Asia's young democracies

News out of Thailand and Malaysia are hoarding the headlines now; soon it will be Indonesia when they move into election fever in 2009. All these point to the fact that most countries in Asia are still going through a young and immature democracy.

Thailand has been notorious for their coups d'etat for as long as people can remember. Malaysia is slightly different in that the Barisan Nasional has been a stabilizing force in the country made up of diversified ethnic groups, until their General Elections in March 2008. From developments so far, the populace seem to be "fed up" with the pro-Malay/bumiputera policies which survived Malaysian politics up until now. The feeling on the ground, it seems, is that the pro-Malay policies are responsible for the culture of cronyism, nepotism and corruption in Malaysia which Indonesia - referred to as KKN in their own language - is trying to shed .

Malaysian politics is based on a patronage system not unlike the Indonesian system under the late President Suharto. Sort of an old boys' network not dissimilar to what's common in the UK, USA and Canada and other western countries. The difference in the affluent West is that they try and be as accountable as possible, save for the way the Bush administration appointed their security contractors in Iraq. In Malaysia, it's very different; for the government seem to award projects like they were "distributing the spoils", the way warlords or conquerors in history, east and west, used to do to reward their loyal subjects who helped them win territories.

Thailand is unique as the elite failed to deliver voter numbers to ensure that the party they support wins the election. Its probably arrogance which allowed Thaksin and his party to win over the greater numbers from the rural poor compared to elitists in the capital and major cities. The Indonesian politicians are better at this, knowing how to spread their campaign efforts over the areas where the numbers count. That's why I feel that the Thai elites who want to control Thailand are really arrogant.

Of all the democracies in Asia, Thailand is probably worst off. Malaysia a close second. The Philippines is too corrupt to count and Singapore's "managed democracy" probably doesn't fall into that league - and Singapore's leaders don't want to be in the same league of "western styled" democracies anyway. That leaves Indonesia, which is probably the closest to the western definition of "democracy" as we can get, not that it is the best form of governance for such a diversified country like Indonesia for now. But I'm sure that with a lot of hard work, the Indonesians will find the equilibrium on a democracy which works for their country, assuming there are enough politicians committed to the secular approach as the best way forward for their country in the next generation.