OPINION-ACADEMIA: US-ASEAN’s inclusive prosperity overlooks the region’s homophobia | The Jakarta Post
Hug please: A passerby hugs an activist campaigning for the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Jakarta in June 2019. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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US President Joe Biden (C) takes part in the family photo for the US-ASEAN Special Summit on the South Lawn of the White House on May 12, 2022 in Washington, DC. Southeast Asian Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are visiting Washington, DC for a special summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden. Secretary General of ASEAN Dato Lim Jock Hoi, Prime Minister of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen, Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassan, President of Indonesia Joko Widodo, Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Long, Prime Minister of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic Phankham Viphavan, Prime Minister of Malaysia Dato Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob and Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines Teodoro Locsin. (AFP/Drew Angerer/Getty Images)\
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The United States-ASEAN special summit in Washington, DC resulted in a joint commitment in areas of, among other things, health security, maritime cooperation and climate change. The White House announced US$150 million in new initiatives for ASEAN to achieve “inclusive, broad-based prosperity” for a combined 1 billion people. While the result seems promising, the several mentions of economic inclusivity resemble no more than just political jargon. This is because in Southeast Asia, or in Indonesia to say the least, not all members of society can participate and enjoy economic growth due to ongoing political discrimination. When US-ASEAN leaders meet in Washington, DC, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Indonesia was frightened by a backlash that started from an interview with a gay couple. The interview, published on the YouTube channel owned by Deddy Corbuzier, a magician-turned-presenter with 18 million followers, quickly escalated into a cascade of threats from conservative religious groups to the community. to Read Full Story
Click to read: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2022/05/27/us-aseans-inclusive-prosperity-overlooks-the-regions-homophobia.html.
Rio Tuasikal and Dina Listiorini
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta/Yogyakarta
● Sat, May 28, 2022
