from the editors · 2019-08-29 · from the editors dear readers t he 34th asean summit has...

FROM THE EDITORSDear Readers

The 34th ASEAN Summit has resulted in the formulation of the “ASEAN Outlook on the In-do-Pacific,” which deliberates ASEAN states response to the current strategic dynamic of the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. For decades, ASEAN has been engaging in the

development of an inclusive regional architecture which aims to provide peace, stability, and prosperity for Southeast Asia. The most recent Indo-Pacific initiatives have brought out the need for ASEAN to come up with a vision for closer cooperation while maintaining its central role in Southeast Asia and its surrounding regions.

This edition focuses on discussions surrounding the “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific,” par-ticularly its prospects, challenges and opportunities in the future. We present an article by Idil Syafwi, which argues on how ASEAN can foster its centrality in the Indo-Pacific Region. This edi-tion also features an interview with Jose Tavarez, the Director General of ASEAN Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, which includes a lengthy discussion on the 34th ASEAN Summit and the “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.”

Have a good reading!

Sincerely,Aisha R. KusumasomantriManaging Editor

ASEAN Study CenterDepartment of International RelationsFaculty of Social and Political Sciences Universitas IndonesiaNusantara 2 Building, 2nd Floor Depok, West Java - IndonesiaTel/Fax: +62 21 7873744 • email: [email protected]://asc.fisip.ui.ac.id/

asean insights

asean insights is a monthly newsletter which aims to provide important insights on ASEAN issues. The newsletter is published by ASEAN Study Center, Faculty of So-cial and Political Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, with the support from the Mission of the Republic of Korea to ASEAN. The content of asean insights does not reflect the official opinion of the Mission of the Republic of Korea to ASEAN.

Mission of theRepublic of Korea to ASEAN

BOARD OF EDITORSEdy Prasetyono

Evi Fitriani Hariyadi Wirawan

Shofwan Al Banna Choiruzzad

MANAGING EDITORAisha R. Kusumasomantri

FINANCIAL MANAGERYuni R. Intarti

LAYOUT & DESIGNIvan Sanjaya

SUPPORTING TEAMMutaaririn Nurul Hidayah

Destya Darmawan

03ASEAN Updates

06OpinionFostering ASEAN Centrality in the Indo-Pacific Region | By Idil Syawfi

05Book Review

China and ASEAN: Energy Security, Cooperation and Competition.

12Korean Mission Updates

04Spotlight

ASEAN & Dialogue Partners This MonthThe Republic of Korea, New Zealand, and The European Union

08What They SayAbout ASEAN?

Mr. Jose Antonio Morato Tavares (Director General for ASEAN Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Republic of Indonesia) 10Opinion

Sentencing Trends and Characteristics of Terror-ism Offense in Indonesia: An Evidence for ASEAN Counter-Terrorism Policy | By Milda Istiqomah

14Profile

Mission of the Republic of Korea to ASEANASEAN Study Center

CONTENTSJULY2019

2 asean insights • vol.2 no.5 July 2019

asean updates

3vol.2 no.5 July 2019 • asean insights

Palembang, Indonesia2/2019 ASEAN Connec�vity Coordina�ng Commi�ee (ACCC) Mee�ng

1-3July

3-16July

Denmark andthe Netherlands ASEAN Cultural Troupe:Oneness to the World

2-3July

Bandar Seri Begawan,Brunei Darussalam

23rd ASEAN-ROK Dialogue

8July

ASEAN Secretariat ASEAN Forum on SDGs with

Na�onal Development Planning Agencies: Accelera�ng SDGs

Implementa�on in ASEAN

Bangkok, Thailand30th ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment Mee�ng:● 5th PSC Mee�ng of CARE4Biodiv ● 2ⁿd PSC Meetving of BCAMP ● 21st Mee�ng of Governing Board of ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity ● 30th ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment Mee�ng and Related Mee�ngs ●15th ASEAN Plus Three Senior Officials Mee�ng on the Environment (SOME) ● 13th ASEAN-Japan Dialogue on Environment Officials Mee�ng for Prepara�on of the 5th EAS EMM

