Asian Values - Political Significance

Political Significance

The concept of "Asian values" was a popular idea in People's Republic of China, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and also in some political circles in Japan. In Malaysia and Singapore, the concept of Asian values was embraced partly because it reconciled Islam, the religion of the Malays, with the Confucianism of the ethnic Chinese, and Hinduism, thereby helping to create a sense of common values between different ethnic and religious groups in those countries, as well as forming an ideology that they could call their own which is different from their understanding of the West. In Japan, it was popular among some nationalist circles because it challenged the West and also offered the possibility of Japanese leadership in a new Asia. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the East and Southeast Asian regions were the only developing regions that grew exponentially in terms of economic wealth; some proponents of Asian Values have credited this success to a distinctive "third-way" Asian political model that was touted as an alternative to both totalitarism and liberal democracy.

Mahathir Mohamad and Lee Kuan Yew, at that time the prime ministers of Malaysia and Singapore, respectively, were particularly vocal advocates of Asian values. Lee maintained that more than economics, more than politics, a nation's culture will determine its fate. Fareed Zakaria has written extensively on Asian values, while Amartya Sen has been one of the concept's strongest critics. Some critics of the term argue that no universal "Asian" value system exists, because the cultural diversity of Asia is too great for there to be a single set of common values across the region. The suggestion that a set of 'Asian values' operated throughout the Asian region, or even just in East Asia, contradicts what we know about the presence of long-standing religious (Islamic, Hindu, Confucian, Buddhist, and Christian) and other divisions in the region, and of the major social and cultural transformation that has been underway, especially in the last decade or so.

The concept of "Asian values" began to lose currency after the Asian financial crisis weakened the economies of many Asian countries, leading to the collapse of the Suharto regime in Indonesia. Some consider these values to have contributed to the crisis. When the crisis spread worldwide, the blame subsided.

A sharp observation may suggest that speaking in the name of Asian values (as opposed to Western, or universal values) serves the purpose of forming a robust ideological counter force in Asia, and most particularly in China, to the nations which most clearly aim at the imposition of western ideology on the East. One way or the other, the use of the term is capable in itself of creating a significant Dialogue Among Civilizations between human ideas in all fields. The End of History and the Last Man written by Francis Fukuyama, a strong propoenent of Western liberal democracy, is one of the key examples to provide such ideological counter force against Asian values. In his book, Fukuyama notes that democracy "...conquered rival ideologies like hereditary monarchy, fascism and most recently communism", marked by the end of the Cold War. His thesis is that "Liberal democracy may constitute the "end point of mankind's ideological evolution" and the "final form of human government" and as such constituted the end of history."

In 2006 Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla linked the concepts of Asian values with the proposed East Asian Free Trade Agreement and East Asian Community arising from the East Asia Summit. He partly defends Asian values by placing emphasis on co-operation over competition. Even until recently, there have been a number of efforts promote East Asian regional institution such as the idea of single regional FTA like the East Asia Free Trade Area(EAFTA) among the ASEAN+3 countries — the 10 ASEAN members plus the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Japan and the Republic of Korea — or a Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia (CEPEA) among the ASEAN+6 countries — also including Australia, India and New Zealand. These initiatives may be seen as a first step towards the creation of a region-wide economic community. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) study Institutions for Asian Integration: Toward an Asian Economic Community (2010), Asia is supported by a dense web of 40 overlapping regional and sub-regional institutions that promote regional cooperation and integration at the intergovernmental level. The realization of a single Asian community would strengthen the idea of Asian values.