Western civilization for the world?

Western civilization for the world?

By Sayidiman Suryohadiprojo

JAKARTA (JP): Samuel Huntington, author of the controversial
Clash of Civilizations article, has written another interesting
article in the November/December 1996 issue of Foreign Affairs
magazine.

In it, he asserts that the process of economic modernization
can only be successful for those nations basing changes on the
indigenous culture. Huntington argues that it is an illusion to
promote Western culture as something to be accepted as universal
values.

Some technical expertise can be borrowed to improve the
process of modernization. However, what must take place is not
westernization, but modernization.

Peter the Great and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk were convinced that
to modernize their countries they should adopt Western culture,
even replacing traditional headgear with its Western equivalent.
But what they created were, in Huntington's words, "torn
countries", unsure of their cultural identity.

The economic success of Japan seems to prove Huntington's
case. Based on their slogan of "Japanese spirit, Western
technique", modernization became a process that took the whole
nation to a different platform of life and progress.

Huntington does not believe that societies with modern
cultures should be any more alike than are societies with
traditional cultures. There is no homogeneous and universal
modernity like there was no universal traditionalism. On the
contrary, Huntington thinks that modernity in a nation produces a
strengthening of indigenous cultures.

Modernization enhances the economic wealth and military power
of a country as a whole. That encourages people to have
confidence in their heritage and to become culturally assertive.

The return to indigenous culture very often takes a religious
form and the global revival of religion is a direct consequence
of modernization, says Huntington. This also assumes an anti-
Western cast, in some cases rejecting Western culture, because it
is Christian and subversive, or considered degenerate and
secular. All of this has a deep impact on politics.

The process of indigenization can also be observed through the
use of language. English has been accepted as the number one
world language. But according to the findings of Sidney S.
Culbert of the University of Washington, the use of English is
declining. In 1958 about 9.8 percent of all human beings spoke
English as a first or second language. But in 1992 only 7.6
percent did.

The use of the five major Western languages has also declined
from 24 percent in 1958 to 21 percent in 1992.

Huntington's conclusion is therefore that the Western
civilization is unique but not universal.

All efforts to make other nations accept Western values as
universal and their own is an illusion. What the West should do
with its relatively limited resources is to enhance the unity
among the West, so that the non-Western forces can not play one
Western nation against the other.

In Huntington's view, what includes the West are North and
Latin America and Europe (except those nations in Eastern Europe
historically close to the Orthodox Church and Islam). He does not
consider Greece or Turkey Western. Russia is definitely not
Western. He proposes that the West should take all actions to
improve its power, politically, economically as well as
militarily. NATO must play an important role.

Huntington does not mention the clash of civilizations in this
article, but the suggestions he has made to strengthen the West
-- which spans from the Western Hemisphere to the Baltic
nations, Poland and Rumania -- is a clear indication of his
distrust of the non-West.

The writer, a former governor of the National Resilience
Institute, is now an ambassador at large for the Non-Aligned
Movement.