ABSTRACT
As the world has increasingly become more connected, it is inevitable that there is an expansion of humanitarian problems that we confront can only be solved by international co-operation. Clearly, the ongoing Rohingya crisis is the latest example that showcased the Southeast Asian region’s failure in the area of humanitarian management. It suggests that ASEAN has abandoned its very purpose of its existence as it conceived in its founding document, the Bangkok Declaration. In light of this, this paper argues that this cannot be separated from the region’s rigid understanding of the notion of state sovereignty. Based on this assumption, the analytical reading that this paper adopted highlights that the interpretative rigidity hurts the supposedly liberating nature of ASEAN. Thus, it is fair that this requires a healthy dose of humanitarianism to introduce a more progressive approach in intra-state dealings. In fact, the paper argues that this recommendation is highly plausible as the Bangkok Declaration itself necessitates “a primary responsibility” among its member states.
