Immanuel Deo (EP ’15) Becomes Indonesian Delegate at Model ASEAN Meeting in Singapore
Bandung, itb.ac.id - ITB School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics student, Immanuel Deo (EP ’15), was one of the students selected to represent Indonesia at the 4th Model ASEAN Meeting held by the ASEAN Foundation (AF) on July 3-8 at the National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Each country was represented by two teams, along with six students from UGM, UI, UNPAD and UII, Deo was the only student with a bachelor's degree in engineering.
This 2015 ITB Electrical Power Engineering student said that the ASEAN Meeting Model is a simulation of a meeting in ASEAN that is specifically aimed at students to take part in the development of ASEAN and solve existing problems.
In general, this simulation scheme is divided into two parts, namely track 1 and track 2, where each track has a specific topic to be discussed at the meeting. Each track has three communities (ASEAN Community): ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), ASEAN Policy-Security Community (APSCC), and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC), each represented by one Senior Official (SO) and Minister.
The meeting process begins with a meeting of the Secretary of State (SO) to discuss the chairman's statement, which outlines solutions to existing issues. Amendments are made until all delegates agree that the draft is final. This is followed by a Ministerial meeting. Afterward, a Coordinating Meeting is held, combining both tracks, and then the ASEAN Summit, where the Heads of Government (HoG) meet to finalize the draft, which then becomes a complete document, signed by the HoG.
Deo is part of the Bhinneka Team, a team from Indonesia. "The Bhinneka Team has a very diverse knowledge base," he said. He also mentioned Raafi, Kenneth, and Dominique from the Law Department of the University of Indonesia; Kevin and Nisrina from the International Relations Department of the University of Gadjah Mada; and Muhamad Fadillah from the Economics Department of the University of Padjadjaran (UNPAD).
Strategy Paper is a draft submitted by each team stating how countries should act in a representative manner to address regional issues. Furthermore, a Position Paper is submitted to briefly outline the solutions they wish to propose in the simulated meeting and hope to implement for each ASEAN community.
"The diversity of this team is a distinct advantage, as we are able to bring our diverse knowledge together to form a strong unit to determine solutions and implement them through a strategy paper," he said.
He said engineering students, especially those from ITB, should learn good diplomacy and negotiation skills to become global citizens with a more open-minded global mindset and local actions. In addition to being delegates, the Bhinneka Team also performed a vocal group medley of traditional Indonesian songs on the final day of the cultural night, dubbed "ASEAN Night."
