Asia and Oceania
One World, responsibilities included
“I believe in Gandhi dream of ‘One World’, one single world with many cultures. But this means that we are all equally responsible for all that happens on our planet, for everything that affects our lives, for the bomb that explodes in Tel Aviv and those who die of hunger in Rwanda”. With these words, the Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanebgloo explained in a video-chat room what he considered to be the Mahatma Gandhi’s spiritual, cultural and political legacy, expressing his thoughts on Friday September 26th on the Telecom Avoicomunicare.it website.
The Indian Model: a Challenge for the Muslim World
For the founding fathers of contemporary India, secularism did not mean practicing irreligious atheism. On the contrary, it meant an exercise in peaceful coexistence among faiths. The challenge is not to abandon secularism, but to formulate it as a philosophy with spiritual values, rather than solely a policy of the state. This the only way of rethinking our whole approach to the future in Muslim societies to the extent that we can allow the pluralist model of a “shared home” to present itself as “a third way” solution to the crisis of political societies in the Middle East and in opposition to the secular authoritarianism of the state and the rise of religious fundamentalism in the civil society.
“For Russia, Islam is no longer a threat”
The situation is calm, so far from the one Moscow had in the Nineties. The second Chechen war is over and Vladimir Putin, the outgoing president of Russia, no longer has to deal with Islam as a threat, nor does his dolphin Dimitri Medvedev. “Today the Muslim community in Russia has good relations with the central state”, says Alexey Malashenko from Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Malashenko is an appreciated expert of Islamic issues in Russia and has written several books and essays on the topic.
Saving Pakistan to save Islam
According to the Economist Pakistan is the most dangerous place in the world. And nevertheless, Pakistan boasts a long tradition of democracy. Its people is moderate and against terrorism. Its media are definitely freer than the average Arab country. Benazir Bhutto was the first Muslim woman to become Prime Minister. Its economy is growing by 7% on average per year. Pakistan could be a much more modern and attractive model for Islamic countries than the Saudi Wahhabi one. This is why on the next elections on 18th February, the future not only of Pakistan, but also a large part of the future of Islam is at stake.
“Musharraf’s was an enlightened dictatorship”
“Enlightened dictatorship”. This is how Pere Vilanova deems Pakistan and Musharraf’s government. Professor of Political Science at the University of Barcelona, Vilanova contributes to El Pais. Almost a dissenting voice in this issue, he confides that the next Pakistani election - which are going to be held on February 18 amid a feisty atmosphere after Bhutto’s assassination - shall not be rigged and that murky dealings will not take place under international observers’ control. As an eastern researcher and expert, since the 80s Vilanova has frequently travelled in Pakistan and in Central Asia and through the years has taken notice of the developments of a country which he says is passing through “a long transition period”.
Benazir and Arab malaise
The election of Benazir Bhutto in 1988 was a cultural shock to the Arab world. No Arab woman had ever run for president or prime minister. Even today, women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive a car, based on truly ridiculous customary rules. How did Benazir manage to come to power at the age of 35, while Arab Muslim women have been left behind? The successful political case of Benazir Bhutto shows that Pakistani people do not take notes from the Wahhabist Saudi model like the Afghani Taliban do, but instead follow the English or Indian path.
A people hungry for democracy
What will become of Pakistan and its dream of democracy it has come so close to? Of its redemption after decades of coups d’état? Musharraf had started his last mandate with good resolutions, but now he wants to forbid the middle classes from becoming a political figure; a middle class which is moving forwards, a new bourgeoisie in a country divided between rich and poor, where flour has disappeared from its markets and whose price has reached 400% more on the black market. The Pakistani people is full of electoral rigging. The Pakistani community from Italy is asking for the presence of international observers to ward off such rigging.
