Message from Dr Syed Husin Ali
(leader of the People's Party of Malaysia).
Anthropologist by training.
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
To: sangkancil@malaysia.net
Cc: sk@malaysia.net
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 12:44:58
Subject: [sangkancil] Democracy n HR in Asean (fwd)
From: pillai@mgg.pc.my (M.G.G. Pillai)
Reply-to: pillai@mgg.pc.my (M.G.G. Pillai)
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From: lrc@tm.net.my (Tian)
Date: 13 Nov 97
Originally Posted On: soc.culture.malaysia
Democracy And Human Rights:
The ASEAN Situation
Dr Syed Husin Ali
ASEAN countries have different social and political systems. Brunei is
practically an absolute monarchy and for a long time there has been no
election there. The Sultan, who is the richest man in the world, is also
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of this little but wealthy
kingdom. Some of the worldÆs longest political prisoners - a number
being detained without trial for more than 20 years - hail from
Brunei. Most of them were from the Peoples Party of Brunei (Partai
Rakyat Brunei) who were arrested after the party won almost all
seats in the first and last election that was held there in the
mid-sixties.
Indonesia is under military rule; General Suharto has been
president for more than 30 years, and his family has been identified
as being one of the richest in Asia. Although there have been quite
regular elections there, only 425 out of 500 members of Parliament
are elected, while the remaining 75 are appointed, mainly from the
armed forces. In addition, another 500 are nominated by the
government to form the Consultative Body, and it is this body that
elects the president. With 575 nominated members always guaranteed to
be on his side, Suharto can easily continue to be president for
life.
Singapore prides itself with a highly developed economy and an efficient
administration. Although elections are held regularly about five years
once, they are often one-sided. The government leadership is
authoritarian and does not tolerate the opposition, some of whose
members have been detained for long periods. Chia Thye Poh, a leader
of the now defunct Barisan Sosialis (Socialist Front), was robbed of
his freedom since before the mid-sixties and was only very recently
permitted to travel overseas. Those not detained have been known to
be hounded and bankrupted through legal suits, even after they had
been defeated in elections.
Both Philippines and Thailand have known many military regimes before,
which had been guilty of several bloody onslaught on their own people.
They are now striving hard to practice their own versions of
Parliamentary democracy, with all its shortcomings. In Malaysia, since
1955, two years before she attained independence, general elections have
been held regularly, almost five years once. This is consistent with her
claim of practicing parliamentary democracy. But there are four
emergency declarations which are still enforce, besides many
draconian acts (which will be described later). There is also a
tendency for the executive to dominate over the legislature,
judiciary and the media. Authoritarianism is on the rise.
Among the new members of ASEAN, Burma is notorious for her blatant
breach of democratic principles and basic human rights. The military
regime refused to give up power despite the fact that in May 1990,
the National League for Democracy (NDL) won a sweeping victory in
BurmaÆs national election, collecting 82 percent of the votes and 90
percent of the seats. Since then many newly elected members of
parliament from the NDL have been detained or forced into exile; it
is believed that some have even died under very suspicious
circumstances. The NDL leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is still under
house detention. As a result of repressive policies of the Slorc,
thousands from the minority groups (like Rohingyas) have been
forced to flee the country as refugees. Many, including women and
children, have been driven into forced labour in certain
government-sponsored projects.
As for Vietnam and Loas, they had not in the past shown much
respect for civil and political rights, because under their
communist regimes, their countries were closed and their people
controlled. Now they are slowly opening up and beginning to recognise
some aspects of basic human rights, although, for historical
reasons, the Vietnamese approach and practice are quite different
from those of many of the old members of ASEAN.
To untrained eyes, elections that are held by the ASEAN states give the
impression that there is full freedom and democracy in this region, as
often claimed. It should be noted, however, that more often than not
these elections are neither clean nor fair. The ruling parties often
blatantly take advantage of their control over government machinery. The
periods for campaigning in the snap elections that they call are usually
very short, between nine days and two weeks, as in the case of Singapore
and Malaysia. During these periods, in fact, at most times, public
political rallies cannot be held without police permits or supervision.
It is difficult for opposition parties to hold public rallies or talks,
while ministers from the governing parties can easily address massive
crowds under the pretext of opening schools or hospitals and launching
projects of all sorts. There is also widespread use of money politics
and other forms of corruption, particularly by government
candidates, who are often rich and well-financed. In some cases,
like in Indonesia, the army and police are blatantly used as
constant threat to remind the people to return the government back
to power.
While the ruling parties are able to make full use of the television to
spread their propaganda, opposition parties are denied access to them,
not only during elections but all the year round. Daily newspapers are
controlled or owned by parties in government or their nominees.
Throughout the year, and more so during election time, they are
manipulated to boost government parties and discredit those in the
opposition. In some instances, the printed and electronics media would
not give space for opposition manifestoes to be published, even as paid
advertisements. At the same time, a number of publications (including
dailies) have had their permits withdrawn or banned, the moment they
appear to assert their freedom and begin to be critical of government.
Over and above all these, there are also several laws and regulations
that are undemocratic and constitute violations of basic human rights.
In Indonesia and the Philippines, there are so-called anti-subversive
laws that can carry maximum death penalty, while in Malaysia and
Singapore there is the draconian Internal Security Act, which allows
for detention without trial. Besides, there are also various other
repressive laws, such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act
(PPPA). The ISA empowers the Minister for Home Affairs to detain a
person without trial for indefinite periods, renewable every two
years, and does not allow for habeas corpus. As for the PPPA, among
other things, it provides for all publications to obtain permits
from the Home Ministry annually, and that the permit may not be
renewed or revoked at any time if conditions stipulated are breached.
Quite often the ISA and the PPPA have been abused to curb the lawful
political opposition.
In Malaysia and Singapore, for example, there are numerous other laws,
which seem to cover every sector and every group, such as workers and
students. Many of these laws are legacies of the colonial past, although
they have been amended or consolidated after independence, but a few
have been recently introduced. For instance, there is the Police
Act, which prohibits assembly without permit; the Official Secrets
Act, which provides for mandatory jail for publishing any document
classified as secret; the Societies Act, which controls and
regulates societies and organisations (both political and
non-political); the University and University Colleges Act, which
restricts activities and movements of students and staff at
institutions of higher learning; and the Trade Unions Ordinance and
Industrial Relations Act, which regulate and restrict movements and
actions of workers (to form unions or to take industrial actions).
Other than repressive laws, internal weakness of unions and opportunism
among many of the labour leaders, there is another factor that cripples
the workersÆ movement. This is the presence of migrant workers. In
Malaysia alone, there are estimated to be more than two million such
workers, mostly from Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines. A large
number of them have been legally registered, but a significant portion
still remains illegal. Although local workers, especially those in
plantations and some in manufacturing sectors continue to be exploited
with low pay, poor living conditions and insecurity of employment, the
plight of many migrant workers, especially those in isolated areas, are
even worse. It is well-known that the illegal workers can and have been
used by the employers in plantation and construction sectors to depress
wages of local workers, or even to displace them, and to undermine the
labour unions. At the same time, legal migrant workers are neither well
protected nor accorded the right to organise or be absorbed into local
trade unions.
A large section of the workforce are women. Generally, as a result of
economic and cultural factors, women in Malaysia, particularly those in
rural areas and in the plantations, tend to be regarded as being of
lower status than men. It is gratifying to note that more women,
partly owing to their own struggle, have made headway into the
economic, political and social areas that used to be the domains of
men. But, in many cases women continue to be harassed in their work
places and mistreated in their homes. It is feared that a large
number of them have been trapped into prostitution and so forth.
There have been more cases reported of migrant women being molested,
raped or forced into prostitution.
The different laws, regulations and conditions mentioned above
demonstrate the extent to which democracy and human rights have been
marred. Actually, democracy and human rights are very much related to
the question of wealth and distribution; they will be undermined
whenever there is gross concentration of wealth. In almost all
developing countries, the elites left by the withdrawing colonial
forces have continued to accumulate wealth. They are now joined by
others who have become the new rich. ASEAN is a fast growing part of
the world where more wealth and power are concentrated in the hands
of a smaller number of people. The present political and economic
elites, who are increasingly merged into one, seem to be grabbing
everything.
As a result of concentration of wealth, the gap between the rich and the
poor becomes wider. The gap grows even wider the longer such ruling
elites remain in power. A root cause of concentration of wealth is
corruption; for the ruling elites, corruption is the main source of
wealth. These elites normally try to distribute a bit of what they have
accumulated in order to win elections rather than go through the use of
force. Nevertheless, quite often, on failing in elections some of them
resort to the use of the army and police. Conflict is sharpened whenever
the side which wins uses state machinations to suppress, bankrupt and
ruin the losing side.
For the poor and exploited, democracy and human rights must be
translated into rights to have balanced and enough food, adequate
shelter, health care and education for the children. If we deny
these rights by raising the prices of social services through
privatisation or corporatisation, for example, then we will in fact
be denying them their fundamental rights. Poor people cannot afford
lawyers or take time to demonstrate. There are families who have to
struggle to have a decent living even when both husband and wife are
earning or when the head of the family has to do two types of job in
a day.
There is a rather unhappy state of democracy and human rights in ASEAN.
It is well-known that democracy and human rights issues have been used
by the West, especially the United States, to put pressure on certain
Third Word countries. They have also linked up trade and aid with
human rights. Many Third World countries, including those in ASEAN,
have felt such pressure and oppose it. Their leaders argue that
western standards of democracy and human rights cannot be applied to
developing countries, which have their own specific needs and
realities. Furthermore, they contend and quite rightly too, that the
US itself suffers from certain questionable human rights records. One
of the worst violations of human rights is against the blacks, a
large number of whom live in dire poverty and under serious
discrimination. The US also practices double standards,
being punitive towards Iraq, for example, but protective towards Israel;
just as in the same manner, it is highly critical of Slorc, but
well-disposed towards Suharto.
The superpowers, and the US in particular, tend to manipulate human
rights issues to undermine governments that they dislike. They tolerate
feudal monarchs or military rulers who chop off heads of political
dissidents or exploit women so long as they are regarded as friends. On
the other hand, they impose prolonged economic sanctions which cause
death and disease among innocent children and women in countries where
the defiant leaders are considered enemies. Fortunately, there is now
emerging in the US and other western countries, those who are sincere in
their efforts to establish democracy and human rights. These are our
true friends. For ASEAN and the rest of the Third World, genuine
human rights should be striven for on our own accord, as something
good and necessary for human dignity. It is a great shame if we are
forced to improve our human rights record only as a result of Western
superpower pressures.
In conclusion, we cannot deny the fact that democracy and human rights
are strangled when people, especially women and children are massacred,
chased away from their own lands and homes, imprisoned without trial and
subject to repressive draconian laws; or when elections are never held,
or even if they are held they are not clean, free or fair, or when the
rights to oppose or dissent are denied. Many of these acts are
perpetrated, though in different permutations, in ASEAN. Undeniably,
they are cruel and cause a lot of human sufferings. They also go
against the noble values upheld by various religions and different
cultural traditions that predominate in the region. Now, more than
ever, the duty of the people, political parties, peopleÆs
organisations and non-governmental organisations has grown in
urgency. They have to join hands in the struggle to establish genuine
democracy, human rights and a Just Society in ASEAN.
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