A Comprehensive Study of ASEAN Freedom: Analyzing Global Freedom Score Trends in Political Rights and Civil Liberties (2019-2023)

This study examines the progress of freedom in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries by analyzing political rights and civil liberties trends, using data from the Global Freedom Scores provided by Freedom House from 2019 to 2023. The research identifies clear groupings within ASEAN using the K-means Clustering Algorithm, with countries such as Myanmar, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam classified as having low freedom scores based on political rights and civil liberties. Meanwhile, nations in the Malay Archipelago—such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Timor-Leste, Singapore, and Indonesia—show higher freedom scores, with Timor-Leste emerging as the country with the highest level of freedom. A time-series analysis based on an ARIMA model provides insight into the trends of freedom scores by these different Nations for the last five years. It indicates a slight improvement in the ASEAN nation's political rights and civil liberties. With the help of forecasting, slight improvements indicate that ASEAN countries are still finding ways to advance their citizens' freedom. This study sheds valuable insights into how the ASEAN nations balance governance, freedom, and development in an increasingly interconnected world.