“An example for the Arab world”
“The people of Pakistan have always wanted democracy. They have voted for a female prime minister, even though she had been denigrated by the mullahs and by our own military. Pakistan can show the way to the world by creating a Muslim democracy; it can be a model for other Islamic countries like the Arab countries. The only question is: will the Pakistani military and its American backers let it become a democracy?” In this interview, Hussain Haqqani, former advisor to Benazir Bhutto and now Director of the Centre for International Relations and Professor at Boston University, expresses his wary optimism for the future of his country: “The likelihood that the People’s party and Sharif’s party will win a free and fair election is very high - says Haqqani, who regularly comments on Pakistan on Cnn and Bbc - And I think they can certainly govern together”.
“The elections will be rigged. Expect a big crisis”
“Musharraf is still here; he is still very much in power and absolutely nothing has been done about extremism. He wants to be re-elected in 2007 and he wants to remain in office until 2012”. It was in July 2005, after the terrorist bombings in London, that Ahmed Rashid, journalist and author of “Taliban”, a worldwide best-seller which was adapted into a course book at over 200 U.S. Universities, made these predictions. In more than three years nothing has changed in Pakistani politics and according to Rashid, nothing will vary if Musharraf does not step down. But the President has failed on one thing: the support of his people, the real foe to his ruling.
Burma, what next?
They marched for days, braving the wrath of the regime. The Burmese demonstrators caught the attention of the world with their demands for democracy, freedom and dignity. Their weapons were mobile phones, and their leaders Buddhist monks who have reminded the world how religion can sometimes contain a unique energy. Now, however, those sacrifices and those deaths, demand that the lights do not go out on Burma. More than two months after the start of the protests, what has become of the “saffron revolution”? Much lies in the hands of China and India, the two main allies of the military junta. But the West, too, can still play its part.
India has nothing to lose
India needs to read the writing on the wall - the Burmese military junta is on its way out. For those of us who value our democracy and human rights, India's policy on Burma should have changed a long time ago. India cannot aspire to be a proud democracy if it backs all kinds of dictatorships in the neighborhood. The double standards that we have learnt from the Americans, does not work in the long run. But those who govern India now don't share our values. They are the defenders of our national interests -- the smart diplomats, the tough generals, the men who run our chambers of commerce and push for more trade with Burma. It is time to take them on now and ask what India has gained by backing the world's most notoriously repressive military junta.
A god-given opportunity for Beijing
In the wake of the brutal suppression, senior officials from the Bush administration pressed Chinese officials in private conversations to use their leverage with Myanmar’s authorities to help manage a transition to a new government in Myanmar. However, the Chinese officials “deflected the entreaties by describing Myanmar's turmoil as an internal matter.” Chinese UN Ambassador Wang Guangya argued that the problems facing Myanmar are “basically internal. No international-imposed solution can help the situation.” It is a god-given opportunity for China to demonstrate to the world that China’s is “a responsible partner” of the international community. The reluctant cooperation between the two superpowers in the region is working.
“I saw them fighting. They have lost a battle, but they haven’t lost the war”
“I arrived when the army started becoming mean”. Tony Birtley, correspondent for the broadcaster Al Jazeera International, was the only foreign journalist of a major television to stay in Myanmar in September during the pacific protests lead by the Burmese monks against the military junta. He filmed using a small camera and was able to catch significant moments of the clashes between the protesters and the military. “It’s true, I took some risks but the story was huge and for 20 years nothing as powerful has happened in Myanmar. Now that I’m back, I feel very strongly about the people I left behind who helped me and who talked to me, risking their lives”.
“Religion has been the true force”
“Do you know why the West has been so stunned by the Buddhist monks opposition to the Burmese regime? Because it has a distorted view of religion – either the war-like image of fundamentalist Islam or that of religion as a useless, private affair, a kind of magical-mystical game. In fact, faith gives us strength to face everyday life, and the Buddhist monks have shown this.” So Father Bernardo Cervellera, editor of the website AsiaNews (www.asianews.it), one of the most important journalistic sources on the Asian continent, responds implicitly to the observations made by the political philosopher Michael Walzer on the Burmese monastical revolt, which were published in the Italian newspaper Repubblica (“I admire these monks, but, frankly, I would prefer a revolt based on social democratic principles.”)
