INTRODUCTION

Television has been argued as an effective medium to form and cultivate particular identity of its viewers (Halim and Rosidi, 2012, Larrea, 2013, Chan, 2011). Therefore, it suggests that television can also be used as a mean to project, shape, and cultivate particular identity of its viewers. Under this notion, this proposal is written to recommend for the establishment of ASEAN TV in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region as a mean to promote and cultivate a sense of ASEAN identity within the people of ASEAN. This recommendation is proposed as ASEAN member countries will start to become a community in 2015 under a new identity as an “ASEAN Community”.

Figure 1: “ASEAN Community” region (image source: www.asean-community.au.edu)

In 2003, ASEAN, which consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, decided to establish an ASEAN Community by 2020 with three pillars: ASEAN Security Community (ASC); ASEAN Economic Community (AEC); and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) (ASEAN, 2003). Four years later, ASEAN decided to accelerate the establishment of the community from 2020 to 2015 (ASEAN, 2009).

However, the move to establish ASEAN Community has been criticized as too elitist (Benny and Abdullah, 2011, Moorthy and Benny, 2012, Acharya, 2003) as the ASEAN people had not been involved during its formation process (Benny and Abdullah, 2011). It has made ASEAN people were oblivious of the decision. As a result, ASEAN is now facing a critical moment as ASEAN Community will formally begin in less than two years, while the idea of ASEAN Community has not been popular and widely understood by the ASEAN people. For example, a research found out that, seven years after its declaration, the majority of Indonesians had never heard about ASEAN Community. Furthermore, only 12 percent of the respondents (399 respondents) admitted of having the knowledge about ASEAN Community from the government (Benny and Abdullah, 2011). These facts contradict with the core idea of ASEAN Community that is people-centered with strong awareness of ASEAN identity which is mandated by the ASEAN Charter (2007) and particularly stipulates in the ASCC roadmap.

the primary goal of the ASCC is to contribute to realizing an ASEAN Community that is people-centered and socially responsible with a view to achieving enduring solidarity and unity among the nations and peoples of ASEAN by forging a common identity and building a caring and sharing society which is inclusive and harmonious where the well-being, livelihood, and welfare of the peoples are enhanced. (ASEAN, 2009: 67) (Emphasis added.)

Therefore, I argue that the biggest homework for ASEAN is to articulate the idea of ASEAN Community to the people of ASEAN by firstly nurturing a strong sense of common shared identity. In this regard, I propose that ASEAN needs to establish ASEAN TV as a public service broadcaster which is broadcasted in the region as a mean to nurture a sense of ASEAN identity as the foundation of the successful ASEAN Community. This proposal will focus on the reasons why ASEAN TV is needed and what kind of TV station it will be in general sense. The practical details of its operation have to be further discussed by the ASEAN member countries as they will be confronted by the fact that each ASEAN member country has different broadcasting regime.

THE FAILURE OF ASEAN AS A EUROPEAN COMMUNITY ‘WANNABE’: A BRIEF ANALYSIS

The idea to establish ASEAN Community has been inspired by the success of the European Union (EU) as Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong stated at the 2002 ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Hew, 2008). He said that AEC (one of ASEAN Community’s pillars) is akin to the concept of European Economic Community (EEC) in 1950s. However, I argue, ASEAN and EU are very different organizations in terms of their initial cooperation and the general public involvement in the process to form a community.

ASEAN was established to promote a stable, peaceful and secure region by adopting the non interference doctrine between its member countries (Acharya, 2003). This kind of cooperation, I argue, has only promoted high level contact, as the decisions on the issues are in the hand of some political elites. The Bangkok Declaration (1967) implies that the main subject of ASEAN is the elites of the country but not the people as it is suggested from one of its paragraph.

