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Beyond instrumentality and authoritarian government

Asian Values as part of a project to assert agency and relocate knowledge-production
The concept of Asian Values was a widely debated issue throughout the 1990s, and saw great
support as well as fierce critics. After the Asian financial crisis at the end of the 1990s the claims
seemed to have lost their appeal. However, the ideas surrounding it in part still remain and raise the
question of a wider meaning than simply a tool for authoritarian governments. This essay will analyse
the Asian Values discourse, and will begin by outlining its assumptions and claims. It will then offer a
critique of the discourse and point to problematic aspects of it. This will be followed by an
examination of these arguments to point to an aspect the general critique often misses which is the
assertion of agency by former colonial subjects. Therefore, the essay will trace the larger project the
discourse is part of that includes the relocation of knowledge-production and gaining respect from
Western countries. Bringing the discussion to a conclusion, the essay will argue that if the challenge
inherent in the broader debate is taken seriously, work on a framework to help alleviate some of the
negative consequences of neoliberalism and shape modernity together, could result.
The discourse of Asian Values emerged in East and Southeast Asia in the 1970s (Hill 2000: 184), and
experienced its high-point in the 1990s when the region experienced substantial economic growth at
a time when the West was seen as stagnating (Milner 1999). It was supported and articulated by
prominent Asian politicians and establishment intellectuals who argued that the basis for the great
economic success the Asian nations were experiencing lay in their culture (Henders 2010). Some of
the main actors in advancing these arguments were Mahatir Mohamad from Malaysia and Lee Kuan
Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore (Hill 2000: 177). There also were supporters from Europe
and North America, who shared similar ideas and articulated them in the political culture literature
on the region (Dalton and Ong 2005: 212). The concept of Asian Values was argued to denote a
distinctive set of values that were part of the culture of Southeast and East Asia (Hill 2000: 178).
These values were said to include hard work, a good balance between the needs of society and the

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individual, discipline and deference to authority (Henders 2010). These Asian Values were seen as
standing in opposition to Western values and had consequences for politics, government and the
socio-economic development (Khoo Boo Teik 1999: 182). The system of Western liberal democracy
was regarded as not appropriate for Asian culture and society (ibid.: 183), and therefore, the
political systems in Asia should be based on Asian Values and not on systems and ideas imported
from the West (Milner 1999). Due to these Asian Values Asians were ready to accept a strong,
even harsh, government so long as its policies and actions continued to deliver economic
prosperity (Khoo Boo Teik 1999: 182).
Connected to these arguments was the claim that human rights differ among cultures and are not
universal but specific. Asian values had helped Southeast and East Asia to achieve the economic
success experienced, and as the step out of poverty was seen as the most important aim civil and
political rights should be subordinate to economic and social rights (Henders 2010). The values of
the West were not suitable for Asian societies, and the attempt by the West to force them onto
Asia was neo-colonialist, racist, and a conspiracy to handicap Asian economic competition (Mauzy
1997: 211). The argument was used to explain why some Asian states were unwilling to accept the
human rights promoted by the United States and other Western nations (Hill 2000: 177). Asian
values were also seen as something to prevent Asia from becoming like Western societies, with
their perceived social decadence (Khoo Boo Teik 1999: 183). It could stop the Westernisation,
growing individualism and liberalism that originated in the West (Hill 2000: 185), and entailed
disastrous results, such as a great rise in violent crime, as well as single-mother births, divorce
rates, and children living in single-parent homes (Mahbubani 2002: 97). Proponents presented
Asian values as an alternative, including Asian communitarianism and good governance
(Thompson 2001: 154). The Asian way offered the possibility to achieve economic success without
creating social disharmony (Khoo Boo Teik 1999: 185), and because of the distinctive values and
their effects on modernisation processes, East Asias modernity would differ from that in the West
(Jayasuriya 1998: 80).
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The Asian Values discourse was widely and immediately condemned by many commentators
(Jenco 2013: 237), and following the financial crisis in Southeast Asia towards the end of the 1990s
many of its claims seemed to have been discredited (Sutherland 2006). Jonathan Mirsky called Asian
values a weapon in the great human rights debate (Mirsky 1998), something that was only of use
to authoritarian regimes (ibid.). The principles included in the Asian values discourse helped to
legitimise the state, its power and the exercise of it (Jayasuriya 1998: 78). It was claimed that the
current system was needed to if large economic growth was to be achieved (Thompson 2001: 156).