8-12July

10-12July

Bangkok, Thailand13th ASEAN Defense Ministers’

Mee�ng

14-15July

Bangkok, Thailand14th Mee�ng of the ASEAN Coordina�ng Commi�ee on E-Commerce (ACCEC)

16July

Bangkok, Thailand17th CLMV Senior Economic

Officials Mee�ng

02

04

17-20July

Vientiane, Lao PDREleventh ASEAN Ministerial Mee�ng on Youth (AMMY XI)● The Preparatory Senior Officials’Mee�ng

for the Eleventh ASEAN Ministerial Mee�ngon Youth (Prep SOM for AMMY XI);

● Eleventh ASEAN Ministerial Mee�ngon Youth (AMMY XI);

● The Preparatory Senior Officials’ Mee�ngfor the Seventh ASEAN Plus Three;

● Ministerial Mee�ng on Youth(Prep-SOM for the 7th AMMY+3);

● The Seventh ASEAN Ministerial Mee�ng onYouth (7th AMMY+3).

18-19July

Bangkok, Thailand36th Mee�ng of the High-Level

Task Force on ASEAN Economic Integra�on (HLTF-EI)

Penang, Malaysia29th ASEAN-China Joint Working Group on the Implementa�on of the Declara�on on the Conduct of Par�es in the South China Sea

1-3July

26-31July

Zhengzhou, China 27th RCEP TNC & Related

Mee�ngs

27 Jul- 3 Aug

Bangkok, Thailand● ASEAN Senior Officials’ Mee�ng (SOM) ● 52ⁿd ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Mee�ng ● Post-Ministerial Conferences ● 20th ASEAN Plus Three Foreign

Ministers’ Mee�ng ● 9th East Asia Summit Foreign

Ministers’ Mee�ng ● 26th ASEAN Regional Forum ● Execu�ve Commi�ee of the Southeast

Asia Nuclear Weapon Free ZoneCommission (SEANWFZ EXCOM)

● Commission on the Southeast AsiaNuclear Weapon Free Zone(SEANWFZ Commission)

● AMM Interface with AICHRRepresenta�ves


Spotlight

ASEAN & Dialogue Partners This MonthThis month, ASEAN representatives met up with several dialogue partners, namely the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, and the EU in order to strengthen coopera-tion in various sectors. The meetings are supposedly held in regards to the upcom-ing ASEAN Summit.

On 3 July, ASEAN and the Republic of Korea (ROK) convened in the 23rd ASEAN-ROK Dia-

logue in Bandar Seri Begawan. They discussed ways and means to make the partnership more robust, as the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-ROK relations is ap-proaching, by advancing cooperation in various ar-eas of mutual interest, ranging from cybersecurity to people-to-people exchange. They agreed to renew the five-year Plan of Action as its former is due to be expired this year. The ROK representatives also wel-comed the adoption of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. The meeting this time was also held to prepare the ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit that is to be held in November this year in Busan.

The Republic of Korea

New ZealandThe 7th ASEAN-New Zealand Joint Cooperation Commit-

tee Meeting was held on 5 July in Jakarta. The officials convened to strengthen the ASEAN-New Zealand strate-gic partnership as the 45th anniversary of their relations is due to come next year. The meeting was co-chaired by the Permanent Representative of Cambodia to ASEAN Yeap Samnang and Ambassador of New Zealand to ASE-AN Pam Dunn. In this occasion, New Zealand reiterated its commitment to ASEAN centrality and welcomed the announcement of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. The representatives also discussed widening the area of cooperation and looking forward to the drafting of a new five-year plan of action next year.

