Asia’s democracies have remained embarrassingly quiet over the atrocities being committed in Syria. If Asia wants to be taken seriously, it needs to step up.
The Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus is committing de facto genocide on his people as evinced by the brutal killing of civilians in the city of Homs and throughout Syria.
Just like his father the late dictator Hafez al-Assad, who killed as many as 40,000 people in Hamas in 1983, Assad is hanging onto power through the barrel of a gun. While the U.N. Security Council continues to be stymied by Russian and Chinese vetoes, a placard held up by a Syrian boy that pleaded “if you don't help us, we will all be killed” encapsulates the worsening Syrian nightmare that has already resulted in the deaths of at least 7,000 Syrians.
Yet while all major Western governments including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany and the European Union have condemned Assad’s bloody crackdown, most Asian governments, including its major democracies and key NGOs, have remained eerily silent. This is a travesty and a shameful chapter in the international community’s response to the ongoing Arab Spring that began early last year with a people's power uprising in Tunisia.
Asian states, and particularly representative democracies such as India, Japan and South Korea, as well as relatively new democracies in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, have often practiced “stealth diplomacy” when it comes to human rights and the promotion of democracy.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, comprising ten states with widely divergent levels of political freedoms, has long preached the virtues of the “ASEAN way” or non-interference in domestic affairs. And as the recent turn of events has shown in Burma, with the release from house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi – Asia’s best-known democracy advocate – dialogue and engagement can certainly produce marginal improvements.
Yet if Asia's rise is going to be about more than accelerated economic growth and vested commercial interests, it’s time that Asian governments spoke out forcefully against the brutal genocide in Syria and in support of the yearning for freedom and democracy worldwide, including in their own backyard.
Many Asian commentators lament the lack of an Asian presence in key international organizations, the Westernization of global norms, and 500 years of Western political, technological, and military dominance. They have a point. But if Asians want a greater voice in the global village, and to emerge as key decision-makers on core global issues, they can no longer hide behind the shell of non-interference, quiet diplomacy, and tepid responses to gross human rights violations. The notion that somehow “Asian values” can’t co-exist with or complement universal values is condescending in the extreme since it flies in the face of successful Asian democracies with advanced economies such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Asia can retain indigenous identities and heritages while becoming wealthy, free, and globalized.
There is of course plenty to criticize the West over – there’s no denying that economic and commercial interests are never far from the surface of Western diplomacy. However, in one critical area, they’ve had the upper hand: speaking out and acting forcefully when dictators have turned on their citizens, taking the lead in international responses such as the NATO operations that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s reign of terror in Libya.
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rolfen
Well the western powers are surely not short of excuses and things they can do to procrastinate and avoid taking any action. It’s amazing. Will they run out of them?
Mazo
Chung Lee Ming makes some good points about what Asian voices can do but there is already an “Asian voice” – China in the region and with Japan, Korea etc being US allies, the implicit understanding is that they support US measures. India of course too busy with Iran to bother about Syria and ASEAN’s influence on Syria is too small to make any significant difference either way. I think perhaps the biggest point overlooked in the whole article is if the Western government’s actions are indeed correct or warranted. Apart from some sanctimonious platitudes and a lot of propaganda there has been little “truth” to filter out of Syria. The Sysrians say they are fighting terrorists, the Arabs are loath to directly intervene and are keeping remarkably quiet yet the Americans are the loudest voice in the room. From an Asian perspective, it is too far off and too small to really make much of an issue.
Bevin
It’s hard not to laugh. Yet another Chinese wannabe “champion of democracy” desperately eager to impress his Western counterparts with his “progressive thinking.”
Too bad he never bothered to bone up on his American history.
Otherwise he would realize that America’s “global presence” constitutes a grotesque betrayal of America’s original core values.
As George Washington stated in his Farewell Address of 1796:
“The Great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible.”
Condensing Washington’s 18th century idioms into bumper sticker-ese:
“trade with either, side with neither.”
Guess what? That’s exactly what China and Russia are doing.
Ron Paul 2012!
Cyrus
The Filipino People do sympathize with what the Syrians are going through but as long as we have people on the ground in Syria our Government cannot and will not speak out, because it might endanger our OFW’s.
Wei Ling Chua
Western Democracy does not ensure human rights. Just have a look at how the Wall Street protesters (without any arm or foreign interference)campaigning against social injustice, inequality, unemployment, corporate powers, cost of living and hardship constantly been arrested and evicted by authorities in the US. There were cases of attacked by authorities with rubber bullets, pepper sprays, chemical agents , teargas, punching on the face or simply been beaten up. Some analysts describe the situation as “The Israelification of American Domestic Security” and “Militarising the police from Oakland to NYC”.
Besides, according to recent SIPRI report: “more than 60 per cent of ships involved in reported cases of sanctions-busting or illicit transfers of arms, drugs, other military equipment and sensitive dual-use goods that could be used in the development of missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are owned by companies based in the EU, NATO or other OECD states” This is the link: http://www.sipri.org/media/pressreleases/30-jan-2012-most-ships-involved-in-arms-and-drugs-trafficking-are-based-in-world2019s-richest-countries-says-sipri.
The important question is: Has Western intervention resulted in less refugees, less suffering and less deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya?
To determine if an intervention is an act of humanity, one should look into the consequences of intervention in a scientific way by comparing the the figures on the number of refugees, displacement, deaths and suffering in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya before and after Western intervention.
Asian countries may not be as wealthy as Western countries, but when facing a major natural disaster, the governments are likely to be a lot more responsive in helping their victims than Western government. Read this article for detail:
Democracy Needs Reform – Australia, China and USA: A tales of three natural disasters (http://outcastjournalist.com/index_files/democracy_need_reform_australia_china_n_usa_a_tale_of_3_natural_disaster.htm)
May the world learn from each other success and stop interfering with others domestic politics for selfish interest.
a_canadian_observer
@Wei Ling Chua: Your blanket statement “Western Democracy does not ensure human rights…” is abhorrent. You need to look at humanitarian aids and disaster relief effort from a global perspective. And in those front, Japan is the ONLY asian country that has had significant contribution to the world. The West is still leading the pact, way ahead, in those efforts. And the 2nd economy of the world? well, its contribution is negative!!!
Cyrus
SoKor does participate also though.
MattC
Yawn. More Western intelligence propaganda by Chung Min Lee. Shock, Horror. Another dictator who is doing some atrocities again. How convenient – once again. Everyone gets Assad is a dictator. No different to a guy like Mugabe who no-one in the West seems to care about. Whats the difference. Iran – its Oil resources, its potential power to be a hegemon that threatens the idea of US / Saudi Mid East supremacy, Iran as the upstart who wants to start trading its Oil in non US dollars for Gold or other currencies. There are no nukes and there is no nuke capability. This is plain and simple great power games who are playing the game of oil resources and currency wars. China and Russia see the wider picture. They get The West needs a beachhead through Irans ally Syria to set up its assault on Iran. Sick to death of hearing the same simple hysterical shrieking from reporters like Chung who dont see the wider picture. The wider picture if allowed to kick off results in WWIII and millions dying. You choose Chung.
alexander
WRONG, DUDE !
False flag events like the one in Homs are carried out by MOSSAD and CIA death squads. Israel wants a regime change in Damascus to further isolate the regime in Tehran.
”Gaddafi’s reign of terror in Libya” ….. Don’t you know that the UN wanted to award him a price about a year ago, for his human rights achievements.
Again : the zionists wanted a regime change for a number of reasons. Oil and Chinese influence in Africa being two of them.
robert chadis
as normally democrat usa voter, i will not vote democrat if usa does not promptly dump assad.