Human rights, anti-corruption must be linked: Sociologist<\/p>\n
MANILA (JP): Human rights activists, particularly in Southeast
\nAsia, have yet to link their campaigns with anticorruption
\nawareness, a sociologist said.<\/p>\n
Malaysian Syed Husein Alatas, known in Indonesia for his
\ntranslated book titled Sosiologi Korupsi, said yesterday that
\nrights advocates have failed to clearly see the relation between
\ncorruption and human rights violations.<\/p>\n
Alatas was one of the speakers of a two-day conference on
\nhuman rights, democracy and development, with focus on Southeast
\nAsia and European values.<\/p>\n
"No corrupt government supports human rights...no corrupt
\ngovernment wants change," Alatas said in the talks organized by
\nthe Germany-based Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a non-government
\norganization.<\/p>\n
Authorities in such governments "do not want to step down and
\nplay according to the games," Alatas said.<\/p>\n
"You can never solve the human rights problem until you solve
\nthe corruption problem," he said. Both issues must be campaigned
\nsimultaneously, he said.<\/p>\n
As long as corruption is tolerated, the raising of human
\nrights issue is "not genuine" and functions only to embarrass
\ngovernments, he said. Authorities who hate criticism suppress the
\npress because of the need to have the resources to stay in power,
\nhe added.<\/p>\n
Corruption affects far more people such as in the form of food
\nscarcity and the effect it has on public health, while arrests
\nand subsequent torture, for instance, are among the effects of
\ncorrupt authorities.<\/p>\n
He told about 40 participants mainly from seven Southeast
\nAsian countries that activists have yet to learn "from the simple
\nfarmer, who thinks every minute of the pest which is about to
\ndestroy his crop".<\/p>\n
Corruption, he said, "is the pest which could destroy the crop
\nof human rights".<\/p>\n
The failure to link human rights to corruption among
\nauthorities, "is like asking gangsters to enforce law and order,"
\nhe told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
The 68-year-old professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
\nwas talking on drawing from lessons in history and beliefs held
\nby Asians, to socialize human rights which have become values in
\nsociety -- "not the values of the rulers".<\/p>\n
History needs to be studied and the facts distributed by human
\nrights advocates, he said. While corruption may be culturally
\nembedded in the region, few people know from history that it is
\nnot condoned.<\/p>\n
"For instance, how many Moslems know that some of the close
\nfriends of the Prophet Mohammad were punished because of
\ncorruption?" he said.<\/p>\n
The campaign for both anticorruption awareness and human
\nrights would be more supported if people in the region could
\nrelate to experiences in Asian history, Alatas said.<\/p>\n
An effective campaign must come from within, as outside
\npressure would not create enough public anger, he added. There is
\nno need to wait for pressure such as from the World Trade
\nOrganization or the World Bank, for instance, as this would not
\nfoster human rights.<\/p>\n
In the later session on democracy and development, Marzuki
\nDarusman of the National Commission on Human Rights, referred to
\n"the rampant prevalence of unbridled corruption as a demoralizing
\nconsequence of political disempowerment".<\/p>\n
"The paralysis to effect meaningful corrective political
\naction against the abuse of public trust is today a gross
\ndemocratic deficiency," Marzuki said. (anr)<\/p>",
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