COVID-19 and the rise of social activism in Southeast Asia: a public health concern

Abstract

The current public health crisis has radically altered the social and civic involvement in Southeast Asia. Although the virus has shifted the landscape of engagement, it has not dampened enthusiasm of the public. In 2020–2021, more people than ever seem to be paying attention and even getting involved in activism. Many dramatic events happened during the coronavirus crisis such as from protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, public activism around the environment, economic inequality, authoritarianism and human rights violations. In Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and just recently Myanmar. In other Southeast Asian countries, authoritarian trends were evident long before the COVID-19 pandemic, but some leaders are using the spread of COVID-19 as an opportunity to intensify their power under the pretense of fighting the pandemic. There are evidently many similarities in the Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian youth protests. The Amnesty International documented over 140 methods of non-violent action during the pandemic, showing that people power is flourishing within this unprecedented global crisis¹.

The journal has lately published about the ‘Relationship of George Floyd protests to increases in COVID-19 cases using event study methodology’ and it has rightly expressed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-recommended social distancing guidelines must be followed in protest situations². Given that movements like Black Lives Matter ‘highly attracted the attention of Southeast Asian youths, particularly on social media, and that there are increasing youth political participation and activism, the region is clearly experiencing a trend of vocal youths demanding greater democratic practices’³. Social media has transformed the ability of civil rights movements, activists and non-governmental organizations to challenge traditional power structures in Southeast Asia. However, social media platforms have been used to incite local activists to attack unarmed targets, and to promote intolerance and violence against ethnic or religious minorities including the proliferation of fake news⁴. Moreover, according to the Human Rights Watch, there have been threats and attacks, including killings, against left-wing political activists, environmental activists, community leaders, Indigenous peoples’ leaders, journalists, lawyers and others rose in the past year in the Philippines⁵.

In response to the situation of social activism in the Southeast Asia, one must follow the CDC-recommended and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines in the Region. Although protesting is an individual human right, one must also be cautious and be aware of the deadly virus since we are still in a pandemic and the COVID-19 virus continues to mutate. Although there are already available vaccines worldwide, there is still a chance to get the virus in mass gatherings like protests. Crowded protests carry a risk of coronavirus transmission. Today, movements, organizations and activists are considering ‘virtual protests’ as a new way of involvement in pushing for change in a new and creative way. As such aside from the public trending hashtags on social media platforms like twitter and Facebook, there is an increasing collaboration and sharing initiatives in the digital media such as webinars, conferences, training tools and crowdsourced online documents.

These are strange times indeed. And the COVID-19 pandemic is exposing the many social ills of the society. However, many people continue to raise their voices to demand change using traditional (face-to-face) activism and digital (online) activism. We do not know the ‘new normal’ will look like. It is a strange times, but is also a time of hope.

Acknowledgement

No funding was received for this paper.

Conflict of interest

None declared.

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