ASEAN, and Indonesia’s Rising Influence In The Region

Abstract

When one looks at the world map, Indonesia is not really visible in a very obvious manner, due to it being an archipelago, scattered over thousands of islands in South East Asia. However, when one reads into it, they realize that it is actually the fourth most populous country on earth, and holds quite a bit of diplomatic power as well. Indonesia is one of the founding members of ASEAN, the Association of South-East Asian Nations. ASEAN houses major natural resources, a huge chunk of Earth’s population, and together, the 10 ASEAN member states form one of the busiest trade routes in the world. To keep it simple, ASEAN is a really important organisation, and Indonesia, being one of the founding members, as well as the largest country in it, acts as the de-facto leader. Unfortunately, Indonesia is prone to many natural disasters due to its unfortunate geographic location, smack in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Recent major disasters have weakened Indonesia’s position, and many countries now do not consider Indonesia as the de-facto leader of ASEAN. This research focuses on Indonesia’s rise and fall as the undisputed leader of ASEAN, and what the future holds in store for Indonesia. To conduct this research, numerous research papers have been referred to and cited, as well as fresh information has been collected on a primary data basis. The primary data is collected by interviewing 15 Indonesian citizens, as well as senior officials at the Consulate General of Indonesia, Mumbai. Thus, the research presents the observations derived from interviewing two sides, the perspective of the Indonesian citizens, as well as the perspective of the Indonesian government. The research aims to answer some questions such as if Indonesia is prepared to tackle the current and future issues arising in ASEAN, being the leader. The research goes a step further to figure out if the Pacific Ring of Fire affects the geopolitics of Indonesia, and finally, the research looks at if the Indonesian government, and their people, the citizens look eye to eye? All of the interviews of the Indonesian citizens have been conducted virtually via Google Forms, and a meeting at the Consulate was set up in Mumbai to get the government’s perspective.