Consider This: ASEAN Summit 2025 (Part 2) — The Kuala Lumpur Accord - Video Dailymotion

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The border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand in July was a stark reminder that even within ASEAN, peace is not guaranteed. Now, the Kuala Lumpur Accord has been signed: a ceasefire declaration brokered under Malaysia’s ASEAN chairmanship. Can this fragile peace hold? And has ASEAN proven it can manage conflict within its own ranks? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Amir Fareed Rahim, Director of Strategy at KRA Group, which is an ASEAN-focused public affairs and political risk consultancy.

Transcript

00:00Hi, welcome back to Consider This. I'm Melissa Idris. I'm here at KL Convention Center on the

00:26sidelines of the ASEAN Summit. Joining me here is Amir Farir-Graham, Director of Strategy at KRA Group,

00:33which is an ASEAN-focused public affairs and political risk consultancy. Amir, it's been a long time

00:39busy day. It has been. And many landmark agreements have been signed, particularly the Kuala Lumpur one

00:49Peace Accords, a ceasefire agreement between Cambodia and Thailand. I want to talk to you

00:54a little bit about that because it came during Malaysia holding as chair of ASEAN and it was

01:02a test for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's leadership. What do you think that conflict and the way

01:10it unfolded, including the ceasefire agreement, what does that reflect to you about ASEAN's

01:15ability to deal with intra-regional conflict?

01:20So, thank you, Mel, for having me on the show once again. I think it goes to show that even

01:28among, firstly, even among neighbors, friends, there could be issues, all right? There will

01:35be from time to time conflicts that we've got to deal with. So, the conflict resolution

01:41mechanism that ASEAN has doesn't just involve ASEAN powers. So, we are open to having others

01:54dialogue partners or whoever is trusted. The key is that it is accepted by not just ASEAN but

02:03the country in conflict as well. And in this case, if you see, we were, we had to deal

02:09as the chairman of ASEAN this year, Malaysia has had to deal with this legacy issue of border

02:16conflict between Thailand and Cambodia. Every 10 years, 15 years or so, conflict erupts there.

02:22Because these are real issues with border people living there. And of course, you've got

02:26to deal with it from time to time. So, what this year has shown is the ability of ASEAN to be open

02:36to receive, not just receiving help from others. In this case, the US and actually both, not just

02:43the US but it was also China that played a part in putting together this peace deal. But of course,

02:49as chairman, Malaysia provided the sort of safe space. We convened the meeting and we've got to give

02:58credit to the chairman, our Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, because he made the effort to make sure

03:04these two parties sit and talk. And of course, President Trump from DC as well as our Chinese

03:11counterpart, all help in making sure that the region becomes what we always pride ourselves on

03:18on being a zone of peace and stability. So, that is something that ASEAN needs to continuously work on.

03:25When you think about the lack of the institutional capacity, the lack of an ASEAN framework to deal

03:32with conflicts of its member countries, and the fact that Malaysia had to resort to leader-to-leader

03:38intervention, does that, is that something that requires reform in the future?

03:43I think so. Oh, good. Absolutely. We need institutional, we need to first institutionalise

03:50these things better. Okay, then only we talk about reforming some of these institutions. But having said

03:56that, the problem I see, this is mine, in my opinion, from what my observation is, once you institutionalise

04:05things within ASEAN, you're buried in the bureaucracy. So, things get, decisions are not made fast enough,

04:12and therefore, I think the shortcut to this is personal leader-to-leader intervention, that at the end

04:19of the day, you have to focus on the bigger picture, which is keeping ASEAN together. We are not a politician

04:25union like the EU. We are, as much as we said, we are a grouping, it's a loose grouping in terms of

04:33legality. It is not the same. It's not a single market. It's not a single market and all that

04:39you have in the EU. So, when you look back at the year of 2025 of Malaysia's chairmanship as ASEAN,

04:47and we're handing it over to the Philippines. Talk to me about the year that we've had, but also

04:52what do you expect in the coming year with the Philippines, given that the Philippines has a

04:56different leadership style, Bombong has a different leadership style, different relationship with the

05:00US and China. How do you see that playing out? So, the tone of the leadership is always set by the

05:09leaders of these countries themselves, and you can see, reverse Malaysia, with a theme chosen,

05:15inclusivity and sustainability. It's all about deepening relationships, but building for the future.

