ONE morning mid last month, I was on a ferry from Landey-jahöfn to the Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar) in Iceland packed with travellers. They all shared a single objective: to watch puffins, native birds of the North, returning to their pristine sanctuary.
For eight months each year in the wintertime, these seabirds ride the North Atlantic Ocean waves to follow schools of fish into deeper waters. Only in the summer do they return to breed before venturing back to sea once again.
Their annual migration tells a remarkable story of perseverance, survival, and resilience.
Watching them, I was reminded of a decade’s old paradigm that once guided Asean: the idea that national resilience forms the foundation of regional resilience.
Developed under Indonesian president Soeharto’s government in the 1970s, this paradigm argued that South-East Asia would become stronger if each Asean member is successful in strengthening itself politically, economically, socially, as well as in the security and defence spheres.
Guided by this philosophy, Asean members have made substantial achievements in their national development efforts over the past five decades.
Today, Singapore serves as a regional hub in services and finance, whereas Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand are known for their industrial strength in manufacturing.
Indonesia and the Philippines have developed large and increasingly skilled workforces that contribute significantly not only to their domestic economies, but also beyond their national territories.
This shared commitment to resilience has fostered confidence and trust among Asean members.
They have managed to mitigate historical suspicions of ill intention towards one another, particularly between Indonesia and Malaysia, and between Indonesia and Singapore following Konfrontasi in the mid-1960s.
As trust deepened, so did cooperation.
One notable example of such collaborative development is the SIJORI Growth Triangle that links Singapore, Johor in Malaysia and Indonesia’s Riau Islands into one economic zone.
Likewise, Indonesia and Singapore continue to develop the Batam, Bintan and Karimun (BBK) region as a collaborative growth area, with each country contributing according to its respective strengths.
Singapore, for example, plays an important role in financing investment, while Indonesia provides industrial capacity, land and labour.
Complementarity, not competition, is the backbone for these economic development models.
During the 16th Indonesia-Singapore Economic Ministers’ Meeting in Jakarta on June 6, Indonesia’s Coordinating Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto and Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong explored transforming the BBK region into a vibrant digital hub.
They are mindful about the significant role of the digital sector in their economy in the coming decades. Yet, Asean now faces a far more uncertain strategic environment.
The ongoing debacle in the Persian Gulf has led to a fluctuation in oil prices. Meanwhile, wariness is growing over the possibility of open armed conflict involving major powers in the Indo-Pacific.
Strategic competition between the United States and China increasingly intersects with an already complex regional security architecture that includes Aukus (the alliance between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and the Five Power Defence Arrangements (the defence pact between Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom).
These developments raise an important question: When confronted with external shocks, will Asean members continue to support one another, or will national interests gradually overshadow regional solidarity?
Recent developments suggest that the latter risk cannot be ignored. Faced with pressing global challenges, governments naturally prioritise domestic economic stability.
They must mitigate the pressing challenges and secure national interest based on their capacity and bilateral networks.
A clear example can be seen in the way several Asean countries have negotiated tariffs with the US bilaterally, despite experts’ suggestion for a coordinated regional approach.
Needless to say, Asean needs to pursue a balancing act. It must safeguard collective regional interests while recognising the immediate domestic priorities of individual member states.
In this regard, the Philippines’ 2026 Asean chairmanship theme, “Navigating Our Future, Together”, could not be more timely. It is a reminder that regional resilience ultimately depends on solidarity, coordination and mutual trust.
Energy security offers perhaps the clearest opportunity to translate this principle into action.
Every Asean country faces the similar pressing need to meet energy demand for domestic consumption to spur economic activities.
Respectively, they are looking for alternative but reliable sources of energy supply and suppliers. However, instead of pursuing individual solutions, Asean should strengthen regional cooperation beyond the 2013 Asean Petroleum Security Agreement.
Cross-border electricity connectivity, regional power grids and investment in renewable energy could substantially improve Asean’s collective energy resilience.
A stronger collective commitment to clean and sustainable energy would not only enhance energy security but also leave a meaningful moral legacy for future generations of Asean.
However, regional resilience depends not only on governments but also on societies. Political rhetoric and social media discourse increasingly shape public perceptions across borders.
Like it or not, vulgar expressions of discontent might harm amicable relations between societies and among leaders.
Therefore, it is concerning to witness public calls to “sell Indonesia” emerging from a neighbouring country.
Whether or not such a call is spontaneous or more cynical in nature, a weakened Indonesia, the largest country and economy in the region, would be a worst-case scenario for Asean.
We do not wish to re-encounter the financial and economic crisis of the late 1990s that brought havoc to the region across borders.
The crisis that started in South Korea and Thailand led to economic collapse, chaos and political instability in Indonesia.
Although criticism and expressions of displeasure at the societal level are unavoidable in this social media era, a sympathetic call by governments and key public figures for calm, restraint and moderation is needed.
During this tumultuous time Asean needs to renew its commitment to resilience not only within each member state, but across the region.
A fragmented Asean would run counter to the founding fathers’ dreams of an organisation that can serve as a bulwark against external powers’ attempts to meddle in regional affairs.
This brings me back to the puffins of Vestmannaeyjar.
Their survival depends not only on their own remarkable resilience, but also on internal and external factors that do not harm and pollute the ecosystem the birds depend on. — The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
Teuku Faizasyah is the Indonesian ambassador to Norway and Iceland.
