COMMENTARIES

19 Dec 2025

Reading ASEAN’s Sentiments in a Year of Crosswinds

Joanne Lin|Jasmine Yeo

Joanne Lin and Jasmine Yeo show how insights from two major regional surveys in 2025 capture the forces shaping ASEAN’s confidence in a year of shifting global winds.

11 Dec 2025

A New Deal for the Mekong

Anoulak Kittikhoun

Anoulak Kittikhoun argues that by treating the Mekong as an interconnected system rather than a patchwork of national interests, ASEAN can help transform the river into a model of regional cooperation, sustainability, and shared prosperity.

ASEAN ASEANFocus Mekong River Regional Cooperation

13 Nov 2025

Korea’s New ASEAN Policy: Pragmatic Partnership for a Shared Future

Lee Jaehyon|Ko Youngkyung

Lee Jaehyon and Ko Youngkyung elaborate how Korea’s new ASEAN policy under President Lee Jae-myung emphasises pragmatic, and mutually beneficial cooperation across security, economic, and people-to-people domains.

ASEAN ASEAN Summit ASEANFocus South Korea

19 Dec 2025

ASEAN Business Entity: Integration at the Cost of Inclusion

Tham Siew Yean

The ABE initiative professes to promote regional economic integration via greater intra-ASEAN investments, but ASEAN should focus on attracting high-quality investment, enhancing industrial upgrading, and mitigating geopolitical risk.

ASEAN Economic Integration

18 Dec 2025

ASEAN Power Grid: Gleaning Best Practices from Worst Cases

Mirza Sadaqat Huda

As Southeast Asia focuses on building the ASEAN Power Grid, there will be a higher chance of success if interconnections are designed to be modular and embedded within a broader regional integration agenda.

ASEAN Energy

18 Dec 2025

Private Investment, Public Burden: Indonesia’s ‘Whoosh’ Lesson

Romora Edward Sitorus|A. Prasetyantoko

Indonesia’s first high-speed train project is historic but its government now has to prevent it going off the rails as costs spiral and boomerang onto the state and taxpayers.

Indonesia transport

17 Dec 2025

Islamic Soft Power: Malaysia Well-Positioned to Consolidate its Global Leadership on Halal Branding and Governance

Syaza Shukri

Malaysia has successfully transformed halal governance from religious compliance into a strategic tool of soft power. Through the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) and the Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC), halal became both a moral brand and an economic driver across food, finance, tourism, cosmetics, and logistics.

Halal Halal Certification Malaysia

17 Dec 2025

Indonesia’s Slow Disaster Response: President Prabowo Constrained by His Own Agenda

Made Supriatma

Poor advice and a seeming refusal to acknowledge the reality and scale of the problem have hampered the Indonesian president’s response to the disastrous floods across Sumatra.

Disaster Management Indonesia Indonesian Politics

17 Dec 2025

Sabah First? 2025 State Election Shows Voters Want Results Not Slogans

Arnold Puyok

The 17th Sabah elections evinced a mix of the predictable and the surprising. Despite the show of support for the ‘Sabah First’ slogan, the fragmented politics of the state will continue.

Malaysia Malaysian Elections Malaysian Politics Sabah

16 Dec 2025

Building BRICS? Anwar’s Worldview and Malaysia’s Foreign Policy

Isabelle Chua|Francis E. Hutchinson

Malaysia’s decision to join BRICS demonstrates its long-standing adherence to strategic equidistance. It also bears Anwar Ibrahim’s personal imprimatur.

BRICS Malaysia Malaysian Politics

16 Dec 2025

Flood Control in the Philippines: When Corruption Bedevils Climate Change Mitigation

JC Punongbayan

The fact that the Philippines requires flood control measures is beyond dispute. But the problem goes far deeper.

Climate Change Philippine Philippine Politics

15 Dec 2025

Momentum or Mirage? Anutin’s Risky Road to Re-Election

Napon Jatusripitak

Anutin Charnvirakul’s recent dissolution of the Thai Parliament is a tactical move to preserve incumbency advantages going into elections next year. Still, he might end up with an unwieldy “grand compromise” coalition that will give him little wiggle room.

Thai Elections Thai Politics Thailand