…that the Association represents the collective will of the nations of South-East Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity. (ASEAN, 1967)

Conversely, EU is rooted in economic cooperation as it is reflected from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and ECC (Moorthy and Benny, 2012). These organizations aimed to promote people to people contact as projected in the Treaty of Rome, in which, the leaders of the EEC member countries determined

to lay the foundations of an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe (EEC, 1957).

How each organization sees its people leads the subsequent moves of each organization. While ASEAN has been much more focus to improve and maintain good relation between leaders of its member countries, EU (EEC) has been much more focus to improve the engagement of the people. It becomes plausible if the idea of ASEAN Community has now been becoming not popular to the ASEAN people. On the other hand, Europeans have now been embracing the idea of being a European in which their identity with the state is on the wane (McCormick, 2010).

ASEAN TV: A PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTER FOR THE ASEAN PEOPLE

What is defined as public service broadcasting is varied. For example, Trine Syvertsen (1999) has identified three different concepts of public service broadcasting: (i) “public service” as “public utility” that government needs to provide such as postal service and railroads; (ii) “public service” that refers to “public sphere” in which people are able to access information and knowledge to perform their civic duties; (iii) “public” equation to “audience” in which public service broadcasting is seen as a service to satisfy the interests and preferences of the viewers.

In this proposal, I define ASEAN TV as a public service television in which people of ASEAN member countries can reflect, project, and realize their shared common identity as a member of ASEAN Community. This understanding implies three conceptual approaches. Firstly, ASEAN TV is a kind of public utility as the ten countries of ASEAN have agreed to establish ASEAN Community. Therefore, ASEAN TV functions as a bridge to connect all those countries to be one community. Secondly, ASEAN TV as a public sphere in which the people of ASEAN have access to information and knowledge to perform their role as part of ASEAN Community. Thirdly, as ASEAN TV has to make sure that its content will project and reflect an equal and just representation of all elements of the ASEAN people. Thus, it will fulfill ASEAN people’s needs for particular information and knowledge as a member of ASEAN Community.

LEARNING FROM THE PAST

I have found out that ASEAN TV is not a new idea in the context of ASEAN Community project. Previously, there was “ASEAN TV” which could be watched from www.tvasean.net, www.tvasean.com, www.tvasean.tv, and TrueVision’s Channel 79 (TGPRD, 2009) in Thailand. On its website, it is stated that “ASEAN TV” was a response to the idea of building an ASEAN Community.

ASEAN TV has been established to herald the closer regional integration of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015. The new television station will act as the eyes, ears and voice for the 600 million people of all 10 ASEAN countries, helping bring the people, cultures and traditions of ASEAN closer together through news, entertainment and sports programming and linking the unified ASEAN region with the rest of the world. (ASEANTV, 2013b)

ASEAN TV was a joint cooperation between two Thailand state-owned media corporations, which are Mass Communications Organization of Thailand (MCOT) and Nation Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). To establish the TV station, Thailand government provides 30 million Baht (AUS$ 1 million) as the initial fund.

However, ASEAN TV had only been broadcasted for less than three years. Starting to broadcast on 23^rd October 2009 during the 15^th ASEAN Summit at Cha-am and Hua Hin, ASEAN TV discontinued operating on 11^th September 2012. It has not been publicly clear the actual reason behind its closure. Only glimpse information about the reason is posted on ASEAN TV Facebook fan page. It announces that the closure is due to ‘management issues’ (ASEANTV, 2013c). Its social media accounts indicate that ASEAN TV had not been popular. Its Facebook fan page has 2003 likes (ASEANTV, 2013c) and its Twitter account has 1,707 followers (ASEANTV, 2013a).

Despite its failure to continue operating, I argue that the TV station has given five important lessons for the next ASEAN TV.

Firstly, the next ASEAN TV should be established as a joint cooperation between the ten member countries of ASEAN. The former ASEAN TV was only supported by the Thailand government without any support from other ASEAN member countries. Although, the TV station was launched during the 15^th ASEAN Summit, I have observed that there were not any documents resulted from the Summit that officially recognizes the establishment of the TV station.

