Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono refutes "Asian values" arguments against democracy in the region
Australia is committing $3 million towards a new Indonesian-based forum to improve governance in the Asia-Pacific region. Controversially, the forum is open to all states across the region, including non-democracies, and will be backed by a new Institute for Peace and Democracy.
The Bali Democracy Forum confirms “the need for an organized learning process and comprehensive dialogue on democracy,” said Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. It is also a significant indicator both of the “changing global landscape, a shifting of the central power from the United States and Europe to Asia over the last 15 years” and of the fact that Asia, a melting pot for various civilizations, “will be very dynamic in the future, especially in terms of politics, culture and economy and technology.”
Dismissing the “Asian values” argument that democracy is ill-suited to Asian culture, Yudhoyono insisted that democratic practices are historically and culturally rooted in Asian societies.
The forum defines Asia along geographic rather than cultural lines in an attempt to bridge civilizational schisms, notes Benjamin Reilly, director of the Centre for Democratic Institutions at the Australian National University, an approach which includes the region’s repressive regimes, including Burma, China and Vietnam. The United States, which has sponsored the Asia Pacific Democracy Partnership of genuine democracies, was excluded.
But Reilly believes the Bali forum has the potential to stimulate democratic progress across the region, as it “underlines the fact that, contrary to proponents of ‘Asian values’, Asia’s past record of authoritarianism is unlikely to guide its future.”
Other observers are concerned that the new forum should not become an intergovernmental talking shop. ”Diplomatic procedures will limit the capacity of government officials in reaching out to the potential democratic forces of a targeted country,” writes Aleksius Jemadu, a Bandung-based academic. The forum “needs to encourage the participation of the transnational networks of civil society organizations as the social foundation of democracy.
The forum is a first for Asian region government officials addressing the relationship between democracy and its development, says Jakarta-based analyst Pribadi Sutiono, by “extracting best practices and experiences, fostering greater collaboration and encouraging mutual cooperation to strengthen national institutions to build a more democratic Asia.” If it can maintain its democratizing momentum, definitely Indonesia “could become a strategic ambassador for democracy in the region.”
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