“The opposition has no chance right now, but this is only the beginning”
“Right now the opposition is under great stress. Burma today is as most repressive as it has ever been: they basically shut down all the cities every night, and they roam the streets and go and arrest people, it is almost like Nazi Germany. That is why the opposition has no chance right now”. Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma Project/Southeast Asia Initiative of the Open Society Institute, which is part of the Soros Foundations Network, makes no illusions about the future of the “Saffron revolution”, but she observes that the international pressure is growing, especially from the U.S. and also Europe (“can play a big role”), and that’s why she declares herself optimistic: “The trend of history is not towards more repressive dictatorships. It is impossible to totally isolate a whole population from the rest of the world in the 21st century”.
Deliberative polls and the Australian lesson
“Do you know that Australians are rather contradictory? In theory, they go mad for multiculturalism, but then in practice, they are afraid of non-European and non-Anglophone immigrants. They think they can change their landscape, physique and culture. In fact, for example, by building mosques”. Pamela Ryan, director of Ida (Issues Deliberation Australia), an study institute on the public opinion which is working between Australia and the United States, is verified expert on cultural prejudice. “Facilitating Global Dialogue”, this is the motto of her think tank, which aims to improve the quality of public debate on socially and politically important themes, such as immigration.
Confucius’ democracy
The democratization of China will not necessarily involve the adoption of the Western model. On the contrary, it is by looking within itself, and going back to its Confucian roots, that the Asian giant could slowly open itself up to democracy. So says Daniel A. Bell in his latest book Beyond Liberal Democracy. The traditional values of Asia are founded upon communitarianism, social order, respect for elders and a paternalistic state – but is this definition still valid? As China opens itself up to the values of the West, the West seems to look down with a sense of superiority on Asian values. And yet Benjamin Franklin, almost 300 years ago...
“Liberalism is not neutral, but this is its very strength”
Liberalism is not wholly neutral. But then, no political system is entirely neutral philosophically and ethically. Liberalism, nevertheless, can fairly claim to express an unusually, indeed uniquely accommodating configuration of values, within which it’s possible for many different religious and other conceptions of the good to coexist peacefully. This accommodation is not unlimited – there will be practices that liberalism cannot tolerate – but it’s the best we can do. It’s true that liberals try to prevent the state preaching particular, controversial moralities, especially religiously-based moralities. But that doesn’t mean that liberalism has no moral basis at all. On the contrary, the idea of human rights is an especially rich and inspiring moral doctrine.
Learning democracy from Confucius
The democratisation of China does not necessarily pass for the adoption of a Western model. Not at all. It is really by looking within oneself, and especially at one’s Confucian roots, that the Asian giant could slowly open its political system up to democracy. It is one of the conclusions in Daniel A. Bell’s recent books, Beyond Liberal Democracy. Political Thinking for an East Asian Context (Princeton University Press 2006, 408pp), which, with accents at times provocative, invites the West to look beyond the end of its own nose and launches the message extremely clearly to those who believe that beyond the confines of the West there is nothing but sand and desert, and that therefore there is little to learn and everything to (culturally and economically) to win.
Asian Values or Values in Asia?
“There is no common tradition in Asia to define the Great Book of the East”, as the American Orientalist de Bary put it in a valiant attempt to construct an Asian canon. On the other hand – writes Eva Pföstl, researcher at the Istituto di Studi Politici „S. Pio V”, in Rome – a pluralism of "Asian values" is still Asian values. There is nothing wrong with noting the diversity of values and still claiming that they are Asian. It is true, that "Asian values" is a construct. But then so are "the West" and "liberalism", both of which encompass a tremendous diversity of views. Because "Asian values" has been tainted by misuse by politically oppressive regimes, one suggestion is to replace it with "values in Asia".
But then Beijing will be like Luxembourg?
Can democracy turn China into Luxemburg who enjoys the highest per capital GDP in the world or into Finland who ranks first in Transparency International annual report or can it help students to find jobs after graduation? Democracy is far from being perfect. The demands of modern and complex society are sometimes beyond the abilities of ordinary people and the will of the majority may harm the interests of the minorities. In his Beyond Liberal Democracy, Daniel A. Bell suggests the creation of an upper house composed of people selected through a nation-wide competitive system, that will be awarded substantial power to restrict the power of a lower house composed of democratically elected representatives. It seems fine to me.
