Asian values versus universal human rights

By Budiono Kusumohamidjojo

JAKARTA (JP): Chin-Ning Chu, author of The Asian Mind Game, recently told Julius Pour of Kompas daily that long ago -- when Europeans were still "barbaric" -- Asians already had sophisticated cultures.

It is a sad reality that we (Asians) then lost the competition (Kompas, Aug. 1, 1997).

Malaysia's Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, who recently aired his idea on "Asian Values", probably thought very much along the same lines when he proposed that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights of 1948 (UDHR) be reviewed and adjusted to the current constellation of the world (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 1, 1997).

The core of Mahathir's argument is that the UDHR was drafted and concluded by the victors of World War II, who were not concerned about the sufferings of poor nations.

Since many of the once poor nations have now emerged as developing countries, some even as "economic tigers", it is time that the UDHR be given a new tone, according to Mahathir.

ASEAN foreign ministers seem to agree.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas maintains that a world perception has now evolved, whereby economic, cultural and social rights are now being regarded as of equal importance to those embedded in the UDHR.

The Foreign Ministers of the Philippines and the People's Republic of China basically agreed with Mahathir at the ASEAN Regional Forum in July at Sunway Lagoon Resort near Kuala Lumpur (Suara Pembaruan, Aug. 2, 1997).

Mahathir's opinion has almost become the "official stance" of ASEAN. As a result, ASEAN may look forward to coming under fire from their dialog partners from the U.S., the European Union and Australia each time the ASEAN Regional Forum is held. The next is in Manila next year.

Ironically, ASEAN officials will have to defend their "official stance" to their own citizens as well.

A day after the ASEAN Regional Forum ended, a group gathered at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta to protest Myanmar's entry into ASEAN. The handful of demonstrators also expressed their distaste for "Asian Values".

As a matter of fact, the controversy regarding how one should reconcile the issue of universal human rights is not just black and white.

A look behind the screen of ASEAN's "official stance" leads us to some personalities who seem to better understand the "signals of the age", like Nugroho Wisnumurti, who is Director General for Political Affairs at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Nevertheless, people like Nugroho need time before their efforts to reduce the gap between their "official stance" and what happens in real life succeeds.

At the end we seem to be quarreling about what universal human rights are actually all about. While the UDHR went on to directly address the basic rights of the individual, proponents of Asian values want to put decisive emphasis on the rights of poor nations and peoples.

While the powerful victors of World War II wanted to protect each and every individual, and consequently also poor nations and peoples, proponents of Asian values promote what could probably be termed as communal rights.

As a result, Asian values indirectly undermine the individual, who provides for the basic existence of mankind.

Despite the double standard complaint brought from time to time -- and mainly against the United States --, the victors of World War II, now joined by Germany and Japan, have during the last five decades consistently improved the living standards of their peoples and as far as possible of their individual citizens.

The proponents of Asian values have their own double standards too.

Day to day violations of basic human rights in ASEAN countries are played down by governments who love to boast about their economic growth and progress, and advertise them as fantastically successful facts and figures.

ASEAN allowed Myanmar to enter the fold despite the hard fact that its military junta ignored the political rights of its people by annulling the election won by Aung San Su Kyi's party.

During the 30th ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting and the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting two non-government gatherings were held in Kuala Lumpur.

One was the Second ASEAN Congress held by the Malaysian Institute for Strategic and International Studies and the other was a limited workshop of the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism.

At both forums Asian values have frequently met with cynicism. Some say that talking Asian values is a strategy which reflects an inability to cope with the impact of globalization.

In other words, Asian values could be understood as an effort to establish a new defensive mechanism against the globalization drive. And proponents of Asian values are apparently opting to close ranks and protect their communal rights before joining the global club, and playing along with the universal rules.

Obviously this is very often at the cost of the majority of individuals among the people they pretend to represent.

It is generally accepted that since the downfall of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact less than a decade ago, a spectacular shift is now shaping the history of mankind.

It is also beyond doubt that the shift now in process will claim a lot of victims.

While the whole world strives toward a better set of global terms and conditions for mankind, some people and nations will perish simply as a result of their failure to keep pace with the course of the world.

The outcry for more respect for democracy and universal human rights is no less aimed at keeping the number of victims to a minimum.

The powerful nations along with a large silent majority in less fortunate countries are hammering toward more respect for and better protection of universal values like democracy and human rights.

It is quite illogical then for the proponents of Asian values to try to find loopholes such universal values.

As the world grows smaller and becomes plagued by natural and man made global calamities, there will be less and less loopholes to be found in the struggle of mankind to preserve its own existence.

Therefore, the proponents of Asian values should seriously consider a return to square one of the universal values, namely that men and women are born with the same nature and with equal individual and social rights.

There is almost no point in defending Asian values against universal values as such.

Particularly when the majority of Asian countries are in many respects still failing to cope with many of their own domestic problems: where laws are blatantly manipulated, where general elections are staged as a little more than theatrics, where oppression happens in the name of public security, where people are driven from their land in the name of development and others.

With such a record behind them, it is very difficult for the proponents of Asian values to prove them superior to universal values.

Proponents of Asian values may add economic, cultural, social rights, the right to develop, and any other rights whatsoever they may think about to the universal human rights, provided however, they comply with the very basic human rights as set out by the UDHR.

In short, Asian values are acceptable only if their content is complementary to the universal human rights stipulated by the UDHR.

If Asian values prove to be inferior to the universal human rights, their proponents do not deserve the right to challenge the UDHR.

The writer is a legal consultant and lecturer in Legal Philosophy, based in Jakarta