THE STRUCTURAL PRE-CONDITIONS FOR THE EMERGENCE OF ASEAN PUBLIC SPHERES

Abstract

This study centers on the following question: do the political, civil society organizations, and media infrastructure conditions exist for the emergence of ASEAN public spheres? Based on the reconstructed theory of Habermas’ and Angela Crack’s public sphere, I have employed the following definition of ASEAN public sphere: a transnational site of deliberation in which civil society organizations reach an understanding about issues of common concern in ASEAN according to the norms of publicity. I have identified some patterns from three distinct structures that may converge to explore the emergence of ASEAN public spheres. Firstly, the prime site of the Southeast Asian regional governance consisting of the ASEAN Summit, ASEAN Community Councils, and ASEAN Secretariat – referred as “triple power helix” – has, to a certain extent, become open to the people’s input. Secondly, the emerging “ASEAN Community” project that is coupled with the rise of trans-boundary concerns has also paved the way for the consolidation of transnational civil society and discursive publics in ASEAN. As a reservoir for the grassroot opinion- and will-formation, the civil society in ASEAN – particularly the annual ASEAN People’s Forum event – has been recognized as indispensable in terms of its norms of publicity and political efficacy. Thirdly, the cross borders communicative infrastructure – mainly Internet-driven – conversely has proven to be a significant supplement to the mainstream media in the Southeast Asia in two ways. The first is that they provide ample opportunity for the grassroot formation as well as the mobilization of free and critical public opinion towards ASEAN across the region. Secondly, they challenge the “manipulative” and “manufactured consent” that tends to be propagated by the mainstream pro-political authority and pro-market media. Despite the prevailing supremacy of ASEAN’s political elites, as well as the interstate ICT cleavages in the region, I argue that a relatively conducive milieu has developed in which ASEAN public spheres can indeed emerge.