A Case for Cohabitative Security: The Philippine and Malaysian Experience

Abstract

This article attempts to explore and analyse the evidence for cohabiting the human security concept into the national security frameworks of ASEAN countries. Using the Philippines and Malaysia as case studies, the article determines the extent to which public officials and policymakers have redefined and reenvisioned national security by incorporating non-traditional, people-centered elements of human security. The word 'cohabitation' refers to national governments' efforts to amalgamate statist and humanist dimensions of security when articulating and implementing their national security rhetoric and agenda. It argues that human security naturally complements state security, and vice versa. As such, human security and state security co-exist in a constructive manner that enhances the overall level of national security. In other words, they are mutually constitutive rather than mutually corrosive. Both cases underscore a two-pronged assumption. First, the meaning and provision of national security can neither be eloquently articulated nor completely substantiated without considerations for 'below the state' actors and issues. And second, the eminent status vis-à-vis power of the state in providing national security can neither be trivialized nor undermined.

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“…Furthermore, Peou [4] also assesses the concept of human security from the point of view of whether or not it can be "sold" to the policy community: "My hope is that the concept … can be better accepted and applied if we succeed in building a concept that is neither too elastic nor too restrictive, combining theoretical insights into one that is neither too parochial nor too eclectic." While it would be possible to say that the concept has already been adopted by the policy community-in 2014 the concept turned 20 years old and it has been adopted and used in agencies of the UN, EU and other political organizations-the practice of human security is always dependent on how much it has been socialized in societies and how high priority it gets in policy-making [5].…”

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“…Examples of these are the local NGO called Tabang Mindanaw which has proposed a justice-based human security framework, and the academic think-tank called Third World Studies Centre (TWSC) which has formulated a human security index for the Philippines. See, UNDPPhilippines (2005), Magcamit, (2014) and Atienza et al (2010). shrinking development space against the backdrop of a deeply embedded oligarchic system that breeds and sustains patronage politics. The term 'development space' in this context specifically refers to the capacity of the Philippine government to independently formulate and implement inclusive policies in addressing the threats being generated by imbalanced economic development.…”

“…Examples of these are the local NGO called Tabang Mindanaw which has proposed a justice-based human security framework, and the academic think-tank called Third World Studies Centre (TWSC) which has formulated a human security index for the Philippines. See, UNDP-Philippines (2005), Magcamit, (2014) and Atienza et al . (2010).…”