Page 114 - The Ethics of ASEAN

The Ethics of ASEAN

credibility can be weakened by governmental intervention, as
opposed to a neutral and transparent third party.
In conclusion, Dr Hammerli provides advice for dealing
with misinformation at a personal level. As a university lecturer,
her role is to help youth stay vigilant and able to identify the
filter bubbles in the media they use. She believes it is important
for youth to develop their digital literacy and navigate through
media without being trapped by their own pre-existing biases.
It is important to teach children to process information and
develop their critical thinking at a young age since they use
internet a lot. She encourages all media users to fact-check
information before posting it. Finally, she encourages people
to understand how social media can dissociate from reality, by
avoiding, for example, to not say things online that they would
not say in real life.

Vincent Carlo Legara: the older generation is
less keen on protecting the ideals of freedom
Vincent Carlo Legara is a graduate in political science at
Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. His areas of
study were comparative politics, international relations,
security, and popular culture. His graduate thesis is on the
2022 Philippine presidential election with a focus on popular
and meme culture. In 2021, he presented a paper he co-wrote
at the International Association for Political Science Students
World Congress on ethnic repression in Myanmar and the
Philippines. At Ateneo de Manila University Vincent was active
as a student leader, participating in student movements and
Figure 5: Vincent Carlo writing on Myanmar and ASEAN’s non-interference principle.
Legara, graduate in political
science at Ateneo de Manila In this ECAAR dialogue, Vincent describes the political
University, Philippines
situation of today’s ASEAN youth. Concepts like human rights,
free speech, and democracy are taught as principles that
must be upheld in a free and functioning society but then
they see the contrast with their social reality where state
power and repression clashes with these ideas. Vincent
believes youth today are disillusioned with patronage politics,
entrenchment of politicians in nondemocratic governments
and an unchanging political climate. This disconnect has led
to student movements in universities and conflicts with state
institutions. Youth see the older generation as less keen on
protecting these ideals.
The role of social media has also become much more
prominent in the daily lives and political engagement of youth.
Vincent notes the benefits of social media that reach beyond

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