ASIA/EUROPE-HUMAN RIGHTS: Summit Will Spotlight Japan-ASEAN Bond

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Analysis - Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 8 1996 (IPS) - If there is a side to be taken at the March summit between South-east Asian countries and the European Union (EU), Japan, with one leg in Asia’s camp and the other in that of the industrialised nations, will look to its regional neighbours.

Japan, along with fellow East Asian economic giants China and South Korea, have got special invitations to attend the historic summit in Bangkok, Thailand between the 15-member EU and the seven- nation Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN).

At the March 1-2 meeting, the two regions will in particular seek to forge closer economic and political relations, and while the two are likely to converge on the need for improved trading relations, a potentially divisive issue almost certain to arise pertains to human rights.

And it is here that Japan, the only Asian country that is a member of the economically and politically powerful Group of Seven (G-7), will take the side of its neighbours, some of whom are particularly outspoken against direct and indirect pressure from the West to impose its value systems.

But Japan’s and no doubt China’s stance will not only be a show of solidarity with the region — rather it will reflect their economic interest in fast developing South-east Asia.

While the EU is the second-largest aid donor to ASEAN with official development aid (ODA) reaching 809.5 million dollars in 1992, this was less than one-fourth of Japan’s ODA.

“The division between so-called ‘Western’ and ‘Asian’ ideas on politics and development are well known,” notes Professor Robert Orr, of Temple University and a well-known specialist on Japanese politics. “Japan faces a dilemma.”

Analysts expect that some ASEAN nations, with poor human rights and labour standards, will try to steer the summit away from these issues and will rather focus on trade relations.

The EU, however, a major market for the export-led Asian countries, is expected to use this leverage to put pressure on the Asian grouping to adopt a more human face in its economic development.

At the end of last week’s preparatory meeting among ASEAN nations in Phuket, Thailand, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said that cooperation in the economic and technological spheres would be the main focus of the Bangkok summit.

But a Japanese foreign ministry official told IPS that it was unlikely that human rights issues would be just swept under the carpet. “We are very concerned about protecting human rights in the region, but that’s not the only important issue,” he said.

Japan, which is acutely sensitive to its close economic ties with Asia as well as is past aggressive colonisation of much of the region, has been accused before of putting economic interest ahead of human rights.

Disregarding Europe’s hardline stance taken against the Jakarta regime’s brutal crackdown on East Timorese independence activists, Japan refused to slap punitive sanctions on Indonesia after the 1991 massacre in the East Timor capital of Dili.

In 1989, Tokyo had also been slow to react in its suspension of aid to China after Beijing had violently crushed anti-government student demonstrations in Tianmen Square. And barely a year had passed before Japan resumed its official aid programme.

Significantly, Indonesia and China are Japan’s largest trading partners in Asia. The two nations are also the highest recipients of ODA from the world’s single largest donor.

“If we suspend ODA solely on the account of human rights conditions, the situation in the concerned country could only deteriorate further, explained Tojiro Takano, a high-level official of the foreign ministry.

Today, Japan’s policy on Burma (also known as Myanmar), might be considered a case study as regards to Western perceptions of Tokyo’s double standards when it comes to weighing economic interests versus human rights in Asia.

Japan, traditionally one of Burma’s largest trade partners, officially suspended all ODA in 1988, when the military cracked down on democratic groups. But reports here have revealed that Tokyo had continued to conduct behind-the-scenes dialogue with the dictatorial junta which had been isolated by West.

Tokyo, aware of Western opposition, however resisted pressure from its powerful business community to resume official aid and followed a policy where it prodded the junta to move towards elections and democratic reforms.

So that soon after the July release of opposition political leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been placed under house arrest after sweeping the aborted 1990 elections, Japan was among the first to resume aid — ostensibly to boost efforts toward fresh democratic elections.

Tokyo provided a 1.6 billion yen (16 million dollar) grant-in- aid in October 1995 as the first step to re-opening full assistance.

But under pressure from human rights activists, Tokyo did announce soon after that it would not extend any further assistance until the junta — known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) — until it involved Suu Kyi in constitutional reform talks.

Still, Burma, which has also benefited from consistent military cooperation with China, will feel it can bank on the ASEAN not to cave in to any European pressure on how the Rangoon regime should proceed with its democratic reform programme.

The 28-year-old (ASEAN), formed mainly to prevent the spread of communism in the region, welcomed socialist Vietnam as its seventh member this year and plans to admit Laos, Cambodia and Burma before 2000 to include all 10 South-east Asian countries.

ASEAN groups Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam — some of the fastest-growing economies in the world with a combined gross domestic product of more than 500 billion dollars.

Suu Kyi and human rights group argue that the regional economic and political support is only serving to prop up the military junta which has a history of human rights abuses.

However, analysts here predict that Tokyo will bow to its business community and resume aid to Burma during this year.

Economic stakes are high for Japanese companies which are eager to explore Burma’s vast forest, mineral and oil reserves as well as to be the first to grab a slice of the investment opportunities in the construction and tourism sectors.

Osamu Yasuda, a director at The Nomura Research Institute, Japan’s leading financial institution, said last month that Suu Kyi is fighting an uphill battle.

And so will the EU, if it harps too much on human rights issues in its 1996 return to an economically and politically stronger region which has come a long way in the more than four decades that have passed since the collapse of colonial rule in Asia.