The European UnionOn 8 July, ASEAN and the EU launched a High-Level Dialogue on Environment and Climate Change in

Bangkok. At the dialogue, ASEAN and the EU adopted Objectives and Working Arrangements for the Dialogue, building the foundation for further growth and exploring new joint projects on environment and climate change. The representatives also discussed various subjects, including sustainable finance in relation to climate change, sustainable cities, and other environmental issues. One of the prominent subjects of dis-cussion was regional gap-analysis on the state of circular economy for plastics in the ASEAN Member States.

photo/asean.org

photo/asean.org

photo/asean.org

Book Review


Among the books that discuss China and its relations with ASEAN (Association of South-east Asian Nations), China and ASEAN deliv-

ers the dynamics of China’s rising power and its influ-ence in the region specifically in the energy security issue. The book starts with the evolution of both par-ties’ political and economic relations after the Asian financial crisis until they are becoming world’s new economic center of gravity where energy security is crucial for their economic growth. Although the eco-nomic relations of China and ASEAN is getting more prospective, China continues to be seen as a threat, especially in the ASEAN local communities, and the geopolitics of energy in the South China Sea becomes a ‘hot spot.’ The book aims to answer the future of China and ASEAN relationship in energy quest: will it spark conflict or lead to more intense cooperation?Zhao Hong, an International Political Economy Pro-fessor, succeeded in offering a novelty to the debates on global energy resource (he calls it as new global energy order) which is often viewed binary towards its end: cooperation or competition. Hong argues that the alternative means of scarce resources is re-lated to the status of resources relations between related states in their quest for natural resources (p. 16). Thus, the possibility of conflict will most likely be reduced. By emphasizing the status of China and ASE-AN relations, Hong sees that the energy cooperation will remain as ASEAN embraces the opportunity. He is very attentive to mention how China tries to adapt to its neighbors’ local community perception while its neighbors ―using Myanmar and Indonesia as case

studies, are rising their resource nationalism.In the last chapter, Hong proposes a moderate idea through new energy order to maintain energy securi-ty by collaborating China and ASEAN with developed countries for energy conservation and efficiency. To him, it is the interest of the United States, Japan, and the other Western countries to keep China and ASEAN relations in balance. However, there is an un-settled answer of the South China Sea dispute as it continues to be a stumbling block since it is becoming this century’s area of big power politics. Although the book suggests that it is time for Western countries to learn Eastern culture as the new center of gravity, it leaves questions to rethink: are they willing to do so? Will the East ever be the new center of gravity replac-ing the West in other than economic matter?

AuthorHana Naufanita

Research and Teaching Assistant atInternational Relations,Universitas Indonesia.

Hong, Zhao. China and ASEAN:Energy Security, Cooperation and Competition.

Book Title :China and ASEAN: Energy Security, Cooperation and Competitionauthor:Zhao HongPublisher : East-West CenterYear : 2015ISBN : 978-981-4695-25-1

Opinion

Fostering ASEAN Centralityin the Indo-Pacific Region


The term “Indo-Pacific” is a geopolitical concept shaped by great power rivalry in global politics. It became popular when President Trump ut-tered the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” term. It shows the United States’ commitment in coun-tering the “authoritarian” China by involving its “liberal and democratic” partners in the region including Japan, Australia, and India. The United States committed to use its advantage in polit-ical, economic, and diplomatic leadership for this strategy. In fact, this strategy is the revision and expanded version of President Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” strategy that aims to strengthen the involvement of the United States in the Asia Pacific. On the other hand, China has its vision about how to place themselves in the Indo-Pacific re-gion. For China, the Pacific Ocean, especially Southeast Asia, is their present economic fuel. Trade and investment within this region is the main reason for China’s recent economic rising. Meanwhile, the Indian Ocean is projected for the future of China’s political-economy power. The ambitious Belt and Road Initiative shows China’s commitment and effort in the region. This effort includes their military base realiza-tion in Djibouti, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Mal-

