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Jakarta Post

Your letters: Run the ASEAN way

Amid the enthusiasm for the establishment of the ASEAN Community in 2015, efforts are increasingly being made to make its implementation effective

The Jakarta Post
Mon, July 14, 2014

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Your letters: Run the ASEAN way

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mid the enthusiasm for the establishment of the ASEAN Community in 2015, efforts are increasingly being made to make its implementation effective. With less than two years to go, the 10 member states should ensure preparations are on schedule.

The government has basically initiated several progressive measures that apply to each pillar. Under the political-security community, member states are required to promote democracy and human rights, as well as to ensure the region is free from weapons of mass destruction and the threat of terrorism.

With regards to the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), member states are also required to strengthen connectivity in order to ease the flow of goods, services, investment and people so as to address the implementation of liberal trade in the region. Meanwhile, the sociocultural community aims to promote people'€™s awareness of the ASEAN Community as well as to enhance people-to-people connectivity. As such, the governments have engaged with various stakeholders, including civil society, academia, students, and so on.

The key issue to make the implementation of the ASEAN Community successful relies on the participation of all state actors and stakeholders. Nowadays, the main concern is the lack of such participation, particularly at the grassroots level. Skeptics believe that the actors within this platform mainly represent the government and those who have an interest in ASEAN and its community, such as businesspeople and scholars.

Even if people know about ASEAN, they might not want to be significantly involved due to the minimum perceived advantages from contributing to ASEAN, while the consequences of being part of the ASEAN Community will affect their lives.

At the national level, Indonesia considers it worthwhile to accelerate efforts to enhance people'€™s awareness about the ASEAN Community. Accordingly, students of Junior Diplomatic Training batch 38 at the School of Foreign Services, under the Foreign Ministry, have initiated two events, namely the ASEAN 5K Fun Run and the ASEAN Village, which will take place on Aug. 10, mostly around the National Monument (Monas) in Jakarta.

The purpose of the events is to increase knowledge about the ASEAN Community 2015, celebrate the 47th ASEAN Day and promote ASEAN'€™s potential in tourism, culture and culinary tourism. Moreover, this initiative has also been inspired by Indonesia'€™s significant role as the host of ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, as well as Indonesia'€™s strong economy and its huge population, which accounts for one-third of the total ASEAN population.

In collaboration with the Directorate General of ASEAN Cooperation, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, this event will invite members of the public with 1,000 targeted participants. Furthermore, this event will also invite ASEAN stakeholders, including but not limited to, 10 embassies from ASEAN countries, the ASEAN Secretariat, the permanent representative of Indonesia to ASEAN and the ASEAN National Secretariat of Indonesia.

The ASEAN Fun Run is a 5-kilometer marathon that starts from Monas, travels along Jl. Thamrin and returns to Monas. Meanwhile, the ASEAN Village features a tourism, cultural and culinary exhibition, as well as performing arts.

The ASEAN 5K Fun Run and the ASEAN Village are the first events of their kind to promote the ASEAN Community among Indonesians on a large scale. The success of these events will eventually reflect the growing concern of Indonesians in the progress of the ASEAN Community 2015.

I Made Diangga Adika Karang

Jakarta

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