Asia moving to democracy, but needs to do more: UN

Asia moving to democracy, but needs to do more: UN

Yoko Kobayashi, Reuters, Manila

Asia has made tremendous progress in promoting political freedom
in the last few decades but more can be done, such as giving
women key roles in government, the United Nations said.

The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) launched its annual report
in the Philippine capital Manila on Wednesday, arguing that
democracy or freedom of choice was neither a luxury nor a panacea
for poor countries, but intrinsic to human development.

While the Human Development Report 2002 warned the global wave
of democracy in the 1980s and 1990s had stalled, with many
countries relapsing into authoritarianism or facing rising
economic and social tensions, Asia had done better than most.

"I think that Asia has made tremendous progress in
democratization in the last couple of decades," Sakiko Fukuda-
Parr, chief author of the report, told a news conference.

"Even though in Asia you have huge, very big regimes that are
not considered democratic, they too have also been democratizing.
Compared with other regions, there has been more gradual and more
progressive progress in expanding human freedom.

"I don't think there have been as many reversals as one has
seen in many other regions in the world."

Out of three groupings, most Asian countries rank in the
"medium human development" group of the UNDP's Human Development
Index, which measures each country's achievements in terms of
life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income.

The report said despite the Asian financial crisis in the late
1990s, East Asia had made striking progress over the decade, with
China rising the furthest, up 14 places to rank 96 in 2002.

Singapore and South Korea have both moved up eight places, to
25 and 27 respectively. Thailand has risen 10 to rank 70 and
Malaysia has gained 12 places to 59. The Philippines ranked 77.

Fukuda-Parr added that religion and culture should not be used
as an excuse to deny political freedom.

"Democracy movements of China, of Burma, of Indonesia and the
Philippines and elsewhere show that democracy is not something
that is an imported concept in Asia," she said.

Fukuda-Parr said the global launch of the report in the
Philippines was "very symbolic" as UNDP chose locations where the
main theme of the report had "some real meaning."

"We really felt that the Philippines was one of the foremost
countries where the people of the country are really committed to
democracy. I don't think you find any other country in the world
where the ordinary people are so committed to democracy and
ordinary people are mobilized," she said.

A popular revolt known as "People Power" which ousted the
country's late dictator Ferdinand Marcos put the Philippines on
the map in 1986.

The world was reminded of the power of the masses again in
January 2001 when former leader Joseph Estrada was ousted from
office by a bloodless coup, to be replaced by current President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

But Fukuda-Parr warned too much dependence on the masses could
be dangerous. "Over-reliance on people power can be dangerous and
undermine democratic institutions. You need strong institutions.
They are not substitutes, they are complements. The debates in
the Philippines obviously touch on those tensions," she said.

UNDP administrator Mark Malloch Brown, who spoke at a seminar
for mainly Asian parliamentarians, stressed the role of women in
government to promote democracy.

He said less than 15 percent of the parliamentarians of the
world were women, with Asia scoring about average.

"The representation of women in parliament or women in
government, however, is not just an end in itself," Brown said,
adding that involving women in policy making process ensured that
the half of the society most normally neglected had a voice.

Fukuda-Parr also said it was "really pathetic" that only 11
countries had 30 percent parliamentary seats held by women.

"One of the pervasive democratic deficits is the chronic
under-representation of women...This is one of the central
problems that I think democracy still has to face."