Indonesia, Philippines Skip Civil Society Meeting
Some of Southeast Asia’s most acute problems were left unmentioned yesterday when government-sanctioned civil society groups met with Asean leaders at the regional bloc’s summit in Phnom Penh. NGOs from eight of the 10 Asean states attended the meeting, but the Indonesian delegation pulled out, complaining about the amount of government control over which organizations could attend the meeting, and the Philippine group also did not show up. The Indonesian NGO, the Human Rights Working Group, boycotted the meeting, saying it was wrong that many of the governments had handpicked their countries’ civil society representatives. …
