Asia's dysfunctional democracies<\/p>\n
Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri, Project Syndicate<\/p>\n
Asia has been gripped by election fever all year. The
\nPhilippines and Taiwan have chosen new presidents; India and
\nMalaysia have ushered in new parliaments and prime ministers.
\nSeptember brings two more vital polls: A legislative election in
\nHong Kong and a presidential election in Indonesia. Voters there
\nmay also extend a disturbing paradox that has emerged in the
\nregion: The more \"vigorous\" Asian democracy becomes, the more
\ndysfunctional it is.<\/p>\n
There is no shortage of examples. The attempt by opposition
\nparties to impeach South Korea's President Roh Moo Hyun on the
\nflimsiest of excuses; Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's inability
\nto pass legislation through a parliament controlled by the
\nopposition Kuomintang; Philippine President Gloria Macapagal
\nArroyo's stalemated first term and the logjam over the fiscal
\nreforms needed to prevent a predicted Argentine-style meltdown
\nearly in her second: each bears testimony to democratic paralysis
\nin Asia.<\/p>\n
If deadlock and confusion were the only results, such
\npolitical impasses might be tolerable. But chronic stalemate has
\nconfronted many Asian democracies with the threat of being
\ndiscredited, a potential for violence, and the prospect of
\neconomic decline.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the precedents of democratic immobility in Asia are
\nhardly encouraging. For example, since Pakistan's creation in
\n1947, partisan divisions have ensured that no elected government
\nhas been able to serve its full term. So Pakistanis have grimly
\naccepted military rule as their destiny.<\/p>\n
The problem in Asia often arises from something the French
\ncall \"cohabitation\" -- an awkward arrangement by which a directly
\nelected president must co-exist with a parliament controlled by a
\nrival party or parties. The United States and Europe's mature
\ndemocracies may function well enough with the \"checks and
\nbalances\" of divided government (though the Republicans' bid to
\nimpeach President Clinton a few years ago might suggest
\notherwise), but in Asia the failure to bestow executive and
\nlegislative powers on a single institution is usually a terrible
\ndrawback.<\/p>\n
This seems especially true when a government tries to enact
\nradical economic or political reforms. The elected president
\nwants to act, but the assembly refuses to approve the necessary
\nlaws. Or vice versa.<\/p>\n
The pattern begins in parliamentary deadlock. Incompetent
\nleaders blame legislatures for their failures; legislators blame
\npresidents from rival parties. Finger pointing replaces
\nresponsibility, fueling popular demand for a strongman (or woman)
\nwho can override political divisions. Indira Gandhi's brief
\n\"emergency rule\" in the 1970s was partly the result of such
\ninstitutional dysfunction.<\/p>\n
Divided government also plays into the hands of Asia's
\nseparatists. At a critical moment for Sri Lanka's peace process,
\nPresident Kumaratunga was so incensed by the policies of her
\npolitical rival, Prime Minister Wickremessinghe, that she sacked
\nthree of his ministers and called elections almost four years
\nearly. The only people who seem to have benefited from this
\ndemocratic division are the murderous Tamil Tigers. Similarly, in
\nNepal, a Maoist insurgency has taken advantage of divisions
\nbetween the King and parliament to gain control of much of the
\ncountryside.<\/p>\n
True, Asian democracies, however unstable, are preferable to
\nautocracies, whether military, as in Pakistan and Burma, or
\ncommunist, as in China and Vietnam. But the danger in a weakened
\ndemocracy is not merely blocked legislation and ineffective
\ngovernment. Ambitious but thwarted presidents are easily tempted
\nto take unconstitutional measures; after all, they reason, the
\npeople elected them directly. The same is true of some prime
\nministers, like Thailand's authoritarian Thaksin Shinawatra, who
\nnow stands accused of weakening his country's democratic
\ntraditions in favor of personal rule.<\/p>\n
Given these precedents and the widespread instability exposed
\nby this year's elections, perhaps Asian policymakers should
\nconsider the merits of doing away with \"cohabitation\" and
\nadopting systems where electoral victory translates into real
\npower. Of course, parliamentary political systems are far from
\nperfect. Neither Singapore nor Malaysia, where ruling parties
\nhave long dominated the parliaments, has a political culture as
\nhealthy as in Taiwan or South Korea.<\/p>\n
But in parliamentary democracies such as Japan and India, an
\nelected leader runs the country until the day his or her party or
\ncoalition loses its legislative majority. This means that
\ngovernments are judged not by their ability to outmaneuver
\nlegislatures, but by the quality of their policies. This seems to
\nbe a more efficient -- and politically more stable -- form of
\ndemocracy than the unhappy cohabitation that produces such ugly
\nconfrontations in Taiwan, South Korea, and the Philippines.<\/p>\n
By contrast, the threats posed by divided government could be
\ngreater than mere parliamentary rumbles. Cohabitation could very
\nsoon become a problem even in the quasi-democracy of Hong Kong,
\nif voters there on Sept. 12 elect a legislature hostile to Tung
\nChee-hwa, the territory's Beijing-anointed chief executive, later
\nthis month. Indonesia also risks deadlock if, as seems likely,
\nthe election on Sept. 20 produces a president from a different
\nparty than the one that controls parliament.<\/p>\n
Abraham Lincoln was right: A house divided against itself
\ncannot stand. In many Asian democracies, only institutional
\nreconstruction will prevent a collapse.<\/p>\n
Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri, Emeritus Professor at India's
\nUniversity Grants Commission, is a former Professor of
\nInternational Relations at Oxford University.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/asias-dysfunctional-democracies-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}