05:23So, of course, some of the things that I want to see, I think, and, sorry, if we look at the year

05:32as a whole, 2025, we were thrown curveballs, right? And yet, we survived curveballs in terms of economy,

05:39the reciprocal tariff issue. And then, I wouldn't say that Thai Cambodia is a curveball,

05:44given that it is a legacy issue. But these are issues that we did not anticipate to happen

05:51year in the year of our chairmanship, and we have had to deal with it. And I think Malaysia has a deal

05:57with it rather well. Of course, this is patting ourselves on the back. But other people have also said

06:04that we've risen up to the challenge. But what is important is making sure that ASEAN doesn't just

06:13remain a talk shop. We need to see more economic benefits, because if the economy is not growing,

06:20then the glue that keeps us together is in that. So, we need to look at the future. That's why

06:26sustainability must be linked with advances in digitalization. That is why I think that one of

06:33the missed opportunities is making sure that we press hard enough on DEFA, Digital Economic Framework

06:39agreement. Of course, we will reach a substantial conclusion here in Malaysia, but we fall short

06:44of inking, signing the deal now. But having said that, I believe Philippines in 2026, as the chair,

06:52would want to prioritize the signing of DEFA as well, because everyone sees the potential of the digital

07:01economy. And this is fully, because I've been saying this, for years and years, we talk about

07:08intratrade being at 21 to 25%. This is your answer. When you unlock the potential of a digital economy,

07:17you encourage MSME to participate in the online digital economy. You are sharing that prosperity.

07:26Everyone is growing. Not just the big companies benefiting from ASEAN, but the small ones as well.

07:32Amir, so the limitations of ASEAN is the fact that the chairmanship rotates every year, and all the

07:38institutions rotate as well, right? The secretariat is the only thing that remains institutionalized,

07:43so to speak. How do you think Malaysia can continue a leadership role within ASEAN, even though we're no

07:51longer chair? Is there a role to play in terms of leadership in the block? So I think it could be

07:57depending on causes that are close to ours, which is linked to our foreign policy or economic policy,

08:03something that we want to champion. For instance, probably we wouldn't have, this is just thinking

08:11out loud, we may not have like an ASEAN-wide stand on the reconstruction of Gaza, for example,

08:18but Malaysia, because it is an issue that is close to our heart, close to Malaysians in general. It's

08:25something that we could push in a smaller kind of like groupings, not just the big one, because ASEAN

08:34works in a consensus, right? So everyone has to agree, but that means it could suffer from politics

08:40paralysis because it's a bit too slow. So you can work in smaller groupings, things that are close to

08:46our heart. Secondly, not Gaza is an example, just an example, but probably we need to continue

08:54building on the theme of that we chose for this year, inclusivity and sustainability. And how does

09:00does it benefit Malaysia? So one of the things that I've noticed that has happened in the past few days of

09:05the ASEAN summit is because all the world leaders have converged in Kuala Lumpur, we have the attention of

09:12global media. So there's been a lot more conversation about ASEAN globally, countries,

09:17people, governments who didn't even know what ASEAN was previously now seem to know. What is it you?

09:23think they're seeing? Do you see, do you, what is the selling point of ASEAN for these countries?

09:29And are we getting that narrative right? So I think finally, of course, with certain celebrities

09:36factors, celebrity leaders coming to town and all that, people give more attention to Southeast Asia.

09:43But having said that, it's great to see, to finally put Southeast Asia on the radar of not just the

09:52policy experts, policy community in the West, but also the business community in all parts of the

09:59world. The biggest selling point again for ASEAN is our neutrality. We are friends with everyone.

10:05We engage the superpowers. We don't suck us in into your battles, US and China. We are fiercely neutral.

10:12I'm going to defend that. All right. So that is one, the biggest appeal. Second is, of course,

10:17the market size, 680 million population. We are the fifth largest economy moving into the top four

10:27in 2030. 3.8 trillion market. Now, 200 million more or less of middle class. So half of that is

10:37below 30 years old. Like today, I was reading up Timor-Leste median age 20.8. It's very young.

10:45So we're going to, this is a region that is stable and relatively a growth rate, 4 to 5% for the past

10:5410 years. This is a great place to come invest, pay attention to. And we are not just one part

11:03of Asia. We are a central focal point in Asia. So don't give Southeast Asia a miss. That is the message

11:11that we need to set up to the world clearly and proudly. Thank you so much for being on the show

11:16with me today. Amir Fahir Rahim there wrapping up this episode of Consider This. I'm Melissa Idris

11:21signing off for the evening. Thank you so much for watching. Good night.

Consider This: ASEAN Summit 2025 (Part 2) — The Kuala Lumpur Accord

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