EDITORIAL 

Is ASEAN Still Important? 

From Macro to Micro Economic Perspective 

Warm greetings from the desk of editor in chief of Journal of ASEAN Studies (JAS). 

First of all, I would like to share good news on the acceptance of our journal, JAS, to be indexed 

in Scopus as indicated by the letter from the Content Selection & Advisory Board (CSAB) of 

the Scopus dated on 26th November 2020. Currently we are under the process of signing 

agreement.   

JAS volume 8, no. 2, (2020) is presented to you when the world and especially, ASEAN 

member countries face the extraordinary challenges to humanities posted by COVID-19 

pandemic. For almost 10 months, Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) as regional 

organization in Southeast Asia has been facing human security issues that disturb the stability 

and sustainability of the ASEAN strategic regional goals and programs, and thus, might delay 

its achievements. It has been detected that the demise of several thousand people died because 

of the pandemic in the region has shifted the regional orientation to more domestic and inworld 

looking. In these circumstances, the editorial board has selected six papers that underline 

various issues from macroeconomics to microeconomics in the region, from policing 

cyberspace to conflict resolution in Southeast Asia, and from Indonesia to China’s foreign 

policies towards ASEAN, contributed by various researchers, academician and scholars from 

the region and beyond. 

First article is on macroeconomic determinants of auto sales in five ASEAN countries, 

namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, contributed by Suwinto 

Johan from President University, Indonesia. Johan examines the determinants of car sales in 

these ASEAN countries by looking at five macroeconomic variables i.e., consumer price index, 

gross domestic product per capita, changes in gross domestic product per capita, foreign 

exchange rate, and interest rate. By deploying the multilinear regression method with Statistical 

Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software to test the research model, Johan argues that 

the growth of GDP per capita does not influence car sales. However, he asserts that the previous 

period for inflation, gross domestic product per capita, interest rate, and the foreign exchange 

rate significantly influenced on car sales in five ASEAN countries. Second article is on 

microeconomics contributed by Myrtle Faye Laberinto Solina from the Philippines Open 

University. The author highlights the current demographics, roles, and experiences of women 



involved in Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and provides information on the 

current policies programs, and services. Using available secondary data, she compares and 

contrasts these MSMEs among ASEAN countries namely, the Philippines, Singapore, and 

Myanmar. Finally, she recommends measures to address the impeding factors in these 

countries.  

 Furthermore, technological advancement has triggered social networking sites become 

increasingly relevant in the study of democracy and culture in Southeast Asia. Fernan 

Talamayan from National Chiao Tung University Taiwan, has contributed to understanding 

policing cyberspaces, especially on online repression that has been practiced in the Philippine 

and Thailand. Talamayan examines the overt and covert policing of daily interactions in digital 

environments. Using Michel Foucault’s notion of government and biopolitical power model, 

he discloses governmental technologies’ disciplinary mechanisms. In doing so, he sheds light 

on the practice of active and passive self-censorship in which the former was driven by the 

pursuit of a moral self-image and the latter by state-sponsored fear.  

The next article highlights issues on mediating civil conflicts in Southeast Asia. John 

Lee Candelaria from Hiroshima University, Japan pinpoints that Aceh and Mindanao conflict 

resolutions have given significant lessons. Candelaria identifies the kinds of mediation and 

qualities of mediators that lead to achievement of peace agreements in these two cases. The 

author focuses on path dependence, critical junctures, and periodization approaches in the 

comparative analysis of Aceh and Mindanao third-party mediation through a qualitative 

examination that involved comparative process tracing (CPT), a two-step methodological 

approach that combines theory, chronology, and comparison. Finally, he asserts that mediators 

as instrumental to the peace agreements of the Aceh and Mindanao conflicts are those who 

appease the commitment issues of the peace negotiation and ensure the trust and confidence of 

conflict parties. As such, according to him, mediators should be able to create relations of trusts 

among parties and a mediation environment where the commitment concerns are relieved 

through the promise of third-party monitoring. 

Last two articles deal with Indonesia’s and China’s foreign policies towards ASEAN 

respectively. Mohamad Rosyidin and Shary Charlotte H. Pattipeilohy from Diponegoro 

university, Indonesia highlight Indonesia’s foreign policy under Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi) 

administration. Both argue that the diminished role of Indonesia in ASEAN, especially during 

the first term of Jokowi’s presidency, is strongly influenced by causal beliefs held by 

Indonesian political elites and presidential advisors. Rosyidin and Pattipeilohy pinpoint that 

although there are varying ideas from one individual to another, they have similar 

characteristics in projecting that Indonesia should expand its concentric circle beyond ASEAN. 

They argue that ASEAN is intrinsically weak, and thus, can no longer accommodate 

Indonesian aspirations. This idea acts as a road map that defines Indonesia’s national interests 

amid the dynamics of international politics in the 21st century as the authors argued.  

Last article on Chinese military diplomacy to ASEAN, contributed by Lidya Christin 

Sinaga from Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta. Sinaga examines the impacts of 

the military’s growing role in China’s foreign policy under Xi Jinping to its military diplomacy 



in ASEAN. The author argues that Xi Jinping’s leadership and his vision of China Dream, that 

is using military diplomacy as a pivotal tool for advancing its whole diplomatic goals, has been 

seen as a sign of growing assertiveness. As a result, while growing assertiveness has caused 

uneasy relationships between China and some ASEAN countries, China’s military diplomacy 

which has different approach with ASEAN, has resulted in “ongoing negotiation without 

progress” for South China Sea dispute. 

Finally, on behalf of managing editors, we are grateful to God the Almighty, and our 

highest appreciation goes to the CSAB Scopus, partners, paper contributors and reviewers for 

this inclusion of JAS in Scopus. We hope that by being indexed in Scopus our quality of the 

manuscripts published in JAS will be maintained and even better. All parties who supported 

the Journal from the Indonesian Association for International Relations (AIHII) and the Center 

for Business and Diplomatic Studies (CBDS) of the Department of International Relations, 

Bina Nusantara University deserve our highest appreciation. 

 

Jakarta, 20 December 2020. 

 

Prof. Dr. Tirta N. Mursitama, Ph.D. 

Editor-in-Chief Journal of ASEAN Studies