A Study On The Function Of Non - Governmental Organizations In Southeast Asia

Since the1980s, NGOs in Southeast Asia sprang up, becoming a partner ofgovernments and significant resources of social management. For historical andpolitical reasons, NGOs in Southeast Asia have some features that made themdifferent from NGOs in other regions. We can see these features from their number,type, scale, the way of influence and their relationship with the government.NGOs in Southeast Asia have two types of moving targets: political targets andsocial targets. The political target is mainly supervising government policies andpromoting the country s process of political democratization. And the social target issolving various problems during the modernization process. Depending on thesetargets, the Southeast Asian NGOs take different moving ways, including delivering apetition to government, organising the protests, providing social services to thepublic, especially education. The purpose of these activities is not only to influencepublic opinions on certain issues, but also to influence national government policiesin some areas. In the course of events, the Southeast Asian NGOs gradually formednetworks and coalitions to take actions. In recent years, Southeast Asian NGOs hasmade many achievements in certain areas such as promoting informationcommunication between people and government, carrying on social relief and socialassistance, protecting environment and so on. These NGO s efforts have promotedpolitical reforms in Southeast Asian countries and the diversification of the SoutheastAsian community, but also awakened the social consciousness of the people ofSoutheast Asia. All these are conducive to the harmonious development of thisregion.However, there are many problems in Southeast Asian NGOs, including theirlack of ability, good and bad types of organizations, and the lack of public awareness.These problems are urgent need to address, because these have been restricted totheir development. In the development process, Southeast Asian NGOs shouldposition themselves accurately, and define a clear development goal, and makeefforts to establish a system of self-management, and strengthen self-integration and remodeling. At the same time, make a good balance between Western countries andnational governments, and strive to become partners of governments, trying to playa greater role in the country and even in the region.