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The Asian values debate and its relevance to international humanitarian law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2010

Alfred M. Boll
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International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 83 , Issue 841: Asie et droit international humanitaire/Asia and international humanitarian law , March 2001 , pp. 45 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2001

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References

1 There is even an argument which maintains that the values claimed are those of nineteenth-century Great Britain, propagated by a Singaporean elite, and not necessarily indigenous to Asia, or not to Singapore. Backman, Michael, “Asians and Victorian values”, Far Eastern Economic Review, 30 March 2000, p. 32.Google Scholar

2 Sung-Joo, Han, “Asian values: An asset or a liability”, in Sung-Joo, Han (ed.), Changing Values in Asia – Their Impact on Governance and Development, Japan Center for International Exchange, Tokyo, 1999, p. 4.Google Scholar This volume is a compilation of articles examining “the interrelation of changing values and domestic governance with the foreign policy behavior and international relations of countries in the Asia Pacific region”. Ibid. p. vii. Each writer (there are articles on China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia and Europe) was asked to address various questions from a national perspective, such as the values being contested in society, how socio-economic change is affecting basic values and styles of governance, how such issues relate to the political influence of different groups, the effects on foreign relations, whether governments project values into foreign affairs, or whether governments feel that other countries are projecting values which must be defended against. – The claim that there are shared Asian values has also been a factor in developing relationships among Asian nations: in an opening speech to a meeting of ASEAN, the Indian Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao cited shared Asian values as a source of common ground. See Tasker, Rodney, “Foreign relations: Rao's look-east policy”, Far Eastern Economic Review, 22 April 1993, p. 16.Google Scholar

3 Sung-Joo, Han, op. cit. (note 2), p. 7.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., p. 3.

5 Ibid., pp. 3 and 9.

6 Ibid., p. 4. In an interview with Time magazine, Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew cites a different historical background and social values as having made for fast growth, and blames the economic collapse on “a lack of systems, especially the rule of law”. To the correspondent's statement that what the Minister had labelled “Confucianism” was the Western way of doing business, he responded “[i]f it is the best way of doing business, it doesn't matter where it comes from. All durable cultures must uphold honesty, otherwise a society will not survive.” Terry McCarthy, “In defense of Asian values”, Time, 16 March 1998, p. 40. In contrast, Malaysia's Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad blamed economic troubles on Western speculators and governments. See “Rumpus in Hong Kong”, The Economist, 27 September 1997, p. 17. See also “Asian values revisited: What would Confucius say now?”, The Economist, 25 July 1998, p. 23.

7 The last British Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, argues that Asia's diversity means that generalization about the region's values is not possible, as philosophical, religious, governmental and economic points of departure vary radically from place to place. Patten, Chris, East and West, Macmillan, London, 1998, pp. 157–160.Google Scholar On the view that notions of “Asia” as a region reflect in fact an inherently European view of the world, see Dupont, Alan, “Is there an ‘Asian way’?”, Survival – the IISS Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 2, 1996, pp. 13–33.Google Scholar

8 Op. cit. (note 2), p. 8. In a 1994 opinion, The Economist summed up the debate as: “The argument over ‘Asian values’ is not about whether the tide of history may now be moving east after 500 years of moving west (though that may well be happening), nor about an impending ‘clash of civilisations’. It is about how to organise any rich, modern society late this century and early next; and about how to strike a balance anywhere between freedom and order, and between government responsibility and individual and family responsibility”. The Economist, 28 May 1994, p. 13.

9 See Xiaorong, Li, “‘Asian values’ and the universality of human rights”, Business and Society Review, No. 102/103, 1998, p. 81Google Scholar, and Bauer, Joanne R./Bell, Daniel A. (eds), The East-Asian Challenge for Human Rights, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 1999.Google Scholar

10 It should be noted that there has been debate on these issues within Singapore and Malaysia, e.g. the reaction in 1992 by a nominated member of the Singaporean Parliament, Professor Walter Woon, to an argument by the government that Mandarin Chinese is an essential medium for transmission of desirable cultural values among Singapore's Chinese, and a statement by the Information Minister that the number of [Singaporean] Chinese who speak English at home was disturbing. The professor labelled the claimed gulf between Asian and Western values as “dangerously simple-minded”, maintaining that “good values” can be transmitted in any language. “Teaching old values”, The Economist, 28 November 1992, p. 31.

11 Ghai, Yash, “Rights, duties and responsibilities”, in Josiane, , Cauquelin, , Lim, Paul, Mayer-König, Birgit (eds), Asian Values – An Encounter with Diversity, Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey, 1998, pp. 20–21.Google Scholar This volume compiles essays on values using a thematic approach, i.e. on Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, Hinduism, colonialism, business practices, and social/economic class. It attempts to tackle the question whether Europe and Asia share common values.

