The Fate of Democracy in Asia: Utopia or Dystopia?
Throughout history, we have seen how the liberal world order emerged. World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, World Economic Forum, and even the G20, these institutions organized the global political economy that can be seen as the liberal of global-political economic order. We can infer the dominance of the liberal perspective. At the heart of liberalism, the Democratic Peace Theory which evolved from the writings of Immanuel Kant holds the assumption that states who adhere to the idea of democracy will less likely go to war with one another, this may influence why there are many democratic states. Democracy is a form of government where the people have the power and say that when a country is considered a democracy it is governed by the people. It is characterized by majority rule, freedom, equality of all persons, majority rule, and minority rights. However, as we go through a globalized world, the tectonic clashes between great powers are visible and we can see that democracy is declining while autocratization surges, this means that democracy is becoming less democratic. The 2020 V-dem democracy report shows that the number of democracies has declined. While this is existing in the process, the indication to the threat to democracy is visible, such as the attacks on media intensified, we can liken it to what is happening in the Philippines where attacks on the press are seen, a fascist regime is attacking many journalists, and even one network has been shutdown. Following the abrupt shift and the authoritarian wave, let’s look at how three Asian countries namely the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore are maintaining their states towards democracy.
Through these graphs, we have seen how the threats and challenges to democracy have impacted the development of these countries. Similarly, within the globalized world’s realm, we have seen the relentless and blatant attack on democracy, suppression, oppression, attacks on human rights are being done domestically and globally. We can infer in the graphs that all three countries still have a long way to attain utopia in the form of democracy. The three showed a low rate in the statistics in terms of different aspects of democracy. The Philippines and Malaysia both showed the weakening of democracy in their states; both failing to maintain the essence of democracy, while Singapore showed a maintaining democratic goal compared to the two. We can point out many factors as to why such things happen, both internal and external factors, as the international system also plays a vital role in the development of these countries. The relationship of democratic countries as what the liberal holds should be tightened and observed in order to have a stable international relation among countries. When this is achieved, states’ propensity to prevent external conflict in the international arena will have a higher chance. And once domestic efforts in battling suppression, exploitation, and human rights abuses brought about by the authoritarian regime are observed, the fate of democracy will have a chance to go, flow with the hegemon wave.
