Transnational Civil society and the democratisation: of ASEAN: Struggle for Participatory Space (original) (raw)

In the past one-and a half decades, there has been increasing research on democratic governance beyond the nation state and the democratisation of global governance. Within this field, regional organisations - in particular those from the Global South - remain a largely under-researched topic, although recently ASEANs’ engagement of civil society has received growing attention. Despite its declared goal to become a “people-centred” community, the role ASEAN is willing to grant to civil society is rather consultative than participatory and highly selective. This results in two conflictive developments: on the one hand, civil society in Southeast Asia is presenting itself as organized as rarely before. There is a growing number of advocacy networks in the region, independent from but increasingly engaging ASEAN. And the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples’ Forum (ACSC/APF) has gained in scope with more than 3000 participants attending the 2014 Myanmar meeting. It is preceded by the ASEAN Youth Forum (AYF) and both events aim to provide an inclusive space to make the voices of counter-hegemonic and often-marginalized groups such as migrant workers, LGBTQ, sex workers and refugees, heard. But on the other hand, member governments have repeatedly upheld their rights to reject or even replace nominated civil delegates at dialogue and interface sessions. Some of them have also tried to openly sabotage meetings such as in Cambodia or exerted pressure to exclude sensitive topics such as the disappearance of Laotian civil society leader Sombath Somphone. Based on participation in the 2014 and 2015 ACSC/APF and AYF meetings and extensive research on civil society organizing in the region this talk will discuss the strategies, challenges and prospects of ASEAN civil society in contributing to democratisation from below.

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