to allow a smaller group of like-minded ASEAN countries to work together in a targeted manner to deliver results where it matters.
Termsak Chalermpalanupap
Thai premier General Prayut Chan-o-cha, a former career military officer, is evolving to become a full-fledged politician who dangles goodies and hustles deals with other people of his ilk.
Melinda Martinus|Chhay Lim
Whether Cambodia can truly forge a foreign policy that stands apart from China will impact the next generation of Cambodian leaders at home and abroad.
Sivarin Lertpusit
The flow of Chinese investment into Thai private universities has sparked concerns about falling educational standards. The authorities need to put measures in place to ensure that standards are maintained.
Kai Ostwald
Anwar Ibrahim’s relationship with Malaysia’s powerful civil service is key to his government’s success and survival. He faces serious challenges in maintaining a positive relationship, but developments since 2018 help his chances.
Linda Yanti Sulistiawati
The confluence of ASEAN’s attention on climate change and its far-reaching consequences for the region and international currents supporting the protection of environmental rights opens a small window of opportunity for action.
Maria Elize H. Mendoza
Filipinos are avid users of social media, and these platforms hold the potential to help build an informed electorate, or to sow divisiveness in service of political interests. Social media influencers have capitalized on opportunities to burnish the Marcos brand, but post-election conflicts within their networks run contrary to the President’s main campaign message: his call for “unity”.
Maria Monica Wihardja|Ibrahim Kholilul Rohman
A truly regional digital community with borderless transactions and equitable access to online services must start with actual progress in the smallest of goals for an ASEAN-wide digitisation and digitalisation.
Pongphisoot Busbarat|Richard Javad Heydarian|Hoang Thi Ha|Shafiah F. Muhibat|Bich Tran
ASEANFocus invites experts to assess ASEAN’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific and how the region can advance its role in shaping the regional architecture amid the shift in the geopolitical landscape.
Lee Hwok-Aun
Anwar Ibrahim’s 24 February speech unveiled a budget largely replicating the October version presented by his predecessor. Given that Malaysia’s reforms extend beyond public funding priorities and allocations to institutional reforms and new narratives of nationhood, the budget speech may be just the opening act.