Free Daniele Mastrogiacomo - He Is Only A Journalist
The Repubblica correspondent Daniele Mastrogiacomo has been kidnapped in Afghanistan, where he was simply carrying out his work as a journalist, in search of news. His newspaper has published a message in Italian, English, Arabic, Pashtu and Farsi. Voices of support and solidarity are arriving from all over the world. If you would like to add your signature, click here. Here is the text of the appeal: “Daniele Mastrogiacomo is a Repubblica journalist. He has no links of any kind to any military organisation, nor to any secret police or intelligence services of any kind, or of any country. Mastrogiacomo has been in Kandahar since Sunday the 4th March exclusively and solely to write news reports.”
The Armenian Issue
Dispersed throughout the world, they have a history that stretches over millenniums. Today there are just over 10 million Armenians, but the early twentieth century genocide of which they were the victims has barely been acknowledged. It is a controversial question which continues to be as relevant as ever: the French National Assembly has passed a law punishing denial of the Armenian genocide; the Taviani brothers have dedicated a film to the massacre, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival; the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was killed in Istanbul because of his origins; and the U.S. Congress is divided over the official recognition of the genocide. But who are the Armenians? And how ‘Armenian’ do the members of this diaspora feel?
A Foot in Two Camps
According to French Sinologist François Jullien, China has a foot in two camps: a traditional one, and a western one. How do these two cultures coexist? Confucius fights against Individualism, but the battle is bloody and the outcome is in doubt. China’s influence meanwhile spreads in the world, from Venezuela to Sudan. But what is its relation to Islam? What about the old Huntington prophecy, of an emerging “Sino-Islamic connection”?
"The most anti-islamic Country in the World
“The comeback of Confucianism aims at inverting the present tendency to turn inward to the private sphere and at filling the void left by the end of Maoism.” What Italy knows about China, it owes to Federico Rampini, who was previously correspondent from Paris, Brussels and San Francisco and is now reporting for “La Repubblica” from Beijing. He is also the author of many books (“The Chinese Century”, “The Chindia Empire” and “Mao’s Shadow”, edited by Mondadori). In this interview he explains how “There is no other country as 'anti-Islamic' as China".
Marx in China: Modern Art, Modern Conflicts, Modern Workers
Today’s Chinese government seems as adamant as yesterday’s in keeping closed the doors to democracy and human rights. But it has been brilliantly successful in opening up the nation’s economy and in enabling China to participate in global economic life: in the last decade, China’s economy has become the most dynamic in the world. It is only now, then, as China goes through dramatic and explosive development, that Marx’s discourse of contradiction can be a powerful critical vision of its real life. It is ironic, on the contrary, that, for decades, a travesty of Marxism was imposed on a backward, peasant China that couldn’t possibly digest it.
Teaching Political Theory in Beijing
When he told his western friends he would accept a contractual post at Tsinghua University in Beijing (China), they thought he’d gone off his rocker. But for Daniel A. Bell, that was the one-shot occasion to see the evolution of a changing country and to teach its future elite. In comparison to Singapore, China is a paradise of academic freedom. There is no censorship on the subjects you can teach, with an exception: Marxism. Furthermore, the professor is considered both an intellectual authority and an ethical person who nurtures the student’s emotional development. The Cultural Revolution’s antipathy to intellectual elites seems to be long forgotten.
“Globalization brought Individualism and Cosmopolitanism”
“The Chinese civilization has become more outward-looking, materialistic, and individualistic. This is the result of China’s integration into the global system and the influence of market economics, which emphasizes individualism, materialism, and cosmopolitanism.” Minxin Pei is a senior associate and director of the China Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC. He doesn’t think that China poses a threat to the West: “China’s success will be a great asset to the West.” An interview by Daniele Castellani Perelli.