Essay: The rise of extremism and chauvinism in South East Asia

Southeast Asia is a sub region of Asia which comprise of the nations that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and North of Australia. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations which otherwise called ASEAN was established in 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration. Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand were the first five Southeast Asian countries to join ASEAN. Five other countries in the region joined the organisation within the next three decades namely Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and lastly Cambodia, totalling ten state members of ASEAN. Southeast Asia is possibly verified as the most multiregional of the world. The sub region consist of more than 500 million population maintain a variety cultures originating from China, the Middle East (Arab, Persian and Turkish), the Indian subcontinent, Java and late western European influences. The impact from the past on the locale had bring immense effects on how the general population way of life, think and feel additional also their faith, religion and worldview. The fundamental challenge for this region is the incredible variety in terms of religion, language, ethnicity and culture. Ten countries in ASEAN region contain various cultures, language, religions and philosophies which mean there are several forms of government. Different understanding of what human rights implies and proper relationship between the individual and the state may achieve inconsistency or conflict during the ASEAN meeting agreement. During the ASEAN concentrates all attention and efforts to confront its serious economic and financial crisis which is threatening its integration progress, it would be unwise to ignore other equally potent forces of ASEAN disintegration such as the rise of chauvinism and extremism. In fact, the countries leaders should manage their cultural, national, and religious pluralisms as priority than to focus on solving the current financial crisis. However, there are still minor extreme political groups that trying to threaten the idea of democratic, open, and multicultural ASEAN. Although the financial problem is the current obstacle that the countries should overcome but the chauvinism and extremism issues is just like a hidden bomb that will be explode in anytime and anywhere. Once it’s explode, the tragedies will not be easily solve as the popularity of the extremist rightist parties and movements across ASEAN are the most significant threat to the countries integration, peace and prosperity. Thus, the ASEAN should not ignore the effect of this “small” issue and must contribute all their effort to manage cultural, national, and religious pluralism than solving the economic crisis. The pioneer factors that have cause the issue of religion, multiculturalism and management of diversity particularly is the rise of ethnic and religious‘nationalism’ worldwide, with people becoming increasingly conscious and proud of their identity, regardless of whether they are the majority or minority. New phenomena have showed up on the worldwide that have totally cause the rise of extremism and chauvinism in south East Asia. The unsolved hidden issues, Islamic State (IS) are the regular point for southeast area as well as around the world. The terrorists could become region great challenge in the future. The ideological behind the “Islamic State” is significantly more fierce, outward looking and violence-prone than any past analysis at establishing an Islamic regime. The main purpose for Islamic State to declared attack is to show their aim to establish a province of its «caliphate» in the region. The fight against the terrorist is on the rise in the southeast region. The international efforts so far have not reduced the terrorism capability and global reach. Southeast Asia, a multicultural region, may be the next combat field in the global to fight against the extremist group. Recently, the attack on Jakarta and southern Philippines had alerted the security forces and peacekeeping forces. The ASEAN nations had understood that some preventive force must do to protect the county from extremist group harm. For Southeast Asia today, Indonesia and Malaysia turn into the “fresh meat” for terrorism to recruiting new member since these two nations is the most obvious moderate Muslim-majority states and can talk same language. Several Jihadist group had started to recruit member around Southeast Asia into the group. A lot of ISIS’s social media propaganda spread in Indonesian, Bahasa Indonesia which similar to the Malay language. Thus, anyone who can speak Malay would also understand Bahasa and more than 90 percent of Muslims in Southeast Asia know bahasa. For the time being, Internet or social media propaganda remains the most effective purposeful method of recruitment. The ISIS’s is already making broad utilization of the Internet for recruitment and command and control. Abu Bakar Bashir leader for the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah had made the announcement that the extremist group now is begin to extend their impact to Southeast Asia and intend to spread across the entire Asia-Pacific region. According to the research, Islamic State has not only developed the fighter troops for Indonesians and Malaysians in the previous four years but also released photograph and video message to share on social media which targeted at Southeast Asia recruits. The recruits were sent to around the world and begin their central goal. Fortunately, we have not seen many terrorists attacks yet, but the worst scenario is when these fighter are return to their local countries furnished with battle-hardened experience, skills, and training. This issue might affect trustworthy among the ASEAN country toward the Islamic country. Thus, although the psychological warfare