How to understand the new Asia<\/p>\n
Asian Values Western Dreams: Understanding the New Asia;
\nBy Greg Sheridan Allen & Unwin, NSW, Australia, 1999;
\nhttp:\/\/www.allen-unwin.com.au; 326 pages<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Almost toward the end of Asian Values Western
\nDreams, author Greg Sheridan confesses that we have come to the
\nend of our journey and yet we are still unable to state precisely
\nin a neat formula what Asian values are.<\/p>\n
By way of consolation perhaps, he adds that greater minds than
\nours, both Asian and Western, have tried to answer the same
\nquestion in the past with not much success. Why, then, that sexy
\ntitle, and why take the reader on a wild goose chase through more
\nthan 300 pages? Once the fury subsides, the answer that follows,
\nthat perhaps it is just to keep the debate over Asian values,
\nespecially within Asia, alive, is of some solace.<\/p>\n
The value of the book lies in it ability to frustrate and
\nfascinate at the same time. The entire exercise seems to be to
\nmake the West understand Asia more in the hope that it will
\npreach less. Whether defined as just a rhetorical trick used by
\npolitical strongmen to justify their autocratic rule or
\nassociated with hard work, respect for authority, close family
\nties and social harmony, the fact remains that Asian values
\nexist, even if few are able to define what they are.<\/p>\n
As an Australian of Caucasian origin, Greg feels that not
\nenough is known in the West of the fabulous diversity and genius
\nof the huge part of the human family that is Asia. He himself
\ncan't get enough of it. Apart from marrying a Malaysian Indian,
\nhe has been traveling back and forth to different parts of the
\nregion for over two decades and almost pleading with people,
\nespecially with Australians, to get to know Asia better.<\/p>\n
\"Australia is the one society of generally western derivation
\nthat lives on the edge of east Asia and ought therefore to make
\nitself of all the western nations, by way the most expert on
\nAsia,\" says Greg, who to a great extent blames the intellectual
\nfailures of the West in its policy responses to the Asian
\neconomic crisis on the decline in area studies at Western
\nuniversities, especially American ones.<\/p>\n
Greg calls for a new openness in the way the West thinks about
\nAsia. \"They are going to have to accept some Asian categories of
\nintellectual and political life rather than always trying to fit
\nAsia into the neat prejudices and formulas of Western political
\ndiscussion. The world must prepare for the eventuality when
\nChinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Thai and Indian cultures
\nwill have more weight in world affairs as their respective
\nnational economies will have more weight.\"<\/p>\n
He argues that there has been no examination of, say,
\nIndonesia or even Japan in a holistic way as integrated
\nsocieties. The study of each nation takes place piecemeal and the
\nconclusion is also there for all to see: Since nobody has studied
\nIndonesia nobody really understands Indonesia although the whole
\nworld tried to fix the country when its economy collapsed. In the
\nlong run, it is the people of the West who suffer most from this
\nlack of knowledge, Greg feels.<\/p>\n
In a genuinely globalized culture the vast cultural treasure
\nhouses of Asia have to be explored as well, and for such
\nexploration to be successful Westerners have to learn much more
\nabout Asian values, or the way societies here are groping to give
\nexpression to what they regard as their national genius, their
\nenduring, distinctive national culture, what is considered of
\nvalue and what people want to keep from their indigenous cultures
\neven in a rapidly modernizing context. This is one way Greg
\ndefines Asian values.<\/p>\n
He gives the example of founding president Sukarno, one of the
\ngreatest formula makers of Asian values, who invented Marhaenism
\nbased on a poor farmer called Marhaen. The philosophy was meant
\nto embody the concern of Sukarno and other Indonesians for the
\nfate of poor farmers and for the central position that such folks
\nshould occupy in the nation.<\/p>\n
Marhaenism is interesting as it represented an Indonesian
\nattempt to find an indigenous version of socialism, an attempt to
\nindigenize external values. That Marhaenism did not succeed in
\npractice is quite another story. It is because a good idea was
\nreduced to a slogan. And the fact that a mere slogan found it
\nimpossible to capture values that are living, breathing, cultural
\nforces, too subtle, too slippery and above all too alive to be
\nimprisoned by a document designed by a government committee is
\nproof enough that Asian values not only exist but are on the
\nroad, insists the author as if with the last drop of ink in his
\npen.<\/p>\n
Readers of course are welcome to take or leave this argument
\nat their peril.<\/p>\n
-- Mehru Jaffer<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/how-to-understand-the-new-asia-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }