A people-oriented asean: A door ajar or closed for civil society organizations?

Contemporary Southeast Asia

Volumn 30, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 313-331

  Collins, Alan ^a  

^a SWANSEA UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

ASEAN; ASEAN Charter; ASEAN Peoples Assembly; Civil society organizations; Solidarity for Asian Peoples Advocacy

Indexed keywords

EID: 85120785935     PISSN: 0129797X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1355/cs30-2g     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. This article was made possible thanks to the following people who were kind enough to grant me an interview during my fieldwork: Mely Caballero-Anthony, Noel Morada, Kusuma Snitwongse, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Apichai Sunchindah, Sinapan Samydorai, Rashid Kang, Edgardo Legaspi, Alex Chandra, Jenina Joy Chavez, Corinna Lopa, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Lay Hwee, Anoop Sukumaran, Dorothy Grace Guerrero and Farah Sofa. I am also grateful to Alex Chandra and two reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft. I, of course, bear responsibility for the text as it appears here. Finally, my thanks to The British Academy for the funding that enabled me to conduct the fieldwork, and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) for the use of their facilities in Singapore.
2. Ansley Ng, “Asean to get Civil Society Report”, TODAY online, 29 October 2007.
3. Solidarity for Asian Peoples’ Advocacies (SAPA) Working Group on ASEAN, “Analysis of the ASEAN Charter”, 20 October 2007. Cited from .
4. ASEAN Secretariat, “ASEAN Charter”, article 1.13, January 2008. Cited from .
5. Alan Collins, Security and Southeast Asia: Domestic, Regional and Global Issues (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2003).
6. Erik Martinez Kuhonta, “Walking a Tightrope: Democracy versus Sovereignty in ASEAN’s Illiberal Peace”, The Pacific Review 19, no. 3 (2006): 337–58.
7. Alexander C. Chandra and Jenina Joy Chevez, eds., “Civil Society Engagement with ASEAN: An Overview”, in Civil Society Reflections on South East Asian Regionalism: ASEAN@40 (Quezon City: South East Asia Committee for Advocacy, 2008), p. 27.
8. ASEAN Secretariat, “Guidelines on ASEAN’s Relations with Civil Society Organisations”, 6 April 2006. Cited from .
9. There is an exception; Asian Partnership for Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia (AsiaDHRRA), which is a non-governmental organization involved in advocacy on behalf of rural communities gained affiliated status in April 2004. It is too soon to know whether AsiaDHRRA will find its accreditation a help or hindrance; currently in what might be called the confidence building stage, the signs are reasonably promising with a few “small steps” and “tactical gains” achieved. For details, see Marlene Ramirez, “AsiaDHRRA and ASEAN: A Case Study on the Process of Civil Society Engagement with a Regional Intergovernmental Organization” . Also see Marlene D. Ramirez, “Engaging ASEAN: A Case Study of the Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia”, in Alexander C. Chandra and Jenina Joy Chavez, eds., Civil Society Reflections on South East Asian Regionalism: ASEAN@40 (Quezon City: South East Asia Committee for Advocacy), pp. 37–48.
10. On the issue of academics becoming bureaucratised and co-opted, see David Martin Jones and M.L.R. Smith, ASEAN and East Asian International Relations: Regional Delusions (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2006), pp. 32–39.
11. ASEAN Secretariat, “ASEAN Vision 2020”, 15 December 1997. Cited from .
12. Robin Ramcharan, “ASEAN and Non-interference: A Principle Maintained”, Contemporary Southeast Asia 22, no. 1 (April 2000), p. 83.
13. ASEAN Secretariat, “Report of the ASEAN Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Vision 2020: The People’s ASEAN”, 2000. Cited from .
14. ASEAN Secretariat, “ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Plan of Action”, paragraph 1, 2004. Cited from .
15. ASEAN Secretariat, “ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Plan of Action”, paragraph 11.
16. ASEAN Secretariat, “ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Plan of Action”, paragraph 18.
17. ASEAN Secretariat, “Address by the Honourable Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia at the Opening of the 39th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, Kuala Lumpur, 25 July 2006”. Cited from .
