KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 — An overwhelming 80.6 per cent of Malaysians surveyed recently said that Asean is becoming irrelevant as a regional political and economic bloc because it is slow and ineffective in addressing current world affairs after the Covid-19 pandemic, like the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Another 72.6 per cent also worry that Asean members will be used by the world’s major powers to fight a proxy war in the region, the Asean Studies Centre (ASC) at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute based in Singapore said in "The State of Southeast Asia 2023 Survey Report” released yesterday.

For six out of 10 Malaysians, Asean is becoming increasingly disunited, while five out of 10 say what the association does is disconnected from the lives of regular citizens.

The study tracked the fears of the Malaysian respondents in comparison to the region as a whole, with the top concerns of the average South-east Asian falling towards Asean being slow and ineffective (82.6 per cent), the region becoming an arena for competition among world powers (73 per cent), and the disunity among Asean member states (60.7 per cent).

"The sense that Asean is simply reactive to external developments, unable to effect change, and becoming irrelevant in the new world order is felt strongest by Vietnam at 93.4 per cent and Singapore at 89.9 per cent,” the report said.

Indonesia and Thailand expressed the same line of fears as Malaysia did, with similar scores as Malaysia for each concern regarding Asean.

The sense that Asean is becomingly increasingly disunited was one shared by 60.7 per cent of all respondents and may be related to differing stances of member states on world events, the survey found.

"First, Asean countries adopted different country positions on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022. This is evident in the different country voting positions at the UN and the absence of a strong regional response.

"Second, Asean’s lack of unified response to the Myanmar crisis that started with the 2021 coup has not gone unnoticed by observers,” it added.

Last year, Malaysia’s concerns for Asean were similar to those expressed in the results of the report this year: It being slow and ineffective (71.1 per cent); worry that the region would be unable to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic (58.5 per cent); that Asean would become an arena for the world powers (54.8 per cent); that the association is elitist (45.9 per cent); and that it is becoming increasingly disunited (41.5 per cent).

A total of 1,308 South-east Asians were surveyed, 9.5 per cent of them from Malaysia.

Respondents were academics, researchers, regional or international organisations personnel, government officials, and representatives from civil societies, non-government organisations, media and business or finance sectors.

Established in 1968, the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security, and economic trends and developments in South-east Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment.