Human rights good for business

By Budiawan

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Historically, the idea of human rights was aimed at protecting individuals from the state's tendencies to repression. For it is the state which is responsible for the violations of human rights. Violations beyond the state's power are merely crimes, which the state is obliged to handle based on existing laws.

This makes the state's position somewhat ambivalent. On one hand it is the source of human rights violations, but on the other its existence is needed to establish and maintain social order. In short, the state is a necessary evil.

Due to the vested interests of state organizations, it is obvious that it is bodies not connected to the state which can be expected to truly struggle for human rights. This "civil society" has many definitions, but here it simply refers to "certain forms of social organization that once were associated with the ideas of democracy and citizenship" (Adam B. Seligman, The Ideas of Civil Society, 1992).

This definition is congruent with the notion of Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs), in the sense that their concern is social and political, but they have no interest in political power themselves. As opposed to political parties making up the "political community", distinct from civil society.

As human rights is a universal notion, and the struggle for it should be on an international level. The concerns of human rights advocates go beyond the borders of states and nations.

In this way civil society is increasingly a global community. This relatively recent phenomenon has been occurring in line with the expansion of capitalism, which "opens up the sociological space of international civil society, in which this space is given political content through the activity of international social movements" (Alejandro Colas, "The Promises of International Civil Society", Global Society, No.3, 1997). Thus international civil society is the global community created by the expansion of capitalist relations of production where modern social movements pursue their political goals.

It is thus obvious that NGOs as key players in international civil society are inseparable from global capitalism, since "NGOs are always parts of the linkages of global capital" (Pheng Cheah, "Posit(ion)ing Human Rights in the Current Global Conjuncture", Public Culture, No.9, 1997). What does this imply to the global agenda of human rights advocates?

As Pheng Cheah argues, human rights are not just part of an ideological structure that needs to be reinforced within the sphere of global capitalism. Neo-Marxist understandings of human rights follow the rationality of prescribing humanistic ideals onto material reality.

Undoubtedly, global capitalism has brought material interconnectedness on a world-scale. But the increasing capitalist standpoint of human rights advocates suggests the global market is not a single entity but a textual network. This means this global structure cannot be enclosed as a knowable entity because there are points of weakness it generates but cannot account for.

In other words, totality becomes impossible, because the very act of unification opens up the structure to unpredictable influences. Greater empowerment of human rights arises from these influences.

The globalization of market mechanisms and production requires the creation of a technically educated labor and administrative class in the South.

But the requisite globalization of education also leads to the formation of a strata of activists, and the formation of NGOs fighting for human rights. These NGOs, in response to new needs, make claims that are effectively opposed to the interests of global capitalism.

Yet these provisional points of resistance are also inscribed into the text of global capitalism. Thus, we have no choice but to take the risk of struggling in the inhuman market forces for control of human dignity.

In such a position, NGOs throughout the world develop their own networks. This can bring together the silent and oppressed and give them a footing in world politics.

In other words, international NGOs, due to their increasingly complex webs of activity, often are given the common label of "international civil society". This "society" functions as an international pressure group seeking to alter oppressive policies over the world, while not necessarily trying to undermine a regime's legitimacy.

By such politics of positioning, international civil society in fact is in a position of global authority. Globalization means that political decisions cannot be isolated within a nation or between two states, but are influenced by broad market forces and international opinion.

International relationships are made up of a complex connection of the social classes of different countries. World hegemony is furthermore expressed in universal norms, institutions and mechanisms which lay down general rules of behavior for states and other forces of civil society that act across national boundaries -- rules which support the dominant mode of production.

In Gramscian terms, international civil society can thus play the role of an "international historical bloc", which can build moral credibility for the economic dominance of global capitalism. It is in fact a necessity since hegemony, in Gramscian terms, requires intellectual and ethical leadership. In such a context the assertion of the human rights issue as part of the international agenda can be understood.

Thus it is ridiculous for a country to link itself to the global economy but reject the ethical requirements of global capitalism. The ethical issue, many experts tell us, could guarantee economic achievements. In other words, this could serve as long-term insurance for capitalism itself.

The recent phenomenon in Indonesia, despite its political uncertainties in this transitional period, has shown such tendencies. Negotiations, instead of repressive action, in dealing with the cases of Aceh, Irian Jaya, and East Timor, are a few examples. To make these practices continue on the right track, international civil society should keeping applying pressure on human rights issues.

The writer, who has a Master's degree in Southeast Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore, is now a freelance writer based in Yogyakarta.