Obstacles to Democratization in Southeast Asia : A Study of the Nation State, Regional and Global Order

Obstacles to Democratization in Southeast Asia

9780230_241817_01_previii.indd i 12/1/2009 11:46:03 AM

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Hiro Katsumata

ASEAN’S COOPERATIVE SECURITY ENTERPRISE

Norms and Interests in the ASEAN Regional Forum

Erik Paul

OBSTACLES TO DEMOCRATIZATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

A Study of the Nation State, Regional and Global Order

Barry Wain

MALAYSIAN MAVERICK

Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times

Robert G. Wirsing and Ehsan Ahrari (editors)

FIXING FRACTURED NATIONS

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9780230_241817_01_previii.indd ii 12/1/2009 11:46:04 AM

Obstacles to

Democratization in

Southeast Asia

A Study of the Nation State, Regional and

Global Order

Erik Paul

Vice-President, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney, Australia

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© Erik Paul 2010

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First published 2010 by

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v

Contents

List of Tables vii

Acknowledgements viii

1 Surrendering Sovereignty 1

The nation state, regionalization and global integration 1

Sustainability of the system 6

The future of the global state 8

2 Struggle for Democracy 12

Class struggle 14

Race struggle 18

Globalization 19

Pathways to political change 23

Conclusions 28

3 Obstacles to Democratization 30

Southeast Asia’s nation states 30

Brunei 33

Cambodia 36

Indonesia 46

Laos 58

Malaysia 65

Myanmar 75

Philippines 82

Singapore 91

Thailand 100

Timor-Leste 110

Vietnam 119

4 Regional Integration 127

The construction of Southeast Asia 127

ASEAN’s expansion 130

ASEAN’s integration 132

Capturing ASEAN 137

The United States in Southeast Asia 143

China in Southeast Asia 152

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5 Ecological Scarcity 159

Ecological scarcity 164

Political implications 166

6 Global Hegemony 171

Old imperialism 171

A new world order 173

Global apartheid 177

Perpetual war for perpetual peace 181

Blowback 185

7 ASEAN’s Future 188

References 200

Index 220

vi Contents

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vii

List of Tables

3.1 Southeast Asia 31

4.1 Southeast Asia human development 134

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viii

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Alexandra Webster and the publishing team at

Palgrave Macmillan for their support in the production of this book.

Although I take full responsibility for this book, it benefited greatly

from the stimulating research and teaching culture and friendly

environment at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS),

University of Sydney.

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1

The nation state, regionalization and global integration

In an increasingly interdependent world, the issue of democratization of

the nation state has become a critical problem because global economic

and security interests threaten the viability of the nation state. The

nation state continues to be the primary focus for the identity and well￾being of the majority of people, and it is largely within the nation state

that the struggle for social justice takes place. There is no world state, or

world nation state, to provide individuals with civil, political and eco￾nomic rights. While there exist a global state, it is essentially a grouping

of a few powerful states and its institutions of global governance. It is

a power paradigm which does not grant the individual with civil and

political rights of a world citizen. In that sense, there is no political iden￾tity of a world citizen but only that provided by the nation state.

Democracy, like the good society, should be considered as an ideal.

The American philosopher John Dewey considered democracy as a moral

ideal and a matter of faith in humanity, a work in progress, and that

democracy could not be achieved without ‘a significant redistribution

of power and for the economy to be publicly controlled so that the

divisions of labor may be free where they are now coercive’ (Westbrook

1991:442). Political scientist Robert Dahl held the same view and argued

that political equality was a defining aspect of democracy, and that

modern corporate capitalism tends ‘to produce inequalities in social

and economic resources so great as to bring about severe violations of

political equality and hence of the democratic process’ (Dahl 1985:60).

Democratization is the struggle towards that ideal, for more equality

in power, income and wealth among citizens of nation states and for

all people in the world at large. Democratization is the advancement

1

Surrendering Sovereignty

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2 Obstacles to Democratization in Southeast Asia

of social justice and towards inclusion. It is a struggle which Turin

University Professor Norbeto Bobbio argues is inspired by an egalitar￾ian ideal and policy ‘typified by the tendency to remove the obstacles

which make men and women less equal ... [and] to eradicate ... the

three principal sources of discrimination, class, race, and sex’ (Bobbio

1996:80, 86). Ultimately, democratization is a question of power and

the redistribution of power.

But globalization weakens the nation state by transferring major

aspects of its sovereignty to undemocratic global institutions and

financial markets dominated by Western interests and over which

civil society has little or no say. Citizens have lost control over impor￾tant economic decisions which affect their well-being, yet they are

confronted with the destructive impact of a trading, financial and

ecological regime which serves the interests of the few. Moreover, the

hegemonic struggle among powerful states continues unabated, shift￾ing from the cold war to a ‘war on terror’. In the name of the national

interest, or the pursuit of happiness and liberty, states aggress against

other nation states or deprive their own citizens of their political power

and human rights while embarking on another costly and destructive

armaments race. A US-based Jacobin agenda for a global ‘free’ market

and to bring ‘democracy’ to all, far from establishing peace for all, has,

instead, caused great economic and political instability and has dam￾aged nationalistic responses.

