Well, there's the problem.
Being "an outlier in the postcolonial world for preserving democracy amid poverty" is not something to be proud of.
Real democracy is built by ending poverty, not preserving it.
Embrace Asian values and finally catch up to the rest of the continent.
Being "an outlier in the postcolonial world for preserving democracy amid poverty" is not something to be proud of.
Real democracy is built by ending poverty, not preserving it.
Embrace Asian values and finally catch up to the rest of the continent.
https://twitter.com/ForeignAffairs/status/1431185550585831426
As Lee Kwan Yew said of 'Asian values', a society can only uphold social, cultural, economic, or constitutional rights when their state is able to defend their sovereignty from external interference.
That is the shared vision behind the 1993 Bangkok Declaration on Human Rights.
That is the shared vision behind the 1993 Bangkok Declaration on Human Rights.
Under 'Asian values', concepts like "individual freedoms and rights" only have meaning when:
- people have basic material needs fulfilled, and thus the ability to demand such rights; and
- their state has the sovereignty and capacity to recognise, grant, and enforce such rights.
- people have basic material needs fulfilled, and thus the ability to demand such rights; and
- their state has the sovereignty and capacity to recognise, grant, and enforce such rights.
The term 'Asian values' does not mean that all countries in Asia have the same culture or values.
It means they share a common interest in defining their states in line with their own political philosophies, without needing the consent or approval of external powers or hegemons.
It means they share a common interest in defining their states in line with their own political philosophies, without needing the consent or approval of external powers or hegemons.
They also share an understanding of the purpose of the state and its relationship to society and/or the individual, through their internalisation of classical Hindu and Confucian political philosophy.
Where the state is responsible for collective outcomes, not individual rights.
Where the state is responsible for collective outcomes, not individual rights.
Combined with the modern recognition that the concepts of "democracy" and "human rights" have been appropriated and weaponised by Western powers as a stick with which they seek to maintain their geopolitical and economic dominance over their former colonies in Asia and beyond.
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