Asia Leadership Fellow Program
2000 Program Report

Action and Reflection:
Experiences of Globalization in Asia

International House of Japan
Japan Foundation Asia Center

61

Asia Leadership Fellow Program 2000 Program Report

Action and Reflection:
Experiences of Globalization in Asia

Edited by The International House of Japan
Published by The International House of Japan and
The Japan Foundation Asia Center

July 2001

Copyright © 2001 by
The International House of Japan
5-11-16, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 106-0032
Tel. 81-3470-3211
Fax. 81-3-3470-3170
www.i-house.or.jp
Printed and bound by Nissei Eblo Co., Tokyo

Korean and Japanese names are written in the native manner—surnames
followed by given names.

62

Contents
Foreword5…………………………………………………………

Profiles of the Fellows
7……………………………………………

Schedule of Activities
9……………………………………………

Introduction
11………………………………………………………

Program Reports and Papers of the Fellows
A Parenthetical Time in a Busy Life
Urvashi Butalia……………………………………………
29
Memory in an Age of Globalization:
Some Reflections from India
Urvashi Butalia……………………………………………
35
Some Indonesian Experiences with Globalization
Faruk………………………………………………………
41
The Power of the LetterFaruk………………………………………………………
45
NGOs and the Development of Civil Society:
A Case from Cambodia
Kumaoka Michiya…………………………………………
61

63

NGO Development in Korea
Park Won-Soon……………………………………………
65
Patients’ Rights of Access to Drugs in the
Globalization Era: The Case of Thailand
Saree Aongsomwang……………………………………...
89
Resource Persons and Program Staff
99

64…………………………

PROGRAM REPORTS AND PAPERS
OF THE FELLOWS

65

A Parenthetical Time in a Busy Life
Urvashi Butalia
Founder, Kali for WomenAt the end of my two-month stay in Japan, I had one question uppermost in
my mind. Why had I ever considered not accepting the fellowship?
When it was initially offered as a possibility, my first reaction was to say no:no to spending two months away from home, no to absenting myself fromwork, from all the responsibilities that we heap on our heads. How will I
leave my office, I thought, and more, how will I leave my parents? Somegentle arm-twisting on the part of friends and relatives and the arrival albeit
late, of some modicum of good sense (particularly of the realization that noone is indispensable), made me accept, and I have never been more glad in
my life. Looking back on those two months now, I think that was one of
the best decisions I have made in the last several years. I count myself
lucky to have been able to spend that time in Japan: how often is it that weare given the chance to learn about a different culture, a different country?
Admittedly, that was not the purpose of the fellowship, but once we were in
Japan, it was difficult not to allow free rein to our natural curiosity. And
what better place than the International House with its grace, dignity andcharm?
In the first two weeks, the sense of release from one’s usual
responsibilities was akin to some wonderful discovery: was it possible tohave whole days in which you could simply sit and read and write and think― without even worrying about making your own bed? I remember
thinking, wow; I could get used to this! I found myself reading books I
had read as a child ― Gandhi’s autobiography, Nehru’s Discovery of India; orreading for pure pleasure and entertainment ― detective novels for example.
And then, spurred on by questions that came up in many of the lectures welistened to from Japanese scholars, I began to read about Japan, to lookaround myself, to notice more, to start learning. Here again, I was aware
all the time of the privilege of being able to do this ― listen, read, absorb,
think and, inevitably, what you observe and learn finds its way into yourown work.
Putting together four or six people from different regions over a
two-month period is a difficult thing to do. The organizers are never sureif the participants ― in this case the fellows ― will be able to build up
rapport, and whether friendships will find their way through the more
official interactions. But the interesting thing is that even if people may not66immediately hit it off with each other, four or six is a small enough number
for some kind of closeness to develop; and for people to begin thinking
about, and becoming involved in, the lives and concerns of others. I was
struck by how differently each one of us went through what was essentiallya similar process of relaxation, discovery, excitement, learning and sharing.
Park Won-Soon was excited at all the cases he was reading about, the pilesof books he was collecting on every and any aspect of law and human rights
in Japan. He would often invite us to his room at night to show off his
books ― and I was surprised to find that despite his seeming formality, ofall of us it was Park who had turned his room into a home, with posters andmaps on the walls, books in the shelves, and the wonderful clutter of lived
rooms all around. Saree was focused on her particular world, that of theconsumer, and to me, coming from a society which is increasingly
consumerising (to twist a word) but that has no sense at all of consumer
rights, it was fascinating to see how a closeness could be developed between
what we see as human rights, and the rights of the consumer. Here, inIndia, we have been concerned at the slide of people ― because of the way
our polity is going, and because of globalization ― from being
rights-bearing individuals to being mere consumers. Yet, in Saree’s workin Thailand, and in the work of the people I met through her in Japan, I
began to learn about the power of the consumer as a rights-bearing
individual, something which made me reformulate many of my own
theories. Kumaoka-san, our Japanese colleague, was less in evidence thanthe others (and did not join us for our frequent ramen ― ‘no more than 1,000
yen’ was Park’s directive ― dinners) because it is difficult to be a local andstay away from work for eight or so weeks. But whenever we managed tomeet and talk, we had the privilege of getting an ‘insider’s view’ of Japanesesociety, and particularly the NGO sector in Japan. His deceptive straight
face ― something the Japanese carry well ― and the sense of humour
lurking beneath, was a surprise and a delight. Through him, we began tounderstand the different nature of the Japanese concept of NGOs ― much
more work outside the country than in it, but also to see the difficult battle
NGOs had to wage merely to survive. In countries like mine, NGOs havebecome somewhat complacent ― when they need money, they can turn tointernational donor agencies for funds. But Japan, being a First World
country, has no such privilege, and most NGOs have to raise their own
funds through membership. Once again, to me this was a revelation:privilege, and its opposite, too, have strange faces. Sometimes being in the
Third World can bring the kind of privilege First World countries don’t
have.
And Faruk ― what shall I say about Faruk? Being conscientious,
Faruk had actually responded to one of my papers even before we had met,67

and reading his response, I thought, this person and I are going to havestrong differences. And indeed, we did, to begin with. But the process ofgetting to know someone like Faruk, who wore his seeming cynicism like anarmour, and beneath which lay a maelstrom of emotions and turbulence,
was for me a real education. At the end of our stay, I wished I had
understood what I now knew about Faruk at the beginning, for then there
was so much more we could have talked about. It was also at the end of
his stay ― when of all of us Faruk was the most upset to be leaving Japan ―that I understood that his love affair with Japan, which had given us many
amusing moments, was actually a displacement of his love affair withIndonesia, and his deep sorrow at the tearing apart of the fabric of his
country. When he wept to leave Japan, he was actually weeping forIndonesia, a country with the potential to do so much of what Japan had
done, but one that had bargained it all away. I think in one way e-mail is awonderful thing, for Faruk and I have kept in touch this way, and are able
to talk of many things that concern us.
My colleagues, and the friends we made at I-House, as well as thoseat the Japan Foundation, were only one part of what made the Japanesesojourn memorable. Among the others were our visits to the different
places we were taken to, and those we chose to go to. It was a privilege tobe able to listen to Shigeru Kayano, to visit Minamata and meet activists andothers there, to see how natural disasters are dealt with, to learn how a
traditional Japanese meal is eaten and enjoyed. For me, the time in Japan
also provided the opportunity to renew old friendships and contacts,
particularly people and organizations I knew and have worked withthrough ARENA, a Hong Kong-based organization. Similarly, I had theprivilege of giving a few lectures in different universities mainly in Tokyoand the suburbs, which gave me an opportunity to talk about my own work(and to learn to speak slowly for the translators) but also to share ideas withJapanese students and learn about their concerns. In many ways theexperience of giving lectures at universities, particularly to undergraduate
students, was also unique because I have never before faced a class (largely
female, in one case only female!) of 200-250 students. I was amused to notethat many students painted their nails through the class, others slept (butdid not snore), but all were unfailingly polite and no matter that they had
slept through my lecture right under my nose, they came up and thanked
me afterwards for a ‘very excellent lecture’ ― this, I assumed, was the famed
Japanese formality. A thesis that I developed, and which was confirmed
during my stay by a number of such incidents, was that the Japanese sleep alot: they sleep in classrooms, on trains, they sleep sitting and standing up,
and they sleep on station benches, on platforms... BUT they sleep quietly.
They don’t snore, and don’t disturb others sitting around them by falling all68over them. Polite even in sleep!
Much of my own work has been on nationalism, nation making, andquestions of memory and violence. For years I have worked at collecting
oral histories of people who lived through the violence of the Partition ofIndia, created by the British as they were leaving, into two countries, India
and Pakistan. My two-month stint in Japan allowed me to explore andexpand this interest in unexpected ways. The lectures we listened to, andmore especially the two-day retreat with academics and others from Japan,
brought home to me the importance of war and memory in Japan, and the
difficulty of dealing with the so-called ‘unreliability’ of memory, as well as
its gendered nature. These are questions that I am now beginning to
explore and pursue in depth, and although they are directly related to mywork, I think it is a fair guess that I may not have arrived at them,
particularly in quite the same way, if I had not been alerted to the debatesand discussions in Japan. And I should mention that while in Japan, I
finished work on a long paper on the subject which I had been struggling
with for some time.
We were also lucky, as fellows, to get to meet some of the earlier
fellows who were in Tokyo for a meeting for the ALFP reunion to be held
later this year (2001). They gave us good advice about eating-places andparticularly about persuading the Head of the Japan Foundation to send us
to the Takarazuka. This we did, and it was a wonderful, heady, colourful,enjoyable experience which, at the time, I wanted to repeat every evening of
the evenings that were left, but apart from the fact that there would havebeen no tickets, better sense eventually prevailed, and we used theremaining days to eat yakitori and sushi and drink hot sake to keep the cold
away! This too was a memorable Japanese experience ― when I had
arrived in Japan, the thought of sushi was not very appealing, but by theend of my stay I had begun to seek out sushi bars! And then, there wasanother unexpected treat ― an Asian theatre festival in which a play by oneof the ex-fellows, Kuo Pao Kun, was being performed by an Indian troupe,
in Hindi! A number of us went, the play was wonderful, and meeting theauthor a rare privilege. You meet someone like that and you know
instantly that there is a lot to talk about.
It is true that for many of us in Asia, because of our past histories,
and because the West is so all-powerful, the reference points in our lives
have always been Western. It is to the West that most Asian scholars turnfor validation, it is Western theories that often inform our work, it is to theWest that we travel in search of this and that. Yet, at first imperceptibly,
and recently more clearly, this has begun to change. As we learn more
about each other’s cultures, we realise what a lot there is we can gain frominteractions between our cultures. Because of my work on Partition, for69example, I have often thought of putting together a book which looks at
different partitions, and tries to collect people’s memories of these. But
whenever I thought of such a book, the histories I thought of exploring were
those of Palestine, Ireland, and Bosnia. The time I spent in Japan suddenly
brought home to me the fact that I should be thinking, not in terms of thosecountries so much as in terms of China, Korea, the subcontinent, Thailand,
Singapore, Malaysia. Instead of turning elsewhere, I should be looking at
our own history, the history of the region, the history of Asia. Of course,‘Asia’ and ‘Asians’ are not unproblematic concepts, as we know, but it istime we turned our attention to them, and addressed the contradictions andcomplexities their histories and current realities carry. In this sense, the
ALFP programme by putting together scholars/activists/writers/thinkers
and public intellectuals from different countries in our region shows a raremeasure of enlightenment. Whatever problems there may have been in
those two months ― and for me I can truly say that these were minimal ― itis for this perspective that I am more than grateful, and I can only thank mylucky stars that the Japan Foundation and the International House decided
to include India in their programme this time!

70

Memory in an Age of Globalization:
Some Reflections from India*
Urvashi Butalia
Founder, Kali for Women

In many ways it is fitting that this paper should come at the beginning.
India is a late entrant to the Asia Leadership Fellow Programme. It is alsoa late entrant to globalization. And those who are late should learn to beearly! In my presentation today I will not go into the details of what ismeant by globalization, except to say what we all know: that while its main
thrust is economic and relates to markets and finance, its effects are also felt
in many other arenas of our lives, and it is experienced differently bydifferent people and different countries. I will here limit myself to thesubjects of culture and gender in the context of globalization.
My interest in these subjects comes from my involvement, both as anactivist and a researcher, in the women’s movement in India. India is acountry about which there are many stereotypes. One of these is that its
women are very oppressed and silent. Like all stereotypes, this one has acertain amount of truth in it. What is not known, however, is that India
also has a strong, vibrant and dynamic women’s movement within which
activists have been fighting for change for many years. In recent years,
politics in India has become very focused on the question of religious
identities. In addition, the universalizing processes of globalization have
led to the growth of different kinds of dangerous, often anti-womenmajoritarian, cultural nationalism in India. These have provided achallenge to the many certainties and beliefs that once held us together asactivists within the women’s movement, and we are now beginning theslow and painful process of unlearning many of the things (such as themyth of women’s solidarity, regardless of their class, religion, ethnicity) we
cherished, and starting to learn new, and not always pleasant lessons.
Against this background, I would like to look at questions that havebeen of concern to me in India and within Indian history. I believe thesequestions have acquired a newness and urgency in the context of India
today, and I believe, too, that they have much resonance in Asian countries,and especially in Japan. My questions have to do with the nature ofThis paper was presented at a symposium, “Action and Reflection: Experiences of
Globalization in Asia,” held at the International House on October 26, 2000.
*

71

memory. I want to ask: how does a nation come to terms with its
memories of nation making, particularly when those memories have to dowith terrible violence and violation? More specifically, how do people
who make up that nation come to terms with these memories and,
importantly, how do they act upon them? Further, how can nations ensurethat such memories are not abused, that they are in fact deployed withresponsibility? In other words, how does our past direct us to our future,and how must we deal with the use and abuse of the past in order to makethe future that we want?
During my two months in Japan I have been struck by the fact thatthe question of memory seems to occupy a prominent place in Japanese
discourse: the memories of that moment when this country turned fromempire to nation-making, a moment that carried with it a certain defeat andhumiliation. In many ways, this moment in Japan’s history is the mirror
image of one in India’s history: the moment when India turned from acolony to an independent nation, a moment of a certain euphoria and pride.
In both cases, which we can crudely call defeat and victory, unpleasantmemories were suppressed in the service of the nation. Many of these had
to do with women, and particularly with the sexuality of women. In Japan,
these are memories of sexual slaves or comfort women, in India these werememories of women raped and abducted during Partition. Do thesememories really have no place in today’s world?
Let me give you a brief background of Partition. As you know,
India became independent in 1947.
Independence, however, came
simultaneously with a division of the country into two, India and Pakistan,
a division which was meant to create a separate homeland for Muslims, i.e.
Pakistan. This decision gave rise to both mass violence as Hindus andMuslims turned on each other, and led to the greatest human migration
known to history: roughly 14 million people are said to have moved
between the two countries in the space of three months. One million were
killed. More than 100,000 women were said to have been raped andabducted by men of other religions, and often by men of their own religion.
Several of these were sold into prostitution and slavery. In many families,
men who feared that their women might be abducted and raped by men of
the other religion took the extreme step of killing their own women in orderto ‘save’ them from rape and dishonour. In India’s history, the fact of therape of this large number of women is a shameful one, for it shows that thenation, its men who are after all the people who make up its citizens, failed
to protect its weaker people, those they had sworn to protect.
Within families, communities, within history, we hear little about
these women who were, in a sense, violated and lost in the moment of
nation making. When the Indian and Pakistani governments realized the72scale of the problem of raped and abducted women, they agreed to set up
search parties made up of women social workers and police, to go into eachother’s countries and find these women and bring them back to theircountries. However, in several instances, by the time the search party
arrived, the woman might have settled down to an existence with her rapist,
she might have children by him, and therefore many women refused tocome back. This refusal, the apparent willingness of some women to stayon with their rapists, was not something the State could sanction. It
represented sexual chaos, and therefore its history had to be suppressed. I
need hardly point out the similarities with some of the discourse around
comfort women: that they were willing prostitutes, that they were women
who consented to have sex with soldiers, as if by doing so, they cease to be
the responsibility of the nation-in-the-making.
In India, as in Japan here, these histories have long been suppressed,
for the kinds of reasons I have mentioned above. But such histories do notstay suppressed. And in recent years in India they have begun to surface ―due to the passage of time, the current political realities, the fact that women
who are aging are now more willing to speak out, and the fact that there arepeople who are beginning to listen.
The danger here is that the surfacing of such memories and stories istaking place at a time when India is going through a resurgence ofnationalism, and there are ways in which such memories are being drawn
into the service of this nationalism. Just as India’s freedom from Britishcolonialism represented one moment of nation making, so also its entry into
the global economy represents another such moment, when the nation is
being remade on two levels: on the one hand there is the pull of the global,
borderless world, while on the other there is the development of identity
politics and movements based on assertions of ethnicity, religion, etc. My
friend Faruk calls these two simultaneous and contradictory processes
cosmopolitanism and localism. In India, then, since the early nineties,
there have been two parallel processes at work which are often
complementary ― these are the processes of globalization and the rise ofHindu nationalism.
Right wing politics in India are increasingly sectarian, creating andencouraging divisions on the basis of religion, and attempting to ensure thatminorities have to live by the rules of the majority. For the right wing, theforces of globalization, the threat represented by it, the spread of globalized
media; present the perfect argument to speak about the threat to the ‘nation’.
The threat comes in the form of a cultural invasion, in the kinds of ‘Western’images and ideas (such as ideas of freedom, equality, choice, etc) that
predominate in the media. In the face of such a cultural invasion, it
becomes necessary to assert your ‘national’ identity. In this so-called73

national identity, minorities are required not to be different, but to fit into
the norm that is set by the majority. The majority in this case is Hindu, andtherefore the ideal Indian citizen is posited as a Hindu male ― in doing thisthe diverse, multiple, plural nature of Hinduism is itself homogenized. If
minorities persist in asserting their difference or demanding their rights of aState, which in fact has promised them these rights, the Hindu right wingtakes upon itself the responsibility of teaching them a lesson.
Such lessons are almost always taught violently ― through attacks
on minorities, and increasingly, through attacks on their women. The main
people to be targeted are Muslims, because they form the largest minority,
but also because they are seen, in some ways, to have betrayed the nation byhaving demanded Pakistan. It does not matter that the Muslims who arebeing attacked are living in India, they are Indians ― but the fact of theirreligion condemns them to the status of the enemy. Women become very
important in this process: one way of attacking and insulting minorities isby targeting their women. Memories ― selectively used ― of Partition
violence are very useful in this regard, and in recent years the right winghas very powerfully used the argument that “because the Muslims raped
our women at Partition, we can now rape theirs to pay them back.” To
those who do not know the nature of Partition violence, this can prove avery convincing argument. In actual fact, what happened was that bothcommunities raped each other’s women ― neither one was better than theother. But because, as a nation, we have been unable to confront and deal
with this painful realization ― that it was not only ‘their’ men but also ‘ours’
who were guilty ― we have in many ways left the ground open to the rightwing to abuse this memory, to present only one part of it as truth, and totarget minorities and their women.
The assertion of ‘Hindu’ identity therefore takes place in the face ofthe onslaught of globalization and the perceived erosion of such identities
from within by the assertion of ‘other’ identities, such as minority identity,
or caste identity or even your identity as women. The Hindu religion,
plural and diverse as it is, is itself homogenized in this process. In India,
the media have proved a powerful ally of globalization and of the Hindu
right wing in this enterprise. In his presentation on Indonesia, mycolleague Faruk talks about the absence of what he calls a ‘written’ culture
in Indonesia ― something that makes it difficult for people living in largely
oral cultures to negotiate effectively with the messages of globalization.
We have no such problem in India: television is an all-powerful medium,
reaching out to more than 750 million people, and television in India today
is marked by the absence of the poor, the marginal, of minorities and even,to some extent, of women.
In the time that I have spent in Japan, I have noticed several common

74points with the Japanese and Indian experiences. There is a stereotype
about Japanese society that it is a homogenous society. Yet, like allstereotypes, this one has a grain of truth in it for there has been an attempt
here to build a consciously homogenous identity. The Japanese society is
as much a globalizing society as it is globalized; ours is a society preparing
to take its first steps into the global economy. Together, we will soon findourselves worshipping the same gods: money and markets.
In India, Partition and Partition stories play an important role inattempts at constructing a homogenous Hindu identity: because Muslims
are seen as demanding Pakistan, therefore their nationalism is in question
and all Muslims who stayed on in India as its citizens, now become suspect
as people who are secretly anti-national. What is conveniently forgotten isthat the decision to divide the country was as much one that Indianpoliticians agreed to as it was one that Pakistani politicians wanted. In
Japan, the war and war stories play an important part in constructing ahomogenous Japanese identity. In both cases much of the selectiveness ofmemory focuses on women: the Hindu right wing perpetrates the myth of
the Muslim rapist, in Japan there is the reluctance to recognize the terrible
fact of sexual slavery during the war for what it was.
I do not think this is something that applies only to men. Truths
such as mass rape or sexual slavery are as uncomfortable for women to
accept as they are for men. After all, women recognize that somewhere in
the numbers who perpetrated these crimes, there must have been men theyknew or were related to. They recognize, too, that they have colluded in
keeping silent on these issues, and often in distorting what we might calltheir truth ― that is, the fact that, in India at least, such violence took place
on both sides. It is this, the women’s complicity or collusion, that makes it
possible for the Right to draw women into its numbers ― as has been
happening in India ― and to enable them to act against other women. This
creates particular problems for women activists who have always believedthat there is an underlying solidarity among women, regardless of theircaste, class, race, or religion. In this atmosphere, it becomes difficult also to
speak of questions of equality and rights, which are dismissed by the rightwing as ‘Western’ notions. In this, again, the agenda of the Hindu
nationalists is supported by that of global corporations who are notinterested in rights, but in markets, not in citizens but in consumers.
As an activist, these issues have been of concern to me for many
years. I do not have any answers about how they can be addressed. And
I think any answers we may offer are complicated by the fact that in India,
at least, all these changes and manipulations are taking place within acontext of democracy ― which makes it even more difficult to decide how to75

address them. But I do feel that as people concerned for the future or ourcountries and indeed for our world, we need to work hard at doing awaywith our selective amnesia about the past, to come face to face with ourmemories, and to begin from there the process of learning how to deal withthe future. Let me put it this way: if Indians of my generation had known,from the beginning, the different and plural truths of what happened when
our country was partitioned, if we had not been fed on only one side of thestory, we might have grown up to be better, more tolerant, more confident
and indeed better human beings ― which is, after all, what we are all
striving for.
I’d like to end with a short story. A Japanese friend spoke of asurvey of some sort that was carried out among young people in Tokyo’s
Shibuya district. The subject of the survey was the war, and many of them
did not know that Japan had been in a war with America. You may ask
how it would help these young men and women with golden hair and in
platform heels, to know this. But perhaps, once the golden hair andplatform heels are behind them, these young people may encounter somediscrimination at the hands of Americans, or they might one day read about
the campaign against bases in Okinawa. It is then that the knowledge ofthe past will be useful and important.
I have concentrated, in this paper, on only one aspect of therelationship between globalization, nationalism and memory. There are, ofcourse, many other aspects that I have not touched upon. My colleagues
will address their attempts to counter globalization in their different
countries, and will raise a variety of issues such as the encounter between
global and local cultures, the issues of ethics and fair trade, questions ofaccountability, transparency, and the necessity of solidarity.

76Some Indonesian Experiences with
Globalization
Faruk
Lecturer, Gadjah Mada University
Indonesian experiences with globalization are actually not adifficult and complicated subject to talk about. This can easily be seen, forexample, in the effects of the 1997–1998 monetary crisis on Indonesia and its
people. When compared with the effects of the crisis on other Asian
countries, Indonesia’s experiences indicate some unique tendencies. First,
while other Asian countries have already been able to escape from the crisis,Indonesia is still sunk so deeply in a never-ending financial crisis. Second,
only in Indonesia did the impact of the crisis reach the deepest fundamentalsof the whole social life of the Indonesian people. So much so that the crisis
became a multiple crisis, generating political, social and even cultural effects.
There have been efforts conducted by many scholars and public
intellectuals to find the answer to those unique tendencies. The high levelof dependency of the Indonesian government and big companies on foreign
debt is one of those answers. The other one is the growing gap between therich and the poor. The unclean government with a high degree of corruption
within the official government, is another answer. The high concentrationof power in the executive institutions is another alternative answer. The
final alternative answer is the absence of the politics of culture, which is
directed to construct, institutionalize and internalise the imagined national
community. Militarism is also considered to be one of them.
It is difficult to determine which one of those possible answers
can be considered the correct one. Even, if all of them are considered theright answer, the question about the interrelation between the answers isstill left. In this occasion I do not intend to solve this problem. What I
intend to offer is only another possible answer that has never been
touched upon in the discussion about Indonesian experiences with
globalization in general, including the monetary crisis which waspreviously mentioned. Orality is my main concept in approaching theanswer.

***

The high dependency of the Indonesian government and big
companies on foreign debt is, of course, not a product of a kind of auniversal natural law. There are some countries in the world that canescape from this necessity, those that have a strong capacity to become
more self-reliable. For these countries the impact of the financial crisis77

is not so strong. Therefore, there must be some internal cultural reasons
why Indonesia became so dependent on debt. Culturally perceived,
Indonesians are a people who do not have a strong enough capacity to
become self-reliable. If they pretend to be self-reliant, as during theSukarno regime, they move to the extreme opposite side by saying “go tohell with your aid” policy and the result was the financial bankruptcy ofthe country.
This tendency may relate strongly with the cultural backgroundof the people of Indonesia. From the perspective of the theory of orality,
people whose culture is based on oral language and oral tradition will bedisposed to have a higher level of dependency on any kind of
personalised guidance. The mere substance of oral language is sound,which is an evanescent phenomenon that vanishes soon after being
articulated. People who only have this kind of technology for storing,
managing, processing, and communicating information necessarily pose a
problem of indeterminacy. They cannot fix what has just taken place,articulated, listened, and, so on. To determine them they need a kind of
personal guidance such as a charismatic and sacred figure that supposedly
holds the truth in his/her hands. It is this kind of leader that they relyon.
In this oral condition people pose a mnemonic problem, that is, aproblem to retain memory. Because the sound of oral language vanishes
quickly, the people cannot fix and accumulate information in a great
number and of a varied kind. They then tend to simplify them as, forexample, into two opposite sides where there is no room or at least little
room in between. Maybe, it is for these reason that two Indonesian
regimes, those of Sukarno and Suharto, had extremely opposite
tendencies. The first had a “go to hell with your aid” policy while theother sank very deep into foreign debt.
The idea of true or false with the people whose culture is basedon orality will never become the idea of an objective true and false. Bothof those matters are always perceived as something subjective because
their determination depends on the personalized guidance mentioned
above. Hence, this kind of people will hardly believe in any kind ofwriting, including the written law. If they have writing, they treat it
only as a kind of decoration or a magic thing that has no relation with
their daily life. Writing is one thing, while life is another. The people
can have a very beautiful written law about the necessity to have a clean
government while, at the same time, having a corrupt behaviour without
any guilty feelings. The people can have a slogan beautifully written
about nationalism, national solidarity, while, at the same time, having avery strong self-interest and sectarian interest without any guilty feelingas well.

78

***

A nation state and a national community, primarily in the context
of a large country like Indonesia, can only be strongly constructed on thebasis of writing. Without writing, the nation state cannot count how
many people make up the population. They cannot possibly determine
even where they live; how old they are; how is their economic, social, andcultural condition; how they interact with each other, personally as wellas collectively, or even how is the rules of the game they can use tointeract on the level of trans-village and trans-district, and eventrans-island relation. It is also only by determining the national border,
the district border, and the village border that they can be determined andfixed. The feeling of solidarity, the sense of national brotherhood ofpeople from an isolated island to others from a distant island, can only beconstructed by writing as well.
Indonesians, as a people whose culture is mostly based on an oral
language, cannot meet this condition. Hence, from the outset theIndonesian nation state has a built-in abnormal condition, with a verythin and weak foundation. From the colonial era until the “Orde Baru”
era, the huge geographical area of Indonesia, the heterogeneous people
and the culture in it, were united primarily by military force and addedby the magical words of a charismatic figure like Sukarno and muchmoney gained from debt like Suharto. Being inspired by the Iranian andFilipino revolutions, people got the idea of ‘people power’ that gradually
reduced the legitimacy of military supremacy. Being hit by the monetarycrisis, the power and legitimacy of the state to maintain the unity ofpeople of Indonesia was also lost. Being influenced by the newelectronic technology, especially audio-visual electronics such as
television, people got a strong desire to act, while growing uneasy with
one place, one landscape, one government, and tried to have a new one.
Being influenced by some international projects of globalism, locality,
heterogeneous culture, and decentralization, people do not have to pray
for the idea of unity, including national unity. In my opinion, all of
those tendencies mean one thing, that the people’s way of life including
oral culture is growing strong.
Being tied strongly to orality, Indonesians cannot do anything ina self-reliable way other than move back to a small community. They
will not be able to handle a huge country like Indonesia although it is notas simple as it seems. Firstly, the idea of locality in the recent and futurecontext will never be a pure locality as given in the past. It is a kind of
globalized locality or localized globality. Hence, it is much more
complex than the idea of nationality. In this context, people whose
culture is still based on ‘orality’, can never be able to manage it. They
will be misunderstood as a pure locality, constructing the idea of localism,
by negating the equal position and the existence of other people coming

79

from other localities. Secondly, although Indonesia, the country thatwas built on the base of military power and some irrational foundation,in fact, has already lived for at least 45 years. Many things have alreadyhappened throughout our history that cannot be abolished. There havebeen many migrants who live in more than one generation in otherlocalities, there have been many people from different localities andcultures who are married to each other, generating a dual-ethnicity andculture. All of them will become victimised if the idea of locality isperceived, conceived, and conducted in the framework and on the base oforal culture.

