Indonesia can emulate best practices from neighbouring countries like Malaysia vis-à-vis deradicalisation programmes to further reduce recidivism rates.

Anwar Ibrahim’s ascent to power could prove advantageous for dealing with Malaysia’s fractious domestic dynamics as well as for furthering the country’s foreign policy goals.

There is quite clearly reluctance all around to sharing data or at least in negating the sighting of the airliner on the radar by countries in the region for security concerns as well as the lack of a centralised regional command and control centre for coordinating and monitoring the operations.

While the notion of Malaysia as an Islamic state appears almost unthinkable, this is exactly what has transpired since the early 1980s, posing serious challenges for the country’s internal and external politics.

In the recently concluded ASEAN Summit (November 18-22), apart from issues like Myanmar, ASEAN Charter and ASEAN Economic Community, nuclear energy was also discussed at length. A declaration on safeguarding the environment and the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes was agreed by the ASEAN members. This was, in spite of the fact that many non-governmental organisations as well as domestic pressure groups in some of the ASEAN countries have consistently raised apprehension about the safety of nuclear power plants which lie in the seismically active zones.