POLITICT

THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY IN ASIA
In the last few decades, Asia has seen its wealth burgeoning. Will political freedoms follow?

BY IAN BURUMA

Flying into Singapore, Hongkong or Kuala Lumpur from London for the first time can be a sobering experience for a Europeean visitor. London, the old capital of the empire, with its Victorian buildings, appears to be sleepy and gray, while the former colonies are getting richer and glitzier by the day.
The chrome-and-glas symbols of new affluence are transforming even such developing cities as Shanghai and Jakarea. Although from the perpestive of a peasant farmer toiling on a Bangkok building site or a Filipino sugar-cane worker the world looks a bit different, there is nonetheless in many parts of Asia a confodence that things will get better, that with hard work you can be up-and-coming too.
But if more Asians are richer than ever before, are they also freer?This is an important question, and the response, not surprisingly, is mixed. Some countries have become much richer while making no political progress at all Indeed, it is sometimes argued that a lack of political freedom is a necessary price to pay for an increase in affluence. It is also argued-mostly by authoritarian leaders-that Asians are more interested in economic development then in the Western concepts of human right or political liberties.
Yes it is a fact the poorest countries in Asia, such Burma and North Korea, are the least free, while the richest, such Japan, are the freest. There are others, such as Singapore and Malaysia, that are half free and other still – Indonesia, China- that enjoy economic but not political freedoms. Finally, there is the example of India, whose politics were until recently more liberal than its economics. Now its economiy is opening up, and increasing numbers of Indians are getting Wealthier too. The case seems to be clear:there is direct connection between freedom and prosperity.
If that is so, how do we explain South Korea and Taiwan? Their economics grew fast under military dictators. Democracy is a recent phenomenon in both countries (Taiwan-ese were able to elect their president only last year). And how do we explain China ? Political dissidents and anti – revolutionaries are detained in prisons and labor reform camps, and yet China’s coastal cities are booming. The last one can say is that economic liberties, such as the right to own proerty, and such liberties can exist under dictatorship.
Arguining that a combi8nation of authoritarianism and economic liberalism is the Asian way, authoritarian governments reject Western democratic values. Asian values demand individual rights be sacrificed to the common good, and the common good is defined by the leaders, whose judgment one defies at one’s peril.
But again, if democratic values are so uncongenial to Aseians, why then do Asians from Ranggon to Seoul, from Manila to Beijing, demand them? Why do Indians jealously guard their right to elect their leaders/ Why were the Taiwanese so proud of their right to do the same last year/ The answer must be that Asians wish to have the dignity of free speech and free elections as much as anybody else, East or West. This kind of freedom is not necessarily linked to economic freedom, even though it often is.
Most older leaders still hangingon to power in southeast Asia took part in the struggle against European colonialism. Many have ambivalent attitude toward the West. They fought to be free from imperial authoritarianism and were often inspired by Western democracy. At the same time, they were influenced by the ideas used by Western officials to justify their imperial rule. For an authoritarian government, people are never ready for democracy-not just yet.
As the old generation passes from the scene, new demand for greater political freedom will be made. Local critics will be increasingly difficult to ignore. As they get wealthier, people will be bought off less easily by chauvinistic propaganda or the promise of riches. Prosperity won’t be enough to satisfy these demands. Feedom will. If this turns out to be right, it would be good news not just for Asia but for the Western world as well.

FROM TIME ASIA (GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY ISSUE, ’96) © 1996 BY TIME INC., NEW YORK,N. Y.