dives.. It seems that China realizes that military power is necessary to safeguard its economic development and to balance the United States as the hegemonic power.So where is ASEAN’s position? In its latter pro-vision, the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific pro-posed the more neutral perspective. The con-cept highlights about ASEAN centrality in order to foster a more multilateral approach, rule-based relationship, and culture of dialogue and cooperation among countries in the region. The concept also emphasizes the openness, trans-parency, and inclusivity that bring all countries from great power to small power together in order to create the peaceful, prosperous, and stable region. After agreeing on this term, ev-ery ASEAN member states should apply this concept when dealing with other states in the Indo-Pacific Region.It is, in fact, a well readable ASEAN style con-cept. In nature, ASEAN always put itself as a bridge for every power that is involved in the region. ASEAN centrality is based on its claim as the sole and the most advanced regional institu-tion that will potentially be able to play conflict prevention mechanism in the region.

The 34th ASEAN summit in Bangkok was held amidst the vagueness of the ASEAN

position regarding the Indo-Pacif-ic Concept. Although in the end, ASEAN member countries agreed on the Indonesia-led ASEAN Out-look on Indo-Pacific, the dynamic occurred when Singapore tried to delay the agreement a few days before the summit. A long pro-cess toward an agreement and “disunity” among its members show us that there is something wrong with ASEAN today, espe-cially when dealing with great power.

With its Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, ASE-AN and its several forums, such as ARF and East Asia Summit, have their own mechanism based on rule and multilateral approach. ASEAN is also known as a regional institution that promotes dialogue and respect for sovereignty that can bring every power to share and discuss every international dynamic. It is the ASEAN concep-tion and other parties’ expectation that ASEAN should play its role as a solution in the middle of great power rivalry especially in the Indo-Pacific region.So what is wrong with the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Concept? The problem does not lie in the con-cept, but in the relationship between ASEAN members and ASEAN as an institution. Lately, al-most every country in Southeast Asia have been busy with its own agenda and unilateral policy. Indonesia has its own regional ambitions with its maritime fulcrum agenda, and tend to put ASEAN in a similar place with other institutions such as G-20, IORA, and APEC. Malaysia is trying to exit from its debt-trap regarding its relation-ship with China, and is also beginning to balance it with a closer tie with Japan. Singapore, for the first time, is doing military exercise with China. The Philippines is building a closer relationship with China to justify its domestic approach that is criticized by the United States. Thailand has improved its ties with the United States. More-over, several Mekong countries are connecting themselves with the China Belt and Road initia-tives. It may explain the slowed down progress on the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific. It seems that the pullover from great power is bigger than the necessity to create unity within ASEAN.In addition, ASEAN as a regional institution seems stagnant. Starting from its failure in giv-ing appropriate solution regarding the Rohingya Crisis, its slow development in the South China Sea Issue, and their role as non-actor in North Korea Nuclear talks. It makes ASEAN and multi-lateral mechanism seem irrelevant, and a unilat-eral approach becomes more favorable. Then, how to foster ASEAN centrality in the re-gion? The ASEAN role is necessary. The rivalry between the United States and China brought economy and political catastrophe in the region, shown by their severe trade war and provoca-tive actions. ASEAN is the only institution that can play a possible solution to bring parties to negotiate for a more proper approach. ASEAN is the only potential channel that can bridge the interests of the United States and China. ASE-AN, with its culture and norms, can become a pushover factor that brings both great powers

to take a peaceful solution based on multilater-alism and international law. Nevertheless, ASE-AN should show itself relevant first.How to make ASEAN more relevant? First, it is the ASEAN member countries’ obligation to en-hance its relevance. All ASEAN members that can be categorized as middle power needs ASE-AN as a vessel for their interests. They cannot rely on unilateralism to ensure their interests when dealing with great power. ASEAN should have a united voice in the international scheme. Especially for Indonesia, they should take the role as ASEAN leader that represents the in-terests from all ASEAN member countries, and not only its own agenda. Moreover, Indonesia should put ASEAN back on its foreign policy cor-nerstone. This is because Indonesia needs ASE-AN, and ASEAN needs Indonesia. Second, ASEAN should show the world that the multilateral mechanism is the correct answer for problems in the Indo-Pacific Region. Indo-Pacific as a home for 59 countries that mostly are small and middle power need a multilateral mecha-nism in order to have a bargaining position vis a vis great power. Unilateralism will be disadvan-tageous for them. Here lies the openness and inclusivity factors that require ASEAN to em-brace more small and middle power to become their partners.Third, ASEAN must prove itself as an impartial side. Their interests are nothing more than to create a stable and prosperous region. ASEAN should also show the world they are able to cre-ate solutions rather than just discussion forums. It should begin with its ability to make prog-ress if not a settlement for their own problems such as border disputes, the Rohingya crises, up to regional issues such as the South China Sea problem and the Korean Nuclear Crisis.

