Low awareness of Asean among youth in the region

ASEAN's youth will be one of the critical factors in whether Asean will achieve its goal of a sharing and caring community in 2015. This is not rhetorics to bolster the importance of the future generations or the incumbent Asean youth, but rather because the issues raised by Asean Secretary General Dr Surin Pitsuwan at the recent East Asia Media Forum in Bangkok resonated clearly. This is something to be addressed by the future generations of the region.

Yet in my experience, the current outlook is not very encouraging. It seems that not many people out of school are as interested or as inclined to know about Asean affairs as expected of a group of people who should be a "critical factor". This was put firmly under the microscope last year in November when the Asean Charter was signed in Singapore.

After providing coverage during the Asean Summit, I met with an old Singaporean friend before leaving for Brunei Darussalam. There he told me and another journalist that he was unaware that the summit was being hosted by Singapore. That piqued my curiosity. I then asked a Malaysian friend whether he kept abreast of Asean news, and with a wry smile he shook his head.

The challenges that lie in wait for Asean in the future will undoubtedly be tackled by the youth. Therefore it is imperative that the calls by the Asean Secretary General for Asean's mass population to develop a sense of ownership among its community be heard by them. For the more obvious reason, it will be their Asean which has been already identified as a central building block towards the establishment of an East Asia community. It seems a lot to hinge onto the shoulders of the youth, and yet this is a facet which the region must include as it begins to plot its path.

It is a strong personal belief that as a young and growing community, the Asean youth are in a delicate position where they stand to gain from the initiatives that are being planned and initiated. Dr. Surin placed emphasis that the socio-cultural pillar within Asean will prove to be critical in ensuring the other two pillars, security and economic respectively, result in success. I would like to go a step further and see that the younger members of our Asean and East Asia Community are able to take up an interest and somehow be involved.

For Asean alone, the statistics from the Asean Statistical Pocketbook of 2006 indicate that just under a third of the 567 million people in the region are below the age of 15. The other two thirds are mostly in the 15-64 age bracket.

"Ah so young a journalist," said Jakrapob Penkair, Minister attached to the Prime Minister's Office in Thailand, as he was introduced to the Brunei's delegates.

It was from that observation that this piece of writ was inspired. Hopefully the media, conventional platforms such as print, radio and newer alternatives such as the Internet, video and blogs, will play a telling hand in reaching out to the greater number of youths.

The Brunei Times