This enabled the political leaders to argue against the charges that the region had a bad human rights
record. Additionally, by employing cultural strategies it allowed the construction of state identity and
state building (Jayasuriya 1998: 81). The debate took place at a time when the change that came with
the rapid economic development gave rise to a growing individualism and democratization and
human rights movements that posed a challenge to the elites and their order (Henders 2010). The
discourse therefore also played an important part at the domestic level, as it helped in othering
those parts of society that did not adhere to the state-defined normative framework (Jayasuriya
1998: 79). The culturalist arguments were used to argue against the emerging call for liberal
democracy, pointing out that this would have negative consequences for the state and society
(Thompson 2001: 157). Deference to authority was cited as one example of Asian Values which
implied that opposition to the government and power structures is somehow contrary to Asian
values (Ingleson 1998: 230). Harsh reactions against dissent thus received a moral dimension (ibid.:
230), it was possible to portray dissenters as not adhering to the culture of the society (ibid.: 232)
and as disloyal purveyors of western values (Khoo Boo Teik 1999: 184). The discourse thus had
forceful and often brutal implications for those who had different beliefs or commitments (Sen
1997: 34).
Another problematic aspect of the discourse is its claim that there is a distinctive set of Asian values
that are common to all countries in East and Southeast Asia. Together these regions stretch over long
distances, many states and different societies that include a great amount of diversity, in terms of
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religion, language and traditions. It is rather difficult to imagine that one single set of values would
appropriately describe the values of all these regions (Sen 1997: 34). Differing influences, from
Confucianism to Islam make it difficult to speak of a single East Asian political culture or philosophy
(Dalton and Ong 2005: 214). This does not mean that there are no shared ideas and values at all, for
example many areas and regions share the value of communitarianism; but there simply is no single
distinctive set of values held by all Asians (Mauzy 1997: 215). The values that were described by the
elites were not necessarily only and particularly Asian, and could be found elsewhere (Khoo Boo
Teik 1999: 184). Additionally, proponents of the idea of Asian values often presupposed a static and
unchanging nature of values when really values and cultures change and develop (Ingleson 1998:
227). They can be reconstructed, constructed or invented (Milner 1999) and if one tries to find
them, one can discover aspects that include ideas of hard work and thrift within East Asia (Zakaria
2002). Culture thus can be instrumentalised, as was in the case of Asian values. The values
promoted as distinctively Asian constituted a selective reading of a rich cultural heritage, and
instead of representing what Asian values actually are, the values included were rather an
indication of what its proponents wanted it to encompass (Welzel 2011: 4).
Connected to this criticism was the observation that the Asian Values discourse generalises Asians
in the same way the colonisers did. Asia is portrayed in opposition to the West as both entities are
rendered unitary and monolithic. However, this perpetuates the idea of a separation between East
and West and has the effect of reproducing Eurocentric stereotypes (Sutherland 2006). The
discourse can be regarded as a variation on Huntingtons Clash of Civilisations thesis, as both
draw binaries between monolithic blocs that hide diversity across the regions (ibid.). The idea of
Asian Values can thus be regarded as a reverse orientalism (Hill 2000: 178). Much of the Asian
Values discourse is based on orientalist assumptions, but it switches the dichotomy around, resulting
in a portrayal of Western values as not supportive of economic modernity (Jayasuriya 1998: 80).
The West is stereotyped, and cultures are seen as sealed off from each other (Thompson 2001:
159). Characteristics once criticised about the region are now used to show why the Asian nations
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are so successful economically (Sioh 2010: 589). The discourse thus essentialises both Asia and the
West (Henders 2010). It creates culture as something that determines behaviours and is fixed
(Jayasuriya 1998: 80). However, these simplistic oppositions drawn are usually not helpful (Milner
1999), and neither are the uncritical constructions of Asia so as to offer an equally uncritical
Occidentalist portrayal of western social disorders (Khoo Boo Teik 1999: 190). These dividing lines
and constructions of enmity are familiar and have not been constructive (ibid.: 190), as they do not
greatly contribute to our understanding (Sen 1997: 40) and do not result in good or desirable
politics (Dirlik 2003: 286).