AuthorIdil Syawfi

Lecturer at the Department ofInternational Relations,

Parahyangan Catholic University.


The following questions are directed to

Mr. Jose Antonio Morato TavaresDirector General for ASEAN Cooperation

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Republic of Indonesia

WhatThey

Sayabout

ASEAN?


How did the theme of the 34th ASEAN Summit resonate with Indonesia’s

current interest and foreign policy?If we talk about the resonance, there are sev-eral outcomes of the summit, including ASEAN Leaders Vision on Partnership for Sustainabili-ty, Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris in ASEAN, ASEAN Leaders Statement on ASEAN Cultural Year, and ASEAN Outlook on In-do-Pacific. If we look deeper, those outcomes are closely related to the partnership among ASEAN members and dialogue partners. Marine debris, for example, is a rapidly developing transbound-ary issue. Thus, it requires a strong partnership. There is also the ASEAN Leaders Statement on ASEAN Cultural Year, which emerged because ASEAN is one of the most diverse regions in the world. Therefore, we need to protect our di-versity. The declaration aims to encourage the

members to initiate cultural activities. The ASE-AN Outlook on Indo-Pacific is related to ASEAN Leaders Partnership for Sustainability because ASEAN is currently trying to widen the partner-ship to Pacific Island Countries and Indian Ocean Countries which are located in the Indo-Pacific. However, the Outlook on Indo-Pacific is slightly deeper than the Vision on Partnership in geopo-litical and geostrategic aspects.On those three, Indonesia has been a prominent actor because President Joko Widodo initiated the idea of the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific. After the outlook was adopted by the leaders, he got appraised a lot. The ASEAN members and dialogue partners, such as the USA, Japan, India, and Australia, enthusiastically welcomed the idea. Therefore, in the future, there will be big actions that can be done by Indonesia and ASEAN to strengthen cooperation in many areas.


In regards to the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific which is included in 3S (Security, Stability, Sustain-ability) of ASEAN, what are the future challenges after its adoption in the 34th ASEAN Summit?Follow-ups are obviously needed. We need to so-cialize the Outlook within the ASEAN member countries’ domestic level and the internal of ASE-AN. Therefore, the related institutions and minis-tries will be able to understand the vision of the Outlook on Indo-Pacific. Also, in regards to our di-alogue partners, we do not expect them to aban-don their strategy. It is not possible in reality. As we understand, every region and country has its own strategy in conducting their foreign policy, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the US Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy and the Quadrilateral Securi-ty Dialogue. Indonesia initiated the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific with a lot of concern regarding the geopolitical landscape that is full of uncertainties. There are great power rivalries across multiple di-mensions, ranging from trade, technology, to so-cio-cultural issues. This indicates existing strategic distrusts and strategic contestation for sphere in-fluence by great powers. In this situation, ASEAN could easily be lost and divided.How can we ensure that every ASEAN member state, which has its own political affiliation, will remain actively participating in the Indo-Pacific framework that is free and peaceful?Every sovereign country has the rights to have its own political orientation and to conduct foreign policy independently. ASEAN is comprised of ten sovereign countries. Thus, they have their own choices, which in some cases are not merely polit-ical orientations, but also political alliances. What will happen if such a situation occurs? In this re-spect, Indonesia has the “Bebas-Aktif” (Free and Active) Foreign Policy. Indonesia came up with “Bebas-Aktif” because Indonesia did not want to choose one particular side. For ASEAN, the Indo-Pa-cific framework serves a similar function, that is not to choose one side only. This action was taken by ASEAN in order to protect stability and ensure conduciveness in the region, so that ASEAN mem-ber countries can make progress in the economic field. The main goal of ASEAN is to ensure there is no disruption caused by great power politics that could potentially turn ASEAN into a proxy area. We do not want great powers’ conflict to happen here in the region. This function of the Outlook on In-do-Pacific is not unprecedented. We already have the Bangkok Declaration 1969, the Zone of Peace Freedom Neutrality 1971, the Treaty of Amity of Cooperation 1976, the ASEAN Nuclear Weapon Free Zone 1995, and the Bali Principle 2011. And