80

The Power of the Letter
Faruk
Lecturer, Gadjah Mada University
Roland Barthes’ Emptiness1
Roland Barthes' book entitled Empire of Signs is interesting to be discussed inthis paper. There are two reasons, at least, that make me interested in thebook. First, I feel that I am in a rather similar position with him whenwriting about the Japanese people and their culture so that by discussing his
book I can as well clearly make my position. Second, the ways heinterprets Japan really stimulates me to give a response and to say or towrite something about it. In his own term, his writing is really writingly,
not only readerly.2
My impression of the book is that Barthes approaches Japanesethings and manners in a very post-structural way. For example, if he talks
about sign and meaning, signifier and signified, he refers to the Saussurean
structural linguistic theory that divides the sign into two related parts. But
when he sees the possibility of the signifier or the sign separating itself fromthe signified or the meaning, Barthes has already been in the area of
post-structural theory.
As implied in the title of the book, Barthes tends to conceive
Japanese culture as the empire of the sign. This means that things andmanners in the culture are actually subjected to the power of the signifierand become the loyal citizens of the empire of it. In discussing the signifier
and the signified, Barthes tends to have in mind a very broad concept
covering not only the idea of the relationship between the sign and meaning
in a common term, but also the idea about the form and the content; thethings and the frame, the body and the mind, the action and the reflection,
the movement and the still, the chaos and the order, and so on. In thisbook Barthes does not formulate all aspects of the concept in a single
formulation but mentions them separately in separate discussions on
Japanese things and manners. For example, there are essays about
This part contains a special discussion on Roland Barthes’ book entitled The
Empire of Signs published by Hill and Wang in 1982.
2 Barthes’ concepts on writing, reading, writerly text and readerly text can be foundin his book entitled S/Z, published for the first time in Great Britain in 1975 by
Jonathan Cape.
1

81

Japanese foods, Japanese cities, Japanese stations, the Japanese language,
Japanese theater, Japanese packages, Japanese politeness, etc.
Although writing on the respective things and manners seem to beisolated from each other in such a way that the book appears to be acollection of separated writings, all of them tend to reverberate the same
theme or conclusion, that is, as I have already mentioned, that Japan isessentially the empire of the signifier. According to Barthes, what is
important with Japanese food is not the food itself, but the action taken
toward it by the Japanese consumer. The Japanese city, Tokyo, has indeed
a center, that is, the palace of the emperor. But in fact, the center tends tobe always avoided by the people so that the center then becomes an empty
center. In Barthes’ opinion, the Japanese address is actually not an address
because in Japan streets do not have names and the address is only a postal
code that make sense only for the postman. Hence, the city can only beknown only if the people “orient themselves in it not by book, by address,
but by walking, by sight, by habit, and by experience.” Japanese
packaging prove once again, for Barthes, that the Japanese world consists of
only form and postponed content. It is not the content of the package thatis important, but the package itself. The content can be very trivial,
insignificant, and even laughable. Haiku, for him, “breach of meaning,”“exemption from meaning.” And the Japanese form of politeness such as
bowing, is merely an exchange so that the polite act “literally salute no one.”
Barthes imagines Japanese culture as a series of signifier without
signified, a series of movement without intention, a series of bodily things
and actions without mind and thought, and a merely surface thing withoutsomething deep behind it. But he does not evaluate all of them in anegative way and even tends to pray and admire those tendencies rather
that to humiliate them. He pulls them back to some doctrines of Buddhism
and Zen Buddhism, for example, in the concept of satori where theemptiness is conceived as the peak of the process in obtaining
enlightenment. Barthes even admits that by experiencing the emptiness ofJapan, he has been afforded to the situation of writing that is similar withthe situation of satori. Satori, he says,“is a more or less powerful (…) seism which causes knowledge, orthe subject, to vacillate: it creates an emptiness of language. And it isalso an emptiness of language which constitutes writing; it is fromthis emptiness that derive the features with which Zen, in the
exemption from all meaning, writes gardens, gestures, houses,
flower arrangements, faces, violence.”
Moreover, Japan in this kind of interpretation, becomes analternative world for Barthes. The World of Japan, according to him, is82

opposed to the Western world. If Japan is the empire of signs, the Westernworld is the empire of meaning. In the West, people always try to searchfor something in-depth, the signified behind the signifier. In Japan, theculture is only a series of signifier, differences and a series of surface. It isthe context of the contrast that makes Barthes, in this book, not only write
about the Japanese culture, but also about Western culture.
I feel that I am in a similar position with Barthes. If in the eye ofBarthes the Japanese people and culture seem to be unlimited anddecentered space, consisting of only a series of signifier moving
continuously; in my eye the striking characteristics of the Japanese arelocated in their orderly and centered space, and in their continuously
framed movement. Barthes, of course, has seen the frame and the center.
But in his opinion, the frame is invisible, fragile, and the center is avoided,
postponed. When he sees the Japanese room, what he catches is the sliding
door that makes the frame fragile and breakable. When he sees theJapanese landscape along his travels, what he catches is the fact that he does
not find the horizon. Contradictorily, he also finds a very strong frame in
the Japanese packages. In this case, Barthes replaces his idea about theframe with the idea about the form. What is equivalent with the frame is
not the form but the content so that both of them have a similar fortune, thatis fragile, postponed and unimportant.
It is really the difference in our backgrounds that seems to make
Barthes and I have a different sensitivity in perceiving the Japanese culture
and people. Barthes supposes his culture as an empire of meaning. In the
structuralist point of view, linguistically, anthropologically, sociologically,
psychologically, as well as hermeneutically; the meaning or the signified islocated behind the surface of the sign or signifier, the structure behind thephenomena, the deep structure behind the surface structure, theunconscious behind the conscious, a center among margins, an invariant
among the variants and intention behind expressions. It is the empire inwhich everything has a frame, intention, and a deep area. In postmodern
terms, the culture is exactly the modern culture with modernism. Thus
assuming himself from this kind of culture, Barthes sees Japan as the other,
precisely like what the colonialists used to do in the previous era. The
difference between them is only located in the value they give to the other.
The other of Barthes is the positive other, constructed in order todeconstruct the self. The other of the colonialists is the negative other,
constructed in order to maintain the self.
I see myself originated from the opposite culture related to Barthes’.
My culture is a non-modern culture, a traditional one, for the reason of its
oral condition as I have already mentioned. If my people are only and still
an isolated small community, I have no problem with the culture. But they83

live in a big country with a population from a very heterogeneous cultural
background. In this context the non-modern, the traditional, the oral based
characteristics of my culture can no longer function to frame the huge andheterogeneous people. Thus, in this term, I can say that I come from acountry with no frame and a very chaotic country. In my country thepeople do not have a certain design for conducting their life, are unable toorganize themselves, unable to arrange space, to differentiate space, andfinally becomes very chaotic and barbarian in character.
Like Barthes, I construct Japan as the other of myself and myculture and even my people. But if in constructing Japan Barthes intends
to deconstruct the self, I construct it in the interest of constructing myculture and country. It is the frame, the meaning, the content, the order,
and the unity that I searched for and found in Japan. Hence, in living twomonths in the country, I was always trying to see what is invisible, fragile,
unimportant, and trivial for Barthes. It is not the Haiku, Zen Buddhism,
paintings, or written texts, but the everyday life of the people and things.
One striking fact that is really invisible for Barthes in his book is theJapanese home and family. While living in Japan I was always trying toknow and to enter this area, but I failed. My friend, who I thought has
been so close to me, always avoids the possibility for me to visit her home.
But it does not mean that I stop trying and giving my attention to them.
One of the Japanese things that gave me a hint about the home and thefamily is the Japanese address card. Because the Japanese people are very
fond of exchanging this card, I could get so many from them. But none of
the cards indicated the home address, telephone, fax or e-mail numbers.
So in this case, the home and the family are really invisible things inBarthes’ term. But is it the empty center or the avoided or the postponed
center?
The possible answer to the question is seemingly negative in kind.
In my first week of contact with Japanese friends, I found one telling me
about his father. The friend said he could not join some meeting because
he had to accompany his father who was sick in the hospital. My otherfriend, one day, could not conduct his duty fully in the office for reasons ofaccompanying his mother who had an operation in the hospital as well.
My Japanese students received phone calls from her mother from Japan
almost every week, while another friend said that her parents sometimes
took care of her children even though their house is far from hers. She also
said that when she studied in Indonesia, her parents came to visit her.
Another friend of mine said that she could work in the office until night
because her family was still living in her parents’ house and it is her parents
who take care of her children.
From some of my Japanese friends’ responses to my question, I was

84

informed about the surprising tendency in relating to Barthes’ idea of theempty center as mentioned above. One of them said that both domains
have an equal value, but people cannot exist without the private one.
Three of them said that the home or the family or the private domain ismore important than the office or the business or the public domain. The
other told me that he doesn’t like to work overtime. He wants to put value
on having time with family and have a time to educate his daughter athome. All of them said that if they do not write down their home addresson the card it is because the card is an office card, for a business affair, andthey do not want to mix it with their private lives.3
This latter answer is very interesting because it relates to the generaltendency of Japanese culture. As I have already mentioned, Japanesepeople in connection with their writing system and their sensitivity to thevisual world have a disposition to always divide and classify things aroundthem and to create and simultaneously maintain the discrete border
between different things. Maybe it is in the context that the people’s
tendency to separate the public space with the private space finds its
significance. Furthermore, in relation with the people’s habits of travelling
everywhere, and their disposition to move, that tendency indicates thecapacity of the people to be always in control and in order so that theirevery movement can be prevented from the possibility of hitting each other.
In turn, the latter possibility may also mean that the Japanese people
always try not to be confused about so many different things and different
movement that they themselves have divided, created and have done. I
think it is in this context that the everyday life of the Japanese people andthings can be pulled back to the Zen Buddhism doctrine about satori. In abook entitled How to Practice Zazen,4 Mumon Yamada teaches the students
to be always conscious and prevent themselves from being confused
between their authentic selves and the things and the mind originated fromthe outer world. To reach this condition, the students are suggested to live
and meditate in a quiet place in order to be able to escape from the influenceof the outer world. But it does not mean that they must be always in thiskind of place. Even for the mature priests, they must be able to live in thecrowded world and open their eyes while conducting meditation without
being confused and with mind and body always carefully controlled.5
3 Two friends of mine who work in the same office said that they have never visited
each other’s respective house although they have already worked together for about
three years.
4 This book is published by the Institute for Zen Studies, Kyoto, Japan.
5 I remember one story of the Doraemon serial cartoon film. After seeing a friend
praised by the teacher for his good conduct, Nobita decided himself to be a goodboy by helping everyone. But every time he helped others, the result was always

85Hence, it is really questionable if Barthes interprets the emptiness ofthe satori as a kind of movement with a fragile frame, a kind of form withtrivial content, a kind of landscape without horizon and a kind of
expression with a postponed intention. In his writing about Japanese food,Barthes perceives the photograph of the food as a kind of frame, a structure.
But according to him, the frame and the structure are not the important
things in the food. It is the act to the food that is important. For example,
the movement taken to eat the food: the Japanese people, in Barthes’opinion, move in a condition of free alternation according to a caprice. I
think, in this case, Barthes forgets about other possibilities. First, it is thephotograph, the frame and the structure, which invite the move. If thefood is not framed or arranged in a way that makes sense for the Japanesepeople, they may not be moved to eat it.6 Also, if the food system does notinclude chopsticks, the Japanese eater may not use them to eat the food;therefore all the cultural functions of chopsticks as interpreted by Barthes
would be nonsense. Second, in his book Barthes does not give attention to
the place given for the respective kinds of food. Every kind of food has its
own place and the place of every food cannot be converted. In the
movement of eating, Japanese people will never mix one kind of food withanother except with the sauce that is already determined for the food. If
the people move according to a caprice, it will be possible for them to takethe food from the others’ tray.
It is right then that the frame or the center of the Japanese people’s
opposed with his intention. He made trouble for the others he intended to help.
Nobita then decided to be a bad boy because he thought that he was born to be one.
But every time he inflicted others, he found the opposite result. Nobita then became
confused until finally Doraemon suggested him to become his own self. Thissuggestion seems to be based on a universal truth. But, if it is seen from theperspective of Japanese culture, it will be very similar with what the Zen Buddhism
priests teach their students.
6 Recently I arranged a meeting in Indonesia for two of my Japanese friends whoneeded to talk with some Indonesian artists. I invited about ten artists to participate
in the meeting. About thirty minutes before the time of the meeting, the artists havealready arrived in the arranged place. All of them are men. Most of them havelong hair, a mustache and some of them have a long beard. The way most of them
are clothed is like hippies. The meeting room then became the arena for chatting forthe artists before my Japanese friends came. They smoke, they eat, drink, in aseemingly wild way. Ashtrays, plates, glasses spread on the table in a very
disorderly manner and the room is filled with cigarette smoke. So when my
Japanese friends entered the room, they directly felt shocked seeing the condition of
the room and the people. I could understand their feeling because they used to live
in a very orderly environment in their country and I could understand as wellseeing how their interest to talk disappeared.

86life and culture tends to be invisible. But, it does not necessarily mean thatthe frame and the center is fragile, trivial and empty. Like a Japanese
package, the frame is really strong and important. In writing about theJapanese address, Barthes concludes that the address necessitates the people
primarily to move and to experience the effort in finding the place. But, in
this case, Barthes forgets about the frame, the orientation. The Japanese
address generally consists of four elements, which are the town, the district,the block, and the number. The first three elements are multifold frames
which can be used by the people to orient themselves as certain as possible.
Only the number is the uncertain element, which gives room for and evennecessitates the people to act and to have experience. But compared withthe other elements, the room is far smaller than the frame so that it isunreasonable to say that the frame is fragile, trivial, and empty.
Thus, if the frame is made invisible or seemed to be avoided by thepeople, the reason then is not directed to the triviality of the frame or thecenter. It is the way taken by the people to carefully prevent the frame or
the center from the possibility of being broken and destroyed. The
Japanese people love very much their family and their private domain, so
they tend to hide them from the public domain by making them invisible.
The Japanese people love very much their emperor so they did not mind to
take over the emperor’s guilt in the case of the last world war, by living
below the abnormal law determined by America for tens of years. 7
Reciprocally, the love of the Japanese leader(s) to the people is a kind of
maternal love. Barthes also feels about it in his writing about the chopstick,about the way taken by the Japanese people in treating food. In my
impression, it is this kind of love that make the state serving the movementof the people in their travels by making available so many letters and signs
in order to make people avoid hitting each other and from being confused.
Doraemon has this kind of role in front of Nobita.8
That tendency has also been evident in the way taken by theJapanese people in preserving Kanji. As I have already mentioned, thepeople tend to treat it as a sacred thing. They preferred to create a new
writing system rather than to make Kanji distorted by the dynamic of lifeand language. When I asked some Japanese friends about the possibility toabolish it, all of them reject it for varied reasons. One of them said that thepossibility would only make many demerits for them. The other said thatthey feel more convenient using Kanji rather than other kinds of writing
system. The quotation below is another reason from another friend.

