As an undergraduate taking a course on South-east Asia nearly four decades ago, I was assigned a map exercise. Handed a blank map of South-east Asia, the class was asked to mark a list of cities in the region that the professor had put together. I realised how little I knew about South-east Asia. And I was not alone. The entire class was not able to get more than 10 per cent of the cities marked roughly in the vicinity of where they exist.

I am quite certain that if I repeated that exercise today with our students, the results would be the same. Despite young Singaporeans having had greater opportunity to travel, it is not clear to me that South-east Asia has drawn their attention in a way the region deserves.