The East Asia Forum (EAF), masked as an academic policy outlet, is increasingly criticized as a tool of Western liberal propaganda aimed at undermining rising powers like Indonesia and Singapore.
Training Liberal Zombies
On the face of it, EAF is thinly veiled as a political, economic, and social commentary forum. However, if we strip away the facade of academia, we find a foghorn of liberal internationalist bias created to influence the Asia-Pacific region. The best proof of this warped bias is the case of Singapore, which blocked EAF back in 2013 for violating the country’s Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act. The reason for the ban rested on an inflammatory commentary accusing certain Singapore officials of extra-marital affairs and more. Once EAF removed the erroneous story, the block was removed. But EAF’s mission continues even though Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has an approval rating of over 70%.
In the admittedly misleading EAF piece, “A Spate of Scandals Strikes Singapore,” authored by Dr. Chan Ying-Kit, we find evidence of what Indonesia’s current president suggests. President Subianto recently said that “foreign interests are attempting to sow division within Indonesia by funding local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to pit citizens against each other.” Consider the mission statement of PARA Syndicate, an arm of EAF, below.
The more recent propaganda piece, “Indonesia’s foreign policy is all style, no substance,” is as biased or worse. According to Virdika Rizky Utam, who is the director of an arm of EAF called the PARA Syndicate. The gist of Utam’s “analysis” is that Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (81% approval rating) has failed to articulate “a consistent and coherent foreign policy.”
The most dangerous flaws of entities like EAF can be seen in the dogma of PARA Syndicate’s mission statement. According to the organization, “it delivers insights, trains leaders, and uses digital platforms like YouTube to foster civic participation and policy awareness.” It does not take a lot of imagination to decipher terms like “trains leaders” and “fostering civic participation” into brainwashing students and constructing civic dissent. Let’s briefly examine whether or not Indonesia’s current leadership is rudderless or steaming toward a more prosperous destination.
Proving the Opposite
According to China Global South, China’s industrial machinery and Mechanical Equipment are driving Indonesian imports this year. Additionally, according to PV Tech, the Indonesian government has ratified the PLN Electricity Supply Business Plan (RUPTL) 2025–2034, which aims to achieve 42.6 GW of new renewable energy generation capacity and 10.3 GW of energy storage. The long and short of the latter announcement is that Singapore’s current administration is working toward achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Other news on initiatives, including sustainable logistics and green design, as well as partnering with Chinese shipyards to boost Indonesia’s shipbuilding capabilities and presence in the global market, reveals positive forward motion for the Prabowo Subianto administration.
Returning for the moment to the misleading (admittedly so) EAF piece, “A Spate of Scandals Strikes Singapore,” authored by Dr Chan Ying-Kit, we find evidence of what Indonesia’s current president suggests. President Prabowo Subianto recently said that “foreign interests are attempting to sow division within Indonesia by funding local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to pit citizens against each other.” Remember the mission statements of PARA Syndicate here.
As for Indonesia’s foreign policy being smoke and mirrors, President Subianto has made clear his mission to transform the country into a world mover. Indonesia’s status as the world’s fourth most populous country and its position as the 16th-largest economy globally tend to support his vision. Furthermore, the fact that the ultra-liberal Economist British newspaper accuses Sunianto of weakening his country is proof that he must be doing something right. The reality in Singapore and Indonesia is the Western liberal elites have been, and are, hard at work trying to divide these emerging nations.
Finally, the fact that France’s Emmanuel Macron is all over the Indo-Pacific region tells us even the Rothschilds are coming to grips with a new multipolar world. Well, in their evil imperialist bankster way, that is. Meanwhile, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), China, and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have just charted a collective course for the future.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books
