After all, the year that just concluded was quite a disappointment for ASEAN affairs no matter the hyperbole surrounding the Indonesian government at the helm of the bloc.

Yet can an underdog nation like Laos prove everyone wrong and show some real dealmaking skills through genuine, grounded policy action?

Readers might know by now that I have no soft corner for authoritarian, one-party regimes and Laos is one of them.

I wish that many such nations in the region would start reconsidering not their political systems, but rather, how their very restrictive approach to and understanding of human freedom and liberties is actually counterproductive in the medium and long term.

Rather than ideology, I always put a premium on pragmatism.

I do hope that, sooner rather than later, nations like Laos, Vietnam and China (I would include in the list Brunei as well even though it is a one-man system rather than a party one) would show a sort of awakening characterized by the rising of a new dawn for their citizens.

Certainly, the government of Laos with its focus on “connectivity” for its ASEAN chairmanship is going to do everything possible to try to highlight, at least for the next 12 months, that it has a role, a meaningful one, to play in the region.

We do not really know what connectivity will mean in practice. What we do know is that each year the member nation taking over ASEAN comes up with a catchy slogan that symbolically summarizes the key features of its upcoming tenure.

I will offer some insights on what connectivity means for me – and it is pretty basic. It is not just about infrastructure, either physical or digital, even though this is very important for the development of the nation.

For me connectivity means simply one thing: connecting the dots.

I am not sure how many brave pundits out there are really capable of putting together a clear understanding of the ASEAN Leaders’ Declarations and the Chairman’s Statements that are published at the end of each ASEAN summit.

There is a lot of “stuff” to unpack in these documents, almost an endless list of work plans, action plans and blueprints, a list of key documents that almost no one bothers to talk about.

They are boring and very technical and yet they are essential for the future of the region. If truly implemented, they could be game-changer policies that would transform Southeast Asia.

For example, the ASEAN Strategy for Carbon Neutrality, the Protocol to Amend the ASEAN Agreement on Movement of Natural Persons (MNP) or the Labuan Bajo Declaration on Advancing Law Enforcement Cooperation in Combating Transnational Crime.

What about the ASEAN Leaders’s Declaration on the One Health Initiative?

I am just mentioning a few key policies that are listed in the official decisions made by the leaders when they meet.

The Concord IV prepared by the Indonesian chairmanship last year, while pretty general, could be seen as a formidable list of actions, a sort of mega-blueprint containing many other key blueprints.

With such a vast pool of policies that are barely discussed within the media or even among the policymakers of the region, the Laos government has the chance to truly focus on connecting the dots and implementing whatever is implementable.

In short, Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone of Laos, the current chairman of ASEAN, should focus on a simple, often overlooked and unglamorous form of action: moving the ball forward.

Do I not wish that the entire region could expect more from Laos? Some ideas for grand and game-changing initiatives? What about a citizens’ consultation throughout the region about the future of ASEAN? What about creating the conditions for the region to have something that could really be called a regional parliament? Or what about a much more empowered human rights commission?

Instead, we could wish for less visible actions that, no matter the general ignorance surrounding them, can truly make a difference.

Let us start with implementing the following paragraph, inserted in the Chairman’s Statement of the 43rd ASEAN Summit held in Jakarta on Sept. 5 last year.

“We reiterated our commitment to realizing our region as an epicentrum of growth, to be relevant and beneficial to its people, to ensure an ASEAN Community that promotes a high quality of life and is adaptive and responsive to current and future challenges”.

What a beautiful statement.

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The writer is cofounder of ENGAGE, who writes about regional integration, development and human rights in the Asia Pacific.