the related issues of democracy and human rights attract considerable attention in Western media reports and scholarly literature on East and Southeast Asia. The tone of this discourse is often critical of the perceived inadequacies of the political systems of Asian nations, many of which are considered authoritarian and not sufficiently committed to respecting the right of their citizens ‘to life, liberty and security of person’ (Article 3 of the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’). In short, they are criticised for not being sufficiently like the political systems of Western nations, which are supposedly democratic and respect the human rights of their citizens.

Political leaders of some East and Southeast Asian nations, such as Dr Mahathir of Malaysia and Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore, have rejected this criticism on the grounds that Asian societies have cultural values different from those of the West. These ‘Asian values’ – harmony, unity, respect for leadership, loyalty, consensual decision-making – make slavishly copying the political systems and values of Western nations both impractical and undesirable (Kausikan 1998). Even if democracy and human rights are, as the West maintains, universal values, Asian nations are just not able to implement them, at least not yet. Their economic underdevelopment relative to Western industrialised nations necessitates political systems that can ensure the stability and harmony necessary for development, something that democracy and a concentration on the rights of the individual cannot do.