It is Mikio Kato-san who explained to me about the Japanese Law in one
workshop conducted by the ALFP 2000.
8 I have read a poem about this maternal love as can be found in the supplement.
787

“Pernah usulan membuang tulisan kanji, lagi pula membuang
bahasa Jepang sama sekali. Pada masa zaman Meiji Mendikbud
Mori mengusul pergantian bahasa Jepang dengan bahasa Perancis,
karena untuk kemajuan dan perkembangan perindustrian dan
kebudayaan.
Dia pikir bahasa Perancis itu adalah bahasa
peradaban, jadi lebih cocok untuk catch up negara-negara Barat.
Setelah perang dunia kedua juga banyak usulan untuk menggantibahasa negara bermunculan (pada period ini memangnya diusulkanbahasa Inggris). Dan pernah ada gerakan mengusul memakai
huruf romawi. Tapi usulan-usulan itu bisa disebut gagal total,
tidak disambut secara positif.
Saya kira gagalnya usulan di atas itu beralasan rasional. Bahasa
Jepang punya banyak homonimi (terutama On-Yomi). Misalnya
kata KISHA punya arti “kreta api”, “pulang ke kantor”,“perusahaan Anda”, dan “wartawan”. Tetapi huruf kanjinya
berlainan. Kami membedakan artinya dengan kanji (kalau ucapan
kami membedakan intonasi).”“There has ever been an idea to throw out the Kanji, even to abolishit at all. In the Meiji Era the Minister for Education Mori offered an
idea to replace the Japanese language with French for the reason of
the progress and the development of culture and industry. He
thought French is a civilized language so that it will be in accordancewith the effort to catch up with Western countries. After theSecond World War there have emerged many ideas about thepossibility to replace the state language (indeed, in this period, it is
the English that was offered). And there has ever been a movement
to use the Roman letters. But all of them can be called a total failure.
There were no responses to it.
I think, it is rational for all of them to fail. The Japanese language
has many homonyms (especially On-Yomi). For example, the word
KISHA has many meanings: ‘train’, ‘back to office’, ‘your company’,and ‘journalist’. But the Kanji for each of them is different. We
differentiate them with Kanji (in speech, we differentiate them byintonation).”Another answer is as follows.
“All Kanji has a meaning and if I see one Kanji, I can quickly
understand its meaning. However, if I see Katakana or Hiragana, I
won’t be able to understand the meaning until I finish reading thewhole part of the word. Say, if I see ‘katakana’, it takes time to88

understand its meaning, because I have to see ‘ka’ first, then ‘ta’ andthen ‘ka’ and ‘na’ and finally I put together those four ‘parts’ andunderstand it. So it takes four steps. On the other hand, if I write
it in Kanji, like babababa I can understand its meaning as soon as I see
it. So it takes only one step. I can’t imagine Japanese language
without Kanji.”
But it does not mean that the people then are always hung passively
onto the frame. As also implied in the quotation, they open themselves toany kinds of new things. Even according to my observation, they nevermiss any kinds of new thing that come from outside Japan. The idea ofcivil society, for example, has encouraged many discussions among thepeople and has moved them to found thousands of non-governmentorganizations spreading all over the country. 9 I think it is the naturaltendency of the people who used to be sensitive to any phenomena ranging
and emerging on the space. They always try to take it, to identify it, to giveit a place in the given space, though the thing sometimes seems to threaten
the frame, like in the case of some ideas on abolishing the Kanji or replacing
the Japanese language mentioned above.
Hence, the greatest challenges for the people are: (1) how to movecontinuously with an increasing number of things and ways of life like theKanji, Hiragana, Katakana, and Roman, without being confused, without
being lost in orientation to the frame; and (2) how to be actively involved in
the public sphere without forgetting the home, the family, the private
domain, though all of them are always invisible or made invisible in theformer sphere. To be confused is seemingly to be something that can makethe people ashamed of themselves, something that can make them feel verysad or fall in a very deep and unbearable suffering. It will be like the priest
who fails to attain satori.
This latter possibility simultaneously indicates that the fear of
becoming confused among the people is not only a psychologicalphenomenon, but even a metaphysical one. It relates to the people’s
religious and philosophical background. The same significance can also begiven to their tendency to be always careful in maintaining and also in
opening the border. In relation to the home address on the address card,
my Japanese friend said in Indonesian as followed.
“Saya anggap kartu nama adalah alat untuk berkomunikasi sosial (tidak
pribadi). Karena itu di kartu nama saya alamat dan nomor telepon rumahsaya tidak ditulis.
Saya kira kenalan atau kawan sekerja adalah kawan untuk
I found the information about them from ALFP 2000 programs, especially the
resource person seminar program and the trips program.
989

melaksanakan suatu tujuan bersama.
Bagi saya untuk
menyelenggarakan akademi kami secara lancar dan efisien. Sayaberakrab dengan mereka untuk tujuan itu. Jadi bisa disebut suatu‘functional relationship’ atau ‘practical relationship’.
Kalau saya bisa berakrab secara pribadi dengan kawan sekerja (carapikirannya, cara pandangannya cocok dengan saya misalnya), saya
mau meningkatkan atau memadatkan komunikasi dan terus dia
dijadikan teman pribadi.”“I conceive the address card as an instrument for public
communication (not private). So, in my card, I don’t write myhome address and my telephone number.
I think, my colleague or my acquaintance is my partner for attaining
a collective goal. For me, it means that we must manage together
our Academy successfully and efficiently. I relate myself closely tohim/her for that goal. So, it is a kind of ‘functional relationship’ or‘practical relationship’.
I will be personally close to him/her (if, for example, her/his way of
thinking, her/his way of seeing something is in accordance with mine). In
this case, I willingly can increase the communication with him/her andmake it closer so that he/she then will be my close friend.”

The Japanese Smell
Maybe only the Indonesians can do it. When I lived for two months inJapan, I was so eager sometimes to know about Japanese smells so I tried tosmell things around me. And indeed I hardly found it. For example, I
didn’t smell anything from the Soba, the Japanese traditional noodle, nor
anything from Sushi and Sashimi. Maybe there was a very thin smell fromthe Sukiyaki, something resembling beef in the process of maturation.
When I took the lift, I smell something very strong as if it was just used bypeople from the West. But I didn’t smell anything when the lift was justused by the Japanese people. When I walk on a rather crowded street inIndonesia, I could surely smell the aromas of many kinds of shampoo frompeople’s hair.
But I couldn’t have the same experience in Japan.
My Japanese student in Indonesia explained to me about smells inJapan. According to her, Japanese people have a strong sensitivity about
smells. They know many kinds of smells but they don’t like it. Hence, inJapan there are so many technological products used to neutralize manykinds of smells such as that in the toilet or the rest room; in the refrigerator,
the cupboards, in shoes and socks, and so on. What people do is not only
replace a bad smell with a better smell like perfume, but also to neutralize it.

90

People are actually not so interested even in perfume. It is for this reason
that there is not a smell of perfume in their tissue paper, in the rest room, inthe taxi, and so on. My student added that recently there is a popular
technological product from America. The product can neutralize the smellof mouths and feces.
One of my Japanese students also acknowledged that in Japan
people indeed are not so interested in perfume. According to her, it isbecause the Japanese people are accustomed to take a bath every day so thatthey do not need to cover themselves with it. The same student said thatJapanese people do not need perfume because they used to eat foods thatwill not make their bodies have a bad smell. My other friend said that she
has perfume, but she doesn’t use it for every occasion. But why doJapanese foods, at least according to my sensitivity, tend to have no smell as
well? Or, why do they tend to have only a very thin, natural and so simple
smells? It is surprising to me because on the visual performance, I saw thatthe people have a tendency to be cultured and sophisticated. In this case
Japan can be called a “colorful country” as, for example, performed in thecolor differentiation between train lines that are simultaneously useful forthe practical interest, especially for people who cannot read Kanji or any
other Japanese writing system. The Japanese stickers, posters, andpackages spreading all over the country have also proved this tendency.
Besides, Japan is highly developed in the arrangement of space as can beseen in the complicated train traffic lines and the underground and theupper ground spaces that are seemingly so overlapped.
Compared with this visual image, this tendency is not only relatedwith the Japanese habit of taking a daily bath and eating a certain kind offood that will not create a bad smell in their bodies, but also connected with
their strong disposition to divide and classify things in a strict and almost
absolute manner. As I have already mentioned, this disposition can only
be applied on the visual and spatial substance. Smell substance cannot betreated in the same way because it is so fluid, can’t be divided strictly andtends to always be overlapped, mixed, and make people confused. Hence
considering this wider context of Japanese culture and the people’s
disposition, they unconsciously are not interested in smell or perfume.
Sound actually has a similar characteristic with smell. Both cannot
be strictly divided and classified and there will never be a clear border
between them. Urvashi Butalia, one of the ALFP fellows, said that she isinterested in the way the Japanese people say ‘yes’, hai. I didn’t ask her
further on what respect of the word she was interested in. In my opinion,
the word is quite unique in the context of the whole Japanese language.
Most of the last sound of the Japanese words is pronounced in an open way,even if the sound is actually a closed sound in a linguistic term. But the91

last sound of hai tends to be closely pronounced. Hence, when people say
the word it sounds so certain and so absolute. The other reason for theuniqueness of the word is that it is, in my impression, included as one of themost productive words used in everyday verbal communication of theJapanese people. When I was sitting in the I-House lobby and hearing thevoice of one of my Front Desk friends while receiving a telephone call, theword was pronounced very frequently.
I think, the ways Japanese people pronounce the word indicate oneof their efforts in domesticating sound as a wild substance, fixing it as amoving one. The sound of hai seems to be certain, absolute, and strictly
closed. In pronouncing the word, people appear to be steady and ready torealize what they say. It seems there is no bargaining anymore after theword is pronounced.
There is a phenomenon in Japan indicating more clearly thetendency of the people to fix the sound, which is the way they treat music.
When I entered the Yamaha store in two areas of Tokyo, Akihabara andGinza, I was so surprised to find how almost all of the world’s music
records were available. They were not only recorded in the auditory way,
but also in a spatial way. I mean, there were so many music books in thestore, including the history of many kinds of music, musicians’ biographies,
many kinds of music journals and magazines, and so many noted
songbooks. What surprises me most is the fact that many recent popularsongs have already been written in musical notation. So, in the store, theworld of sound of the music suddenly became the world of space of theletter; the moving substance became the fixed substance. Furthermore, on
television, almost every night I found a classical music performance. And
it was very surprising to me when in Hokkaido I found how many
teenagers playing music on the street and using the notation as well, as theclassical music performers did.
In my opinion, it is after becoming a space that the life of soundflourishes very well in Japan. In itself, sound tends to be something
uninteresting. When my Indian friend Urvashi Butalia taught us one of theways of Yoga meditation, she asked us to listen to all kinds of sound aroundus. According to her, the success of this meditation will be attained when
we are already able to differentiate and separate a certain sound in between
the other people. This type of meditation has also been taught in Indonesia
by W.S. Rendra, a respected actor of modern theater. But Mumon Yamada,in his book which I have already mentioned, has a different way of
meditation. He asks his students to open their eyes while conducting
meditation.
“Eyes should remain slightly open so that an area only three feet ahead canbe seen. People might suppose that with the eyes closed, one could reach92

calmness more easily: however, that is mistaken. Closing your eyes, ourmind fills with illusions, and we might easily fall asleep. The Patriarch,taught us to open our eyes as much as possible in zazen just as the picture ofBodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, shows us. We have neverseen a picture of Bodhidharma with his eyes closed. Even though visual
distractions occur, you should always be free from them, letting them go as
they arise. If you become accustomed to zazen with your eyes closed, zazen
will be ineffective when your eyes are opened, especially in busy places.
On the contrary, if you train your samadhi power through open-eyed zazen,
wherever you are, you will not lose your power of meditation.”In other words, the Japanese world seems to be dominated by the
space and by the spatial way of thinking and perceiving. As implied in thelatest quotation, the space or the visual image tends to be perceived as morechallenging than sound and smell images. If the space is put in theforeground, the sound and image are in the background. Even there is atendency in the Japanese people and culture to convert the sound and thesmell into the visual image. Because the sound and the smell are moving
things, the latter tendency can also become analogue with the tendency toconvert movement into the stillness or, more precisely, to convert the wild
movement into the framed one, the fluid thing into the thing that can be
identified, divided, classified.
In one of his essays, Barthes writes about Sukiyaki. According tohim, it is the process of cooking, processing and transforming the raw
substances of foods that are important. I can agree with this opinion about
the process, but I cannot agree with his interpretation on the meaning of it.
Barthes tends to perceive the process as merely a visual substance directed
to nothing other than the movement that is sometimes conducted in
unpredictable ways. In my opinion, the process is the way taken by theJapanese people to concretely experience their capability to domesticate thewild, to culturalize nature. The culture itself is not something that has
already finished, but something that must be always arranged andrearranged in accordance with the dynamic of life. Conversely, it is also
always in the process of being used as a frame to pose life. Seemingly it is
this reason that makes people prefer to serve food in the processing stage
rather than in the final one. So, when the people eat the food in that way,
they do it like the priest who must always be in the conscious andopen-eyed condition.

Some Closing Remarks
93

The letter, primarily Kanji, has a strong influence in Japanese culture andit’s people. The use of the letter in the pervasive way tends to make thepeople more sensitivity to spatial things, to see things in their fixed andcertain conditions, and to see the things as something objectively there.
Moreover, in relation with it, people also tend to have a strong capacity andeven disposition to divide and classify things discretely so that there will bealways a clear border between the divided and classified ones. This
disposition becomes stronger as people use a certain kind of letter, Kanji as
an iconic sign system. The character of the letter tends to be more spatial
than the alphabetic character.
Historically, as the Japanese people received the Kanji as a given
and a finished thing, they were inclined to treat it as a sacred one. Hence,
when the people found that their language did not fully able to fit with theletters, they preferred to create a new writing system rather than to distortthe previous one. In turn, this choice made them get use to living in two
worlds that can be combined but remain separated from each other. Thistendency was in accordance with the first disposition of the people, that is,the disposition to divide, classify, and define a clear border between things.
The contact with foreign things also made the people find a new thing.
The first disposition encouraged people to separate new things and to create
a new writing system, that of Katakana. The people then lived in an
increasing number of things and a growing complicated world, and thechallenge is to not become confused because there must be always a clear
border between them.
In Barthes’ term, this kind of world can be perceived as the empireof the signifier. The world, in this sense, consists only on the surface of
merely differences between so many things. There won’t be something
deeper that can be posited as the center of the things. But in many cases,
this perception is really questionable. One can only clearly perceive thedifference if he/she has a sense of the wholeness, which is not in equal
position with the part. Thus, the whole can be perceived as higher than theframe of the parts. In the case of the relationship between the Japanesewriting systems, this perception is also questionable. Historically speaking,the Kanji is older than the Hiragana and both are older than the Katakana.
Empirically speaking, the Kanji and Hiragana tend to be perceived as moreauthentic and closer writing systems than the Katakana.
The frame or the center in Japan tends to be invisible. But it
doesn’t mean that it is then empty, trivial, fragile, and easily breakable inposing the moving people and the changing world. In Zen Buddhism, thecommon religion of Japan, there is a tradition in which the people aretrained to be unconfused posing and seeing so many different things.

