Singapore vs Rest of ASEAN
Singapore vs Rest of ASEAN
Thinking Rationally
Shefali Rekhi, Asia News Network/The Straits Times, Singapore
Pragmatic Singapore believes the pace of ASEAN integration is just right and in this they differ from the other residents of the region who say it is too slow.
Over eighty percent of those polled from Singapore, for The Straits Times-ANN Asiapoll, said they believe the pace of integration is appropriate but slightly more than half from the rest of ASEAN -- 52 percent -- believe it can be hastened.
Responses from Singapore differ on other questions in the poll on ASEAN identity as well.
The affinity with the rest of the region does not come across as very strong, with 41 percent of those polled saying they identify with others in the region, and the rest responding in the negative.
The corresponding figures, for the other five countries of the region, were 69 percent for those who said yes and 31 percent who replied otherwise.
Two in ten Singapore respondents said they would consider investing in ASEAN, while more than half from the other countries were willing.
An overwhelming majority -- 92 percent -- they would opt for a non-ASEAN country for getting themselves treated if they had a major illness and 14 percent said they would encourage their children to study in an ASEAN country.
Five in 10 of those polled in the city-state said they would prefer to work in a non-ASEAN country, but from the rest of the region, seven in 10 said the same.
"The difference in results is not very surprising,'' said Dr Leo Suryadinata, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
"The Republic is a very urban city-state, most-developed and ahead of everybody in the region. So you can expect the views of people here to be different."
The knowledge and awareness of happenings in the region clearly could have played a role -- as high as 86 percent of the respondents said they have followed news about ASEAN in the past six months.
And an overwhelming majority -- 95 percent -- said they got in from mainstream media, the newspapers and television.
This is different in the other countries.
In Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand close to half of those polled said they depended on the internet for ASEAN news and in Vietnam, a quarter of those surveyed said the web was their source, suggesting that ASEAN news was not equally covered in the mainstream media.
It also suggests that those who do not have easy internet access may not be closely following developments in the region and in turn explains the difference in opinion as well.
But despite this respondents from Singapore do see a future in ASEAN and support moves to have flags and other symbols to promote ASEAN identity.
It is the pace that they worry about.
On the question of a common currency for the region, for instance, 30 percent of the respondents from Singapore said they would support such a move, while seventy said they would not.
The tally for the region on this account was: 48 percent said yes; 31.5 percent said no while the rest did not share their views or were not sure.
"The results from the rest of the region on this question surprise me," said Dr Denis Hew, Fellow and Coordinator of the Regional Economic Studies Programme at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
"It is hard to guess why as many as 45 percent support such a move. Perhaps it could be because those countries suffered quite a bit during the Asian financial crisis.
"But there is much to be done before any such move can be initiated. Trade integration is among the first steps. ASEAN has made a beginning but it will take some time."
For the ST-ANN Asiapoll, Singapore Press Holdings' marketing, planning and development (research) department polled 419 Singaporeans and Permanent Residents across the city.
The sample was randomly selected, for the face-to-face interviews in the last week of October and about a fifth of those surveyed were professionals, managers, executives and businessmen.