Group calls for Asean to be people-centric

The Asean Peoples’ Forum was required to go through the Singapore foreign ministry to submit their messages to leaders attending this week’s Asean summit, the forum’s chair said. 
This is the third consecutive year that citizens of Asean countries were refused the opportunity to sit down with leaders to discuss key regional issues, the Asean Peoples’ Forum said.
The Asean Peoples’ Forum and Asean Civil Society Conference (APF/ACSC) issued a statement on Wednesday addressing several issues arising from a series of meetings they held in Singapore on November 2 to 4.
The statement called on the 10-nation bloc to create national and international mechanisms to tackle problems raised in six topics at the forum – just and sustainable development; safe movement of migrants; life with dignity, peace and security; human rights and access to justice; and prevention of all forms of discrimination.
The peoples’ forum also called for just and sustainable use of resources and trade agreements, promotion and protection of human rights, and access to justice and human dignity. They urged governments to find peaceful solutions for the conflict over South China Sea and meaningful resolution of the Rohingya issue.
Meanwhile, the civil society groups will continue monitoring, discussing and tracking the Rohingya crisis at all their conferences until the issue is solved, the statement noted.
Asean members should reduce military expenditures and divert funds to social needs, it said. It also called for the countries to address hydropower dam construction in every Asean mainstream river under the Paris Agreement.
Most importantly, civil society groups need to be included in decision-making by multinational grouping such as Asean, the statement insisted.
“We need the authorities to listen to us, instead of shutting us down and telling groups such as NGOs and parliamentarians in closed-door meetings what we should do in their favour, which often is the situation,” the statement said.
Representatives of the group said they hoped their message would reach the leaders so they can consider and discuss it. 
“By making the ACSC/APF statement, we hope it will be sent to and discussed at the summit, or responded to by the states,” said Sunsanee Sutthisunsanee, a Thai member of the Regional Steering Committee (RSC).
“However, this depends on factors and restrictions, so each year’s statement may not reach the summit. In that case, the tracking process is very important at both national and Asean levels,” she said.

High walls against the public
Sunsanee said ACSC/APF had last met Asean leaders at the 2015 summit in Malaysia, adding that Singapore government tends to put up a high wall to the participation of its own civil society sector. Soe Min Than, a Singaporean member of the RSC, said the ACSC/APF had received no funding from the government.
“The foreign ministry’s Asean Directorate told us that as a civil society group, whatever you decide is within your own agenda. They don’t interfere with what we’re going to do,” Soe Min Tan added.
The 2018 summit has only given each country a quota of just 20 participants, compared to the 2017 meet held in the Philippines where the per-country number topped 1,000 participants. 
Sunsanee said ACSC/APF will hold its next meeting in Thailand, the next Asean chair. 
The meeting will be held on June 20 next year, alongside the next Asean summit.