now, we have this one. It’s actually a projection. I will not say it as a projection of “Bebas-Aktif” in ASEAN, but rather as a projection of ASEAN cen-trality.How does ASEAN Summit contribute to the con-struction of common identity and trust building among the participating countries?The Outlook on Indo-Pacific emphasizes on the ex-isting political distrust among great powers in the region and ASEAN dialogue partners. Although we acknowledge that it is impossible for them to aban-don their own strategy of foreign policy to be in line with the Indo-Pacific framework, we can always turn the sentiment of rivalry into an opportunity. We turn the challenges into opportunity. How can we do this? There are four areas of cooperation: maritime cooperation, sustainable development goals, connectivity, and economic cooperation. From these areas, we subsequently will focus on specific areas that possibly could not be rejected by the countries. For example, in the maritime co-operation area, we focused on combating marine plastic debris. That kind of initiative would not be opposed by any country. The point is we need to find common ground in those issues. What are your wishes, both personally and as a representative of foreign ministry and Indonesia, for the next ASEAN Summit?Normally, the first of the two biannual summits usually focus on the internal of ASEAN. In the sec-ond one, we deal with external partners. ASEAN has eleven external dialogue partners. For the next summit, we are expecting that we will talk about the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partner-ship (RCEP) that will combine bilateral FTAs in the region. We will also continuously try to improve our cooperation and address the problems that will possibly arise. In the next summit, the presi-dent will also introduce the Outlook on Indo-Pacific to external partners and invite them to participate in taking further actions. The Outlook now is not Indonesia’s possession. Instead, the ownership now belongs to ASEAN. Our next focus is to con-clude RCEP negotiations which are targeted to be done this year. If it is achieved, it will bring great impacts. Our current target regarding RCEP is to announce the activation of RCEP simultaneously with the upcoming ASEAN Summit and to sign it next year. The RCEP would be the largest free trade area consisting of a GDP of USD27 trillion and 40% of the global trade.

Opinion

Sentencing Trends and Characteristicsof Terrorism Offense in Indonesia:

An Evidence for ASEAN Counter-Terrorism Policy

On 19 October 2018, The ASEAN de-fense ministers met in Singapore and identified terrorism as the single big-

gest threat to the region. They emphasized the importance of maintaining and deepening counter-terrorism cooperation among ASE-AN defense through dialogue, sharing of best practices, and exploring new forms of collab-oration in tackling the complexity of non-tra-ditional and transnational security challenges

confronting ASEAN. However, evidence-based policy is rarely used in the ASEAN counter-ter-rorism policy. This article uses a mixed meth-od (quantitative and qualitative analyses) and examines a sample of 135 terrorism verdicts heard by the Indonesian courts between 2002 and 2016, thus, offers insights into sentencing recurring patterns and characteristics of terror-ism offense that can serve as evidence for ASE-AN counter-terrorism policy.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

05 0 100 150 200 250

Freq

uenc

y

Sentence Length in Months

Descriptive Statistics of Variables Written in the Verdict

Figure 1 shows the distribution of sentence length in months. Imprisonment terms imposed in the district courts ranged from six months to 216 months (18 years). The mean sentence length was 69.61 months, and the median was 60 months. This indicates that judges imposed a low sentence length for terrorism offenses in Indonesia, and this is because in the vast ma-jority of cases (over 80%), no actual harm to victims was caused by the terrorism offense.

