ASEAN, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a geo-political and economic organization of countries located in Southeast Asia, which was formed on 8 August 1967, with signing the Bangkok Declaration by Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. As set out in the ASEAN Declaration, one of the aims and purpose of ASEAN is to accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region through joint endeavours in the spirit of equality and partnership in order to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian Nations.
ASEAN is going to realize an open, dynamic and resilient ASEAN Community by 2020 which has three pillars (ASEAN Political-Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community). In this essay I will elaborate one of core elements of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community(ASCC). There are six core elements in the ASCC Blueprint, they are human development, social welfare and protection, social justice and rights, ensuring environmental sustainability, building ASEAN identity, and narrowing the development gap. One of the core elements which I stated before is building the ASEAN identity. There are two questions in this core element ‘building ASEAN identity’, they are: 1. Who does take responsibility in building ASEAN identity?; 2. How could we construct an ASEAN identity?
ASEAN Integration is not restricted to people such as academicians, diplomats, businessmen and governments, but it is for all people of ASEAN, for most civilians. Answering the question above, It is government who takes responsibility in building the ASEAN identity but the people of ASEAN are at the centre of it, through the participation of all sectors of society. Therefore, ASEAN needs to go beyond organising formal activities if people are the center of building community. ASEAN needs to go beyond government to government dialogue. ASEAN needs to build people to people links.
There are three major classes which take big role in constructing the ASEAN identity. They are children and youth as the future of ASEAN and also the old age group. The best way to create ASEAN identity for the children and youth is from education. In the education area, the culture of ASEAN should be introduced to children during the elementary school. Therefore younger generations will understand with the concept of regional identity. This also could increase the feeling of being ASEAN in heart of ASEAN children. Therefore, we hope they will call themselves ASEAN, not Indonesian nor Singaporean. Furthermore, government should create opportunities for ASEAN youth to learn, and understand each other’s cultures through cultural exchanges, sports competition, performing arts, and etc. Moreover, formal dialogue among youth of the region have to be done at-least once in a year to sound the voice of youth for ASEAN. Therefore government can make plan easily in youth sector by seeing the resolution from that forum.
The old age group is also important to be educated about ASEAN to realize one identity, one community, and one ASEAN. People of this group need to understand the substance of the leader’s vision and plans thus they can implement it well in a line with what leaders are expected. The way to educate this group is using mass media. Mass media could give understanding about ASEAN and build people-to-people interactions effectively and efficiently. Everyday people read newspaper, watch television, use internet, and etc. Therefore, government should create a channel in television for promoting the sense of togetherness of ASEAN. Moreover, government should produce regional newspaper for showing the situation in ASEAN, daily or weekly. In addition, dialogue among the old age group of the region is also seen important to do.
All the efforts above are several ways to make ASEAN live under one identity. ASEAN Community will be a huge melting pot of a multicultural community. May the future of ASEAN will shine bright and the people of ASEAN will live in harmony, one vision, one identity, one community. Nevertheless, ASEAN may not be in a full regional identity integration since it has big cultural diversities among its member countries.