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Economic Meltdown Boosts Democracy Movements in Asia

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Southeast Asia’s economic crash has given a boost to the region’s democracy movements as more people dare criticize their governments and demand political reform as well as greater respect for human rights.

For a region whose governments often have been willing to sacrifice the personal liberties of their people for economic advancement, the drumbeat of dissenting voices is a notable shift from traditional acquiescence to authority. It also is coming from unlikely places.

In Singapore, which is in recession after years of booming growth, Chee Soon Juan is doing what no one has done for years--criticizing policies that limit free speech and personal freedom. The 36-year-old U.S.-trained scientist went on trial Tuesday for speaking publicly without a police permit. He was back in court the day after finishing a seven-day jail sentence on similar charges.

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In impoverished Vietnam, Tran Do, 75, a lauded revolutionary and retired general, has released statements calling for free elections and the abandonment of socialism. He has been kicked out of the Communist Party but not tossed into prison, as he almost certainly would have been a few years ago in a country where dissent is still considered a form of treason.

In Indonesia, a pro-democracy student crusade formed last year around complaints of economic mismanagement and forced President Suharto to resign in May after 32 years in power. In recession-gripped Malaysia, a small “people power” movement stunned the government last fall with protests that sometimes turned violent. In Myanmar, where a generation of military rule has led to a near-collapse of the economy, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has intensified her decade-long agitation for democracy, defying the generals’ attempts to silence her.

Human rights activists contend that, in varying ways, these demands for political reform are rooted in economics. When times were good, governments could--and did--maintain that individual freedoms had to take a back seat if the single-minded march toward prosperity was to be sustained. The economic meltdown--which began here with the collapse of the Thai currency in July 1997--released simmering political tensions.

“The economic crisis has caused tremendous pain, but there has been a positive spinoff: It has given a lot of momentum to democracy and human rights,” said Somchai Homlaor, secretary-general of the Asian Forum for Human Rights.

In the past, Homlaor noted, “governments didn’t have to explain themselves and people had no right to question. Today the situation is abundantly clear. Politics and economics cannot be separate.”

With foreign donors increasingly tying aid to political reform and free elections, political analysts say Southeast Asia’s governments, except Myanmar’s intractable military regime, have become more susceptible to international pressure. Governments have responded in myriad ways.

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Vietnam has released more than 5,000 prisoners since spring; most were common criminals, but 11 were prominent dissidents. Singapore in November lifted restrictions on Chai Thye Poh, who spent 32 years in various forms of incarceration and detention as a suspected Communist. Indonesian President B.J. Habibie announced the release of 42 political prisoners on New Year’s Day and said he would do away with the hated anti-subversion law that permits imprisonment without trial.

Elections are scheduled later this year in Indonesia. Balloting in Cambodia in July is leading to a resumption of international aid. In Thailand, the economic crisis resulted in a change of governments in November 1997, and the military is lessening its role in politics. A new Thai Constitution places increased emphasis on human rights.

Philippine President Joseph Estrada has gained regional credibility for championing human rights. The reason: The Philippines has Southeast Asia’s most fully developed democracy and has weathered the meltdown in better economic shape than its nondemocratic neighbors--a clear result of cause and effect, Estrada says.

For the 10 nations of Southeast Asia--all of which, except for Thailand, were colonized by European powers--democracy is often seen as a risky proposition that could threaten stability. Because the region is so ethnically and religiously diverse, the doubters say, too much agitation for group and individual rights could lead to chaos. This argument holds that the well-being of the community is more important than the unhindered freedom of the individual.

Singaporean Information Minister George Yeo Yong Boon, for instance, suggested that China should receive a Nobel Prize recognizing its record on human rights for lifting so many people out of poverty. “It is . . . very difficult for me to sympathize with my Western friends who criticize China for the lack of human rights, while at the same time choosing to ignore what the present Chinese government has done for a large number of its people,” he said.

Wong Kan Seng, speaking at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993 when he was Singapore’s foreign minister, expressed the widely held regional belief that what constitutes human rights is open to interpretation. In the U.S., he pointed out, various states have differing positions on capital punishment and abortion, yet the U.S. is not condemned as violating human rights.

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“Development and good government,” he went on, “require a balance between the rights of the individual and those of the community to which every individual must belong. Where this balance will be struck will vary for different countries at different points of their history.”

At least publicly, that argument is no longer in vogue in today’s economically depressed times.

Nor does one hear any mention of “Asian values,” which held that some gene or cultural trait was responsible for Southeast Asia’s economic miracle. Inherent in these values was the notion that Asian-style authoritarianism was preferable to Western-inspired, unrestricted individual freedoms.

“The idea of Asia having special values was emphasized to justify a deviation from Western-style democratic ideals like freedom of expression, human and civil rights,” said Philippine political scientist Wilfrido Vallacorta. “But these rights are basic. They may have started in the West, but they are now part of the human legacy.”

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