Regionalization as part of a gradual limitation of sovereignty can save

the nation state from the dangers of nationalism and chauvinism while

forming building blocks towards a more peaceful and cosmopolitan

world order. The history of the European Union (EU) is instructive in

this context and provides a useful model for the future development of

the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The 1957 Treaty

of Rome embodies the commitment of the six signatories to voluntar￾ily achieve political unification in order to save the nation state from

another war. Former French president Francois Mitterrand once said

that ‘nationalism is war’ because he understood, as did other European

leaders of the same vintage, that it was critical to preserve the nation

state while diluting the poison of nationalism, and thus create a Europe

of nations. Alan Milward, professor of economic history at the London

School of Economics, wrote that ‘the European Community has been

its [the west European nation state] buttress, an indispensable part of

the nation-state’s post-war reconstruction. Without it, the nation-state

could not have offered to its citizens the same measure of security and

prosperity which it has provided and which has justified its survival’

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Surrendering Sovereignty 3

(Milward 1992:3). According to the Hungarian historian and member of

the European Parliament George Schöpflin the EU is the ‘most effective

conflict-resolution mechanism ever devised’ (Schöpflin 2007).

At the 2003 Bali II Concord, members of the ASEAN agreed to form a

free trade area as part of an ASEAN community by 2020 and proclaimed

their commitment to democracy. This was the first time in its history

that the organization used the word ‘democracy’ in an official accord,

and claimed that ASEAN ‘subscribed to the notion of democratic peace,

which means all member countries believe democratic processes will

promote regional peace and stability’ (Luard 2003). Four years later,

member states signed the ASEAN charter to promote and to advance

a free trade area and ‘the principles of democracy, the rule of law and

good governance, respect for and protection of human rights and fun￾damental freedoms’ (Pratachai 2007). ASEAN’s history and the authori￾tarian regimes of several member states, however, raise the question of

the viability of ASEAN to evolve into an organization capable of inte￾grating the region and progressing towards a regional community and

market. Regional integration and the formation of a regional commu￾nity are contingent on the capacity of the member countries to gradu￾ally surrender their sovereignty to a new entity. But this is unlikely to be

achieved peacefully unless their societies are willing to do so and to

actively participate in the process of integration.

A major hypothesis is that the realization of a functioning ASEAN

community is predicated on the existence of more open and demo￾cratic societies. Regional integration presupposes the existence of

a politically active civil society. It means that citizens’ interests are

vested in local organizations which can negotiate with the state in vital

areas of resource allocation, taxation and national economic strategy.

Organizations representing farmers, urban workers, small businesses,

bureaucrats and professional groups for example, must be satisfied that

they will get a fair share out of the gains from regional market arrange￾ments before the state can consent and successfully advance regional

integration. The collective support from such different interest groups is

likely to be one of the most important factors in the success of regional

economic integration efforts. The active engagement of citizens pre￾sumes a level of political equality which is denied by authoritarian

regimes. Political equality is usually related to national wealth and the

distribution of wealth in society. Many have argued that a more demo￾cratic society requires the formation and expansion of a middle class. In

other words, society needs to create a large number of opportunities for

education and employment that lead to the creation of lifestyle niches

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4 Obstacles to Democratization in Southeast Asia

which have been widely called middle class. Paul Colinvaux made a

useful link between freedom and resources and wrote that liberty ‘is

the opportunity for any adolescent to be recruited to any of several

large niches of perceived quality, the necessary conditions for which

opportunity are perceived resources in excess of the requirements of all

the people who seek them and an absence of oppression’ (Colinvaux

1983:252).

People in an authoritarian state are disenfranchised and kept out of

domestic politics, so a regional agreement would be seen by the citi￾zens as another mechanism for maintaining a coercive and repressive

regime and little to do with improving the equitable distribution of

the country’s political power and benefits from economic growth. The

capacity for authoritarian regimes to promote regional integration is

constrained because they rely on widespread repression and the control

of civil society to maintain their power. An authoritarian regime cor￾rupts the structure and function of the state to serve the interests of

the few. This situation leads to widespread corruption because those

in power use the commonwealth to maintain their power by buying

allegiance and positioning their cronies to manage the economy and

control the state’s repressive apparatus. Moreover, the power elite access

the commonwealth to build vast personal fortunes for themselves, their

families and cronies. What has been called ‘crony capitalism’ leads to

the mismanagement of the economy and the misallocation of resources

and is often responsible for increases in inequality and poverty in

society. Peaceful regional relations are always compromised because

authoritarian ideology excludes ‘others’ based on religion, race or both,

and rejects the more inclusive civil and political rights formalized in the

United Nations declaration and covenants.