94

They are trained to keep in their authentic selves while living in thecrowded world, keep in stillness while moving.
The Japanese people and culture then are actually shaped by thestrong sensitivity of the people on the spatial dimension of the world, a
dimension related tightly to the letter and the Kanji. Maybe it is for thisreason that the people tend to neutralize the existence of smell and todomesticate the existence of sound. Indeed, the sound and smell cannot fit
the cultural disposition of the people because both substances cannot be
divided discretely, cannot be fixed, and cannot be framed.
It is the sound and smell that dominate the life of Indonesian
people who used to live in orality. The people have never believed in theauthority of the letter or everything written on the spaces outside of themagic one. The people have never believed in the existence of things
external to man or the subject and cannot stop moving so that they cannot aswell see the whole, or take a reflective way of thinking. In the movement,
the people are necessarily always tied to immediate experience, cannot
distance themselves from it. The people have no sense of frame, primarily
a wider frame like the nation, nationalism, and the collective interests of thenational community. The people tend to always mix everything and to be
confused about the different spaces and the border between them.
These tendencies are growing strong when they enter national
reformation and the era of globalization.10 When in the regime of Orde Baru
there was a military power holding the people together forcefully andviolently, and in the reformation era the people cannot find a new frameand even do not believe anymore in any kind of frame. With thebackground of oral culture, the people tend to be confused about everything
coming quickly from outside of the country. They are confused about thecomplicated idea of locality with ethnocentrism, the idea of civil society
with one-sided people power, the magic power of image with the magic
power of traditional things, and so on. In an era where everything
becomes so complicated and plural in kind, the people’s dependence on the
traditional and charismatic figures is also growing strong. On the hand ofthese figures, the people are then led more by words rather than by letters.
The Indonesian president is well known as a president whose words cannot
be held, because his words change every time. The people lose perspective
in seeing the future, sink so deep in the immediate need and conduct theirlife in a very pragmatic way for the reason of the uncertainty of their future
fortune.

I have written about this topic in my paper presented at the ALFP 2000 program.
The title of my paper is “Global Culture and Orality: Indonesian Experiences with
Globalization.”
1095

In this condition the information about Japanese culture and people
discussed previously are very important for Indonesian people and theircountry. The people need to make the letter as their guidance in managing
and conducting their country and their everyday life. As has been provenin Japan, the letter can give them a sense of certainty, objectivity, plurality,
border, and collective frame. The letter can also give them a capacity to beunconfused while moving, while living in the so plural and fast world as
required by globalism, globalization, and global culture.
It does not mean that I conceive everything related to the oral
language, oral culture, and orality as an absolutely bad thing. It doesn’tmean that Japanese culture is the best answer in posing globalization. In a
short talk with a Japanese woman, who is a wife of the director of The JapanFoundation’s branch in India and who is now translating the novel of Ayu
Utami, I finally found a similar idea with her. We felt that the Japanesepeople and culture is in too certain, fixed, and orderly a condition, while theIndonesian people and culture is too uncertain, changing and wildcondition. The former then needs to be a little bit uncertain and a wilder
way of life, while the latter needs to be touched by the Japanese certainty.
In my own opinion, the oral language makes people and culture be
fluid and in a limited range of space, the written language makes them to beso fixed but able to reach an unlimited range of the same thing. It is in theelectronic audio-visual “language” that the oral meets the written. And itis this kind of information technology that is perfect in accordance with therhythm of globalization. But the combination between the first two kindsof technology tends to be so complicated to be understood and perceived bya people with an oral background so that it results in many confused
perceptions and conceptions. Hence, as I have said several times in themeetings of the ALFP 2000, the globalization agencies all over the world, forexample, multinational corporations and foundations, must not be confused
about the cultural differences between countries and people to whom they
address their programs.

96NGOs and the Development of Civil Society:
A Case from Cambodia
Kumaoka Michiya
President, Japan International Volunteer Center
Cambodian society since 1979 presents a prime example of how NGOs playa role in peace building and the development of a civil society. In the
1980s, Cambodia experienced a period of a centrally planned economy andsociety structure based on the Vietnamese socialist model. However,through the peace and reconciliation process that followed the Paris Peace
Agreement in 1991, the country has been experiencing an early stage of civilsociety development as well as a market economy which has hastily
introduced. Due to the fierce civil war and international conflicts (Cold
War) in the 1980s, negotiations at the United Nations and among thedifferent factions and governments involved took a painfully long time. In
the meantime, NGOs, mostly international NGOs before the birth of thelocal NGOs (1991) contributed greatly in various aspects from emergency
relief and community development to the demand for peace andreconciliation. Since 1991, more than 100 local NGOs of varying capacity
have been founded by the Cambodians themselves.
Some of them, such as ADHOC (Association for Human Rights andDevelopment in Cambodia), have been engaging in wide-ranged activities
from implementation of development programs to human rights anddemocracy-related projects, under an extremely difficult politicalenvironment. For Japanese NGOs deeply concerned about the well-beingof Cambodians, their activities are much more than the object of support
and cooperation: they command our respect and provide valuable learning.
When the economic crisis hit Asia starting with the fall of currencyin Thailand in July 1997, the Cambodian economy was, in the first stage,
relatively unaffected. The reasons were: (1) the Cambodian economy was
too underdeveloped after the near total devastation brought on by the civil
war, (2) it was not fully integrated into the global economic system yet, (3)no stock and bond markets existed, and (4) the economy operates based on
US dollars. Rather, the coup d’etat staged by the Second Prime Minister
Hun Sen that took place in the same year had a greater political, economic,
and societal impacts.

97

Historical Background
After King Sihanouk was ousted by a coup in March 1970, the smallSoutheast Asian nation, Cambodia, fell victim to the Cold War andexperienced the most severe form of destruction that no other cases can everbe compared. The Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot) regime, that brought disaster toCambodia for 4 years from 1975-1979, and was finally ousted from power
mainly by the Vietnamese military. In this short period of time, however,the Khmer Rouge government drove more than one million Cambodians totheir deaths through purges and massacres. Even after the fall of the KR
government, the fighting between the Phnom Penh government backed by
Vietnam and the three factions continued.
Under this politicalenvironment, numerous international NGOs rushed to offer emergency
relief and support, mainly to the refugees due to the Cold War structure.

The Roles of International NGOs
The government of Thailand and the Western nations were suspicious of asmall number of NGOs that operated within Cambodia. On the other
hand, the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments saw the NGOs thatprovided support for the refugees on the borders as “Enemies.” Under thiscircumstance, NGOs working inside Cambodia put much energy into
advocating against the war and in order to unbalance the relief structure,they solicited cooperation and support from their home countries. They
also maintained political neutrality under extremely difficult situations andcontinued to appeal the need for a peace dialogue by communicating thevoices of the Cambodian people to the international community and, viseversa, the world news to Cambodia. They published a book entitled“Punishing the Poor” in 10 languages in order to appeal about the reality in
Cambodia, which was not known to the world at the time. Through theseand other activities, they demanded from the international community,
including the United Nations as well as the relevant governments, (1) abalanced relief both inside and outside Cambodia, (2) a lift of economic
sanctions and isolation, and (3) a peace talk.
In the process leading to the signing of the Cambodian Peace Accord
in October 1991, NGOs at large also played a great role. Partially due tothis contribution, the representing NGOs are still well recognized as official
partners in many international conferences on the rehabilitation anddevelopment of Cambodia.

98The Roles of the Local NGOs
Cambodia went through a drastic change during the late 1980s and the1990s as a market economy was introduced without proper preparatory
stages. In the 1980s, immediately after the end of the Pol Pot era, severe
poverty was generally shared by most of society where even the poorest
family had land to cultivate, and a system of mutual help was in place.
Families were poor, yet the selling of their children was unheard of. In thelate 1980s and early 1990s, however, the market economy was introduced
without the development of a civil society. As a result, an extreme“survival of the fittest” (“Winner gets all.”) mentality was establishedleaving many farmers landless, forcing them to live in slums and becoming
homeless in big towns. The trafficking of children and women became
common and the gap between the poor and the rich grew rapidly andsharply.
With this backdrop, Cambodian NGOs have been involved in a wide
range of activities such as the work towards the completion of the fighting,support for the underprivileged, rural development projects, human rights
protection, election observation, democratization and civil society building.
As the Cambodian NGOs started to grow more in number in the 1990s, theinternational NGOs started to support the local NGOs by shifting theirfocus towards (1) human rights and democracy issues, (2) the prevention of
the exploitation of natural resources and damaging land use, and (3) theelimination of land mines.
Even at the present time, issues relating to human rights, democracy,
forestry resources, and land use would bring potential conflicts with thepolitical and military leaders of the country. It is common that activists,
journalists, and members of the opposition party are the targets ofharassment and violence without the suspects ever being arrested(“impunity”). In cooperation with international NGOs, the United Nations
and CG meetings, Cambodian NGOs are exerting their influence. In
addition, faced with the ever enlarging wealth disparity and the spread of
AIDS, the civil organizations have to work with the government and society
not only by providing social/health services and community development,
but also by extending advocacy works.
In Cambodia where many human and other resources were
exhausted due to the condition of a prolonged war, civil society is far frombeing developed and NGOs are still suffering from the lack of resources andthe difficulty of having a good working relationship with the government.
When supporting Cambodia and Cambodian NGOs, Japanese NGOs are
painfully reflecting and noticing the shortcoming of Japan’s civil society

99despite the vast differences in the developmental stages of the twocountries.

100NGO Development in Korea
Park Won-Soon
Secretary General, PSPD11
1. Introduction ― The Era of NGOs
“Indeed, Korea has been more successful than many of its democratizing
predecessors and contemporaries in transforming its authoritarian politicalinstitutions and culture. The country has also become the first new
democracy in Asia that peacefully transferred power to an opposition party.
Therefore, in the Western media and scholarly community today, Korea ismentioned increasingly as a possible model of democratization for the
emerging post-authoritarian countries in the world.12“Within the last 10 years 13 since 1987, Koreans have witnessed adramatic change in their society. It has been so deep and broad that nostone was left untouched in every corner. Direct election of the president
by the people in 1987 was only the first step for democratic change.
Political parties and politics have been under pressure of criticism on theissue of corruption, and reform for more transparency and accountability.
The IMF crisis also impacted on a number of issues including the social
infrastructure and restructuring of the business community.
Of course, I do not agree totally with the so splendid applause on
Koreans’ performance in the democratizing process.
It should be
attributed to those civic movements and their activists who dedicatedthemselves, in some cases sacrificed their lives, for the common good andpublic interest. The burgeoning and growth of NGOs is most tremendous
and recognizable. Those who once showed strong resistance against theauthoritarian government were being transformed into civic groups to show
stronger activism and more diverse participation in the public sphere and

11 Abbreviation of People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (Chamyoyundae).
Contact with PSPD can be made through the Internet. www.peoplepower21.org is
its website address.
12 Doh C. Shin, Mass Politics and Culture in Democratizing Korea, Cambridge
University Press, in Preface xxiii
13 So called ‘June the Great Struggle’ in 1987 succeeded in toppling the military
government and began to change the legacy of the authoritarian rule.

101

everyday life of ordinary citizens.14 The NGO community began to growand exercise strong influence on public opinion and the mass media, andultimately the policy decision process of the government 15 . The
black-listing movement against politicians during the last general election(April 2000) was so powerful enough to assemble more than 900 civic
groups across the country and so successful enough to make 70% of thoseblacklisted not to be elected.
Despite these unparalleled developments, however, Korean civic
movements are still facing fundamental problems and new challenges toovercome. A century-long authoritarian rule, originated from Confucianrule, Japanese Imperial rule, military dictatorship justified under division of
the country and anti-communism, leaves still a dark legacy on its society.
The long history of control and watch by the secret police made people
afraid of participation in any kind of social organization. Most NGOs
suffer from a shortage of membership, which usually led to financial
difficulties and eventually dependence on funds from the government orbusiness community. Those civic groups, who were accustomed to simply
resistance to government in the past, need to have a more sophisticatedstrategy and to be well armed with specialized techniques in theircampaigns.
There are many institutional reforms that need to be introduced in
the near future to keep NGOs alive as a driving force for reforms, including
tax-exemption, public access to the mass-media, and post rate discounts forNGOs and so on. In addition, NGOs themselves have tasks to reform andrenew themselves to be more prepared to challenge any new agenda. The
21st Century must be a time of experiment and challenge for Korean NGOs
and other Asian NGOs as well.

2. Before 1987 ― Under Dictatorial Government(i) Dictatorship and No Freedom of Association
Chance Lost in 1981 ― New Iron Fist
Koreans had suffered from long periods of colonial rule and dictatorship.
Even after liberation in 1945, there was only division, war, and dictators.
In 1981, Koreans had unfortunately missed the chance to have real
As of 1999, the numbers of NGOs have grown amounting to around 20,000. It’s
doubled since 1997. Active NGOs are, however, only thousands.
15 The current Kim Dae Jung government, which is more familiar with NGOs thanthe other former governments, is more sensitive to hear the voice of civic groups.
14102democracy when General Chun Doo Whan seized power. After a 17-year
long dictatorial rule by Park and his assassination by a faithful follower,
everyone expected that delayed democracy would become a reality at last.
No one knew of Chun’s conspiracy to bring about a coup d’etat. It caused
an uprising in Kwangju just after his coup and hundreds of civilians were
killed. Inheriting Park’s military dictatorship, his regime reinforced its
iron fist not to allow such trivial aspects of freedom and opposition.