Due to the political uses the discourse was put to, and the essentialising and exclusionary tendencies
that are inherent in it, the discourse of Asian Values needs to be opposed. But at the same time, it
should not be completely dismissed because the debate is very complex (Mauzy 1997: 228-229), and
the discourse of Asian Values is not necessarily devoid of any meaning (Sardar 1998). What the
above criticism does not take into account is that there are large parts of the population in the region
that accept the discourse. This illustrates that the claims of the discourse have some kind of
resonance among the population (Jayasuriya 1998: 82). Critics within Asia have also taken part in the
debate and opposed the use for retaining and justifying authoritarian regimes (Bakar 1998: 171). The
discourse does represent an elite construction of the region, and it did serve their purposes (Khoo
Boo Teik 1999: 187). But it also enabled parts of the population to feel a rare pride in being Asian,
even if that sentiment was sometimes expressed in a populist anti-westernism (ibid.: 188). The idea
of a unified and particularistic region of Asia still retains support, implying that there might be more
to it than the elite use of the discourse might reveal (Jenco 2013: 238).
The debate about Asian Values can be regarded as the final stage in the reaction to European
colonialism (Ingleson 1998: 228). It is part of a post-colonial cultural project that has been and will
go on for a long time (Milner 1999). A look beyond the political interests reveals a cultural
preservation and national or group identity agenda (Ingleson 1998: 229). Political leaders and

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intellectuals were asserting intellectual as well as political agency on behalf of their region (Milner
1999). They were involved in a construction of post-colonial visions and meanings for the societies
and people in Asia (ibid.). The Asian Values discourse thus is a form of cultural assertion (Jenco
2013: 258) as the idea of Asian Values and a region of Asia offered a way to leave the periphery
and take a different position on the world stage (Khoo Boo Teik 1999: 187). Beyond political
instrumentalisation it was part of a project of striving to be treated as equals and with respect in the
international hierarchy (Sioh 2010: 583). Therefore the reverse orientalism can be seen as a tactical
essentialism to challenge stereotypes, although reifying new and reverse stereotypes in the process
(ibid.: 593). Their economic success offered a chance to be respected by the West, through
emphasising characteristics like hard work or communitarianism that were already regarded as part
of their culture (ibid.: 588). It can thus also be seen as an empowering strategic essentialism (Goh
2012: 1042). The construction and emphasis of the Asian Values ideas were part of a colonial past
still present in our hybridized but neoliberalizing modernities (ibid.: 1063), and the formulation and
support of Asian Values resulted out of the Westernized colonial subjects drive for self-
recognition (ibid.: 1062). It was part of a search for and construction of national identity as well as
the development of an Asian or pan-Asian consciousness (Ingleson 1998: 229).
The human rights argument can serve as an illustration. It represents a challenge to the Western
portrayal of its values as superior in our time (Jenco 2013: 256). It is valid to question whether
western liberal articulations of human rights can easily be applied to East and Southeast Asia. The
UN Declaration of Human Rights can be argued to be a Western creation. The Asian values
discourse offers a legitimate critique when arguing that it is unduly focused on individual political
rights vis--vis the state and ignores economic rights over collective rights (Ingleson 1998: 234). The
attempt to spread Western values to other parts of the world in form of human rights has caused
renewed deeply felt bitterness about colonization and colonialist assumption on human rights
(Mauzy 1997: 212). There are some who find it difficult to accept to be instructed by those who
oppressed them for centuries. As Anwar Ibrahim stressed: to allow ourselves to be lectured and
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hectored on freedom and human rights after 100 years of struggle to regain our liberty and human
dignity, by those who participated in our subjugation, is to willingly suffer impudence (cited in
Mauzy 1997: 212). If the critique included in Asian Values is not simply rejected one could see that
there are some things that the former colonies could teach the West, and that they have all the
right in the world to struggle to shape their own history according to their own aspirations (Sardar
1998).