Secondly, the next ASEAN TV should be funded by all ASEAN member countries. Without the funding, ASEAN TV will not be able to produce the best quality of programs. I argue that one of the reasons why the previous “ASEAN TV” had failed was because of the lack of funding.

Thirdly, the employees of the next ASEAN TV should be able to represent the diversity of the ASEAN people. I have found out that the previous “ASEAN TV” employees were dominated by the Thailand people. As a result, I argue, it had been failed to deeply represent and project the social, political, economical, and cultural diversities of the ASEAN member countries.

Fourthly, the next ASEAN TV should have offices in all ASEAN member countries. As the previous “ASEAN TV” had only an office in Bangkok, Thailand, therefore, it was not able to effectively project the ‘ASEAN image’ as the broadcasted video footages were largely ‘Thailand centric’ (To understand this notion, we could watch some of the video footages of the recorded “ASEAN TV’s” programs on http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aseantv/). In practical level, without having an office in each ASEAN member countries, it will be difficult to capture video footages and get news coverage with deep understanding of each member countries social, political, economical, and cultural aspects.

Fifthly, the next ASEAN TV should be broadcasted in all ASEAN member countries. It learns from the fact that the previous “ASEAN TV” was only broadcasted on air in Thailand. As a result, I believe that almost no people in other ASEAN member countries who realized the existence of the TV station. Moreover, it has been pointed out the TV station also was not popular in Thailand.

VISUALIZING THE ASEAN TV

Learning from the case, therefore, I will focus to suggest recommendations in eight aspects of the next ASEAN TV: format, ownership, funding, regulations, management and employment, offices, medium, programs and language.

Format

The proposed ASEAN TV will be in the form of public service broadcasting company. Specifically, I recommend that the format of the TV station will be a public service broadcaster as it has been pointed out public service broadcaster is able to project, cultivate, and maintain a particular identity to its viewers (Price and Raboy, 2001, Moe, 2011, Sabir, 2013, Volcic and Zajc, 2013, UNESCO, 2005). This format is chosen as the main goal of ASEAN TV will be promoting a sense of common identity and community of the people of ASEAN, not only in the elite level but more importantly in the grass root level. It has been argued that public service broadcaster has been argued as the “glue” of the society that enables the social cohesion to exist (Nissen, 2006).

Ownership

The TV station will be owned by all ASEAN member countries. This approach will make sure a sense of ownership to all ASEAN member countries. This ownership will define two major issues: (i) how ASEAN TV will be funded and (ii) who could work for the TV station.

Funding

As the TV station is owned by all ASEAN member countries, thus the funding is shared equally. This model is referred to the ASEAN Secretariat funding model in which each ASEAN member country is obliged to pay a certain amount of money (originally US$ 1 million) which can be increased from time to time (ASEAN, 1969, Henry, 2007). This funding model is chosen to make sure that the money that is used for ASEAN TV daily operation is free from political and commercial interest.

The contribution that is collected is assumed to come from ASEAN member countries tax revenues; therefore, it may suggest that the money is extracted from the public fund. This model is pretty close (although not identical) to the UNESCO (2013) definition of public service broadcasting that is “made, financed and controlled by the public, for the public. It is neither commercial nor state-owned, free from political interference and pressure from commercial forces”.

Regulations

In principal, ASEAN TV will follow the broadcasting regulation based on each ASEAN member country in which it will be broadcasted. For example, in Indonesia, it will refer to Indonesian Broadcasting Law number 32/2008. However, ASEAN should also make a special regulation about this issue to make clear the status of ASEAN TV in relation to ASEAN as a regional cooperation. The regulation needs to address the status of ASEAN TV as a public service broadcaster, the funding model, the employment of workers, the headquarters and offices, and the medium (radio frequency, cable, or internet) in which the TV station is broadcasted.

