THIS YEAR, Malaysia chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). But ASEAN is not just about government-to-government ties, neither is it just about integrating economics nor playing competitive sports, or promoting cultural, arts and heritage.
It is a growing platform for people-to-people amalgamation and champions the goals of sustainability and equitable distribution that civil society in the region has been advocating for the past five decades. In a world riveted with uncertainty from climate change to harsh geopolitics and extremism to economic stagnation, the synergy within ASEAN is more important than ever before.
