Socioeconomic challenges for the ASEAN People's Assembly<\/p>\n
Eric Teo Chu Cheow, Singapore<\/p>\n
The 4th ASEAN People's Assembly (APA) was held in Manila May
\n10-13, bringing together more than one hundred ASEAN participants
\nfrom NGOs, the academia, the media, peoples' organizations, civil
\nsociety and civic groups. There were also some fifty foreign
\nobservers from regional countries and international players.<\/p>\n
This is the 4th in a series of APAs, which began with the
\nBatam Assembly in November 2000, organized to coincide with the
\n2000 ASEAN Summit in Singapore. The 2nd APA was held in Bali in
\nJuly 2002 and the 3rd in Manila in September 2003.<\/p>\n
From the 2nd APA came the initiative to do the human rights
\nand gender scorecards, whereas the 3rd APA launched a human
\ndevelopment report for ASEAN, which was presented this year at
\nthe 4th Assembly.<\/p>\n
The convening of APA is based on the rationale that community-
\nbuilding in ASEAN must include all sectors of society, as ASEAN
\nmust be made relevant to the ordinary citizens of each of the
\nmember states, as it is already to the elite communities of the
\norganization.<\/p>\n
In this perspective, for ASEAN to build a genuine Southeast
\nAsian Community, it must be based on a wider and deeper
\nunderstanding of ASEAN amongst its citizens. The ASEAN Vision
\n2020 in fact seeks to build a community of caring societies, the
\ncomponent elements of which target the currently unsatisfactory
\nsocio-economic conditions affecting its population at the
\ngrassroots level.<\/p>\n
At the core of this initiative is ASEAN-ISIS, a network of
\nnine ASEAN think tanks, which conceived this project way back in
\n1996. In the Vientiane Action Plan adopted at the last ASEAN
\nSummit, both APA and ASEAN-ISIS were mentioned as initiatives
\nASEAN governments are supporting in order to bring the peoples of
\nASEAN closer, together with the ASEAN Business Advisory Council,
\nthe ASEAN Parliamentary Organization and the ASEAN University
\nNetwork.<\/p>\n
Moreover, APA has an important role in the current ASEAN
\nefforts to build its three communities, as \"the pillars of
\nASEAN's future\". These three communities include the ASEAN
\nSecurity Community, ASEAN Economic Community and the ASEAN Social
\nand Cultural Community, commonly known as the three \"P\"s, for
\npeace, prosperity and people respectively. APA is thus an
\nintegral part of the ASEAN Social and Cultural Community, which
\nshould 'bond' the peoples of ASEAN together more tightly.<\/p>\n
But the challenges for ASEAN are enormous in the socio-
\neconomic arena, as well as in social justice and good governance.
\nASEAN's human rights and democracy scorecards were presented at
\nthe recent Assembly, as well as the gender scorecard and its
\nhuman development report.<\/p>\n
There is still much progress to be made here, as peace and
\nreconciliation still need to be enhanced within ASEAN. In on-
\ngoing religious, economic and communal conflicts, the common and
\nindigenous peoples of ASEAN are perceived to be at the mercy of
\ndiverse interest groups, as numerous panelists at the Assembly
\nhad pointed out. Refugees, displaced persons and human
\ntrafficking still constitute a scourge across vast areas of
\nASEAN.<\/p>\n
Human security and conflict prevention remain a hope for many
\namongst the ASEAN poor, just as social justice and good corporate
\nand public governance still remain elusive for them.<\/p>\n
In fact, the 'responsibility to protect' is now a slogan
\nringing across ASEAN too, but ASEAN governments need to adopt
\nthis approach and mindset more in order to effectively put this
\ninto practice. The role of the media and civil society was
\nexamined, just as natural disaster relief and management came to
\nthe fore at the Assembly, given the Dec. 26 tsunami and the
\nsubsequent earthquake that shook Nias in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The Assembly thus provided a useful platform to discuss all
\naspects of comprehensive and human security, especially from
\nASEAN NGOs' perspective.<\/p>\n
As regionalism gathers momentum, ASEAN's peoples must be given
\nmore say and a greater stake in ASEAN, especially as the future
\nSoutheast Asian Community's principal share-holder.<\/p>\n
But as ASEAN governments are so diverse and differ greatly in
\naccountability to their people, there is also a wide range of
\ndifferences in the level of participatory politics within the
\norganization; moreover, the levels of people's participation
\nwithin ASEAN are still subjected to different interpretations and
\nimplementation, just as Myanmar poses a direct political problem
\nto the organization; in fact, Myanmar has been completely absent
\nfrom APA thus far, as no Myanmar delegate has frequented APA for
\nobvious political reason.<\/p>\n
But popular socio-economic participation must form the crux of
\nASEAN peoples' participation in the organization's decision-
\nmaking process, as ASEAN seeks not only to enlarge the economic
\npie with sound growth and sustainable policies, but also to
\nimplement a greater and wider social redistribution of the fruits
\nof growth, progress and prosperity across the region and within
\nindividual countries.<\/p>\n
Therein lies perhaps ASEAN's greatest challenge ahead, as
\nsocio-economic imperatives could eventually also contain the
\nseeds of social and political instability in the region. It is
\nthus for this reason that socio-economic problems and challenges
\nconstituted, rightly so, the main crux of the APA's agenda.<\/p>\n
A more even social redistribution, with a strong
\nimplementation of social justice, is thus necessary to help
\nensure economic sustainability, as well as social and political
\nstability.<\/p>\n
Therein lies the fundamental and most important challenge for
\nASEAN, as it builds a true Southeast Asian Community of \"caring
\nsocieties\".<\/p>\n
The peoples' voice must be heard in this regard and APA
\nprovides the useful platform for ASEAN to voice out. Only with
\nthe consensus of the ASEAN peoples would social redistribution
\nand social justice be effectively implemented across ASEAN lands,
\nso as to provide political and social stability for continuous
\neconomic growth and progress.<\/p>\n
The writer, a business consultant and strategist, is Council
\nSecretary of the Singapore Institute for International Affairs
\n(SIIA), and a role-player and participant at the 4th ASEAN
\nPeoples' Assembly.<\/p>",
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