Promoting awareness of ASEAN moved to high gear during the year. Following calls from the ASEAN Leaders and the ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Information to intensify efforts in this work, the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information (COCI) and the national information agencies of member countries carried out a combined mix of promotional activities, campaigns and events designed to make people better informed of developments in ASEAN and promote regional identity.
As ASEAN celebrated its 35th anniversary, COCI organized high-impact festivities with the theme “Celebrating 35 Years of ASEAN Cooperation.” The celebrations in most member countries involved the participation of schools, media, government, and civic organizations. Activities were in the form of costume parades, cultural performances and exhibitions, poster and greeting card competitions, food fairs in hotels and restaurants, including breakfast forums with opinion makers and formal diplomatic receptions.
In collaboration with the Jakarta Arts Festival 2002, the ASEAN Secretariat hosted several events in its premises with the theme “ASEAN Celebrates Jakarta Arts Festival.” These were in the form of dance, theatre and music productions from various countries.
Since the youth is the principal target of the ASEAN awareness campaign, the national information agencies launched their national ASEAN quiz competitions in schools with the help of radio and television. Thousands of high school students eager to participate in the friendly competition brushed up on their knowledge of ASEAN, creating a surge in the number of visits to various ASEAN web sites and demand for reading materials on ASEAN. A culminating regional ASEAN Quiz competition was organized in Bangkok in October 2002, televised and watched by millions.
Also in October 2002, the ASEAN Secretariat and the ASEAN University Network organized the ASEAN Young Speakers Forum. Twenty students from the top universities of each member country met at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta and pitted their intellectual forte and public speaking skills against one another. The 20 finalists were selected from a region-wide essay contest offered to students of 17 universities of the region.
To get the public more actively engaged in discussing ASEAN concerns, COCI launched the ASEAN Information Seminar Series in October 2002. The project involves the holding of public forums where journalists, academics, experts and other sectors interested in ASEAN matters can exchange and share their views about ASEAN and current developments in the region. The seminars have given government agencies with useful feedbacks on public perception of ASEAN.
Other than holding a forum on ASEAN in general, most member countries organized their seminars on specialized ASEAN topics such as AFTA, the environment, programs for small and medium enterprises, e-ASEAN, youth in ASEAN, economic integration, cultural values, and knowledge societies. Each member country is required to organize at least three seminars in one year.
ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Information
With a view to further enhancing its role in strengthening cooperation in the field of information, the 7th Meeting of ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Information (AMRI), held in Bandar Seri Begawan on 15-19 October 2002, agreed to form the AMRI Technical Working Committee (AMRI-TWC) to implement the decisions of AMRI meetings. Subsequently, the First Meeting of AMRI-TWC was held in Bandar Seri Begawan on 15-16 March 2003.
Mass Media
To bring the ASEAN message to a broader base, COCI has taken steps to improve its television and radio programs. It has improved the delivery arrangements for television news and feature materials through the use of satellite transmission. COCI has also started to produce a number of television spots and advertorials on various aspects of ASEAN cooperation. Many of these have been carried not only by the national television networks of member countries but also by the global TV networks such as CNN and BBC.
At the start of 2003, the TV news directors and engineers of the national television stations of member countries drew up the implementing arrangements for the weekly transmission of TV news and feature items through satellite. Coordinated by Radio Television Brunei (RTB), the television materials are made available to the ASIAVISION and EUROVISION whose participating members are TV stations across Asia and Europe. The project, called ASEAN Television News, was officially launched in Brunei Darussalam on 22 March 2003 during the 38th Meeting of COCI.
The radio project of COCI called “ASEAN in Action” has remained an important outlet of news, information, and entertainment about the member states since 1994.
Information Networks and Websites
In 2002, COCI developed and launched two new websites, namely the Cultural Heritage Network of ASEAN (www.hnasean.org) and the ASEAN Youth Online (www.aseanyouth.com). HNA is an integrated online information database network on the cultural heritage of Southeast Asia, targeted at both professionals and the general public. It is being developed to serve as the information backbone of COCI's cultural heritage work by providing an active national and regional inventory and networking of academic institutions, government offices, archives, museums, galleries, art centers, media agencies and other institutions concerned with the documentation, conservation, preservation, dissemination and promotion. Developed with the help of AusHeritage, the site is envisioned as a management tool that would showcase models and standards for professionals and communities to better understand, promote, appreciate and protect their own heritage.
