Obstacles to democratization in South East Asia are substantial but vary from state to state because of historical circumstances. In many instances, authoritarian power disenfranchises the majority of people and leads to widespread corruption and repression. At the regional level, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) vision of a democratic community faces serious problems. The inability of ASEAN to confront Myanmar's state of permanent aggression against its people is indicative of ASEAN weakness as a mechanism to advance human rights in Southeast Asia. ASEAN needs to institutionalize a community like the European Union.
Military coups have been the greatest obstacle to Turkey's aspirations for a stronger democracy, the Abant Platform underscored in its closing evaluation of a two-day meeting that ended this weekend.
The evaluation mentioned the inverse relationship between anti-democratic interference in politics and the pace of democratization as well as Turkey's urgent need for a new and civilian constitution to replace the current one, which was drafted under military rule after the Sept. 12, 1980 coup.