Denial of the Right to Association
Before the democratization of 1987, therefore, the civic movement was
regarded as either illegal or subversive. The authorities understood that it
was highly possible to undermine the authority of the state. Deprived of
the freedom to assemble and to demonstrate, there was no basic ground to
see normal civic activities, except those of the youth, consumer, andenvironmental movements16.
The gatherings of only a few youngsters should be reported anddeserved to be interrogated17, even though the constitution said the people
had the right to association, assembly and demonstration. It left no groundfor the civic groups to survive at all.
Of course, the Constitution was clearly guaranteeing the right toassembly and demonstration. However, law is one thing, practice isanother. Only organizations such as traditional consumer’s movements,
religious groups, social welfare entities, the YMCA and YWCA, Boy Scouts,
or pro-governmental organizations could survive 18 . The government
thought that these organizations could not be challenging and act as amenace to the dictatorship. The following description explains thesituation in those times.
“Under the hardened authoritarian regime, there existed only
compliant organizations in the lawful political and movement arenas.
Under the authoritarian regimes, many organizations in society existed in
According to the retrospection by Mr. Choi Yeoul, who is the most famousenvironmental activist in Korea, even environmental movement had been regarded
as anti-capitalistic activities for a long time, and, as a result, it became the target of
suppression.
17 In fact, there is a case in which a chief of one district had reported a gathering ofa few college students who were a catholic reading group. They were, of course,
indicted on the suspicion that they studied socialist books prohibited for the interestof North Korea.
18 Most famous and big pro-governmental organizations are such as the Saemaul
Movement and Union for Anti-Communism which has intensively been subsidized
and assisted by the government.
16

103

legal status in return for showing compliance to the regime, whether inpositive support or negative silence. As a result, social organizations
polarized into legal pro-government organizations and illegal opposition
movement organizations. The government politically and financially
supported government-patronized organizations. The National Alliancefor Freedom and the National Council of the New Village Movement were
examples. Typical mass organizations such as the Federation of Korean
Trade Union (FKTU) and the National Agricultural Co-operative Federation(NACF), which represented farmers’ co-operatives nationwide, werestrongly held by the government and functioned as an auxiliary
government administrative apparatus to control laborers or farmers. In
this situation, the initiative of the opposition fell to the militant people’s
movement.”19(ii) Persistent Opposition Movement
Growing Democratization Movement
Despite harsh dictatorship under President Park (1961-1979) and Chun(1980-1986), the opposition movement was gaining more power; especially
students from all of universities were the main forces in this movement20.
Intellectuals such as professors, novelists, and even painters were getting
involved in the wave. It became prolific enough to include labour, artists
and farmers’ movements.
It became clear that replacing the regime was the only way to bringabout a humane society, to recover freedom, and restore democracy. All
groups from every field were getting together, targeting to challenge theauthoritarian government. Under the same understanding and strategic
mind, those groups from different fields could form a national democratic
alliance through networking.

The Role of Intellectuals

Cho, Hee-Yeon, “Democratic Transition and Social movement Change in South
Korea”, A Paper presented at the Conference on ‘Democracy and Social
Contentions in South Korea’, Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawaii at
Manoa, December, 15-16, 1997, p.9
20 They used to say about ‘sacred summons of 1 million youth student’ for the
students’ movement. The role of students may be universal. In Taiwan, it wasalso pivotal to make their country democratized. (Teresa Wright, “Student
Mobilization in Taiwan ― Civil Society and Its Discontents”, Asian Survey,
Vol.XXXIX, No.6, November. December, 1999)
19

104

In the process thousands of students, laborers, intellectuals and citizens
were arrested owing to their participation in the democratization movement.
A broad and persistent ‘crackdown,’ however, resulted in a more organizedresistance against the regime. Students’ expulsion from the school campus,
labourers’ dismissal from the workplace, and intellectual’s imprisonment
provided a chance to train and mass-produce opponents. It was said that
prison was not only a period of rest for activists, but also a school forre-education and discipline. No one was afraid of being arrested and no
imprisonment experience in a student’s life used to be regarded as shamefulthing. In this way, Koreans could oust the dictator Chun and welcome thedemocratic government in 1987 after a century-long struggle.
The engine of the movement was the students and laborers. The
wheels can safely be said to be the intellectuals. It should also be notedthat the success of the movement owes to the intellectuals’ contribution.
The people usually have respected lawyers, doctors, professors, and artists.
Lawyers were defending many political prisoners in support of the
movement and professors used to mobilize themselves to announce a seriesof statement against the government. The regime could take retaliatory
action on some occasions, however, when it became a trend it could notarrest all of them. When intellectuals participated in the movement andsometimes were arrested, the people became conscious and supportive. In
this way, the role of intellectuals was justifying the movement on one handand mobilizing the people on the other hand.

Tradition of Resistance
Koreans have a long tradition of resistance against a feudal dynasty in 18th
century, the Japanese colonial rule in 19th and 20th century, and dictators in20th century. Since the opening of the Chosun dynasty in 13th century, abureaucratic system was developed to control the sovereignty of the king.
It is really interesting for the kingdom to have a special department within
the royal court only doing business to criticize the king and deliver the voiceof the public. There was also a system of recording every saying andbehaviour of the king and his subjects, and after the king’s death, therecords were arranged as an official history and kept for the next generation.
These advanced civilized intuitions became possible under the sacrifice andmartyrdom of brave intellectuals who did not fear death.
Other examples of resistance include 1). Farmers who revolted inlocal provinces and shook the root of the exterminated ‘Chosun’ dynasty in105the 18th century 21 ; 2). The movement against the Japanese Imperial
Government with continuing demonstrations, revolts, and terror to get
independence. In the nation-wide demonstration calling for independence
in 1919, hundreds of thousands of citizens participated in it across thecountry, and 3). The first president of independent Korea, Lee Sung Man,
also resigned as a result of the nation-wide demonstration of students andthe participation of citizens in 1960. It is needless to say that this traditionof courage and justice has played a key role in the democratization process.

3. After 1987 ― Transitional Period(i) 1987 ― Turning Point
Success came after a series of horrible torture cases committed byanti-Communist police and the furious response and participation of the
middle class who had remained as spectators. It culminated in 1987. The
people’s uprising and the surrender (used to be called the 29th June
Declaration) by those in power22; brought direct election of the president,
expansion of freedom, and the beginning of the civic society. These events
could not be achieved by a one-day incident but by a long struggle, and by
the participation of ordinary citizens.
It was victory due to the consistent opposition movement and thatof the people. It was like a lake where previous movements flowed in andafterwards every movement would drain out. In that sense, it can be said
as a turning point in modern Korean history that moved from pre-modern
society to a more civilized country.

(ii) Progress in the Stage of Setbacks 1988-1992
Separation of the two ‘Kims’
There were several critical steps and stages in the transformation of the
Even before, Korean intellectuals had defended their right to petition to the Kingfor the people and had obtained the right to keep historical records without theKing’s interference since the 14th century. It is unique, compared to China andJapan, for the subjects to have such a strong power to check the King’s prerogative.
22 Roh Tae Woo, as the candidate for the presidential election, promised to havedirect vote by all the people, lifting prohibition of political activities on Kim Dae
Jung, and other shocking measures, in his so called ‘6.29 declaration’ which
accepted almost of the peoples’ demand and therefore were welcomed by thepeople in general.
21

106society. First, the two ‘Kims’, Kim Young Sam and Kim Dae Jung, the mostimportant political leaders in democratization, were separated, and, as aresult, defeated by the semi-military leader Roh Tae Woo. This allowed
reactionary power to be rearranged and become aggressive against thedemocratic movement.
The people who showed support for the democratization movement
were also divided, and they were disappointed with the two Kim’s
behaviour and the movement in general. It was the main reason why they
had lost the initiative and began to be defensive again. The far-right andconservative ruling class who had lost power was now exercising influenceand power against the democratization movement.

Mixture of the Reactionary and the Progressive
Under the Roh’s regime, there was mixture or repletion between reactionary
and progressive actions in terms of democracy23. For example, sometimes
there were crack-downs on the social movement by the remaining laws andinstitutions, the eruption of discontent from the military, the existing
invisible control over mass media and judiciary by the government etc.
The National Security Law (NSL), which is so symbolic in terms of humanrights, was still active enough to bring hundreds of the activists to prison
under the law. This describes Roh’s regime as an ‘electoral military
authoritarian government’ or ‘soft dictatorship’.
However, the trend and demand for freedom and diversity was
inescapable. Slowly but surely the foundation of democracy had been
consolidated in this period. It was clear that Korean society could not
return to an authoritative society. The circumstances under which NGOs
could grow were getting better. The repressive state apparatus wasloosened and the law requesting the registration of social organizations wasabolished. There was a brave whistle-blower who revealed the secretinspection system against civilian leaders by the military secret police
during this period. The social movement, which could enjoy relative
freedom and autonomy, began to exist and expand.
Fortunately, the Roh government failed to secure a majority of seatsin the Parliament24. This meant the opposition parties such as Kim Dae
23 There is an accurate explanation describing the stage of Korean democracy inthose times as follows. “In many ways it (Korea) is a democratic society, and it
yearns for international recognition as an open and advanced country. Yet thedemocratic filaments are intertwined with autocratic ones to make a social fabricthat is sometimes baffling to outsiders” (Nicholas Kristof, “At Crossroads of
Democracy, South Korean Hesitates.”, New York Times, July 10th, 1996)
24 In the election April 1988, the ruling party received only 34% of the vote.

107Jung, Kim Young Sam, and Kim Jong Pil had obtained the initiative onsocial reform and bringing justice on the misconduct of the previous regime
could be done in a limited form. However, the presidency is so powerfulthat there must be some compromise. Thus the Roh regime can besymbolized as a compromising and confusing era.

Four Directions of Movement
As the lawful space was enlarged, the social movement was also expanded.
We witnessed the development of the movement not only in numbers but
also in characteristics. It may also be summarized into three groups.
First, the appearance of professional organizations. As mentioned
before, it was unique that so many professionals participated in the
democratization movement. After the collapse of the dictatorship, they
began to organize themselves into small groups or networks to contact eachother. Their professional organizations were openly organized and werefriendly with the class based mass movement. Such organizations include
the Association of Physicians for Humanism, Pharmacists’ Association offor Health Society, Dentists’ Association for Healthy Society, National
Association of Professors for Democracy, National Alliance of Artists, andLawyers for a Democratic Society.
Second the empowerment of labor unions. In 1987, there was agreat upsurge in the labor struggle, which was a prelude to the active labor
movement. Loosening state repression was galvanizing labor unions
where the numbers had grown from 2,658 to 7,883 in 1989. These new
independent unions were finally incorporated into the Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) in 1995 and were legalized. At thesame time, there was a boom of new organizations such as the Teachers’
Union in 1989, the National Federation of Peasants’ Movement in 1989, andKorea Women’s United in 1987 and so on.
Third, the birth of new civic groups resulted from the expansion of
freedoms and a developed Korean economy. The newly born civic groups
began dealing with diverse issues such as the environment, consumer,
traffic, monitoring the government, gender issues, etc. These issues arepart of the civic movement, which is different from other movements suchas the traditional democratization movement or the mass people’s
movement.
Fourth, the weakening of the people’s movement. As a result of thedevelopment in other areas mentioned above, the traditional108

democratization movement became weakened; especially with the clear
reduction in the students’ movement. The people’s movement changed its
name to the ‘National Alliance for National Democratic Movement’ in 1989
and again to ‘National Coalition for Democracy and Reunification’ in 1991.
It is composed of regional and sectored organizations such as the student,
labor, and women’s movements. However, the labor and women’s
movements accomplished their own development and gradually became
independent from the Coalition. Since then, more weight was given to thelabor movement itself.

(iii) Opening of the Civic Movement
The Birth of the CCEJ
Under these circumstances, the CCEJ (Citizen’s Coalition for Economic
Justice, Kyungsilryon) was founded in 1989, then hoisting the flag of the new
civic movement. It emphasized social reforms through legal and moderate
forms, and aimed at economic justice at a time when the price of housing,land and rent soared upwards. The issues of economic justice included theremoval of land speculation and housing difficulties. Contrasting with thetraditional opposition groups which had been wholly indulging in theanti-regime movement, CCEJ began to gain popularity and was followed bymany similar civic groups.
CCEJ’s strategy and principle can be categorized in a few ways.
First of all, it gave up all violent and illegal ways of campaigning andstruggle. On one hand, people were bored with the fighting between the
democratization movement and government. Once the hostile dictatorshipcollapsed, they returned their support for the democratization movement.
Above all, the mass media, which was still influential and represented theconservative class, was praising such a moderate line. However, thiscaused unnecessary tension and conflict with the traditional opposition
movement.
CCEJ was successful in mobilizing the liberal intellectuals who werereluctant to be active in the democratization movement. Even though
there were some utmost progressive intellectuals who dedicated themselvesto the democratization movement during the dictatorship, they were only afew. Under the circumstances which the intellectuals felt safe andmoderate, they could easily join the CCEJ and the civic movement. In thisway, democratization was losing manpower. The possibility of mobilizing
intellectuals gave CCEJ the advantage of producing alternative policies.
Through the space of seminars, pamphlets and recommendations, its
policies were penetrating into government. The most typical example of
CCEJ’s victory was the adoption of the real naming policy on savings109accounts.
This approach was also good for ordinary citizens to have access tothe movement. Before then, the democratization movement had been
regarded as extremist, and therefore, they could not participate. CCEJ’s
approach could abolish such feelings of fear and thus it enjoyed popularity
among the people.

Civic Movement vs. Mass Movement
The following is the comparison between ‘mass-movement’ (traditional
opposition movement, or democratization movement) and civic movement,
made by Suh Kyung Suk who was the real founder of CCEJ.25
Opposition Mass Movement
Illegal, anti-regime activities

Civic Movement
Legal, solution formulating activities

Centered on blue-collar workers,
farmers, and the poor urban
dwellers
Targeted the class struggle

Centered on the middle-class andprofessionals

Aimed a socialist revolution
Structured on the struggle
between capitalists and workers
Pursued institutional reform

Placed importance on mobilizing
mass gatherings

Promoted social justice, rather thantargeting a specific class
Structured on the struggle between
producers and the unemployed
Placed equal emphasis on
institutional reform and publicawareness
Placed importance on ethics andprofessionalism in recovering publicconfidenceThis comparison however, is too simplified the differences.
Opposition mass movement was not always illegal and not aiming
essentially at socialist revolution. It’s true under the dictatorship thatmany young activists tried to find their hope in the socialistic idea. But the
Soh Kyung Suk, “Development of Democracy and the Role of Civic
Organizations in Korea”, Democracy Forum, July 13-14, 1999, Seoul, Korea, The
Sejong Institute & National Endowment for Democracy, p.112

25

110

opposition movement was no more than an outcry from the suppressedclasses, a demand to recover their justifiable rights, and a voice of those who
had no voice for a long time.
Furthermore, the opposition group was also showing the tendency
to be transformed into institutionalized organization or civic groups since
1990s. Labor unions and farmers associations were finally legalized andbecame partial partners with the government. Some of the opposition
leaders were gradually recruited into political parties and politics26.

Manygroupsandactivists

who

had

workedinthedemocratization movement were inevitably compelled to bereorganized as civic groups.

Activists of civic organizations

usually have experience in the democratization movement andthat is why many civic groups are still familiar with it.

Thefamiliarity with the mass-movement and the partnership with thegovernment usually depends on what extent the civic groups
are recruiting from the traditional movement.

However itcannot be denied that civic groups are changing and losing thescent of the traditional movement.