The argument becomes problematic however, when it is argued that Western values do not fit to
the East at all (Sewpaul 2007: 406). Resistance should aim at not simply following, or at creating
itself, separating binaries. Instead, interconnections, and the influences the different cultures and
traditions of the world had on each other, need to be considered as well (ibid.: 404). Arguing for
multiple modernities, as adherents of the Asian Values discourse do, is a way of managing conflict
by containing it when Eurocentric notions of modernity have lost their hegemony (Dirlik 2003: 288).
The question of modernity is one that everyone faces, and is not a problem that simply exists
between the East and West. It is also a problem within societies, in which discussions about the
shape and form of modernity take place. By saying that there are several and alternative
modernities, imposing a monolithic idea of culture on a region, what is achieved is the erasing [of]
conflicts over culture that dynamite the politics of culture in [] societies (ibid.: 288). Instead of
separating the world we live in we should focus our attention on how to go beyond the distinctive
aspects of cultures and work towards a common agenda (Sewpaul 2007: 406). It could help to arrive
at a point at which intellectuals of the West do not simply assume that they hold the monopoly on
wisdom and virtue in this world (Mahbubani 2002: 61). So that we can learn from each other
instead of imposing each others views on the opposite side (Dallmayr 2002: 181), to create a set of
rights under which people hope to live in dignity and peace (Sutherland 2006). Thus, while its
assumptions, uses and separations need to be questioned, the larger resistance project is forms part
of should not be dismissed.

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The debate contributed to assert that non-Western actors can also contribute to the development
and growth of mankind (Mahbubani 2002: 16). Some in the West seem to think that it has reached
the end-point of development, and that no great changes will need to be made (ibid.: 41). The
debate about Asian Values proposes that this does not necessarily have to be so. Societies might be
organised differently, with a different emphasis on parts of society (Sardar 1998). The discourse
inheres a challenge to and an attempt at creating alternatives to the powerful European and
American discourses regarding globalisation, and to find other options than the narratives espoused
by the West (Milner 1999). It is an attempt to conceptualise knowledge-production as something
not just done by Western scholars but an endeavour by all in which Asian historical experience is
used alongside other experiences (Jenco 2013: 255), and other traditions and cultures can contribute
to amend and enrich, modern ways of knowing (Dirlik 2003: 285). It thus destabilises Western
claims to knowledge (Jenco 2013: 256). Tommy Koh wrote that Asia has learnt and will learn from
the West, and he hopes the West will do the same with regard to Asia. The Asian Values
discourse thus forms part of a start to mark the locations of knowledge in the modern world and the
(future) directions of its circulation (ibid.: 257). But the debate does not only take place between
the West and Asia, it also takes place within Asia. It is through these internal debates that
intellectuals can discuss the tenability of specific alternatives to Euro-American knowledge, power,
and ways of life (ibid.: 258). It challenges accepted ideas about the future and establishes new ones
including the role Asia might play (ibid.: 258). It thus is a response to the uncertainty about the
development of modernisation (ibid.: 253), whose idea of modernity will eventually shape different
Asian nations, and what the terms of international discourse in the 21st century should be (Ingleson
1998: 228). There will be different expressions and articulations of modernity (Dirlik 2003: 289).
Instead of accepting the Wests modernity, the Asian states are thus asserting their role in shaping
and influencing the future construction of knowledge and processes of modernity. The debates offer
a way to point to Asian characteristics as challenges that transform, rather than traditional values
which supplement, Western processes of modernization (Jenco 2013: 239).
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Overall, the Asian Values discourse can be criticised on many grounds. However, if it is simply
dismissed we miss the larger project of cultural assertion and the relocation of knowledge-
production that the discourse formed part of. This constitutes an important aspect for former
colonial subjects that now assert their agency in the global arena, and make their voices heard
regarding the future shape of modernity, the world system and the rights all should be entitled to.
This matters because in liberal democracies that have adopted neoliberal practices the terms and
arguments of human rights are appropriated by right-wing conservatives as justification for denial of
conditions that create the foundation upon which fundamental freedoms and individual, family and
community responsibilities might be fostered(Sewpaul 2007: 406). In both the West and other less
developed regions neoliberalism is eroding social and economic protections and threatening human
rights (Goodheart 2003: 961). The challenge to Western discourse included in Asian Values and
the broader debate, if heard, could help us to transcend differences and work on a framework that
guarantees certain rights and protects them from the negative effects of neoliberalism.

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