Figure 1.The Distribution of Sentence Length

AuthorMilda Istiqomah

Ph.D Candidate at theUniversity of New South Wales;

Assistant Professor of Law atBrawijaya University


The percentage distribution of verdicts where a weapon was used is also shown in Table 1. More than half of the terrorist acts involved firearms (57%), followed by explosive materials (38%) and knife (10%). Other types of weapon (e.g. bat, tra-ditional crossbow, and machete) were reported in 9 percent of verdicts. Even though the involvement of weapons is quite high in the terrorism offense, only 17 percent of the cases resulted in a death or injury to victims which means that these weapons were mainly used only for training purposes in a terrorist training camp or were possessed for pre-paring and planning a terrorist attack. The verdicts also contained information about the defendant’s involvement in other criminal activities. These ac-tivities include attending a terrorist training camp (46%), committing robbery to fund terrorist act (14%), and committing arson or firebombing attack (4%). Further analysis (not shown in Table 2) shows that in 90 percent of the verdicts, the defendants were reported to be associated with the radical Islamic movements. Ten percent were reported to be as-

sociated with online radicalization; the verdicts mentioned that Facebook was used as a platform for online recruitment and radicalization. Regard-ing the terrorists’ choice of targets, the defendant targeted both public spaces (22%) and symbols of government (17%). It was also written in the ver-dict that most of the defendants (81%) had jihad/religion as their motivation to commit a terrorist act; their main goals are to implement the Sharia Law and establish an Islamic caliphate in Indonesia. How Can ASEAN Use this as an Evidence on Coun-terterrorism Strategies?Taken as a whole, terrorism events in Indonesia in-volved military training camp and robbery to fund the terrorist events. Most of the offenders played a minor role in the offense as a follower, and they were associated with Islamist extremism. However, an in-depth qualitative analysis reveals that terror-ism offenses in Indonesia should be situated in the context of the post-conflict society. The verdicts mentioned that the training camps were located in remote areas in Indonesia, such as Aceh and Poso. Poso used to be a conflict area between Muslims and Christians in the late 1990s and early 2000 that resulted in the death of more than thousands of people. In a slightly different type of conflict, the insurgency in Aceh was a conflict fought by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) between 1976 and 2005 aimed to create the province of Aceh inde-pendent from Indonesia. This finding suggests that in the Indonesian context, it often happens that the spread of terrorism is interlinked with commu-nal conflict; that terrorism and terrorist tactics are more likely to occur as part of an ongoing ethnic or religious conflict. The so-called ‘terrorism offenses’ in the data set are more ‘locally oriented’ driven by grievances and experiences of marginalization, re-pression, as well as political conflict as happened in Poso. While most of the terrorism studies in South-east Asia emphasize the link between Salafi-Jihadi movement with an international terrorist group, this is not the main case in Indonesia.Rohan Gunaratna, an international terrorism ex-pert, argues that some amount of cooperation in ASEAN countries does exist. Nevertheless, there is a need for even greater collaboration that includes creating common databases and sharing expertise and resource. The descriptive statistics and quali-tative study of the 135 terrorism verdicts in Indo-nesia could be used as an initial dataset to deter-mine ‘what we know’ about the types of terrorism offense and motives behind the attack to reduce the likelihood of terrorism, insurgency, or religious conflict that persist and grow within the region. Historically, countries in Southeast Asia have suf-fered from communal conflicts and insurgencies. Therefore, the findings in Indonesia may illustrate the pattern in the region that the rise of ethnoreli-gious movements creates a ‘new face of terrorism.’ Comparative perspectives on historical sociology, which exhibits in-depth cultural knowledge and profound understanding of local contexts may pro-vide a better way of understanding the evolution and transformation of Islamic politics in Southeast Asia, thus, helps to create a more informed count-er-terrorism policy.

