As a regional grouping of 10 countries with vastly contrasting types of government, Asean has managed to show surprising cohesiveness and solidarity in its 51 years of existence.
The rapid response to disasters is one of the higher-profile examples of how the neighbors help each other. That cohesiveness was on display following the 7.5-magnitude earthquake that devastated Palu in Central Sulawesi province of Indonesia in October.
Through the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre), a 29- member emergency response and assessment team was quickly on the scene. The centre also assisted communities in Laos affected by tropical storm Son-Tinh in July this year.
At the Asean summit in Singapore in November, leaders said they remained committed to sustaining the AHA Centre and increased contributions to the AHA Centre Fund to US$90,000 a year, from $50,000 now, for the next five years.
Also approved was the establishment of two new disaster emergency logistics system warehouses -- in Chainat, Thailand and Camp Aguinaldo, the Philippines -- to further assist in the deployment of relief items.
The work of the AHA Centre is an answer to critics who say the 620 million people living in Southeast Asia don't really see how Asean benefits them directly. The centre is one of the many legacies of the late Surin Pitsuwan, the Thai diplomat who served as the secretary-general of Asean from 2008-12.
Surin's vision for a bloc that cares for its people led to the formation of the AHA Centre in 2011, said Lim Jock Hoi, the current secretary-general. Paraphrasing a favorite quotation of Surin, he said the world will have one less region to worry about if Asean can take care of itself.
Mr Lim also said that Surin's visionary leadership altered the bloc's political landscape, especially in some of its most difficult moments, such as the relief and recovery phase after Cyclone Nargis devastated parts of Myanmar in 2008.
"Indeed, Surin has left behind an indelible mark on the pages of Asean's history," the Singapoean diplomat said at a tribute to Surin held at the Asean Secretariat in Jakarta last Monday.
Adelina Kamal, the executive director of the AHA Centre, recalled what Surin told her after Nargis struck, killing tens of thousands of people in low-lying river delta regions of Myanmar.
"Asean is now at the brink of failure or being relevant," she quoted him as saying. There was no procedure for a regional response to such calamity but Surin said it was time to "jump to it and learn to swim" despite the strong current.
"So we did, and we stayed in Myanmar for two years," Ms Adelina said.
Surin died suddenly of a heart attack in November last year at age 67, to the shock of many who were familiar with him and of Asean issues.
Dewi Fortuna Anwar, the vice-chair of The Habibie Center, a Jakarta-based think-tank, said her first reaction on hearing the sad news was "disbelief".
She was a spokeswoman for then-President BJ Habibie in 1999, when East Timor was voting in a referendum to break away from Indonesia. She recalled how Surin called on other countries in the region to send a peacekeeping force to East Timor after it voted for independence.
Surin, who was foreign minister of Thailand at the time, needed no time to convince then-prime minister Chuan Leekpai to lend diplomatic support to Indonesia when the situation after the referendum worsened. He stressed that Thailand "should be at the forefront of international efforts to maintain peace and manage peaceful change in East Timor", said former Bangkok governor MR Sukhumband Paribatra.
"For me, one regret is that he was not always understood or appreciated even by his fellow countrymen," said MR Sukhumband. "This was evident not only in the case of East Timor but also in his efforts to encourage positive changes in the political and economic landscape in Myanmar."
Ms Dewi also recalled that when Asean foreign ministers were hesitant, Surin promoted "constructive engagement" with Myanmar at a time when it was still under a military junta, although it was later softened to "flexible engagement".
Surin was tipped as a possible successor of Koffi Annan as the United Nations secretary-general in 2006 but domestic politics in Thailand derailed the bid to support his candidacy.
"His stature as a seasoned diplomat and his stature as a moderate Muslim would have made a difference. He could have helped bring about the world to have a greater understanding of Islam," MR Sukhumband said.
Surin was then nominated to lead the Asean Secretariat in 2007 and started his five-year term the following year.
"Eventually the UN's loss became Asean's gain," said Delia Albert, a former foreign secretary of the Philippines.
One of the most notable achievements for Asean has been visa-free travel around the region for citizens of member states.
But Natalia Santi, a freelance journalist who covers foreign affairs, notes that the vast majority of Asean citizens still don't travel abroad very much.
"We have yet to feel that Asean is indeed among us. Even though the secretariat is headquartered in Jakarta, many of us here still are not aware of its existence," she told Asia Focus.
The secretariat will move to a new, modern headquarters early next year from its current ageing building located in South Jakarta next to the National Police headquarters and government ministries.
Construction began in January and with two towers and 16 floors next to the current building. The new secretariat will be much larger to accommodate the growing staff and the hundreds of meetings staged every year.
"I hope that when the Asean Secretariat moves in to the new building, it could be more open to the public, or have organised tours, with an Asean countries' corner on public display so visitors can see what Asean is all about, what its officials do and their activities, just like the UN building in New York," said Ms Natalia.
"The secretariat should also boost its presence on social media, especially on the most popular platforms such as Twitter or Instagram, given that Indonesians in particular and people in other Asean countries are very active social media users," she added.