 |
| Reads 'Democracy'; Picture by Marija Zaric |
As Winston Churchill once said, “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.” While his cynicism might’ve been justified, being that he was voted out of his position as the Prime Minister merely weeks after winning the Second World War, democracy had proven to be an effective form of governance for many countries around the world.
However, now, following a protracted period of democratic expansion from 1973 to 2005, data from key democracy barometers show that a rising number of new and established democracies feel a loss in democratic quality. The Bertelsmann Transformation Index lists instances of this type of governance in most parts of the world, including the European Union, when Victor Orban of Hungary used the pandemic as justification to impose the continent's first Corona dictatorship.
The Asian region has the highest population density in the globe as well as the strongest economy. India and Indonesia, two of the three biggest democracies in the world, are located in this region. Non-democracies in Asia and the Pacific, as opposed to extremely predatory autocracies in the Middle East, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa, frequently succeed in strong communal goods provision and fiscally responsible government. The People's Republic of China has developed into an authoritarian global player with distinct "sharp power" since the early 2000s. Experts emphasise China's function as a global supplier of cutting-edge techniques for autocratic control and repression. Thus, it should come as no surprise that academics speculate about the potential for a new Asian, primarily Chinese alternative to liberal capitalism and democracy.
There has always been a rivalry between economic models for the hearts and minds of people in the Global South. One of the main questions driving the Cold War was whether nations freeing themselves from colonial rule would choose to embrace the Communist authoritarian model put forth by the Soviet Union or the “free enterprise” model put forth by the newly formed capitalist hegemony in the United States. Billions of foreign aid dollars were disbursed, massive propaganda campaigns were launched, and multiple hot wars and insurgencies were waged throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America between the late 1940s and the early 1980s to see which of these models would be more appealing to nations attempting to figure out how best to improve their economic conditions.
Democratic Regression in Asia
A democracy is a system of governance in which the people of the nation have sovereign power. Governmental institutions can be described as non-democratic in addition to democratic. These include structures like oligarchies, theocracies, and monarchies. Therefore, the power granted to the ordinary people is the main difference between democratic and non-democratic governance; under a democratic system, power is granted to the people, but in a non-democratic government, authority is vested in the rulers.
There are conflicting messages coming from the Asia-Pacific area in the discussion of the global loss of liberal democracy. In the area, democracy has long been the exception. Asia's hurried socioeconomic progress since the 1960s has left the region with a "compressed modernity" that has "strained the social fabric of the societies" and "neglected the democratic process," according to a recent report by the Bertelsmann Stiftung.
There is considerable evidence to suggest that Asia is slowly but surely joining the wave of democratic regression. While Taiwan is widely hailed as a shining example of the third wave of democracy, South Korea has just lately recovered from a protracted period of democratic regression under conservative governments that lasted from 2008 to 2016. Given the conditions, the democratisation of Timor Leste and Mongolia has been comparatively effective; nonetheless, recent constitutional crises indicate that democracy in both nations is still unstable, prone to corruption and major conflicts amongst political institutions. Since the 2000s, there has been a significant decline in democracy in other Asian countries. Older democracies like Sri Lanka and—most concerning, considering its significance as the greatest democracy in the world—India are also examples.
The Philippines, whose politics may have already veered into dictatorial territory, and Indonesia, while less so, are experiencing a fall in the quality of democracy. The democratic crisis in countries like Thailand, Bangladesh, and Pakistan resulted in military putches and coup d'états. Many democracies are currently experiencing a democratic recession, but authoritarianism is also hardening in places like Hong Kong and Cambodia. Additionally, countries like Malaysia and Myanmar, which recently started political liberalisation processes, are witnessing the failure of democratic reforms and the collapse of reform governments. Ultimately, it appears that the hard-line autocracies in North Korea, China, and Vietnam have no plans to relinquish power over the state and society.
Human Rights Issues in Asia
One in five people on the planet lives in South Asia. There are significant racial, religious, linguistic, and cultural differences. It has gone through colonialism, partition, immigration and emigration, invasion, and conquest. The epicentre of the globalisation movement, it now finds itself embroiled in conflict, territorial issues, and terrorism. It demonstrates and condones the extremes of power, money, poverty, and social marginalisation. It is also a region where, in spite of the de jure protection afforded at the national level under State Constitutions and by an intricate web of laws, regulations, statutory and constitutional bodies and institutions, the human rights of its citizens are routinely violated and remedies for such violations are all too frequently denied.
