In Progress

Indeed, the ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC) established its level of independence from its parallel organisation by allowing the event to take place at all—while the ASEAN itself opted to cancel its scheduled Leaders Summit, the ASEAN Civil Society pushed through with its conference, in spite of typhoons and rumored threats of terrorism. This dichotomy between the state-centered organisation and its NGO-focused sister-conference creates an easy binary between the “mainstream” and its “alternative,” defining the ASEAN Civil Society only as a counterpoint to the status quo. However, within the ASEAN Civil Society itself, one finds a diverse and nuanced picture of leftist perspectives in Southeast Asia.