Asian democracy must serve the common man; The emergence of forces to challenge imperfect democracies is welcome – but dangerous

January 8, 2014 5:44 pm

Asian democracy must serve the common man

By David Pilling

The emergence of forces to challenge imperfect democracies is welcome – but dangerous

This is the year of the election in Asia. After last week’s violence-marred contest in Bangladesh, which has left the country in a state of hiatus, elections will follow in fairly rapid succession in Thailand, Afghanistan, Indonesia and India. By the end of May, an electorate representing more than 1.7bn people, roughly a quarter of humanity, will have had its say in five countries.Whether it is happy with the results, however, is a different question. Two things are happening in much of Asia that mirror changing attitudes towards elected governments all over the world. One is the emergence of anti-establishment figures to challenge the prevailing order. Exhibit A is India’s Aam Aadmi, or Common Man party, whose symbol – a broom – epitomises the idea of the lowly citizen sweeping away entrenched corruption. Just a year old, it is led by a former tax official who presumably knows a thing or two about how rotten the system is. That the Common Man party is now running Delhi, and is even being mooted as a nationwide force in the coming general election, shows how strong the urge is in India to “kick the bums out”.

Anti-incumbency is one thing. But there is a second, related, phenomenon. This is that elected majorities, even those chosen under broadly fair circumstances, are failing to persuade supporters from defeated minorities of their legitimacy. Here, the prime example is Thailand, where no matter how many times the electorate turns out in favour of Thaksin Shinawatra or his proxies, including his sister, Yingluck, a large minority of Thais will simply not accept the result.

Unlike in some countries, where people pour on to the streets to demand the right to vote, in Thailand protesters are urging the establishment of a non-elected council. The main opposition Democratic party is even refusing to stand in the February election. In Bangladesh, too, the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party refused to contest last week’s election on the grounds that only a caretaker administration could be trusted to oversee a fair process.

Events in India, Thailand and Bangladesh have echoes far outside the region. As Europe struggles to recover from the 2008 financial shock, a clutch of smaller parties – from Britain’s UK Independence party to Hungary’s neo-fascist Jobbik – have emerged to make trouble for the established order. In the US, President Barack Obama, though twice elected, has not been able to heal the deep ideological rift that sunders the red and blue electorate. (In Thailand, the colours are red and yellow.)

Disillusionment with the democratic process is hardly novel, but it has gained new urgency. In India, anger has been swelling for years against what is regarded as a poisonous nexus between business and politicians. Anna Hazare, a hunger-striking activist, brought tens of thousands on to the streets with his anti-corruption campaign. India’s political royalty, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, is rapidly losing its lustre. Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party’s presumed prime ministerial candidate, has flopped. Narendra Modi, the son of a humble tea-stall vendor now tipped as the next prime minister, is playing the role of political outsider. No matter that he has the backing of the powerful Bharatiya Janata party.

India is not the only place where anti-establishment candidates are gaining favour. In Indonesia, too, many pundits are tipping Joko Widodo for president even though he has no party behind him and is yet to declare his candidacy. Jokowi, as he is universally known, captured the public imagination from the unlikely base of Solo, where he was mayor. Now he runs Jakarta. Indonesia only became anything like a democracy 10 years ago. Yet Indonesians, already disillusioned, are casting around for something better.

In Cambodia, protests by garment workers seeking higher wages have escalated into a broader protest against the government of Hun Sen, whose official title translates as “Lord Prime Minister, Supreme Military Commander”. He has been prime minister since 1985. If it were not for the fact of regular elections – widespread allegations of fraud notwithstanding – you would call him a king.

The emergence of new forces to challenge imperfect – and outright phoney – democracies is a good thing. But there are dangers, too. If democracy is brought into disrepute across the region, so too could be the idea that good government and social justice are available at the ballot box. Leaders of countries that make no pretence at electoral legitimacy, including China, may take satisfaction from such discomfort. Electorates themselves may also irrevocably lose faith in their leaders. Some kind of new broom is indeed required.