Attitudes and Awareness toward ASEAN: Findings of a Ten Nation Survey

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Attitudes and Awarenesstoward ASEANFindings of
a Ten Nation Survey

• Conducted by
• Dr. Eric C. Thompson
• National University of Singapore
• Dr. Chulanee Thianthai
• Chulalongkorn University

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Overview

• The history and future of ASEAN
• Our base-line survey attempts to measure
• Attitudes toward ASEAN
• Knowledge about the region and the Association
• Orientation toward the region and countries
• Sources of information about the region
• Aspirations for integration and action
• Key findings on a nation-by-nation basis
• Summary of region wide trends

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Subjects

• 2,170 undergraduate university students (1064
  male and 1106 female) from leading universities
  in each of the ten member nations of ASEAN
• A sample of 200-220 students per university
• Average Age 20 years old

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Methods

• September to November 2007
• Survey questionnaires were handed to students
  from leading universities

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Findings Attitudes toward ASEAN

• Toward ASEAN as a Whole

Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam
Singapore and some other countries
Myanmar
Most common across the region
Responses from Myanmar were Bi-modal Positive
and Skeptical
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Findings Attitudes toward ASEAN

• ASEAN citizenship. Over 75 agreed
• Nearly 90 felt that membership in ASEAN is
  beneficial to their nation and nearly 70 felt
  it was beneficial to them personally

I feel I am a citizen of ASEAN
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam Strongest Agreement
Singapore Myanmar Least Agreement
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Findings Attitudes toward ASEAN

• Similarities among ASEAN countries
• Greatest sense of similarity
  Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia
• Least sense of similarity
  Singapore, Brunei, Myanmar, Malaysia

Economically and Politically
Culturally Dissimilar Similar
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Findings Knowledge about the region and the
Association

• Overall, students have a strong knowledge about
  the region and association
• How familiar are you with ASEAN ?
• Greatest sense of familiarity
  Vietnam, Laos
• Least sense of familiarity
  Brunei, Singapore, Myanmar

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Findings Knowledge about the region and the
Association

• Students could list nine out of ten ASEAN
  countries and identify seven on a map of
  Southeast Asia.
• Nearly 75 could identify ASEAN flag
• Over 80 in all nations, other than Cambodia
  (63), Thailand (38) and Philippines (36)
• Nearly 50 could identify year of founding
• Most in Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia
• Least in Thailand and Myanmar

1967
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Findings Orientation toward the region and
countries

• Most Salient Countries Thailand, Malaysia
• Most Familiar Thailand, Singapore
• Sub-regions Mainland, Maritime
• Generally, students are most aware and familiar
  with countries in their own sub-region
• Within Mainland Southeast Asia, other countries
  are more salient than familiar
• In other words, students in Mainland nations feel
  more familiar with some Maritime countries
  (Singapore, Malaysia) than with neighbors

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Findings Orientation toward the region and
countries

• Orientations toward Travel and Work
• Interest in knowing about other ASEAN countries.
  In general, over 90
• Strongest in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines
• Weakest in Myanmar

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Findings Sources of informationabout the region

• Primary Sources
• Television, School, Newspapers, Books
• Secondary Sources
• Internet, Radio
• Others Sources
• Sports, Advertising, Friends
• Least Important Sources
• Family, Travel, Movies, Music, Work

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Findings Sources of informationabout the region

• Notable Trends
• Everywhere, Internet rated less important than
  television and newspapers
• Importance of Internet reveals a linguistic bias
  (rather than wealth bias)
• Media environments differ, for example Radio is
  especially important in Cambodia, Vietnam and
  Laos but not so elsewhere

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Findings Aspirations for integration and action

• Economic Cooperation
• Tourism
• Development Assistance
• Educational Exchange
• Security and Military Cooperation
• Sports
• Cultural Exchange
• Political Cooperation

Most Important to Least Important Aspects of
Integration and Cooperation As ranked by Strong
Agreement of students across the region
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Findings Aspirations for integration and action

• Issues Crucial to Cooperation and Awareness
• Most important
• Poverty Reduction
• Education Exchange and Improvements
• Science and Technology Development
• Moderately important
• Natural Resource and Environmental Management
• Low importance
• Cultural Preservation and Promotion

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Findings Aspirations for integration and action

• Issues Crucial to Cooperation and Awareness
• Notable variations across the region
• Health and Disease Control
• High importance in nations seeing it as a threat
  (Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore) but low were
  problems are endemic (Vietnam, Cambodia)
• Science and Technology Development
• Very low importance in Singapore, but high
  elsewhere
• Disaster Prevention and Relief Regional Identity
  and Solidarity also highly variable

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National Summaries

• Brunei Students knowledge of the region is very
  good. Attitudes are mostly positive, sometimes
  range toward ambivalence. Brunei remains one of
  the least well known countries.
• Cambodia Students are among the strongest
  ASEAN-enthusiasts. Objective knowledge of the
  region somewhat less than elsewhere.

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National Summaries

• Indonesia Generally positive attitudes toward
  the region. Responses in the middle range of
  those region-wide. Some affinity for Malay-Muslim
  neighbors but not to exclusion of the rest of
  the region.
• Laos Among the strongest ASEAN-enthusiasts and
  strongest objective knowledge of ASEAN.

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National Summaries

• Malaysia Generally positive attitudes toward
  ASEAN, with some ambivalence. Overall in the
  middle-range of region-wide responses.
• Myanmar Evidence of two distinct attitudes
  Skepticism among a substantial minority,
  generally positive attitudes among the majority.
  Weaker knowledge of ASEAN relative to the
  regional average.

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National Summaries

• Philippines Relatively weak knowledge of the
  region and Association but generally positive
  attitude and interest about the region.
• Singapore Trend of ambivalence toward the
  region. Least likely to see ASEAN members as
  similar least likely to see themselves as
  citizens of ASEAN below average knowledge about
  the region. But, rate the benefit of their
  nations membership highly. Singapore also the
  most desirable destination for travel and work.

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National Summaries

• Thailand Generally positive attitudes toward the
  region and Association. Somewhat strong but
  uneven knowledge about the region and
  Association.
• Vietnam Among the strongest ASEAN-enthusiast and
  most knowledgeable about the region and
  Association. Some evidence of Vietnams emergence
  as a site for work and travel (but still less
  than Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei)

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General Summary

• ASEAN is in potential if not in fact, more than a
  diplomatic talking shop
• Students display
• High knowledge about ASEAN
• Positive attitudes toward ASEAN
• Consider themselves Citizens of ASEAN
• Strongest ASEAN-enthusiasm among the newest,
  least-affluent members (with the exception of
  Myanmar)

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General Summary

• Trend to associate up and dissociate down
• Trend to see region as a threat in Malaysia,
  Brunei, Singapore but not elsewhere.
• Need for greater familiarity among Mainland
  nations
• However, overall there is a strong trend in
  commonality of responses and overall positive
  attitude toward ASEAN throughout the region.

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Attitudes and Awarenesstoward ASEANFindings of
a Ten Nation Survey

• Conducted by
• Dr. Eric C. Thompson
• National University of Singapore
• Dr. Chulanee Thianthai
• Chulalongkorn University