4. Consolidation Process, 1993-1997(i) Kim Young Sam’s Government
First Civilian Government & Reformative Policy
Even though he was a candidate of the then ruling party, Kim Young Sam
was originally a civilian and an opposition leader.
Therefore, hisgovernment was called the first ‘Civilian Government’.
In his policies, Kim Young Sam tried to prove that his government
was a civilian one, by first removing highly politicized military leaders fromtheir positions. With this act, it seemed that the possibility of a coup d’etat
was again coming. At the same time, he also took measures to clean thegovernment, strengthening the law of registration of properties and theincome of high ranking officials, and made everything clear to the public.
Among the 299 members of the National Assembly, around 30 are opposition
activists.
26

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The most impressive measure he took was arresting the two former
presidents, Chun Doo-whan and Roh Tae-woo, on the suspicion of bribery,a coup d’etat and mass killings in the Kwanju Incident in 1980. Despite its
clear limit, the prosecution and trial were symbolic enough to shake theroots of militarism and the connection between politicians andconglomerates.

Still Confusing Period ― Shortcomings of Kim’s Government
Despite its reformative policies, assistance was not given by, not only by thepeople but also the bureaucrats and the party members themselves. They
lacked the mentality to accept such reforms at all. In addition, it was only
instinctive and sporadic measures, which did not take the form of
institutions especially since it could not succeed in mobilizing the people’s
support and participation. They said that it was a ‘one man show’ by the
President himself.
The latter part of his term was beginning to be tainted withcorruption scandals, which resulted in his son’s involvement andimprisonment on corruption.
He became surrounded with moreconservative circles and as a result, civic groups turned their backs on his
government.

(ii) The Tide of NGOs
Boom of NGOs
Many different civic groups were born in this period. They varied fromenvironmental, traffic, urban development, and social welfare organizations
to women’s, religious, administrative monitoring groups. According to thesurvey delivered by the Citizen’s Newspaper in 1996, it shows diverse
groups growing and expanding in each field.

Category I
Politics

Social I

Social II

Category II

Numbers

Unification, Politics
Law/Administration
Civic
Labor
Farmer & Fisher
Urban Poor
Women
Youth
Health & Medicare

112

107
17
212
129
40
25
136
75
104

Sum

Percentage

124

4.3%

617

21.2%

697

23.9%

Social Welfare
VolunteerConsumer
Human Rights
Environment
Education
Mass-media
Education &Publishing
CultureCulture & Arts
Sports & Leisure
Religion
Religion
Learning
Learning
EconomyEconomyInternational
Relations
Etc.
Hobby Group etc.
Total

316
44
58
52
123
83
&

63

533

18.3%

305
82
313
47
499

313
47
499

10.7%
1.6%
17.1%

50

50

1.7%

34

34
2,914

1.2%
100.0%

A few universities began to provide a Masters course for NGO
activists or establish research institutes for more advanced study in this
newly emerging sector. Their activities became focused and intensively
covered by the mass media, and some allot a special page once a week in the
publications. These actions prove that the influence of the civic movement
was rapidly growing in this period.

Experiment of Civic Politics
It is interesting to find that a few intellectuals whose backgrounds had been
the civic movement played key role in those reformative and progressive
policies. Usually they are appointed as senior advisers to the President
and quite often there are ministers recruited from the civic movement
communities.
Under the Kim government, there was a wave of moving to politics
from the civic movement. The CCEJ was ‘the lake from where such a
stream was flowing.’ Many civic group leaders were running for theelection for Parliament. However, they could not succeed due to theshortage of money, lack of organization, and growing apathy of the voters.
Of course, there was criticism that with the civic movement politicized, thepublic began to regard civic leaders as a reserve army for politicians.

113

5. Kim Dae Jung’s Government & Civic Movement― From 1998 to the Future(i) NGOs under Kim’s Government
New Environment for NGOs
Kim Dae Jung’s government, which was inaugurated in 1998, is different
from previous governments. It could capture power as an opposition
party. This meant that Kim’s government could be free from theconservative ruling party, which had ruled this country for a long time.
There was, however, a burden to form a coalition government, which
originated from the collaborative strategy with another conservative
opposition party (Jaminnyon) during the presidential election.
President Kim Dae Jung emphasized the participatory politics andadministration even before his inauguration. This suggested that he would
have constructive and cooperative relations with NGOs to bring reforms.
There had already been a partnership between the opposition party led byKim Dae Jung and the NGOs in opposition to the authoritative government.

Legislation for NGOs and Financial Subsidies
The Kim government began to provide financial subsidies for NGOs, which
had previously been provided only for pro-governmental organizations.
Fifteen million US Dollars were annually distributed to the civic groups
according to application, scale, and their performances. It was a realchange of policy by the government because NGOs had been only the targetof oppression by the authorities concerned.
The government also legislated a law, promulgated in January 2000,
enabling NGOs to get tax-exemption status and discounts in postal services.
It should be noted that concrete measures to guarantee the status oftax-exemption are still not taken. However, it’s still meaningful to have thebasic ground works to legitimize NGOs. In addition, the Law on
Broadcasting also provides public access to the national Korean
Broadcasting Station, 60minutes a month for NGOs program.

(ii) Dissatisfaction from NGOs Perspective
Misguided Policy of NGOs
The policy by the administration can be said as being misguided. The
essential nature of NGOs is independence from government. By providing

114

intensive and direct subsidies, it is possible to hurt independence. Of
course, we cannot oversimplify the diversity of the NGOs. It may be no
problem for the social services to provide or volunteer groups. On theother hand, advocacy groups can be weakened in their mandate ofmonitoring the government. It also can be argued that those groups which
are subsidized then inevitably are dependent on the governments for theirfinancial sources.
In reality, the Kim government invited all civic groups to be amember of the ‘Second Nation-Building Committee’ (Cheikeunkukeuiwonhoe)
which was initiated by the government from the beginning of its
administration. However, most of the leading NGOs rejected the suggestion
on the reason that the idea was originated to dominate the civil society. In
this way, the perspective of this government is also not far from its
predecessor.

Betrayal of Promise
Civic groups began to be disappointed by the betrayal of the promises
which had been made by the regime during its campaign or in its
opposition period. The public promises included introduction of the
independent counsel, anti-corruption law, class action, national humanrights institute, and confirmation process by the parliament for
high-ranking officials.
As promised, it was successful to overcome economic crisis within
two years. If we consider that it was a really good opportunity to change
the fundamental social system and concept under which the dictatorshipand rapid development underwent, President Kim Dae Jung was neglecting
to bring a series of reforms and institutional change.

(iii) Back to the Future― Institutional Change for NGOs
To take one step forward for the Korean NGOs, institutional reforms should
be introduced. In the past, the measures which the government took wereto obstruct, oppress and control. But now it’s high time to assist, help andpromote civic groups. Through our experiences, we notice that the
government and parliament should take the following actions.
First, expansion of participation by the citizens and civic groups tothe process of decision-making in the government, the parliament, and the115judiciary on national and local base as well27. It may be necessary to have astrategic mind to accomplish reforms and strengthen effectiveness. Under
the Kim Young Sam and even the Kim Dae Jung governments, they say thatthe reformative drive was no more than a ‘one man show’, indicating that
the Presidents were only doing their jobs. Guaranteeing the mandate to
defend their interest is the most natural short cut to protect the common
interest and social reforms. PL by consumers, the False Claim Act by the
taxpayers, summons of disqualified representatives by the voters may beillustrated as the example of self-executing institution for reforms anddevelopment.
In advance, it may include strengthening the freedom of information
act to facilitate transparency28. The right to a hearing before action for the
person concerned, residents’ rights to vote on hot-issues, and a voter’s rightto recall corrupted officials are items to be included. Ordinary citizens andthe interested parties had been isolated from the decision making process.
During the process of legislation29, investigation30, and the trial, there is ademand of participation by the people. Furthermore, citizens and civic
group should be allowed to have the standing for the public interest
litigation, which is a crucial mechanism to bring reforms to society31.
Second, exclusive measures of protection or assistance for thesustainable civic movement. Among other things, the Government should
provide the status of tax-deductions for membership-fees or donations to
civic groups32. The government this year distributed around $16 million to
civic groups for their application across the country. However, direct
President Kim announced his principle and policy on participatory democracyon the occasion of press conference just after his victory. However, there was no
measure taken since his inauguration on this issue.
28 Freedom of Information Act began to be effective since January 1998.
But itincludes articles, which allow broad range of non-disclosure, remaining the room
for amendment.
29 The Petition Act is protecting the right to petition for the citizens.
But thepetitions have no legally binding effect and have usually been neglected without
serious concern from the National Assembly members.
30 The Criminal Procedure Act provides no access to the interrogation process by
the attorney. It used to be the main reason for torture and maltreatment by thepolicemen and prosecutors.
31 According to traditional Civil Litigation Procedure Act, only the interested party
can bring the lawsuit, excluding the possibility of public interest litigation.
32 Korean government has already promulgated the Law on Assistance to
Non-profitable Civilian Association (Biyoungri Minkandanche Chiwonekwanhan
Bupyul) which included tax-exemption article for those entities early this year.
However, it has not taken more concrete action to make it effective, such as adding
tax-exemption clause in the existing Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law.
27

116

financial assistance is liable to distort and subject NGO’s activities to theGovernment’s influence.
Indirect assistance, therefore, throughtax-deduction is a more efficient and correct way to help NGOs than direct
assistance33. Tax-deduction for the civic groups would bring revolutionary
benefits to improve their financial conditions34.
Third, elimination of all kinds of restriction and regulation on NGO
activities. The Government highly tends to impose some burdens or
obstacles on NGOs. These civic groups, especially advocacy groups, areappropriate targets to be cracked down. These fears and anxieties should
be removed 35 . Recently the Government abolished even the system ofreporting the time of its establishment. However, the new Law on theAssistance to Non-profitable Civilian Association needs to be enlisted inorder to be qualified for the government assistance. It still remains a danger
to such organizations that it can be arbitrarily applied.
In the march for a new civil society, NGOs cannot escape theirdestiny, to take the initiative to be one of the pillars to sustain democracy andquality of life. Korean NGOs could be catalysts to strengthen transparency
and increase accountability in the public field, taking advantage of current
social influence as leverage. It may also be a very effective way to introduce
a package of reformative institution on central governmental basis. Even
though there have been reforms in Korea, it’s still under expectation anddemands to be equivalent with an advanced society. In transforming one
society to another, institutionalization is most important to consolidatechange.

6. PSPD Movement(i) Comparison with CCEJ
Following the CCEJ example, PSPD was born in 1994. Since then, these twogroups became the most important NGOs in Korea. CCEJ and PSPD aresaid to be typically general civic groups but they also attracted criticism,
because they were dealing with so many issues and monopolizing them36.
33 The government and ruling party is now trying to introduce ‘NGO Assistance
Law’ which included such article as tax-deduction, post-rate deduction etc.
34 Currently most of the Korean NGOs are suffering financial deficit. The condition
is really difficult not to have enough to give salary for the full-time staff.
35 Of course, it should be noted that many obstacles and restriction for NGOs havebeen removed since 1987.
36 They are being criticized as ‘department store’ dealing with many different items.
In fact, CCEJ dealt with the issues of economic justice, environment, urban

117Above all, Korea has not succeeded in introducing and consolidatingsocial institutions. Numerous demands poured into civic groups and CCEJ
and PSPD became front-runners to face such challenges.
Even though these two organizations share common things, the basic
ideological background and style of the movement are different in many
ways, originating from their own historic and realistic reasons. PSPD has asomewhat different position and tendency, compared to CCEJ. The
comparison of the two groups may be helpful to understand the generalatmosphere of the Korean civic movement.
First, PSPD tried to have a strong solidarity with labor unions; classbased traditional opposition mass movement, and grass-roots organizations.
In other words, it had sympathy with opposition groups, believing that thegrowth of labor unions and other grass roots, class-based organizations wereindispensable to democratic development37. Civic groups in Korea used tobe advantageous to attract the middle class as members and an audience.
However, the mass movement includes hundreds of thousands of laborers,
farmers, and students to be mobilized for their interest and social change as
well. It may be not too overemphasizing to say that the two trends, civic
groups and opposition mass movements, are the two pillars sustaining civilsociety.
Second, it emphasized the importance of non-partisan attitude andpolitical independence. Politics in Korea has been regarded as the mostcorrupted field. Having relations with politics could also be interpreted as a
symptom of corruption and a greedy desire for power. Keeping away frompolitics and neutrality is indispensable for civic groups to maintain their
independence and popularity38.
Third, it used to resort to legal means, utilizing the concept of the ruleof law. Even though this is not enough, Korean society slowly came to beruled by law.
The judiciary became independent.
Under thesecircumstances, PSPD led the minority shareholders’ rights targeting
conglomerate reform and numerous public interest litigations. Public
Interest Litigation Center, PSPD’s umbrella organization, mainly consisted ofrestructuring, health care, judiciary justice and many others. Afterwards it gave up
some of the issues such as environment. PSPD was also including many different
issues, but it’s targeting very specific areas with specialized means, such as
conglomerates reform through minority share holder’s rights, legislation movement
through anti-corruption law, and congress watch through documentation and so on.
37 This policy is based on the criticism against CCEJ’s policy which was not friendly
to the opposition groups.
38 Some of CCEJ’s leaders attempted to run for a seat at the National Assembly.
This attempt gave the impression to the citizens that civic groups were utilizing theiractivist career as leverage for becoming politicians.

118

lawyers and law professors who show a strong interest in this area.
Fourth, it tried to find financial resources solely from individual
membership fees and their donations, not on funding from the government
or corporations. After accepting money, it is not easy for the civic groups toevade pressure and seduction. It is needless to say that in Korea lobbying
power by the business groups have been so notorious that there could be no
exception to be lobbied. With this notion, it could succeed to have aself-financed budget system after 5 years.39 Maintenance of independence
and self-finance have made the PSPD able to speak out without any kind ofpressure or interest. It is noteworthy for the PSPD to move on a new
donation movement in Korean society, by establishing the Beautiful
Foundation40 modeled after the community foundation in America. The
goal of this Foundation is to provide mainly for the civic groups and activists
who suffered from financial deficits.
The general atmosphere surrounding civic groups has so rapidlychanged that the time gap between 1989 and 1994 could make a big
difference in the activities of CCEJ and PSPD. The most conspicuouschange is the extent of democracy, the depth of rule of law, and the growth ofNGOs. PSPD can safely say that it could be active in more favorable
conditions than CCEJ in that sense.

