ASEAN Day 2012 – Your Thoughts!

For me, ASEAN is like a "Barangay" in Philippines or a Village where its people always gather together and communicate to be able to settle disputes, make treaties or agreement in various issues so i think it is designed to create a diplomacy between neighboring countries. In our country, ASEAN is often recognized simply as an organization we're affiliated with just to show that the Philippines is involved in international relations even though the Government see it as an opportunity to attract investors but to most, it doesn't create much of an impact. Hopefully someday, ASEAN will become a spirit of "Bayanihan" or Cooperation by helping each other especially in times of need.

I only hear things about the ASEAN during the assembly of leaders or whenever there are ASEAN-related issues needed to tackle. I only see them on a few news bites and just that. I honestly think they do not create much noise and visibility in Southeast Asia, especially here in the Philippines. I'm not saying that the ASEAN should actively be involved in ALL matters of each member country, but I am wishing that people would know about it more. In that way, the people of Southeast Asia would feel the sense of oneness -- a little less alone in this side of the world. Anyway, just like other comments here, I am proud to be a Southeast Asian. I am blessed to be given the opportunity to have friends in the region. :) So yeah. 

From sonnylebythebay : 

#ASEAN needs Citizen Diplomacy, engaging its own citizens at home, then reach out to overseas communities, esp in the US.

The whole thing about "non-interference" really annoys me as well. Too often it gets used as an excuse to turn a blind eye on each other's human rights abuses!

Inability to agree on really important issues within #Asean is also a major issue.  Here's an article to get the debate going by @Kavi Chongkittavorn http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/10929#.UCH-KfegGBQ.twitter

I actually think Asean is incredibly important vehicle BUT just doesn't necessarily reflect needs of people as much as our governments ie political elites.  Anyway have a look at this to get a wider sense of what students in the region think http://www.aseanfoundation.org/documents/Attitudes%20and%20Awareness%20Toward%20ASEAN.pdf via @edinsing

Vpedrosa shared on Twitter: 

"#aseanhaveyoursay 45 years on and problem is people are barely aware of any impact Asean has on our population of more than 500m!"

I'm a (foreign) teacher here in Thailand and see that many (vocational / governmental) schools and colleges go crazy about ASEAN right now. Students HAVE TO BE PROUD of it and are forced to do a lot of stuff regarding ASEAN to 'open their mind for the upcoming challenges'.....Not sure if making people study the member countries by heart (wow. 10. hard stuff) 'opens ones mind' though. 

Since I'm not a native here I might have the wrong impression but imo there are so many minor (and major) fights going on between the member states that I think it's unlikely to lead to a big success. Even with 2015 coming closer all countries simply seem to care more about their own, short term, goals instead of the big picture (something that's lacking many times over here - at least in Thailand). 

Hearing people from Singapore or Malaysia say 'why should we bother with the losers from Vietnam or Cambodia' reminds me a little of the EU were we (Germany) are pissed about helping Greece, Spain, etc. - not a good basis to start from. 

While the force is strong in young Skywalker, jealousy is strong in SEA (from a foreign-thai perspective) and I'm not sure if ASEAN led or will lead to a lot of improvements. 

I don't think you have to be proud of ASEAN to be proud of SEA. Actually, you don't even need to know ASEAN to know SEA. I'm a Singaporean and I love SEA, but I personally dislike ASEAN. It's a cooperation formed more out of convenience than benefit. One of the least effective in the world. The poor (or less fortunate) members can't do much, and the rich members won't do much. It's basically just a platform for the members to discuss about issues and show some interest. Beyond that, it's pretty much useless.

I just read the history of ASEAN and erm...it's formed because they need to get rid of Creeping Communism (would've been so trendy on Twitter if Twitter existed back in those days)...but years later, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are also included in the region anyway isn't it? Yet there's so much contention with including Timor Leste...what's up with that?

Personally I'm more proud of being Southeast Asian rather than of ASEAN. I can feel the connection between my SEAsian friends and I, and I love visiting the different countries, but I don't feel like ASEAN is related to my life that much. It's an association that's been set up by our governments and I don't necessarily feel like it is connected or related to the people of Southeast Asia so much.