7 - Non-Government Organizations and Human Development: The ASEAN Experience

Summary

OVERVIEW OF NGOS IN ASEAN COUNTRIES

Introduction

One of the most striking developments in the recent history of countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region has been the emergence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as articulate and organized critics of the prevailing political, economic and social systems in their respective countries. Initially attracting only a small membership from the literate and middle-class segment of society, these organizations have rapidly proliferated in the past decade and attracted a larger and more diversified membership. More importantly, they have been able to insert themselves in the forefront of public articulation on many crucial questions, including those related to the broader issues of democratic rights and freedom traditionally articulated by political parties and a host of newer issues related to the development goals and strategies of their societies.

The growth and increasing importance of what might be characterized as interest groups or issue-oriented organizations might appear surprising as it comes at a time when there has been a hardening of the centralizing and authoritarian political tendencies in the region. The period after World War II initially saw a wave of decolonization followed by the unshackling of social restrictions but this was quickly followed by increased pressures towards concentration of power, attempts towards single political parties and encroachment on oppositional politics. In many countries, moves by the parties in power to enforce a “national solidarity”, largely through institutions and organizations at local and national levels which they control, have been supplemented by a weakening of the legislature and judicial process. At the same time the number of military and authoritarian regimes has risen. The position of political democracy in one of the ASEAN countries described below can be taken as a fair reflection of the regional pattern.

The increasingly dominant position of the executive branch of government is one of the general characteristics of the decline of freedom.… The other is the curtailment or even elimination of the rights of participation in the democratic process for a whole variety of social groups.