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35. Role of Nonstate Actors in Building an ASEAN Community
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
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Role of Nonstate Actors in Building an ASEAN Community 165 By: ROS Size: 7.5" x 10.25" J/No: 03-14474 Fonts: New Baskerville 35. ROLE OF NONSTATE ACTORS IN BUILDING AN ASEAN COMMUNITY MAKITO NODA Reprinted in abridged form from Makito Noda, “Role of Nonstate Actors in Building an ASEAN Community”, in Road to ASEAN-10: Japanese Perspectives on Economic Integration, edited by Sekiguchi Sueo and Noda Makito (Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, and Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1999), pp. 167–94, by permission of the author and the Japan Center for International Exchange. NGO NETWORKS The activities of ASEAN-ISIS have contributed significantly to the formation of a sense of community among the policy elites and intellectual leaders in the region by establishing reliable channels of communication and, thus, enhancing mutual confidence. The organization has worked to socialize new members toward eventual participation in the ASEAN-10. At least one condition for an effective regional community seems to be fulfilled. For countries in the South, including the ASEAN members, however, a sense of community among the elites in the different countries does not guarantee cohesion of the group. In developing countries, where the gaps between the elites and the masses are wide, a regional community also requires grass-roots interactions. The networking capability of NGOs has been extremely effective in promoting a more grass-roots sense of community, especially among the developing countries. Therefore, it is relevant to examine whether NGOs actually help to underpin a regional community on the grass-roots level in ASEAN. Because of a focus on issues that is more East Asian or Asian as opposed to Southeast Asian, the scope of NGO networks and collaborations among NGOs has been more Asia-wide or, sometimes, Asia Pacific-wide. Yamamoto, in his integrative 15-country study Emerging Civil Society in the Asia Pacific Community, writes that “there clearly has been an emergence of a number of associations, networks, and other forms of interactions among NGOs in Asia Pacific in recent years” (1995, 19). NGOs in various ASEAN members report a similar trend. The Singaporean report, for example, observes that “the increasing trends towards economic regionalization in Asia Pacific . . . have led to the necessity of NGOs working at the regional level in order to effectively 035 AR Ch 35 22/9/03, 12:45 PM 165 166 Makito Noda By: ROS Size: 7.5" x 10.25" J/No: 03-14474 Fonts: New Baskerville address these [environmental and social problems that are transnational in nature] problems” (219). Likewise, the Philippines report states that “global issues such as human rights, the environment, women, migration and refugees, the spread of AIDS, and population growth all pose major challenges to the Asia Pacific region. Widespread concern has induced the formation of linkages of like-minded NGOs across national boundaries in Asia Pacific” (202). And the Thai report concludes that “nongovernmental organizations in Asia... have joined hands to work together” and that “the role of NGOs in countries in Asia and the Pacific cannot be denied. Networks of NGOs have been established across national borders” (261, 268). Some of the more outstanding NGOs involved in regional networking include the following:1 • People’s Plan for the 21st Century was established in 1988 to “counterpose a people-based, people-centered vision of an alternative Asian future to regional economic, political, and cultural integration ” by linking the largely autonomous activities of grassroots and citizens’ movements throughout the Asia Pacific region. • CODE-NGO is the largest coalition of major-development NGO networks in the Philippines, forging linkages with development NGOs in other developing countries in Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa. • The Centre for the Development of Human Resources and Rural Asia (CENDHRRA) was established in 1974 to develop linkages and networks among NGOs in Asia. The organization gave birth to the South East Asia Development of Human Resources and Rural Areas Forum (SEADHRRA), a solid regional network among national chapters of CENDHRRA in East Asian countries (Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand). • The Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) was founded in 1979 as a regional association of 23 development NGOs and NGO networks from eight countries: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The coalition facilitates people-centered development in the region by promoting South-South and North-South dialogue through training and research programs. • The Asian Alliance of Appropriate Technology Practitioners, Inc. (APPROTECH ASIA), is...