Management and employment

ASEAN TV will be commissioned by ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Information (AMRI) as the highest level forum in ASCC that discusses communication and information issues in ASEAN (ASEAN, 2013). Board of directors will consist of Director General, Director of Programs, Director of Technical and Operational, Director of Finance, and Director of Human Resources. Board of directors will be open for public and seated by professionals based on merit. Although it is open to public, each ASEAN member country also has the right to propose candidates for the positions. All directors will be selected by AMRI during the ASEAN Summit. ASEAN TV will have very diverse employees. The composition of the employees should reflect the diversity of the ASEAN people.

Offices

The main office of the ASEAN TV will be located in Jakarta, Indonesia. Two main reasons for this recommendation are: (i) the ASEAN Secretariat is located in Jakarta (ii) Jakarta is among the most vibrant cities in ASEAN in terms of its television broadcasting sector (Sudibyo and Patria, 2013, Hollander et al., 2009, Kitley, 2004). Although the main office will be located in Jakarta, each ASEAN member country will also host an office representative of the ASEAN TV.

Broadcasting medium

Basically, ASEAN TV will be broadcasted online through the internet. However, as the internet penetration rate in ASEAN member countries is considered very low (IWS, 2013), this proposal strongly recommends that ASEAN TV will be broadcasted through radio frequency. The traditional broadcasting model could ensure that the TV station is available “on the air” in all ASEAN member countries. As the allocation of radio frequency in is a very complex issue, this issue needs to be discussed further by ASEAN member countries as well as communicated to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Most of ASEAN member countries are categorized as developing countries in which television penetration rate is much higher to be compared with the internet penetration rate (ITU, 2013). It suggests that ASEAN TV will be best broadcasted without mainly rely on the internet.

Figure 2: Internet penetration rate in ASEAN countries as of June 2012 (IWS, 2013)

Figure 3: Households with a TV, a computer, and Internet by level of development in 2012 (ITU, 2013: 9)

Programs and language

In the beginning, ASEAN TV will focus in providing news and current affairs programs. Other programs will be discussed and decided by the editorial team of ASEAN TV. Basically, the programs and its content should be reflecting the cultural diversity of the ASEAN people. This goal, I argue, can be achieved as the ASEAN TV team will be consisting of media professional from all ASEAN member countries.

English will be used as ASEAN TV broadcasting language as the language has been stated in the ASEAN Charter (2007) as the working language of ASEAN. Furthermore, the usage of English is strongly promoted in the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community 2009-2015 (2009). It might be due to the fact that English is considered the most popular language in ASEAN member countries (Kirkpatrick, 2008). Despite of having English as the main language, ASEAN TV will also broadcast in each ASEAN member country’s national language. However, this kind of program will only be broadcasted in each ASEAN member country. For example, in the Philippines, some programs will be broadcasted in Filipino, and in Myanmar, some programs will be broadcasted in Burmese. Practically, all programs will be subtitled. If the programs are in English, so it will be subtitled to the official local language. Furthermore, if the programs are in the local language, it will be subtitled to English.

CONCLUSION

ASEAN Community will be officially started in 2015. In less than two years to go, the idea of ASEAN Community is still not popular in the grass root level. Subsequently, ASEAN people awareness as part of ASEAN Community with common identity is still very weak. On the other hand, ASEAN identity has been acknowledged in ASEAN Charter and all related documents as a crucial factor in the building process of ASEAN Community. The idea to establish ASEAN TV is proposed to answer the problem. In this regard, the format of ASEAN TV as a public service broadcaster is chosen as it has been argued as an effective medium to build viewers common identity. However, this proposal has limitations in which it does not discuss the establishment of the ASEAN TV in details, such as, how to regulate a regional public service broadcaster in ten different countries with ten particular broadcasting ecologies. Thus, this proposal also recommends that a thorough examination is needed by all ASEAN member countries to define what the ideal ASEAN TV is that is practically feasible.