invitation: workshop on 'The State of Democracy in Southeast Asia' ACSC2, 11 Dec, 11:30-1:30, Cebu, Philippines
marissa d. de guzman
10-12 December 2006
Montebello Villa Hotel, Cebu City, Philippines
Workshop: 'The State of Democracy in Southeast Asia: Examining Political Spaces for Advocacy in the Region'
Schedule: Day 2, 11 December 2006, 11:30am-1:30pm
Anchor: SEACA/South East Asian Committee for Advocacy
Speakers: PROFESSOR RANDY DAVID - Department of Sociology, University of the Philippines-Diliman; Journalist and multi-media practitioner (Philippines)
AJARN AMARA PONGSAPICH- Chair, Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program, Chulalongkorn University (Thailand)
DR. GEORGE ADITJONDRO - Independent Researcher on Political Space for Advocacy (Democratic Space) in Indonesia and East Timor (Indonesia)
In Southeast Asia today, political space is present in widely varying degrees, reflecting not only the heterogeneous nature of existing political systems in the region, but also the varying levels in which the project of political modernity has progressed.
At one end of the continuum, for example, is Burma, a society that remains in the grip of a cabal of military rulers who have achieved a reversal of the short-lived democratic turn that made elections possible in the 1990s. At the other end is the Philippines, a country that inherited from its colonial past what is possibly the most modern institutional framework in the region, but miserably failed to make this work for its people. In between these two poles are Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia – societies that have emerged from long periods of authoritarian rule and now in various stages of democratization. Then we have the small affluent state of Singapore, governed tightly and efficiently by a dominant ruling party that has monopolized power from the first moment the city-state secured its independence. And there is Brunei, a rich sultanate that has run the country like a family corporation with absolute powers. And finally, we have the new ASEAN members – Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos – nations that are still recovering from the trauma of war and the failed socialist experiment, but now following a model of development that is market-friendly, while maintaining a tight rein on political activity. Then there is the newest nation-state in the region – Timor Leste – being nudged inch by inch towards some form of central governance while remaining heavily dependent on foreign assistance to feed its impoverished population. Timor must be treated as a separate case, for here we have a people, so far away from the threshold of modernity, but painfully taking their first crucial steps as a self-governing nation. The experiment could fail at any point. The problems that the Timorese are encountering every step of the way provide important lessons to other peoples in the region that are waging their own wars of independence.
Given this regional backdrop and in the light of recent developments in SEA – Singapore’s banning of civil society delegates invited to attend the IMF/WB meetings in September, relentless political killings in the Philippines, the military coup in Thailand, and even the harassment of our very own [arrest of Randy David in February and the detention and deportation of George Aditjondro just last month] – civil society activists need a self-assessment.
Who are we as members of civil society? When did we emerge? What are we fighting for? What methods do we use? Are they effective? What else can we do given the realities in the region that we face?
It is likewise imperative to ask: is there an urgent need to re-imagine and re-define ‘democracy’ that is more meaningful and more responsive to an ASEAN-style of modernity that is emerging from both the throes of our colonial and dictatorial past as well as the realities of our repressive and constricting present?
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MARISSA D. DE GUZMAN
Research/Information & Communications
Officer
SEACA/South East Asian Committee for Advocacy
#29D Mayaman
Street
UP Village, Diliman, Quezon City
1101 Philippines
Tel +63 2 920
6228
Fax +63 2 920 6202
Mobile +63 917 885 2413
Email mdeg...@seaca.net
URL
http://www.seaca.net