Public Forum
The Myanmar Crisis:
What Next for Malaysia as ASEAN Chair 2025

Moe Thuzar is a Senior Fellow at ISEAS. She joined ISEAS in 2008, as lead researcher in the ASEAN Studies Centre up to August 2019. Prior to joining ISEAS, Moe spent close to ten years at the ASEAN Secretariat, where she headed the Human Development Unit from 2004 to 2007. A former diplomat, she researched Burma’s foreign policy implementation (1948-88), for her PhD at the National University of Singapore. Moe was a Fox International Fellow (2019-2020) at Yale University’s MacMillan Center during her PhD candidacy. Apart from Myanmar’s foreign policy, Moe continues to be interested in ASEAN integration issues (in socio-cultural areas) and ASEAN’s dialogue relations. Moe has co-authored, co-edited, and contributed to several compendia and edited volumes on ASEAN, and on Myanmar. She can be contacted at moe_thuzar@iseas.edu.sg.

Lilianne Fan is the Director and Co-Founder of the Geutanyoë Foundation, a humanitarian organisation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is the Joint Head of the Secretariat for All Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia on Refugee Policy and the Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar. Additionally, she is a steering committee member of the Southeast Asia Women Peace Mediators and a member of the Myanmar Expert Study Group at the Asia-Europe Institute of University Malaya. With over 20 years of experience, Lilianne is a cultural anthropologist specialising in the issues of refugees and stateless groups, particularly the Rohingya in Rakhine State and ASEAN. Her expertise is sought by the UN, World Bank, and various governments. She holds an MA in Anthropology from Columbia University and has participated in significant post-crisis recovery missions globally, including in Myanmar, Aceh and Haiti. She can be contacted at lilianne@geutanyoefoundation.org

Francis Kok-Wah Loh was Professor of Politics in Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang until his retirement in 2012. He has been a Visiting Scholar/Research Fellow at Monash and Melbourne Universities in Australia, in Kyoto University, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He has won research grants from the Swedish International Development Agency (1996-2002), The Ford Foundation (2005-2008), and served as Director of the Regional Workshop of the Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship Program (Nippon Foundation) in 2010-11. He has been associated with the Forum of Federations since 2005, and has been involved in FoF’s Myanmar Project for Federalism and Inclusive Governance since 2012. Francis was President of Aliran (2011-2016) and its Secretary for 20 years. He received his BA (summa cum laude) from Dartmouth College (1974) and his PhD in Political Science and Southeast Asian Studies from Cornell University (1980). He can be contacted at franciskwloh@gmail.com

Johan Saravanamuttu is Professor Emeritus of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Adjunct Professor at Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya and Adjunct Senior Fellow, RSIS, Nanyang Technological University (2016-2023). He was Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore from 2007-2013. In 1997, he was Visiting Chair of ASEAN and International Studies at the Centre for International Studies (CIS), University of Toronto. He has published extensively on Malaysia, its foreign policy, the middle class, general elections, the New Economic Policy and political Islam. His publications include: Malaysia’s Foreign Policy, the First 50 Years: Alignment, Neutralism, Islamism, Singapore: ISEAS 2010, Power Sharing in a Divided Nation: Mediated Communalism and New Politics over Six Decades of Elections in Malaysia, Singapore: ISEAS 2016, The Cambodian Conflict 1979-1991: From Intervention to Resolution, Research and Education for Peace, USM, Dept of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, 1996 (co-author with Peter Wallensteen and Ramses Amer). He can be contacted at jsaravanamuttu@gmail.com

Roy Anthony Rogers is currently Deputy Executive Director (Development, Research, & Innovation) of Asia-Europe Institute, Universiti Malaya and Senior Lecturer with the Department of Strategic and International Studies, University of Malaya, having joined the department in 2001. He also has served as the Head of Department from 2012 till September 2020. He has a Master in Strategic and Defence Studies (M.SDS) from the Universiti Malaya. He has also taught at the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College (MAFSC) and the Malaysian Defence Armed Forces College (MDAF). In 2012 he obtained Ph.D. from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and his research interest are government and politics of the Central Asian republics and human rights conditions in Xinjiang. His area of specialization includes Political Science, International Relations (Theories of International Relations) and History (China and Central Asia). He has been invited by the Institute of Diplomatic and Foreign Relations (IDFR) Malaysia to lecture at the Diplomatic Training Course for ASEAN Attachment Officers. He is one of the Media Resource Persons for Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM), Sinar Harian and Astro Awani. Received the Excellence Service Award in 2016, 2008 from the University of Malaya, International Visitor (IV) from the US State Department in 2006. He can be contacted at rarogers@um.edu.my