18. Shefali Rekhi, “Asean Charter to turn Region into Community; Duo involved in Drafting of Charter say it will bolster Grouping’s Ability to Assert Itself”, Straits Times, 28 October 2007.
19. See “ASEAN at Forty: Realizing the People’s Expectations”, Programme for The Sixth ASEAN People’s Assembly, 23–25 October 2007. Cited from . Also see Manila Bulletin, “Role of Civil Society in ASEAN Cited; Metro & National News”, 4 November 2007.
20. Surin Pitsuwan, “Welcome Remarks by H.E. Dr Surin Pitsuwan Secretary-General of ASEAN”, at the ASEAN Foundation 10th Anniversary ForumJakarta, 16 January 2008. Cited from .
21. Garry Rodan, “Singapore’s Founding Myths vs. Freedom”, Far Eastern Economic Review, October 2006, pp. 13–17.
22. David Boey, “Support for World Bank, IMF to Engage Civil Society Groups; But These Groups Will Still Have To Abide By Laws Here During September Meeting”, Straits Times, 18 January 2006.
23. For CSOs prevented from attending, see Deborah K. Elms, “Let Them Hear the Message of the Masses; IMF/World Bank Meetings”, International Herald Tribune, 30 September 2006. CSOs were only permitted to gather in Suntec City. The area in Suntec City was large enough to house 500 participants but 700 were given accreditation. For details, see Liaw Wy-Cin, “S’pore ‘Can’t Take Chances’ With Security; Area Inside Convention Centre Where Protesters Can Gather Is Revealed”, Straits Times, 11 September 2006. For a rebuke of Elms’ commentary, see Lim Hwee Hua, “Letters to the Editor; Singapore 2006”, International Herald Tribune, 6 October 2006.
24. Joint Statement from World Bank and IMF on CSO Participation in the Annual Meetings in Singapore, 7 September 2006. Cited from .
25. Lee Hock Guan, Civil Society in Southeast Asia (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2004).
26. Mely Caballero-Anthony, Regional Security in Southeast Asia: Beyond the ASEAN Way (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005), p. 243.
27. In addition to APA missing from the Charter, the funding for APA remains essentially non-ASEAN based and the concern is that should the APA-ASEAN Summit interface fail to become institutionalized the current funders might withdraw their funds. See Noel M. Morada, “APA and Track 2½ Diplomacy: The role of the ASEAN People’s Assembly in Building an ASEAN Community”, in Hiro Katsumata and See Seng Tan, eds., People’s ASEAN and Governments’ ASEAN (Singapore: RSIS Monograph 11, 2008), p. 64.
28. See Mely Caballero-Anthony, “Non-state Regional Governance Mechanism for Economic Security: The Case of the ASEAN Peoples’ Assembly”, The Pacific Review 17, no. 4 (2004), p. 581. Also see Charles E Morrison, “Track 1/Track 2 Symbiosis in Asia-Pacific Regionalism”, The Pacific Review 17, no. 4 (2004), pp. 561–62.
29. The biographies of those on the EPG is available from .
30. “Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN Charter”, Trends in Southeast Asia Series 8 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2006), p. 7.
31. “SAPA Letter to the EPG on the ASEAN Charter Reiterating the Key Points of its Submissions”, 24 November 2006. Cited from .
32. “Report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN Charter”, paragraph 18, December 2006. Cited from .
33. “Report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN Charter”, paragraphs 29–30.
34. “Report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN Charter”, paragraph 48.
35. “Report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN Charter”, paragraph 17.
36. Report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN Charter”, paragraph 16.
37. “Report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN Charter”, paragraph 48.
38. “Report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN Charter”, paragraph 48.
39. For APA report, see “Report of The Chairman of The 5th ASEAN People’s Assembly to the 12th ASEAN Summit”, 13 January 2007. Cited from . For ACSC, see “Statement of the 2nd ASEAN Civil Society Conference”, 12 December 2006. Cited from .
40. Kavi Chongkittavorn, “Asean Drafters Meet Civil Society Groups”, The Nation, 29 March 2007.
41. “Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the ASEAN Charter”, Trends in Southeast Asia Series 8 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2006), p. 32.
42. Morada, op. cit., pp. 64–65.