cannot be eliminated anytime or soon but it should be counter strictly and consecutively. The impact of ISIS on Southeast Asian jihadist has been significant. Their extreme ideologies, its battlefield victories, its control of territory and creation of a functioning state, have drawn many hundreds across the region, quite possibly thousands, to support it. ISIS has given new legitimacy to jihad as extreme violence, not only in theatres of war, but also in civilian settings directed against non-combatants, this after more than a decade during which most Indonesian and Malaysian jihadists had disengaged from such activities either because they regarded them as too risky or as wrong in principle. As a result, it has made Southeast Asia a more dangerous place. However, military cooperation within ASEAN countries is still limited; this is due to the lack of progress towards a regional mechanism for conflict resolution. ASEAN governments have to realize that multilateral defense cooperation is necessary in order to effectively overcome all the challenges in terms of military defense, socioeconomic, economy and governance. ASEAN could benefit from regional defense cooperation, as it increases confidence among its members. Security challenges in the region are becoming more complicated, thus cooperation within the ASEAN region is necessary to be successfully against the threat of the Islamic State. The region is necessary to stop the continuous influence and religious claim from the Islamic State and threat of terrorism. The region also should urge the United States to focus its power on undermining the organization’s core appeal. United States should decide new policy to guarantee the future and right of Syrian refugee, while participate in the Jihadi organization within Syrian. The most ideal approach to minimize the threat is strengthening alternative religious voices from within the region. ASEAN is a large organization with continuously changing roles and requirement especially in terms of military defense policy. Therefore, staff in operational theatres must be able to adapt to various circumstances professionally and quickly. The adaptability in real life of the government and military might be the test for the regio
n in future. Although the task look simple but it is very important to coordinate all the staff to react and done their job perfectly. Additionally, support staff must comprehend the requirements of operational staff to provide the services needed in a timely manner. To improve sustainability without affecting capability is challenging. The requirements for future theatres are unknown but sustainable equipment must be adaptable to a wide range of situations and terrain. Religion has always been a shroud or excuse that always used throughout previously and currently to legitimize religious crimes, whether it is in the name of Islam, Christianity or Buddhism. The main concern issues facing by ASEAN might be the migrant crisis involving Bangladeshi and Rohingya boat people. In Myanmar, “serious” human rights violations against minority Rohingya Muslims led by extremist Buddhist majority allegedly instigated by Buddhist monks and targeting Muslim properties. The United Nations define Rohingya as a religious and linguistic minority from western Myanmar. It says the Rohingya are one of the most mistreated minorities in the world. Recently, incident includes discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and violence has not only been perpetrated against Muslim minority groups. The clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in South-East Asia start to resemble something of a “fault-line” between the Buddhist and Muslim worlds. Buddhist nationalism in Burrma and Sri Lanka has seriously threatened the Muslim community. Violence against the minority group has resulted in hundreds of Muslims dead and thousands escape from their homes to refugee camps. In June 2012, violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the Rakhine state of Burma led by saffron-clothed monks showed the world the dark side of the Buddhists in Burma. Provoked by Buddhist monks, the violence end up with mostly Muslim people killed and over two thousand homes destroyed, the majority of them belonging to the Rohingya Muslim community. Previously, there has been the wors argument period in Buddhist-Muslim relations in recent history. Buddhist mobs attacked Muslim towns and villages in Rakhine displacing approximately 22,000 people which mostly Rohingya muslim and inflicting eighty casualties including seventy Rohingya Muslims in a Rakhine township.Policy-makers with Buddhist-Muslim violence in South-East Asia should neither be convinced by this narrative nor inadvertently legitimize it by accepting its terms. Operating under the false assumption that this is a regional phenomenon with common causes (and the hope of a common solution) can only serve to reinforce the belief held by hardliners on all sides that they are engaged in a broader struggle, and therefore can only serve to increase their ability to recruit others to their cause. In the long term plan, it is better strengthening the cooperation with the fully experiences European Union and the United States. Indeed, European states could share similar experiences with ASEAN and we must also establish framework of regional cooperation. European Union, besides supporting funding which has already granted. We also can gain useful tools to be used in addressing refugee and migrant management provided by international forums and cooperation. Besides, as in the ASEAN case, both European Union and United States could make pressure in the region with authorizations that previously have been used against the junta, in the attempt to mitigate the root causes of this migratory crisis. In fact, Myanmar is now in the progress to moving towards democracy, authorities will have to implement reforms against ethnic and religious discrimination, as well as secure the ethnic areas. In this process, Myanmar could discover Western as strong accomplices, who have compassionate and economic interests in teaming up with Myanmar. The irregular and illegal movement of Rohingyas is common phenomenon in Myanmar. The 1982 Citizenship Law in previous Burma made the Rohingyas to become stateless people. The government of Myanmar has severely limited their opportunity; and refused them basic human rights and land rights which are necessary of a dignified living in any part of the world. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates about 800,000 people live in Rakhine state (traditional Rohingya base in Myanmar).The living environment forced them to leave Burma and the trend witnessed a surge since the late 1980s, not long after the military government organized an overthrow in the nation and came to control by debilitating the equitable development and overlooking the result of the general race held around the same time. The reluctance of the Rohingya migrants living in low-lying slums in Delhi and other states in India to return to Myanmar reflects on the much worse situation back home in Rakhine state. They incline toward remain in other countries, despite the fact that there is almost no hope of any change in their everyday life which is at stake as they are not eligible for any civic rights except the scanty aid provided by the UNHCR. The key to solve the internal violence in South-East Asia is to understand and addressing the local issues. In order to support the Rohingyas emergency, the ASEAN nations could play a main role. The best way to take would be united all the ASEAN country to apply economic pressure toward Myanmar to gradually reduce discrimination against Rohingyas. Here, ASEAN has leverage, since its members represent the biggest investors in the country. However, applying this pressure would require the political will to employ it, especially as non-interference in the domestic affairs of member states is one of its founding principles .Another approach would be for ASEAN, building upon the Bali Process, to work towards the establishment of a common regional framework concerning illegal migrants and refugees. During May and December 2015, two international meetings were held among the directly affected countries, aiming at coping with the migration emergency. Southeast Asian representatives met in Bangkok to define a common strategy on crucial issues, such as migrant protection, irregular migration prevention, and tackle against human smuggling. Finally, the conflicts of ethnic and religious issue in Myanmar might be the greatest difficulties for the nation to become full democratization country. This is not only because of the terrible humanitarian consequences this religious nationalism has on the country’s relegated minorities, but also the unfair elective selection. The Rohingya issue has always the hot topic discussing in the groups of human rights. The Myanmar government often claimed that Rohingya group is “outsider” from Bangladesh and their ethnicity and religion always discliminated by the government. However, the security aspect of the Rohingya issue always been overlooked. The illegal movement of these people which include human trafficking and cross border migration can weaken Myanmar’s relations with its neighbour Bangladesh and its ASEAN partners. It is a must for the countries people to keep united make changes in these issues as in effect this may spoil mutual trust and confidence among the nation in South East. In general, it can be concluded that Myanmar needs to adopt minded strategy towards the Rohingyas and denying duties that would bring more criticalities for the nation, as well as for the locale. The challenges confronting the South East nations now may not be seen obviously but in the future the challenge may sufficiently genuine to threaten the relevance of the organization. As the ASEAN countries recently confronted with serious economic and financial crisis most of the leaders meeting are focused on solving the problems as the most triggering challenges for the future of supranational and multicultural ASEAN. In order to keep ASEAN regions developed continuously, there are many challenges needed to overcome, but also a number of opportunities to realize on. Changed is necessary to ensure we meet the needs of the generation requirement without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their needs. However, it is more important for the ASEAN citizens to manage cultural, national, and religious pluralism than to focus all their energy on solving financial crisis. Co-operation among the entire region in ASEAN is needed to solve all the current challenges and issues. Attention has to be paid to internal cohesion as the rise in violent extremism is not just involving small group of Islamist but has instead found urgent among the public. This internal problem should resolve before the ideology to start spread over the region. This might be another burden in future thus a specific program and better strategy is required to achieve this aim. ASEAN need to work with existing international and regional country to achieve its new objectives. It will undoubtedly have to build a reputation for itself in this regard. The current issues threat, Islamic States (IS) is the global challenge and we need to take the opportunity to get involved and contribute towards real problems. . Otherwise, the idea of multiculturalism as a universal ideal would bring serious threat in ASEAN which will causes more conflict and mistrust among the nations and religions worldwide. We should all work hard in order to spread the value and significance of multiculturalism as a win-win game for all. The community must have to trust and support the organization enough to allow it due space to function by serve the region and the world peacefully.