Media erodes sovereignty of Asia's modernizing states
Media erodes sovereignty of Asia's modernizing states
The Internet and the global media are at the forefront in
effecting greater political space within Asia. Yeap Soon Beng
looks at this phenomenon
In today's borderless world where leaders learn quickly that
the global polity is a messy place, with events easily spinning
out of control, most governments feel under siege. Governments
remain disturbed, despite greater economic cooperation and
interdependence between countries, as they realize that world
market forces are usurping their authority and robbing them of
the ability to set their own agendas.
For many Asian countries that are confronted with an
international balance of power tilted against them, participation
in the global economy means conceding more and more of their
autonomy in decision making to foreign interests if they are to
remain players. Within the dynamics of an unequal world, Asian
governments know that making these concessions is necessary to
ensure an improvement in the standard of living, to create
jobs for their people and to develop industries.
But in doing so, it also means an erosion of their economic
sovereignty. Even for a powerhouse like Japan, in working towards
resolving the car dispute with the United States, the former was
pressured to make concessions by the latter.
In spite of the inequality of global power, Asian leaders are
aware that this compromise has helped maintain the economic
vitality that has led the Asia-Pacific to unprecedented growth in
less than a generation.
However, when it comes to compromising their political
sovereignty, Asian governments are not only reluctant but
extremely troubled by the prospect. Their dilemma is the
perception that the erosion of their political sovereignty
translates to paving the way for the introduction of Western
democratic reforms.
One of Asia's main champions of this viewpoint is Singapore's
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew. He declared that it would be a
mistake "to follow mindlessly the present politically correct and
stridently advocated view that democracy is the precondition for
economic development." Lee's view, popularly known as the "Asian
way", is openly shared by Malaysia and China. Leaders in these
countries warn that democratic reforms could actually be inimical
to the economic growth of Asian countries.
While the erosion of political sovereignty is a fate shared by
all governments, East and West, in today's increasingly
interdependent world, it is more dramatic and more keenly feared
by Asian governments as many have a cultural and historical need
to maintain highly regulated and hierarchical societies.
This threat to political sovereignty has become more real and
urgent with the arrival of the global media, especially satellite
TV and the Internet. Many Asian governments see the media
invasion as politically hegemonic and culturally imperialistic.
The governments' distrust of the global media is rooted in the
discourse of democratic politics where the media has always acted
as the primary interface between the public and officials, and
between issues and legislation.
By providing this interface in today's borderless world, the
global media's role as passive spectators has changed to that of
active players and referees in the dynamics of local politics.
The presence of a more intrusive and proactive global media
have forced some Asian leaders to become more outspoken in their
suspicions of the industry. Some have managed to put the media,
local and foreign, in their assigned political space within the
framework of the "Asian way".
While some leaders have been criticized for their "harsh"
treatment of the media, a closer examination will show that their
actions have been sporadic and, more important, transparent. In
fact, except in a few countries, none of the latest media
developments in the former communist regimes and some of the more
regulated Southeast Asian nations, have involved a clamor to
follow an authoritarian ideology.
In analyzing the growing tolerance towards the media by many
Asian governments, some scholars are asserting that the alleged
authoritarian need for control by political leaders is no longer
valid.
A more relevant and important, but less obvious, explanation
has to do with the governments' ambiguity in dealing with the
erosion of their political sovereignty in the borderless world
where the media is becoming all powerful and all reaching. Asian
governments are quickly learning about the difficulties in
regulating the rapidly progressing and changing media. They have
realized that there is no way in which they can stop the flow of
information from entering their countries and the best they can
do is to harness that flow for economic development.
To come to terms with their fledging political sovereignty,
some Asian leaders have resorted to socially constructing the
global media as a threat and danger to the region's social and
cultural identity. As noted by a media analyst, "it is a
construction that draws on and feeds into the new posture of Asia
in the post-colonial world which actively creates the West as an
enemy of the state".
Furthermore, Asian leaders have a tendency to see the giving
up of their sovereignty as a zero sum game, with the West as the
aggressor and main benefactor. The barrage of attacks by several
Asian leaders in portraying the West as decadent and trying to
feverishly undermine Asia's success is testimony to the zero sum
mentality. To some extent, this line of thinking could also
explain why certain Asian nations, in spite of their growing
political confidence nurtured by recent economic growth, continue
to perceive their societies and cultures as vulnerable and easily
ravaged by the West.
However, as more Asian countries become fully immersed in the
global economy and modernized, their governments are also
becoming aware of the centrality of the media to the country's
political and social life. What remains highly contested is the
media's role in modernizing Asian societies.
This changing role of the media, which could be one of
continuity or rupture with the past, will continue to fuel the
anxiety and ambiguity of Asian governments as they try to
make sense of their interaction with modernity.
Rather than blindly assuming that the relations between the
media and the government "is a mixture of paranoia and the
arrogance of power", which Asian leaders have been accused of
exhibiting, critics should temper their judgments and see events
in a broader perspective.
In modernizing Asian societies, where sovereignty is being
eroded on both the political and economic fronts, the ubiquitous
democratic trend can but only be embryonic at this stage
of growth. However, it is a trend that is undeniably moving
across the Asian political landscape.
While caution, rather than jubilation, shrouds the democratic
mood, it merely reflects the challenges confronting many Asian
governments as they push their countries towards modernity.
Dr. Yeap Soon Beng is Sub-Dean with the School of
Communications Studies, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore.