can the Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Adopt and practice the principle of Western Democracy? comment please.
thanks
hardly, eastern is too sophisticatedly in term of politic running and to adopt western democracy it is possible but it is not as easy as written on blog .
the problem with eastern or asian is it doesnt has its strong ground in analysing certain issue, it always rely on people speak until you see the truth
western democracy dun apply here in east.
in d west, d media control d G.
here G control d media.
well, not impossible though. there is still a long way to go.
firstly, everyone need to understand the term “fair play”. there is not fair play in ASEAN country. yes, including singapore and our beloved m’sia. government play such an important role that sometime you think there are playing god. u feel like they had decided who get the break and who breaks.
in western democracy, every one have their chance to speak their mind or practice wat they deem correct, as long as it does not breaks any laws or hurt anyone. ASEAN democracy live on believe that only the voices of the influential or powerful are heard.
lets not apply democracy in politic/government yet. look at how democracy is practice in a normal working environment. the voice of the lower-end staff, or wat i prefer and study, the frontliner are usually not heard up to the top management. usually it only reach their supervisor. they might be given the most accurate or effective idea to improve the company but only the suggestion from the top management or the directors are heard.
now, back to politics. western politic do not participate in businesses. politician are not “encourage” to participate in business. if they do involve in any business deal, they might be found guilty of corruption. however, ASEAN politician are part of the business. good example is the former thailand prime minister and the singapore “Lee” royal family. not to mention some of the biggest project undertaking in our country involve family member of the ruling party.
I appreciate your comment on the issue. I think, there is a need for us to educate the ASEAN people on their basic rights in the practice of democracy. Thus, they will participate in politics thru their vote. Actually , most of the ASEAN member countries adopted and embraced some principles of western democracy (wd), to cite one example, the right of suffrage. We elect our leaders during the election time. Full or complete adoption of dm on this period of time may not be practicable since we are in the course of developing our economy. In 1950s the Korean war, South Korea were ruled by the 3 military strongmen, workers were not allowed to strike or work stoppage to redress their grievances against their employers. That is undemocratic act against the right of the workers in the western standard. But now, since South Korea is already an industrialized or economic power, laws are changed already as they are allowed to do the strike. I think, time will come that the ASEAN countries will be able to practice most of the principles of wd. Of course, we have to consider our traditions beliefs and cultures etc. in shaping/molding our politics of governance in the future. There are so many corrupt western politicians as we do have in the east but their press/media are given freedom to let the public aware of their criminal acts. I think we will attain that freedom the moment our people are educated already to know their right as sovereign citizens.
have a good day
thank you
baham
[quote=“KVReninem”]hardly, eastern is too sophisticatedly in term of politic running and to adopt western democracy it is possible but it is not as easy as written on blog .
the problem with eastern or asian is it doesnt has its strong ground in analysing certain issue, it always rely on people speak until you see the truth[/quote]
friend
I think, if you are saying that the ASEAN people have no strong ground in analysing a certain issue. In my humble opinion, the people comprising the ASEAN must be given an equal opportunity to education. If they are educated, they will know better of their rights and definitely they will involve themselves in the governance. Their aspiration on how the government will be run may be done by their sovereign power, the power to elect policians who will serve and protect their interest and aspiration in the administration
thank you
baham
baham, what’s up with Arroyo? is she still in power after her corruptions activities exposed in the media? I hope she is OK because, like Bush of USA, a leader of a true democratic country should never step down because he/she is people’s choice, not of those anti-government demonstrators who oppose to their leaders’ wrong doings. And also, I would suggest Arroyo to adopt the US’ policy in setting up national security acts that, when bomb set off in southern part of your country, that the government can detain anyone (preferably Muslim or people with darker skins) and send them to some remote places and torture them without trail in the name of anti terrorist. Or, your government can install security camera over the entire nations to monitor every move of its citizen (yes, baham included) just like the UK does.
Internationally, as a democratic country, when we don’t like what other countries are doing, or other countries are not do thing in our favour, we can launch war against them or use secret agents to overturn their government and set up one we like in the name of freedom and democracy. This is very good being a country in “western democracy” status. I think not only your country should do this, all other ASEAN countries should, too (some may have already started).
It will be our dream come through if we could enjoy what the US or UK citizen are enjoying (given that “we” are not Muslim) and our country can go bullying other countries and cash in on the war. How great will that be :lol: oh, I am sorry, the label of “western democracy” should be given by “western” countries, and cannot be self-declared. to gain their approval, our government must listen to those western countries and do as they say. also, since these western countries do not have good impression on Islam, we perhaps need to choose a religion to their liking to please them. economically, we should open up our trade to the world (i.e. G8, do not include China because it’s a evil empire), and let big corporations in western countries bring in cheap (subsidized) products that fill every of our needs, even that mean we have to scarify our domestic producers and worker. don’t worry if our people lost their business or jobs, because we can always borrow from the World Bank (run by the mother of democracy world… the USA) and we just need to listen to the “bank”, we should have enough money to buy more from them. if we follow all that, I think we are pretty close to being a “western democracy” citizen. otherwise, we might end up with labels like “dictatorship” or “police state”, which we honestly don’t want.
baham, glad that you are in the mission of spreading the words of democracy in ASEAN countries and I give in my foot in supporting your cause. Good luck on your mission and wish all of us will soon be citizen in a “western democratic” country soon. may the western god bless you.
key friend, thanks for your comment. I appreciate and respect your view on the subject matter.
President Arroyo survived the two successive impeachment cases filed against her. The initiators of the impeachment complaint failed to gather enough votes in the congress to warrant the elevation of the articles of impeachment from the house of Representatives to Senate. As to Anti Terrorism Law, We have it already, it is a newly signed one by the President. in the implementation of our laws, we have to avoid to be perceived as discriminatory, whether or not a violator a muslim or non-muslims the same law or stardard to be applied in the litigation in other words, we have to afford the violator the DUE PROCESS requirement as mandated by our Constitution. Only few muslims are doing the offense of terrorism, the overwhelming majority are not. So I think it would be inappropriate/unfair to cast some doubts upon the whole faithfuls.Terrorism existed before and it is practiced by some group the like the: Irish Republican Army and some minority group in norhtern Spain, the Basque etc. Those Terrorists may want their voices be heard in regional or world affairs. We have to know the root caused of terrorism for us to address the problem properly. The installation of camera as you suggested, earns public ire, as it is a violation to the right of Privacy as granted by our Constitutions to the citizens.
I am of the opinion that total adoption or application of Western Democracy (DW) may not be practicable/viable in the sense that We have to consider the economic status of ASEAN as of this period of time.We are still developing nations, to a allow the workers to stage a work stoppage would generate huge impact in the momentum of our economic development. mind you friend, a right to unionize/strike is granted in the Constitutions of the Western Nations. Philippines is affording that right to our workers. You can see in term of economic prosperity, we are already left behind by the other ASEAN. Our Constitution is patterned from the Constitution of the USA, but the irony of it while the state is ready to afford those bill of rights to the citizens, it has an economic set back on our prosperity. Please see my previous comment on how South Korea gained economic progress. I think we are not yet ready for a complete adoption of WD yet. Also, we have to look into our cultures, traditions and beliefs etc.These things are so important and they must be reflected in our constititutions/laws and we may be differ in that aspect with the western countries. I appreciate Malaysia and Singapore they are now on economic take off. I know, they are very tough on their Internal Security Law. In the western standard you cannot detain a person without being charged. But in those two countries they do, i think the rational behind is, not to disturb the peace and economic progress of the countries and I see the result is for the betterment of the majority of citezenry or greater good.
friend im not in a mission to spread out the WD, i just want to gather diffrerent views from the citizens of ASEAN. As a matter fact some of the cultures and traditions of the western people are not welcome to me specially on the issue of morality etc.
Last year i was in KK and labuan. I will be back again this coming December, I like those places and there is peace and tranquility.
have a good day
baham
hhhhhhh
kkk