12 This is the view of the (then) top civil servant at the Singaporean Foreign Ministry, MrMahbubani, Kishore. “Asian values: The scourge of the West”, The Economist, 22 April 1995, p. 34.Google Scholar

13 “There is no particular coherence in the doctrine of Asian values. Its intellectual roots are weak, and it shifts its ground as expedi ency demands. Although it is perceived as and intended to be an attack on human rights, it is in fact concerned with ethics and the organization of society, and does not engage directly with the nature of human rights. It sets up false polarities and has a dubious theory of causation with which it seeks to attack the notion of rights. The doctrine of Asian values seeks to achieve various objectives. It seeks to differentiate Asia from the West, and indeed to show the superiority of the former over the latter. Through this differentiation, it seeks to disapply norms of rights and democ racy. It claims to fight the gospel of gov ernance by ‘demonstrating’ distinct cultural foundations of Asian capitalism and markets, which unlike the West, are not dependent on legal norms and independent judiciaries, but the ties of family and kinship and the trust they generate. It aims to strengthen Asian solidarity by posing (a false) unity.” Op. cit. (note 11), p. 25.

14 Ibid.

15 For example, one product of the “Asian values” debate is a proposal that in addition to liberalism and socialism there is an ideological and cultural third force, labelled “patri-archalism”. “Patriarchalism… both assumes the naturalness of inequalities in the social relations between people and justifies these by reference to the respect due to a benevolent father or father-figure who exercises a ‘joint right’.” The author suggests “a revival of the human rights project on a more equal civilisational basis that, because it assumes the hybrid nature of all societies, is neither Occidentalist nor Orientalist, might yet become possible”. Woodiwiss, Anthony, Globalisation, Human Rights and Labour Law in Pacific Asia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998, p. 2.Google Scholar – The “Asian values” debate has also provoked national introspection in Australia, e.g. a study focusing on cultural differences in terms of how people in the Asian region, including Australia, think about common problems or societal norms or standards. It examines areas such as business ethics, education, labour relations, national security, and citizenship, in addition to human rights, democracy, the media and government. From an Australian examination of Asian values, Australia's engagement with Asia “will not so much excite as alleviate anxieties about core values and national identity”. In an attempt to define what values are “Australian”, comparison is said to facilitate the recognition of “core values” in Australian society, labelled “the liberal ideological package… [which is a] product of a long history, in some cases reaching back through the Enlightenment and Renaissance in Europe, and further still to the origins of the Christian and classical tradition. In this sense, Australian society cannot be regarded as young.” Milner, Anthony/Quilty, Mary (eds), Australia in Asia: Comparing Cultures, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1996, pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

16 Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, South Asian Societies: A Study of Values and Social Controls, East-West Publications, London, 1979, p. 1.Google Scholar

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid., p. 12.

19 On the notions of human rights and international humanitarian law and their relationship, see Doswald-Beck, Louise and Vite, Sylvain, “International humanitarian law and human rights law”, IRRC, No. 293, March-April 1993. PP. 94–119.Google Scholar and Swinarski, Christophe, Introduçâo ao Direito International Humanitário, Comité Internacional da Cruz Vermelha e Instituto Interamericano de Direitos Humanos, Brasília, 1993, pp. 22–24.Google Scholar

20 See Bary, William Theodore de, Asian Values and Human Rights: A Confucian Communitarian Perspective, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1998.Google Scholar

21 For a discussion of culture in relation to human rights ideas in Asia, see “Cultural sources of human rights in East Asia: Consensus building toward a rights regime – A Conference Report”, Human Rights Dialogue, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, New York, 1996.

22 See also (in Chinese) Wen-Qi, Zhu, Outline of International Humanitarian Law, Peter Chan Publishers, Hong Kong, 1997, pp. 103–112.Google Scholar

23 Li-Sun, Zhu, “Traditional Asian approaches: The Chinese view”, in Greig, D. W. (ed.), Australian Year Book of International Law, Vol. 9, 1985, p. 143.Google Scholar

24 Op. cit. (note 22), pp. 31/32.

25 See the collection of articles (including those on China, Japan, Malaysia and India) in Greig, op. cit. (note 23). See also Traditional Laws of War in Indonesia, Centre for Study on Humanitarian Law, Faculty of Law, Trisakti University, Jakarta, 1999; Mubiala, Mutoy, “African States and the promotion of humanitarian principles”, IRRC, No. 269, March-April 1989, p. 93Google Scholar; Ashoor, Yadh Ben, “Islam and international humanitarian law”, IRRC, No. 215, March-April 1980, pp. 59 ff.Google Scholar