The ASEAN Youth Online presents a creative and entertaining resource on ASEAN that would appeal to the young and enable them make use of it to learn more about regional affairs and youth activities in ASEAN. The site was launched during the 4th Meeting of the COCI Sub-Committee on Information held in Brunei in September 2002. It is maintained and managed by young, dynamic and creative webmasters in Singapore.
COCI has embarked on project to wire up all the national libraries of Southeast Asia through a collective and shared regional catalogue system. The project is called “Digitisation of Legal Deposit Catalogues in ASEAN National Libraries.” The catalogue system of some national and university libraries are currently being prototyped. Once set up, the system would allow ASEAN citizens and other users access to millions of titles found in the depository and manuscript collections of the libraries of ASEAN. The system is now tentatively accessible on Internet at http://203.144.248.170.
ASEAN Culture Week
COCI’s biggest project for the year was the ASEAN Culture Week that was held in the last week of October 2002 on the grounds of the Angkor Wat complex in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The main highlights of the event were the evening dance performances presented by the best professional dance troupes of member countries. In spite of the absence of amenities or convenience of a modern theatre or gallery, the ASEAN performers were inspired by throngs of spectators from nearby provinces who trekked the Angkor grounds every night to see the ASEAN dances.
Supporting activities included a weeklong on-site drawing by visual artists from member countries and an exhibition of art works that included national costumes, crafts and kites. The opening and closing ceremonies included the traditional blessing by the Angkor monks, launching of traditional lighted balloons to spread goodwill, and the display of fireworks.
The event was well promoted on the French channel TV 5 as well as on NHK of Japan, according to the organizers. TVK of Cambodia covered the events live and replayed them during the ASEAN Summit period.
If there is one important measure of success this project achieved, it was evident in the restored pride and confidence among the officials and participants of the host country in being able to mount a difficult project anchored on its most important source of national pride: the Angkor.
At about the same time the ASEAN Culture Week was being held, COCI was also showcasing its flagship project called Realizing Rama in three Asian countries. The ASEAN troupe participated in the 2002 Seoul International Dance Festival in the Republic of Korea, and in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai, in China. In India, which is the source of the great epic Ramayana, the ASEAN production was staged in New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. The performances were given standing ovations for the excellent artistry rendered by ASEAN’s professional dancers.
In Europe, COCI continued its international thrust of promoting ASEAN. The Committee organized the International Exhibition on ASEAN Contemporary Art showcasing recent artistic works and expressions from more than 30 artists from ASEAN. It carried the title: 36 Ideas from Asia: Contemporary Southeast Asian Art. The exhibition was successfully held in Germany from February to March 2002 and in Hungary from June to August 2002 and will be brought to two other European countries (Austria and Italy) before returning to ASEAN in mid-2003.
Based on the success of the first ASEAN Culture Week, COCI has agreed to hold the Second ASEAN Culture Week in Bali during the 9th ASEAN Summit on 7-8 October 2003.
Source Materials on ASEAN culture
As part of a series of publications on the cultural heritage of ASEAN, COCI produced its second coffee table book on the Museum Treasures of Southeast Asia. It features stunning photographs of the best treasures of the region. It was soft-launched in Angkor, Siem Reap Cambodia during the ASEAN Culture Week in October 2002. The book was also officially launched at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore on 9 December 2002. It is available in major bookstores of the region.
Other publications in the works are the Perspectives in Southeast Asian Humanities and ASEAN Folk Literature II. The former seeks to describe the major philosophies of the region, art music and values, the understanding of aesthetics, worldview, and civilization in the region. The second book will update and repackage the ASEAN Anthology of Folk Literatures published in 1995 to include entries from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam. Another project on stream, which is expected to be completed in 2003, is the Production of Source Materials for the Teaching of ASEAN Cultures. With this project, COCI intends to produce a package of prototype resource materials on Southeast Asian culture for the use of teachers and students in the region's primary and secondary schools.
Cooperation with AusHeritage
The formal signing of the MOU between ASEAN-COCI and AusHeritage Concerning Cooperation in the Field of Protection, Preservation, Promotion and Management of Cultural Heritage took place during the 38th Meeting of ASEAN-COCI in Brunei Darussalam in March 2003. The MOU was signed by H.E. Tran Chien Thang, Chairman of ASEAN-COCI and Dr. Vinod Daniel, Chairman of AusHeritage Limited of Australia, in the presence of the High Commissioner of Australia to Brunei Darussalam.