Table 1. Characteristics of Terrorism Offence


Frequency Percentage* Harm to Vic�ms or Property

Caused death 23 17 Detonated bombs 17 13 Struck vic�m(s) with weapon 16 12 Caused damage or destruc�on to a public facility

8 6

Weapon Possession Firearms 77 57 Explosive materials 52 38 Knife 14 10 Other 12 9

Defendant’s Involvement in Other Crime Types to Facilitate/Support Terrorism

Terrorist training camp 62 46 Robbery to fund terrorist act 19 14 Arson or fire bombings a�ack 6 4

Jihad or Religion as Mo�va�on for Terrorism Yes 109 81 No 22 16

Korean MissionUpdates


The 7th ASEANConnectivity ForumAmbassador Lim Sungnam attended

the 7th ASEAN Connectivity Forum on 9 July, held in Seoul. As a keynote speaker, Ambassador Lim explained the progress of ASEAN Connectivity, spe-cifically focusing on the Master Plan of ASEAN Connectivity 2025 (MPAC 2025) and the Mission's role in the regional in-tegration.

The 17th East Asia ForumOn 11 July, Ambassador Lim attended the 17th EAF

held in Odawara, Japan, as a head of delegates of the Republic of Korea. Ambassador Lim exchanged his views on the development and economic prosperity of East Asia. The Ambassador also reiterated the impor-tance of the New Southern Policy (NSP) in the regional development.

Jakarta Finance ForumThe Mission of the Republic of Korea to ASEAN hosted the Jakarta Finance Forum on 25 July in Ja-

karta. There were 26 representatives of the Korean financial institutions in Jakarta who attended the forum to discuss how to cooperate with ASEAN in finance. Ambassador Lim Sungnam shared infor-mation on the ASEAN financial market and shared his views on how ASEAN and Korea can cooperate in the area of finance.


Call for Academic EssayASEAN-Korea Centre and ASEAN University Network (AUN) are holding the 2019 ASEAN-Ko-rea Academic Essay Contest.The deadline for submitting a proposal is 1 September 2019. Please refer to the ASEAN-Korea Centre website (http://www.aseankorea.org/eng) for more details.

asean insights welcomes opinion piece and publication review from creative and talented international scholars and professionals. There will be incentive and interesting souvenirs for authors. For submission, please contact us at [email protected]

asean insights

The ASEAN Study Center Universitas Indo-nesia (ASC UI) is devoted to research and discussion on issues that pertain to the As-sociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASE-AN) as an institution and a process. The Centre aims to provide inputs to ASEAN member states and ASEAN bodies on issues and events that call for collective ASEAN actions and responses, especially those pertinent to building the ASEAN Commu-nity. The ASC UI seeks to illuminate ways of promoting ASEAN’s purposes of political solidarity, economic integration and re-gional cooperation, and finding pragmatic solutions to the challenges on the path to achieving this.

Department of International RelationsFaculty of Social and Political Sciences

Universitas IndonesiaNusantara II Building, 2nd Floor Depok,

West Java - Indonesia 16424Tel/Fax: +62 21 7873744

email: [email protected]://asc.fisip.ui.ac.id

Mission of the Republic of Korea to ASEANSentral Senayan II, 23F. JL. Asia Afrika No.8,

Gelora Bung Karno Jakarta - Indonesia 10270 Tel : +62 21 5795 1830

http://overseas.mofa.go.kr/asean-en/index.do

The Mission of theRepublic of Korea to ASEAN

In 2012, the Korean Government es-tablished the Mission of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Ja-karta, where the ASEAN Secretariat is located. As a dialogue partner, the Ko-rean Government is fully committed to bolstering its contributions to the inte-gration process of ASEAN. The Mission of the Republic of Korea to ASEAN will strive to further strengthen and deep-en the multifaceted development co-operation between Korea and ASEAN in all possible fields, including politics, economy, society and culture.

from the editors · 2019-08-29 · from the editors dear readers t he 34th asean summit has...

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