The lives of Afghan women, girls, journalists, and human rights advocates have all suffered greatly under the Taliban regime. "With no end in sight, the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is becoming more dire. The skills and talents of the female half of the population are one of the most valuable resources the country has, but Taliban policies have quickly turned many women and girls into virtual prisoners in their homes, according to Heather Barr, associate women's rights director at Human Rights Watch, who wrote this report.
Although Bangladesh has made economic strides and was moved from the least developed to the developing category by the UN last November, the nation is still frequently in the news due to enforced disappearances, kidnappings, torture, and extrajudicial killings carried out by its security forces with impunity.
The UN Department of Peace Operations is being urged by 12 organisations in a letter to Under-Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix to forbid the UN from deploying Bangladesh's infamously abusive paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
Human Rights, Democracy, The Rule of Law, and Governance in a Divided Society
Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy, and progress are all interrelated and reinforce one another. To ensure that every person can enjoy universal human rights, national governments must fortify national laws, institutions, and infrastructures that support democracy and the rule of law.
In India, the foundation for a pluralistic, multicultural, secular, democratic society was established by the Indian Constitution of 1950. A government free from corruption, nepotism, favouritism, communalism, and inefficiencies; an economy based on equity, egalitarianism, and prosperity for all; a society based on freedom, justice, equality, social security, and nondiscrimination; and an education system that should be universal, free, and mandatory were to be its cornerstones. Economic and social rights were classified as "Directive Principles of State Policy," whilst civil and political rights were declared "Fundamental Rights" and made legally enforceable in Articles 12-35 of the Indian Constitution.
Right to Life
According to Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to a procedure established by law.” Article 21 therefore establishes both the right to life and personal liberty.
In India, the idea that every person, including animals, has the right to life and, in particular, that no one else should be able to take their life is known as the right to life. Discussions about the concept of a right to life often centre on the following topics: euthanasia, where ending one's life without using natural means is viewed as wrong; capital punishment, where some view it as immoral; abortion, where some view the foetus as a human being in an early stage of development whose life should not be ended; and meat production and consumption, where some view the breeding and killing of animals for their meat as an infringement on their rights, as well as in police-performed killings, which some view as violating a person's right to life. People may differ as to which of these situations the right-to-life concept should be applied.
Mass Murders: the State's Role and the Judiciary's Accountability
Mass murders of the kind that have recently taken place in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina are not unheard of in India. Since Partition in 1947, there have been annual communal riots that have claimed countless lives. Sectarian violence, like the 1984 Sikh massacre in Delhi and the recent communal violence in Gujarat that has claimed over 3,000 lives and destroyed property and businesses valued at billions of rupees, regularly violates the right to life of religious minorities. A catastrophe on par with the death toll and destruction of property is the psychological harm inflicted upon minorities by discrimination, fear, and hatred.
Due to the upheaval caused by communal violence, tens of thousands of Indian citizens are now refugees inside their own nation. In India, Muslims make up the largest religious minority with over 14.2% of the total population. An estimated 500,000 Muslims are thought to have fled their homes during the riots in Gujarat in 2002. The State offered temporary camps for relief, but they closed, leaving the displaced without assistance. They were also afraid to return to their destroyed houses and businesses because of the hostile environment and socio-economic marginalisation they would face.
The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights determined that the creation of strong national legal frameworks was essential to the realisation of human rights. The lengthy examination and discussion of the state of the human rights apparatus worldwide came to an end with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. A General Assembly resolution declaring 1968 to be the International Year for Human Rights kicked off this process in 1961. Vienna also signalled the start of a fresh initiative to enhance and expand upon the body of human rights instruments that had been laboriously built since 1948 on the pillar of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Conclusion
Since the rule of law foreshadows the restraint of authority and colonialism implies the exercise of power, examining the relationship between colonialism and the rule of law may appear paradoxical. However, examining the historical procedures of the British colonial administration reveals how the establishment of an uneven international legal, political, and economic system involved the rule of law. Given the relationship between colonial governments and the principles of the rule of law, some commentators regard the rule of law as a corrupting force. This chapter makes the case that, in the context of British colonialism, concentrating on the practices of the rule of law rather than its ideals might shed light on how the rule of law influences global political regimes.
In Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India, communalism is a major social problem. Since the British colonial era, there have been religious tensions in India between various populations, particularly between Hindus and Muslims, which have periodically resulted in major intercommunal bloodshed. Following the first partition of Bengal in 1905, when Lord Curzon imposed religiously-based segregation and unequal political and economic rights on Muslims and Hindus, the incidence of communal violence in South Asia rose. Bengal's partition and reunification in 1911 were the consequence of a series of communal rioting caused by the perception on both sides of the colonial authority that the other side was being favoured.
0 comments:
Post a Comment