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Lee's Asian values all bunk, says Amartya Sen

16 February, 1999
The Asian Age Newspaper

Singapore's senior minister Lee Kuan Yew was clearly the villain of the
day at the launch of a new worldwide movement for democracy here on
Monday, with many speakers and delegates attacking the Southeast Asian
elder statesman for his espousal of theory that economic development was
incompatible with full civil and political rights, particularly in
developing countries.

Leading the attack on what he described as the "Lee hypothesis," Nobel
laureate Amartya Sen said the theory that the so-called "Asian values" of
discipline and consensus would further economic development, and that
democracy would retard it, had been effectively shattered by the recent
crisis in Asian financial markers. This, he said, was due to the lack of
transparency in their financial and political systems and nothing but the
"penalty of undemocratic governance."

In any case, he added, there was nothing particularly Asian about
discipline or authoritarianism; if Confucius could be cited in defence of
an ordered state, the West had Plato - but that had not retarded the rise
of liberal democracy. The whole theory of Asian values had been evolved
"not by scholars," he pointed out, "but by politicians or spokesmen of
some authoritarian governments."

It was also a fallacy, he pointed out, that only the rich enjoyed the
fruits of democracy in developing countries, adding that the "protective
role of democracy" was "most missed when it was vitally needed," citing
the recent disturbances in Indonesia which led to Suharto's departure. In
India, too, the largely poor electorate had decisively given their opinion
of the 1975-77 curtailment of civil liberties in the elections which
followed. Prof. Sen said that after years of research political scientists
and economists had not found any empirical evidence to sustain the "myth"
that countries like South Korea or Singapore were better off than India
because they were authoritarian, that denial of political rights somehow
led to greater economic development. What was needed, he said, was not a
harsher political regime, but a friendlier economic climate.


Prof. Sen, who will be formally conferred the Bharat Ratna by President
K.R. Narayanan here on Tuesday, reiterated his oft-repeated thesis that
the existence of democracy helped a nation avoid major suffering and
man-made disasters like famines. "No famine has ever occurred in any
democratic country," he declared, as they have nothing to do with food
shortages and "are easy to prevent." To corroborate, he cited the example
of India - the 1943 Bengal Famine ("which I witnessed as a child") - and
Ireland, both of which happened under colonial rule. The famines, which
have happened since then - in China during Mao's Great Leap Forward, and
more recently in Ethiopia and Sudan - have all been in non-democratic
nations with no political opposition or a free press.

Former Us ambassador to India Frank G. Wisner, saying it was particularly
appropriate that this global "network of thinkers and practitioners" of
democracy was being launched in New Delhi, added that one good effect of
the recent Asian crisis could be to "drive the continent towards a more
open system," as people had started realising that hindering the free flow
of information had proved counterproductive. Mr Wisner, now a senior New
York-based corporate executive, said a democracy could always outperform
an authoritarian system even in the economic sphere provided it took care
of some essentials: strong and transparent regulatory mechanisms. To keep
corruption in check: and a strong media. To provide accurate information
to all players.

UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Rovinson said it was imperative
for the new worldwide movement for democracy, launched by the
Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy in association with CII
and the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, with delegates from 85
countries, to build linkages with her own "global alliance for human
rights" as the two were interdependent. Pledging the support of the UN
system, she said it was important for all democracies to make all their
citizens feel a part of the system. Protection of basic civil rights had
become specially important in an era in which key government functions had
been privatised in several countries.




'In a democracy, banning those you don't like is a mistake'

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said on Monday that it would be a mistake in a
democracy to try to ban any political group, no matter how repugnant its
message.

He was replying to a question from the floor at a seminar here on whether
a party that sought to impose a majoritarian view on all, in a clear
reference to the BJP, should be kept out of the political process. A ban
was not the answer, he said, because it would only drive such forces
underground.

In any case, he said, in the contest of India, imposing Hindu views on
non-Hindus was not a "majoritarian" view but "minoritarian," as the vast
majority of Hindus in the country cherished peaceful coexistence with
people of other religions, including Christians. "You may blame a minority
of these people in the country for these happening, but the majority of
Hindus never approved of this," he said.





Plan panel takes Sen advice on education

Planning commission deputy chairman K.C. Pant has decided to follow the
advice of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. Mr Pant has written a letter to
state governments, asking them to allocate more funds for education. "As
we have to reach an overall percentage of six per cent of gross domestic
product for the country as a whole, it will be helpful if the state
development plan as early as possible," Mr Pant said in the letter.

Mr pant asked the states spending over six percent of expenditure on
education to try and reach a figure of 10 per cent as in the case with
developed countries. The spending more than six percent are Arunachal
Pradesh (9.02 per cent), Assam (6.6), Kerala (6.32), Meghalaya (7.7),
Tripura (12.13).

He told states spending less than six per cent on education to try to
reach the figure as soon as possible. The states spending less that six
percent are Andhra Pradesh (3.5 percent), Gujarat (3.56), Haryana (2.65),
Karnataka (3.93), Punjab(2.63), Uttar Pradesh (3.75) and West Bengal
(3.18). Expenditure includes both planned and non-planned expenditure.

Mr Pant has also asked states spending less than Rs 500 per capita to
reach the figure as early as possible. "States spending between Rs 500 and
Rs 1,000 per capita may try to reach a level of Rs 1,000," he said.
Considering only planned expenditure, Mr Pant said states contributing
less than 10 per cent of their plan on education should try and reach a
level of 15 per cent. "those spending more than 10 per cent may try to
reach a level of 20 per cent," he said.

My Pant further asked state governments to give priority to elementary
education. He told them to increase the ratio (expenditure on revenue
expenditure to expenditure on total expenditure) to 50 per cent and then
to 60 per cent within three years. Prof. Sen stressed upon the need for
increasing government spending on education to curb misuse of public
funds, remove poverty and fuel economic growth. "only educated people can
stand up for their rights," Prof. Sen said. Mr Pant has also pointed out
the need for stepping up investment.

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