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View all search resultsASEAN urged to focus on people amid challenges
Rather than cracking down on critical voices from grassroots communities, ASEAN should include voices and insights from non-state actors to help the bloc navigate its recent geopolitical challenges, a former deputy foreign minister said.
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Critical voices healthy: Tourists take pictures on May 15, 2025 in front of the ASEAN Malaysia 2025 logo in Kuala Lumpur. (AFP/Mohd Rasfan)
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SEAN must ensure that its processes remain centered on the people and not reserved for the elites amid complex geopolitical challenges and the region’s ambitions to remain strategically sovereign, according to Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) founder Dino Patti Djalal.
Meaningful engagement with grassroots communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other non-state actors cannot be an optional task for ASEAN leaders as they charter troubled territories, the former deputy foreign minister added, urging cooperation instead of cracking down on critical voices.
Dino, who is also a former Indonesian envoy for Washington, said that as ASEAN navigates complex challenges it faces, the bloc has to ensure that its politics could engage and benefit the people to show its seriousness about implementing its long-term community vision.
“ASEAN has been struggling in the last 10 years in realizing its people-centered community,” Dino told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. “Go out on the street and ask anybody [if] they identified as an ASEAN citizen. A lot of them will say ‘no’.”
He added that ASEAN activities must engage with and be supported by the people, so the bloc’s initiative would not make people feel marginalized.
Dino made the comment as the FPCI is set to hold the first ASEAN for the People’s Conference (AFPC) in September, where representatives from hundreds of civic organizations across Southeast Asia will convene in Jakarta to engage in discussions on climate, conflict resolution, immigration and other issues.
The two-day talk, aimed at supporting the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 that was adopted during the bloc’s leaders’ summit in May, will take place against the backdrop of instabilities across the region and the world, such as Myanmar’s unceasing political crisis and Washington’s unpredictable foreign policy.
