Abstract
After the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Charter that declared ASEAN to be a ‘people-oriented’ community was signed in 2007, numerous attempts have been made from civil society organizations (CSOs) to participate in the regionalism process. However, it is still unclear whether ASEAN deliberatively include their participation in the formal decision-making process or, according to Jurgen Rüland (2014), selectively include participation based on state demands and a state–corporatist model of interest representation.
Kelly Gerard’s work, ASEAN’s Engagement of Civil Society, tries to solve this puzzle by undertaking an analysis of civil society’s participation in ASEAN after the notion ‘people-oriented’ was included in its Charter. Drawn upon a critical political economy approach, this work tries to examine relations between CSOs and governance institutions in shaping ASEAN’s regional processes. The author contends that civil society’s participation in ASEAN reflects emerging social and political contestations in Southeast Asia, which walks hand-in-hand with the emerging regionalism process in the region.
According to the author, existing International Relations theories have been limited in explaining the emerging civil society’s participation in Southeast Asia. While realists and constructivists have generally neglected this issue because of ‘methodological nationalism’ contained in those approaches (p. 8), liberalism has oversimplified the participation only determined by increasing complexity of global and regional policy-making (pp. 31–32). These perspectives neglect the importance of ‘agency’ in explaining social and political dynamics within ASEAN. Moving beyond those state-heavy perspectives, the author aims to take a snapshot of civil society’s participation by underscoring their attempts to engage and ASEAN’s inclusion of their interests in the formal policy-making process.
Dating back to 1967, ASEAN was originally established as an arena to de-escalate high political tension in the region. The US invasion to Vietnam, a wave of independence from Southeast Asian states, and the ‘Cold War effect’ had heightened the political tension in the 1960s. Against this backdrop, five Southeast Asian states decided to established ASEAN as a means to promote regional cooperation as well as to avoid inter-state conflicts and, interestingly, to repress the Communist threat in the region (p. 50). However, with the passage of the Cold War, ASEAN has slowly transformed into a more complex regional institution. It was evident when ASEAN expanded its membership by including five other member states and, afterwards, declared an ASEAN Community in 2003.
While the institutional design in ASEAN is getting more complex, intra-regional dynamics, particularly state and non-state relations, seem to be getting more intense. The establishment of several regional institutions in ASEAN not only institutionalizes the regionalism process, but also creates space for participation from non-state actors, particularly civil society. The author categorizes civil society participation in three spaces established in the ASEAN regionalism process, including (a) spaces established by ASEAN, which contains a civil society organization (CSO) affiliation system, ad hoc consultation and government organization–non-government organizations (GO–NGO) forums and ASEAN Commissions; (b) spaces recognized by ASEAN, for example the ASEAN People’s Assembly, the ASEAN People’s Forum, the ASEAN–ISIS Colloquium, regional dialogues, etc.; and (c) spaces created by CSOs to get involved in regional processes, which contains protests, production of critical knowledge, lobbying and many other activities external to ASEAN’s policy-making process (pp. 81–154).
Several findings are interesting enough to be elaborated. In some spaces established by ASEAN, CSOs were evidently engaged to articulate their interests, for example, in ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission of Human Rights (AICHR) and ASEAN Commission for the Protection of Women and Children (ACWC), which was established after 2007. By using ad hoc consultation and the Commission itself, CSOs have successfully enabled wider participation in the regional forums. However, given the state-centrist nature in ASEAN as well as authoritarian regimes in several ASEAN member states, CSOs’ articulations seemed to be constrained. Nevertheless, CSOs’ participation was not ended due to those constraints; they were using several forums as well as protests and demonstrations in order to influence decision-making processes in ASEAN.
Having explained CSOs engagement in ASEAN, both formally and informally, the author concludes that ASEAN’s engagement of civil society, particularly after 2003, has left some gaps. Even though ASEAN permitted participation by establishing several channels, ASEAN also evidently excluded those who are challenging state’s position. Therefore, civil society participation is limited, mostly because of this state-centric nature in the regionalism processes.
For those who study Southeast Asia, this book offers new insights to understand ASEAN not only in terms of ‘state-defined interest’ but also as a space contested by state and other political forces. Therefore, this book is able to explain the transformation of ASEAN from merely a space to preserve stability to a more complex form of regional governance. This book’s use of critical political economy approach has also enabled us to understand the contention between state and non-state actor in defining ASEAN as a new political entity in Southeast Asia.
However, this book has also had some limitations. My criticism is twofold. First, although this book has given such a good insight on how ASEAN includes civil society in its regionalism process, it does not give adequate information on what CSOs are targeting in its regional involvement. It is still unclear with what issues civil society participates in and what their demands are when dealing with ASEAN. Besides that, this book is also overseeing CSOs only as one single entity without explaining what they are demanding in ASEAN and what strategies they utilise to achieve their goals. Addressing these issues will be important because each issue in ASEAN have its particular dynamics, which is different each other.
Second, this book is also limited in explaining the nature of ASEAN’s limited arena for participation. It is also unclear why there is only a little place for civil society to engage in decision-making process and why do many ASEAN forums are limited to state representatives. So far readers were unclear whether the constraint caused by ‘regional corporatism’ idea or merely because of ‘state-centric’ paradigm that is historically constructed in ASEAN since its early establishment. Explaining the nature of ASEAN ‘state-centrism’ will enrich the theoretical framework offered by the author to understand CSOs engagement in ASEAN.
Notwithstanding these issues, ASEAN’s Engagement of Civil Society still provides fruitful, significant analysis on CSOs involvement in ASEAN and how ASEAN responds to that emerging phenomenon. This book is highly recommended for academics or civil society activists who are concerned with the future of ASEAN.