The main objective of this Memorandum of Understanding is to enhance cooperation in the field of protection, preservation, management and promotion of cultural heritage of members of ASEAN and in line with the ASEAN Declaration on Cultural Heritage, which was signed by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers in 2000. This MOU provides the terms of reference of the working partnership between ASEAN-COCI and AusHeritage.
Following the signing of the MOU, COCI and AusHeritage jointly organized the Training Course on Pest Control Management and Treatment of Cultural Properties in Brunei in April 2003. The workshop gave museum and archive conservators an informed approach to protecting cultural collections from insect pests, which are the biggest risk to collections in the ASEAN region. The course, conducted by experts from the region as well as from AusHeritage, gave participants a broad understanding and knowledge on the prevention and protection of the cultural properties with the use of non-toxic interventions.
Another project on stream under the MOU is entitled “Developing an ASEAN Model for Cultural Mapping.” A workshop is being organized by AusHeritage in Adelaide in September 2003. The objective of the project is to develop the capacity of ASEAN to map its cultural assets by creating a cultural resource mapping model which can be applied at both local and regional levels throughout ASEAN. The goal of cultural mapping is to help communities recognize, celebrate and support cultural diversity for economic, social and regional development.
Cultural Interaction Programs
To build up friendship and kinship among the ASEAN youth, to learn about one another’s culture, to learn more about ASEAN and how it is relevant to their lives – these are the objectives of the ASEAN Youth Camp. Now on its fifth year, the ASEAN Youth Camp was successfully held in Yangon and Bagan in Myanmar in October 2002. The theme chosen was “Honoring Kindness through the Arts.” Fifty young representatives from ASEAN member countries experienced the camp and went home as better ASEAN citizens having shared experiences and views and learning more about each other’s ways including about ways to promote the kindness movement through the arts.
COCI’s cultural interaction activities are not only among the youth. A three-year programme called “People-to-People Exchange Programme: Cultural Interaction at the Grassroots Level” has been developed to bring the cultural specialists down at the grassroots level. Here they would meet, interact and participate in the dynamics of local culture: folk people engaged in farming, arts and crafts production, traditional herbal medicine, and other local cultural activities that are often taken for granted – to better understand and appreciate the ways of life in the local areas. The first of the visits was organized in Chiang Mai Thailand on 3-7 February 2003. Two other visits in 2003 are scheduled in Malaysia and Singapore.
ASEAN-Japan Year of Exchange 2003
In support of the “ASEAN-Japan Year of Exchange 2003,” COCI has mobilized the following projects.
The ASEAN Flagship Voyage (Realizing Rama Performing Arts) Tour of Japan will involve touring the COCI production of Realizing Rama in Yokohama City and the Kansai area in Japan in October 2003. The tour will include performances, lecture-demonstrations, photo exhibition on the arts and culture of ASEAN and artistic interaction among ASEAN and Japanese artists.
The International Exhibition on Contemporary ASEAN Art aims to showcase recent artistic expressions on notions of identity and tradition and will introduce Japanese audiences to ASEAN artists and their practices and to contemporary culture and cultural expressions from the region. COCI’s partner in organizing the exhibition is the Japan Foundation. Venues of the exhibition are the Tama University Art Museum (Tokyo) and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Fukuoka). The exhibition title is 15 Tracks: Contemporary Southeast Asian Art and the schedule is confirmed for 11th July-7th September 2003 at Tama, and 18th December 2003 - 25th January 2004 at FAAM.
The ASEAN Youth Camp, which is scheduled on 1-13 December 2003 in Lao PDR will, for the first time, see the involvement of Japanese youth in the project.
Under the project, People to People Exchange Programme: ASEAN Cultural Interaction at the Grassroots, Japanese cultural specialists joined their ASEAN counterparts to interact with the local cultural communities in Chiang Mai in February 2002. The second visit is scheduled in June in Malaysia and the third in November 2003 in Singapore.
In conjunction with its publications entitled Treasures of ASEAN Museums and Southeast Asia: A Passage Through Time, COCI produced a special exhibition containing some of the finest photographs on the cultural heritage of Southeast Asia. The photographs were sent to the ASEAN Promotion Center in Tokyo were they were exhibited from March to May 2003.
