In international summits, the official agenda is naturally the most prominent layer. In this week’s 48th ASEAN Summit in Cebu, the agenda are energy security, food security, and the safety of ASEAN nationals amid the ongoing Middle East crisis.
Other equally important work, however, happens not only in official meetings but also on the sidelines and through informal encounters. I am writing this piece from the middle of a jam-packed hall at the ASEAN Community Town Hall, held yesterday at the Monte Carlo Ballroom of Mövenpick Hotel Mactan. It was part of “ASEAN for the Peoples Week in Cebu”, a series of activities for a people-centered ASEAN, organized by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia and held on the sidelines of the 48th ASEAN Summit.
Civil society-organized town halls like this are important because they widen the conversation beyond state actors and official delegations. Global and regional issues are not only concerns of people in charge at the top, they are also lived by communities where civil society groups are immersed and rooted. Town halls serve as a counterbalance to the often carefully-curated messages of official summits, creating an alternative space where inconvenient questions can be asked and discussed.
In the welcome remarks of Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, founder and chairman of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia, he located the ASEAN Summit this year within a world that is moving into a different order: one where trust in institutions is low, confidence in the rule of law is weak, and mistrust among nations and peoples is high. The world is not heading toward a possible World War III; it is already living through overlapping wars and crises.
It was a sobering yet important reminder of why ASEAN matters. For us in Southeast Asia, ASEAN is closer to our daily realities than the United Nations, said Dr. Djalal. What happens within ASEAN affects the movement of our workers, the price of fuel, the safety of our seas, the availability of food, the handling of disasters, and the protection of communities.
Dr. Djalal was careful, though, not to romanticize ASEAN. Yes, ASEAN has shortcomings. Its consensus model can be frustratingly slow, its language cautious. But there is still something essential in the basic ASEAN idea, said Dr. Djalal: large and small states sit together as equals. Indonesia is large. Singapore is small. Timor-Leste is a young nation and ASEAN’s newest member. But within ASEAN, these nations sit at the same table as equals.
That idea matters even more in a world increasingly divided into spheres of influence. If global politics is becoming more transactional, more militarized, and more distrustful, then a regional architecture based on friendship, peace, cooperation, and equality may not be perfect, but it remains necessary. The challenge is to make that architecture not only strong at the top, but also solid at the bottom, among peoples, communities, and grassroots organizations.
ASEAN leaders and ministers discussed since Wednesday energy security, food security, and the safety of ASEAN nationals amid the continuing Middle East crisis. In the town hall yesterday, these same issues were discussed from the viewpoint of communities that experience insecurity in concrete ways.
I sat through a panel discussion on the Sustainable Development Goals moderated by Dr. Crina Tañongon, dean of the College of Communication, Art, and Design of UP Cebu. The figure cited was disheartening --only 35% of SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress in the Asia-Pacific Region. Behind that number is a familiar account. Progress exists, but it is uneven. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening. Some indicators seem to improve at the national level, while local disparities remain hidden.
Ambassador Nelson Santos, senior adviser to the president of Timor-Leste on international relations, made this point clearly. National averages can mislead because they hide inequalities at the local level. A country may appear to be progressing, but that progress may not reach the rural village, the farm, or the fishing community. This is why disaggregated data matters. Without it, policy can become blind to the people most in need of attention.
Santos said that as a young country with a young population, Timor-Leste looks to ASEAN not only as a diplomatic community but also as a source of practical lessons. For him, joining ASEAN is not just about status. It is about cooperation that can produce positive outcomes. (To be continued)