Attitudes and Awareness Towards ASEAN

Findings of a Ten-Nation Survey

Eric C Thompson and Chulanee Thianthai

Publication Year: 2008

This report shares results of a regionwide survey undertaken in late 2007 among over 2,000 students from leading universities across ASEAN member countries. The survey addressed questions on whether youths today consider themselves to be citizens of ASEAN; whether the region's youth are enthusiastic or skeptical about ASEAN; how well the region's youth know ASEAN and its members; and their concerns for the Association and the region. Survey findings indicate a nascent sense of ownership and stake in ASEAN, despite some clear differences in knowledge and opinions on the grouping. It is interesting to note that the students agreed on the importance of economic cooperation and addressing poverty and development needs; and share a desire to know more about the region. Responses from the survey provide a useful source of information for ASEAN policy-makers on promoting awareness about ASEAN and the challenges and opportunities the region faces in pursuing regional integration.

Published by: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

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This report is first and foremost the result of the shared aspiration of the ASEAN Member Countries to promote ASEAN awareness and a regional identity among young people of the region. The ASEAN Foundation, which holds this aspiration as one of its missions, catalysed the series of events that led to the eventual preparation and presentation of this report. ...

Introduction

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pp. xi-xiii

ASEAN’s Heads of State and Government have envisioned a community of cohesive, equitable and harmonious societies as their goal for an ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC). Inherent in this vision is the belief that ASEAN’s peoples would be “bound together in solidarity for deeper understanding and cooperation.” ...

1. Overview

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pp. 1-2

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has become one of the most sustained regional organizations of the postcolonial world. Forged in 1967 out of the security concerns of its original five member states in the context of a global Cold War environment, in which Southeast Asia was considered one of the hottest zones of ideological conflict, ...

2. Summary of Key Findings

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pp. 3-9

The key findings of our survey of 2,170 university students from ten ASEAN member nations are summarized below under five general categories: attitudes towards the region and the Association; knowledge about the Association; orientation towards countries within the region; ...

3. Subjects and Methods

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pp. 10-14

The survey targeted undergraduate university students from leading universities in the ten member nations of ASEAN. Logistically, it was impossible (given the time and resources involved) to consider a general survey of all citizens in all nations or even a survey of all youth. ...

4. Findings

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pp. 15-58

Students around the region are overwhelmingly positive in their orientation towards ASEAN. Everywhere, we find evidence for an attitude that we call “ASEAN enthusiasm” among substantial numbers of the students we interviewed. At the same time, however, this “ASEAN enthusiasm” is not evenly spread across the region. ...

5. Summaries and Conclusions

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pp. 59-66

Based on the overall responses given, the following is a general summary of the attitudes, knowledge, orientations, sources of information and aspirations of students from each national university. Based on these summaries and additional trends identified in the data, we will conclude by summarizing the more general region-wide findings of the survey ...

Appendices

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pp. 67-98

E-ISBN-13: 9789812308702
Print-ISBN-13: 9789812308696

Page Count: 98
Publication Year: 2008

Edition: 1