Universities vital in establishing ASEAN Community

Hafid Abbas, Jakarta | Thu, 11/17/2011 8:13 AM A | A | A |- Klipping The Jakarta Post

The 19th ASEAN Summit and related summits Indonesia is hosting in Bali will certainly draw the attention of the global community, to some extent because of the presence of prominent international figures.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend an ASEAN-UN conference as part of the Summit’s subsidiary meetings. Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Australian and New Zealand prime ministers Julia Gillard and John Key, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will also be in Bali for the 6th East Asia Summit, which follows the ASEAN Summit.

The ASEAN Summit will address three priorities, namely ensuring the ASEAN’s significant progress toward the formation of an ASEAN Community by 2015; promoting relations between ASEAN and other regions, particularly concerning the East Asia Summit (EAS); and developing a common ASEAN platform on global issues.

The 4th ASEAN Summit in 1992 called for ASEAN Member Countries to help “hasten the solidarity and development of a regional identity through the promotion of human resource development so as to further strengthen the existing network of leading universities and institutions of higher learning in the region.”

The objectives of the ASEAN University Network (AUN) are: to strengthen the existing network of cooperation among universities in ASEAN; to promote collaborative study, research and educational programs in the priority areas identified by ASEAN; to promote cooperation and solidarity among scholars, academicians and researchers in the ASEAN member states; and, to serve as a policy-oriented body in higher education in the ASEAN region.

These objectives appear to be important entry points to accelerate the formation of the ASEAN Community by 2015. However, to achieve those objectives, it is important to address the following key dynamic factors.

First, the process toward the formation of ASEAN Community: it is important to address issues of uncertainty relating to political, security, economic and sociocultural dimensions. These issues could be triggered by both internal and external factors within ASEAN. The existing border conflicts, for example, between Thailand and Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia, the Philippines and Malaysia, Malaysia and Singapore, could create unpredictable political tensions within the region.

Similarly, the issue of transnational organized crimes such as money-laundering, human and drug trafficking, smuggling, illegal logging, migrant worker issues and terrorism could create regional tensions.

Externally, relations between North and South Korea, Taiwan and China, India and Pakistan, China and Japan, and disputes over the Spratly Islands, the Iranian nuclear issue, Israel and Palestine, the transition process in Middle East and North Africa are some examples of what may spark uncertainty within the region. Similarly, the financial crises plaguing Europe and the US could also escalate socioeconomic and political uncertainties within ASEAN.

Here, universities can play significant roles in explaining scientifically the trends in those uncertainties in efforts to minimize their risks and consequences.

Second, the process toward the formation of the ASEAN Community begs measures to address issues of diversity in terms of political-security, economic and sociocultural dimensions.

In terms of languages, for example, all major languages are also spoken here, such as Malay, Chinese, Indian, Thai, French and English, in addition to hundreds or thousands of local languages.

Indonesia has more than 600 local languages. Similarly, religions, cultures and traditions and political systems vary greatly between nations in this region. Consequently, there is a persistent potential of mistrust and misunderstanding between people, ethnic groups, and even between nations.

The AUN is thus a breakthrough for ASEAN social transformation, and can build a new horizon of trust, honesty, openness and tolerance among the younger generation. Joint-degree programs, twinning, credit transfer and accreditation systems, exchanges of information, lecturers and students, for example, may accelerate this transformation process.

Third, the creation of the ASEAN Community requires cooperation in terms of political-security, economic and sociocultural dimensions. In this regard, cooperation can be made based on areas each country excels in.

A move by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) to develop various centers of excellences across the region, for example, could be an inspiring model for countries to map out their university accreditation and resources to promote AUN. Malaysia, for example, is a regional center for education in Science and Mathematics; Singapore is a leader in languages; Brunei is vocational education; Indonesia is community nutrition; the Philippines is public health and Thailand is the leader in tropical medicine.

Another model is the Laureate International Universities. This global university network includes more than 55 accredited campus-based and online universities and it has more than 600,000 students across 27 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, North Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The AUN may collaborate and adopt its management system to accelerate the regional integration of higher education development within ASEAN.

In this spirit of cooperation, Gandhi said, “I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”

Finally, may the 19th ASEAN Summit and related summits address the issues of uncertainty, diversity and demands to strengthen cooperation to accelerate the formation of ASEAN Community in 2015. May this momentum accelerate the regional integration of higher education development and be able to reorient their universities as the brains of the nations and the region.

The writer is a professor at the State University of Jakarta, a former director general of human rights, and a former UNESCO Consultant in Asia and the Pacific Region.