Southeast Asia’s social movements accept the importance and poten￾tial of regionalism for the welfare of people. The working group on

ASEAN Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy (SAPA) supports region￾alism ‘founded on citizens’ rights and the cultivation of democratic

processes’, and maintains that ‘an active citizenry that participates in

democratic political life promotes dynamic economic development and

peaceful diversity’ (SAPA 2007). The organization links the development

of a free trade area and economic integration with social justice. Trade

and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) must be clearly related to the creation

of employment and improvement in working conditions, and there

must be a direct link made between states’ commercial interchange

and the advancement of human rights in the countries involved. SAPA

writes that regionalism and economic cooperation must be in ‘the

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Surrendering Sovereignty 5

pursuit of sustainable development, equity, inclusion and empower￾ment. The pursuit of ASEAN’s economic development shall not be at the

expense of labor, environment, and human rights standards. Regional

economic initiatives should be open, and transparent. It puts people at

the center and seeks their participation’ (SAPA 2007).

Democratization in Southeast Asia and the transformation of ASEAN

to a more democratic regional organization is dependent on the nature

of the world order. Sociologist William Robinson argues that nation

states are being incorporated into a transnational state (TNS) which is

‘constructing a new global capitalist historical bloc’ (Robinson 2003:43).

The TNS is made up of supranational economic and political organiza￾tions which include the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World

Bank (WB), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations

(UN) and other global institutions and supranational forums like the

Group of Seven (G7). The process of integrating the nation state into

the TNS uses a number of mechanisms to transnationalize the state

and civil society through the international division of labour, the role

of transnational corporations and financial institutions, the input of

transnational capital and the transformation of the state itself into

a structure of power which can easily accommodate the demands of

global capital and respond to the need to control civil society. The out￾come is to embed society into a market economy integrated into a wider

global neoliberal economy. Robinson and others have made the point

that regionalization is a major mechanism for the transnationalization

of the state and the formation of the TNS. A primary role of regional

organizations such as ASEAN is to liberalize national economies, to

loosen up national sovereignty and to become a major vehicle for the

integration of the region into a global capitalist economy (Gamble &

Payne 1991; Held 2004; Robinson 2003).

Robinson’s analysis focuses on the historical shift of capitalism’s

locus from the nation state to the transnational state, from a confined

geographical political space to the earth’s entire geography and human￾ity. This transfer of sovereignty is part of a more general process in the

formation of a ‘single global society marked by the transnationaliza￾tion of civil society and political processes, the global integration of

social life, and a global culture’ (Robinson 2003:13). Robinson writes

that ‘globalization does not imply an absence of global conflict, but

rather a shift from inter-state conflict to more explicit social and class

conflict’ (ibid.:27). The transformation of the nation state into a ‘neo￾liberal national state’ and component of the TNS leads to a decline in

national social cohesion, growing internal inequality and increasing

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6 Obstacles to Democratization in Southeast Asia

‘repressive social control measures’ (ibid.:46). Robinson dismisses the

hegemonic struggle among major powers whereby the United States is

simply playing the leading role ‘on behalf of an emergent hegemonic

transnational configuration’ (ibid.:49). This implies that capitalism

and market forces can subsume and eventually harness and transform

the powers of nationalism and racism. Unfortunately, the hegemonic

struggle which has led to a series of disastrous wars is alive and well.

According to historian Peter Katzenstein, there is a long tradition in

US foreign policy ‘of dividing the world into a racial hierarchy’ but in

recent years these racial categories have become less obvious and have

been replaced ‘by allusions to cultural and civilizational values. Still, a

hierarchical view of the world is at times still recognizable in current

public debates’ (Katzenstein 2005:57, 58). The hierarchical view of the

United States of the world is matched by that of other major countries

such as China where there exists a distinct and powerful discourse about

the superiority of Chinese culture.

Market forces, greed and the desire for loot is not enough to send

armies to kill others. Killing has to be legitimized by the hatred of the

‘other’, based on a mixture of religion, nationalism and racism. What

allows these forces to play an important role in the global struggle for

hegemony is the concentration of power in a small elite. The TNS is part

of a world order where major powers are basically violent and unwilling

to give up their sovereignty in favour of a global state and governance,

ruled by international law dictated by the United Nations’ covenants

on human rights. The problem which applies to all major powers is the

disparity of power inside societies. Noam Chomsky relates violence with

the ‘way power is concentrated inside the particular societies’ (Chomsky

2002:315). Political inequality and the concentration of power in the

hands of the few leads to the corruption of power and the use of vio￾lence to ‘solve’ economic and social problems.

Sustainability of the system

The transnational state is better viewed as a global state controlled by a

small group of countries advancing an ideology preaching the suprem￾acy of an Anglo-Saxon form of capitalism to maintain a global apartheid

system based on world poverty and inequality. The incorporation of

the nation state in a global capitalist economy will further exacerbate

power maldistribution, corruption and violence. There are many ques￾tions about the sustainability of the new world order, and whether it

can accommodate the needs of humanity and maintain the US-type

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