To keep the democracy ball rolling in Asia, says James Gomez, there needs to be closer cooperation between those involved in each country.
Democratic forces in Asia need to form a multi-tiered alliance to consolidate gains made following the region's economic crisis. This is necessary in order to prevent the old economy from retarding reform efforts during this crucial period of transition.
Events following the Asian economic crisis are pointing towards a greater potential for pluralism in Asia. Changes in leadership and government in South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and most recently in Taiwan are examples of outcomes following greater pressures for political liberalisation.
This trend is also increasingly reflected in the other countries in the region. The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan continues to weaken, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) -led National Front faces daily challenges from civil-society groups and a newly strengthened political opposition, and in Singapore, the People's Action Party-led liberalisation could set the momentum for a political change. In short, Asia is undergoing a transition towards democracy.
However, a key challenge in this process lies in operationalising the necessary reforms needed to sustain this process. There is oftentimes inertia and the threat that the old ways stand to retard the transition to democracy. Those who were schooled and who operated in the old economy continue to claim that changes, if any, must be executed by being close to the existing regime. Further, the experiences in each country differ from one another.
In several of the democracies in transition, such as Indonesia and Thailand, new constitutions have been drawn up with new institutions and electoral laws put in place. Chief among these institutions are electoral and human-rights commissions, information and privacy acts, a statement of citizen rights and the recognition of civil-society participation.
In Malaysia, old institutions are grappling to respond to political demands of a newly awakened society following the sacking of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. The recently set up Human Rights Commission is seen as being caught in the old economy as its composition ignores some that have been actively being working in the field, and the range of rights issues that it is prepared to take up is unclear.
The path to democracy has not been without sacrifices. Lives have been lost and broken. Many a time it was the consequence of responses taken by the authorities to political expression. The people of South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan have paid huge sacrifices to get to where they are today. Other countries in the region, such as Cambodia and Sri Lanka, also make these very sacrifices as they work towards change.
A principal collaborator in this abuse of the rights has been a compliant judiciary. A mixture of patronage, rewards and fear has for a long time caused the rule of law to give way to rule by law. An independent judiciary is unlikely to emerge if a reform-minded executive or legislature is not in place.
Undoubtedly, an important contribution to the democratic process has been that made by civil-society groups. After decades of suppression, citizens in organised groups are forcing many governments to open up. In the Philippines the people sector continues to be strong, while in Malaysia many groups are active on a day-to-day basis.
Yet in countries like Singapore some civil society groups claim special wisdom in insisting that gains are made best by working with the existing regime and asking for space. Most are reluctant to question or campaign directly for changes in legislation that curb civil liberties.
An important source of control over the political process has been the presence of tightly controlled media. Singapore and Malaysia continue to be dominant examples. International and regional media that were once looked upon as a last resort have been cowed into self-censorship. However, the media in regimes that have been suppressed for so long are being challenged by the Internet and alternative methods of news delivery and distribution.
A major issue in many of the countries in the region has been the centralised nature of the state. A rich and dominant centre is often put in tension with the poorer parts of the country. One major reform has been to give local governments more autonomy over certain areas of legal control and revenue collection.
The military has for a long time played a major role in politics in the region. Indonesia and Thailand have been notable examples. Once the military straddled politics and owned big businesses; however, the political changes following the crisis are slowly reconfiguring the civil-military equation. Yet in not-too-distant Pakistan a military coup replaced a civilian government, and the former prime minister was sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism and hijacking.
While there seem to be some inroads into democracy with the occasional tendency to fall back, there are some countries where the path to democracy seems less than promising. Burma and Indochina continue to be caught in the political past.
However, a principal problem of reform is that many of these measures to facilitate political pluralism are taken at different levels, areas, countries and paces. They are not synchronised. There is a need to forge some kind of grand alliance that pulls in the strengths of various issues and actors to leverage on the weakness of others as well as to facilitate mutual learning, and more importantly to build on some of the nascent regional structures that have begun to spring up.
Regional groupings such as the Southeast Asian Press Alliance have been one of the recent examples that can lend strength and structure for a stronger press voice, especially in countries that do not have a free press. Another has been the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats that serves as a regional platform for political parties in government and opposition to consolidate and coordinate a democratic political agenda.
There is also the Asean Human Rights Mechanism, which is trying to foster the setting up of human-rights commissions in the region. Efforts at looking at a regional social safety net can be seen as another example set in motion by those interested in promoting social justice. Collectively these efforts should been seen as a growing number of geographical responses to form a democratic alliance. And this momentum needs to be harnessed and expanded into other areas.
For instance a regional secretariat to coordinate the activities of civil-society groups that have a democratic agenda could be one initiative. Others could include a regional network of electoral monitoring organisations and an Asian watchdog mechanism to survey the independence of the judiciary. A regional privacy-of-information and access-to-information project is another network to consider among the number of possibilities to foster an Asian democratic alliance. Finally an Internet portal to connect all these various initiatives through cyberspace could add a communications advantage to this endeavour.
The many victories by liberal democratic forces in the region has created a sense of optimism. This optimism can be consolidated via a grand, multi-tiered Asian alliance for democratic development.