(ii) Some Experiences and Activities― PSPD’s perspective
Human Rights Issue
Respect for human rights is the most important symbol of a democraticsociety. A society in a transitional period has such tasks, in terms of humanrights, such as the abolition of bad laws, the reorientation of judicial
institutions, punishment of perpetrators, compensation for victims,
revelation of truths and so on.
With pressure from civic groups, the government was compelled to
imprison some policemen for their wrongdoing such as torture. It was themost dramatic scene to witness two former presidents being arrested fortheir initiation of the coup d’etat and massacre in 1980. It must have been ashock for other dictators in Asia who might be afraid that this could happen
The membership fees per month from 10,000 members is amounting around 50
million Won (roughly US$40,000), as of August 2000. All expenses in total every
month is 60 million Won. The deficit is being covered by the profits from managing
cafe, insurance agency, concert, and special donations. Recently there was special
donations amounting half million dollars from a businessman.
40 It is also accessible through the Internet website whose name is Beautifulfund.org.
39

119

in their own countries.
With ratification of ICCPR, Korean NGOs for human rights could
take advantage of international organizations as a platform for reforms. For
example, the National Security Law was under fire by members of UN
Human Rights Committee, through process of consideration for the initialand periodical country report. NGOs were taking advantage of theoccasion by submitting counter-reports and monitoring the Committee.
However, the Korean civic groups for human rights are still
struggling to enhance the level of human rights in Korea. The NSL is stillleft unchanged, leaving hundreds of victims behind bars. The prosecution,
police, and the judiciary cannot be said to be fully democratized andindependent. Even though high-ranking officials pledge to admit theuniversality of human rights, no one can say it is being carried out in reality.
The way PSPD carries out its activities has been unique in a sense thatit concentrated on monitoring the Judiciary and the Prosecution. It
maintains 2,800 files of judges and public prosecutor in its archive, keeping
every judgement and decision made. It became very useful and effective on
the occasion of the confirmation process against the appointees for Supreme
Court Justice and Constitutional Court Justice in Parliament, releasing
comments on their performances in terms of human rights and affecting thequestionnaire of the parliamentarians. It must be influential for the judges
and public prosecutors to reconsider how civic groups and the people would
evaluate their judgements. The PSPD also targeted at strengthening thesocial welfare system and eventually the protection of social and economic
rights, succeeding with legislation entitled “Protection Law of Minimum
Life” in late 1999.

Anti-Corruption Campaigns
Corruption has been a common phenomenon in Korea so much so that it
used to be called: ROTC (Republic of Total Corruption). It was also a kindof heritage from remaining dictatorship. Civic groups were also very active
in combating corruption.
PSPD’s campaign for Clean Society was established in 1996. It madea draft of an anti-corruption law, which was submitted to parliament andwas so influential as to become national and common agendas for all civic
groups.
The anti-corruption law also includes a package of legal weapons
such as whistle-blowers protection, prohibition of money laundering,120

strengthening penalty and ethics of conduct, and independent council 41 .
Now it is on the brink of being legislated, because the ruling party andopposition party have already submitted a similar Anti-Corruption Law.
Another of PSPD’s project in the field of anti-corruption was theprotection of whistle-blowers, with the unique Center for ‘a few good men’.
In the belief that the protection is a most effective way to eradicate
corruption, it continued to issue pamphlets, organize conferences, defend
whistle blowers, and of course proceed the legislation.

Minority Share Holder’s Rights Campaign
Korea’s rapid economic development had once been regarded as the mostsuccessful model for scholars and policy makers alike. However, thecountry experienced a serious economic crisis since 1997. Although there
have been heated disputes on what was the reason of the sudden economic
decline, no one denies that the structure of corporate management was oneof the reasons, as many scholars argue as follows:“In conclusion, because of the long tradition of active government
involvement, by the time of the 1997 financial crisis the South
Korean economy had not developed the regulatory and legal
institution that are consistent with a self-correcting, self-promoting,
and well-functioning market economy. Market discipline was
weak as corporate governance was centralized, with all
responsibility in many Korea’s chabol falling to primary owners
who held a minority of the corporation’s stock. Low profit rates
and high debt-to-equity ratios that would not acceptable in a moreadvanced market economy.”42
The job of minority shareholders’ right campaign became
popularized with the beginning of the movement as the economic crisis
began. The first target was the First Bank (Cheil Bank) which was nearlybankrupted, because of heavy ill debts from the bankrupted Hanbo Steel.
The litigation against top management was brought to the courts, and PSPD
won the case in which the court ordered the management to makecompensation in the amount of 400 million Won to the Bank. The next
In the process of preparing the draft, other examples such as the Ethics inGovernment of 1976 of USA, Hong Kong and Taiwanese legal systems were taken
into consideration.
42 Uk Heo and Sunwoong Kim, “Financial Crisis in South Korea ― Failure of theGovernment-led Development Paradigm”, Asian Survey, Vol.XL. No.3, May-June,
2000, p.507
41

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battleground was the Samsung Electronics. The PSPD’s delegate consistedof specialized lawyers, professors and accountants participating in theannual gathering of the stockholders, and raised issues of mismanagement in
the perspective of minority share holders. It lasted 16 hours and received
the spotlight from both Korean and foreign mass media as well.
Notwithstanding some limitations, it was also an effective means to change
the management style of conglomerates and arouse people’s consciousness.

Political Reform Crusade
Corrupted politics has been one of the main reasons of non-competition andsocial underdevelopment. Distrust and dissatisfaction against politicians
were mounting.
Modernized political party and a well-organizedparliament could be leverages for social stability and national prosperity.

The Korean civic groups including PSPD were writing a new
history by intensive intervention in the political process. During
the last general election in April 2000, they made a blacklist of
candidates who should not be elected. The category of theblacklist was made according to such criteria as career ofpunishment of corruption, conspicuous negligence of theiractivity as parliamentarian, and misconduct.

The campaign

became so popular and influential that it resulted in an
overwhelming victory where 70% of the targeted candidates
were not elected. In the Seoul Metropolitan area, 95% of thecandidates could not be parliamentarians again.
This has paved the way for the citizens’ participation in the process ofpolitics. Confidence was being rooted in their minds to change the climateof politics. Civic groups have already started a new attempt to have a
network to monitor and inspect parliamentarian activities against the
government on a daily basis 43. After the campaign, discussions to establish
a nation-wide network of civic groups is still undergoing, and at the sametime it created a new route of participation through the Internet. During the
campaign, the web-cite was hit by millions of netizens for 3 months, hence,

However, the process of inspection towards every departments of government by
the Parliament happens annually from September to December.
43

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the Internet has been a new playground for the civic movement44.

7. Common Ground to Share― Solidarity for Reforms and Change in Asia
Asian countries were suffering most seriously from the recent economiccrisis. Even though there were some external reasons, we Asians may
inevitably try to find our own faults and weak-points within our society, as
not to repeat the same tragedy. This momentum can be utilized to clear
away all clouds which might shed on our destiny and remain after our rapid
economic development.
Most Asian countries share common experiences in the rapid
development and authoritarian rule. Except for a few countries such as
China, Burma45 and North Korea46, other Asian countries are stepping into a
more diversified and capitalistic stage of development, getting out of
one-party rule, authoritative suppression of human rights, and inefficient
government-led economy, which dominated this region for decades. There
must be a different stage of democratization in those countries. For
example, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, and Thailand can be classified
as relatively advanced in terms of democracy. Countries such as Indonesia,
Malaysia47, Singapore48 are also on the way to democracy and civil society.

PSPD’s website receives 45,000 a month and it’s increasing. (Michael Vatikiotis &Shim Jae Hoon, “People’s Advocate”, Far Eastern Economic Review, March 23, 2000,
p.28)
45 Despite the crushing opposition by the junta and no hope of democratization of
power in Burma, the junta is not stable and safe. The so-called ‘9-9-99 Movement’(September 9, 1999) was not successful to ignite a wave of democratization
movement, 1,000 demonstrated in the town of Meiktila at that time. With troubled
economy and dirty image outside, we cannot sure the junta survive. (See Donald M.
Seeking, “Burman in 1999; A Slim Hope”, Asian Survey, Vol. XL. No. 1,
January-February 2000) At the same time, expert on Burma says power strugglelooms in the junta’s leadership.(Bertil Lintner, “Troubled Junta”, Far Eastern
Economic Review, June 29, 2000)
46 Recently Kim Jong Il, North Korean leader, made splendid debut on international
arena by having a summit with its partner Kim Dae Jung, South Korean president.
This unexpected event deserves prospect for the North Korea to open its gate widelyand begin the same road which China had strid.
47 Even though Mahathir still grips his country strictly, some elements for thechange is visible. He is struggling with the issue of former Deputy Prime Minister
Anwar Ibrahim The people themselves, especially youngsters, want democracy.
“Everywhere there’s a cry for grater accountability and limitation of powers of44

123

There has been a debate that “Asia is a different place from the Westand therefore must construct political regimes that suit the uniqueconditions of its cultures. While it makes sense to nurture market
economies by the government and the business sector, politics must reflect
the group oriented or communitarian concerns of Asia’s Confucian cultures.
This means that certain liberties such as freedom of speech, assembly, andcompetition for political office are sharply limited.…...” 49 Also, uniquetradition and characteristics which can be found in Asian countries can beinevitably incorporated into the political, economic and social systems.
However, this cannot justify the authoritarian rule or government immunity
in the name of Asian tradition or cultural diversity.
Under the ideology of development, concepts such as human rights,
equality and quality of life used to be neglected and dismissed.
Authoritarian rule was also likely to lead to corruption, inefficiency andvulnerability. Many reasons can be found to explain these social evils.
However, the insufficiency and destruction of ‘checks and balances’ may be
the most important factor. A strong civil society can be a bank to protect theflood of power abuse, and a power plant to build common sense. Civic
groups are thus essentially the most important element of the civil society.
However, many civic groups in this region suffer from ignorance,
inexperience and the lack of resources. If we learn from the experience of
civic groups in other countries, we can easily overcome our difficulties. In
fact, the problems are very similar and share many things in common. For
example, education for citizens, financial difficulty, skills for publiccampaigns and strategy for the movement are problems commonly foundamong most NGOs.
In addition, there have been rare exchanges among Asian countries.
Various reasons include language barriers, non-existence of funding and theutmost diversity in this region. NGOs in America and Europe no longer
show concern for those countries where the democratization process once
began. However, societies in transitional period are most needy fortechnical advice and experienced assistance. This is the reason why we canpersons in authority.” (Interview with Sulaiman Abdullah, Malaysia’s Bar Council
chairperson, Far Eastern Economic Review, July 2000, p.31)
48 Interestingly it provided recently, so called speaker’s corner, a public forum forthe public such as Hyde Park’s corner in United Kingdom. It has clear limit in thesense that he or she should get permission and stay within of the law. (See Ben
Dolven, “Soapbox ‘Asia’s Nanny state gives citizens a public forum”, Far Eastern
Economic Review, April 6, 2000). However, it symbolizes that Singapore is also
under the pressure to open and to appear, at least, to be democratic.
49 Steven J. Hood, “The Myth of Asian-Style Democracy”, Asian Survey, Vol.
XXXVIII, No.9, September 1998, p.853

124

say it’s high time to build a bridge for mutual exchange of our experiences.

125Patients’ Rights of Access to Drugs in the
Globalization Era: The Case of Thailand
Saree Aongsomwang
Foundation for Consumers (FFC)
Center for Consumer Interests
Globalization and Public Health
The concluding meeting of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff(GATT) conceived the infamous World Trade Organization (WTO) which
eventually replaced the GATT. The signing and ratification of WTO ispressuring, forcing and intensifying the implementation of the free tradeeconomic system of all countries on a global scale50 which has been called“globalization.” Trade agreements have been shaped and took
decision-making process from the national governments and handed themdown to the dominant actors in the international market and thetransnational corporations (TNCs).51 Trade agreements with clauses largely
detrimental to the developing countries have far-reaching implications andimpact to development and health in particular and eventually to the poor,
who are already marginalized.
Trade liberalization has already started swinging around in all of the
Asian countries in the 90’s, where we saw the opening of the markets of the
Indochina countries, and the biggest target markets of all, India and China.
We have also witnessed the unregulated and free flowing of investment;
privatization of state enterprises; no choice signing of international treaties;
and amendments to national laws, to name a few, all to comply and bindwith the WTO agreements. This pre-globalization period has an earlier
impact on Asian countries, which witnessed the fragility and collapse of the
Asian economic tigers. This eventually have big effects on the health andquality of life in most Asian countries, where in the south, southeast andmiddle east areas, unemployment and inflation rate soars, and there’s a lack

50 Correa, Carlos. The Uruguay Round and Drugs, Geneva, Switzerland: World HealthOrganization; 1997.
51 Dr. K. Balasubramaniam. Heads – TNCs Win: Tails – South Loses or The GATT/WTO/
TRIPs Agreement, Penang, Malysia: Consumers International (CI), April 1998.

126

of access to essential and life-saving drugs. Availability is not the question
and this is a cause for concern and for raising human rights issues.52

The UNDP Report bares a negative impact to developing
countries of the trade agreements.

Even the World HealthOrganization (WHO) agreed that trade liberalization has agreat impact on people’s health in the developing countries
with particular stress given to the lack of accessibility toessential drugs.

The UNCTAD Report, on the other hand,points out that the Trade Related Apects of Intellectual
Propertry Rights (TRIPs) Agreements are authored and led
mainly by TNCs and the United States Trade Representative(USTR).

Their business interest is put first before humaninterest, where developing countries are forced to draft or makeamendments to their national laws to comply with patent laws
where all new goods, inventions, and technologies particularly
medicines are covered by TRIPs.
According to the Consumer Internationals 53 , more
patented essential drugs are coming out of the market andpatent rights make drug prices higher which is a barrier toaccessibility. Not all of these drugs considered essential are in
the WHO’s “Essential Drug List.” New patent legislation will
prevent the transfer of technology where developing countries
will have their own research and development schemes. Also,

52 Pecoul, Bernard. “Access to Essential Drugs in Poor Countries,” The Journal of theAmerican Association, Volume 281, January 27, 1999.
53 t’Hoen, Ellen. Statement of Consumers International on Agenda Item 13 of the
52nd World Health Assembly (WHA), Geneva, Switzerland: World HealthOrganization (WHO); May 24, 1999.

127

patent protection gives 20 years of protection, which will
increase the gap in the access to drugs between developing anddeveloped countries. Developing countries would thus haveto wait for 20 years before they can access innovations.

TRIPs: International Rules on Health
In January 1995 in compliance with the WTO agreements, allcountries are enforced to implement drafting and amendments
to their national trade laws including TRIPs. There are sevenmajor forms of intellectual property rights, such as patent rights,
copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, plant bleeders, etc.
These are forcibly amended to comply within five years.
Before the creation of WTO, many developing countries had
patentprotection

used

for

processing

pharmaceuticals,

permitting easy entry of foreign drugs, production of genericdrug equivalents and lower drug prices.
Under the TRIPs Agreement, all WTO Member States
have to make patent protection available for at least 20 years forany invention and processing of pharmaceutical products.
This fulfils the criteria of novelty, inventiveness and usefulness.
TRIPs Agreement also request member states to treat
pharmaceuticals like any other technological products.

Butdrugs are not ordinary consumer products, drugs are
life-saving products, which are supposed to be non-profit
products. Moreover, it is often the prescriber rather than the
consumer who decides which pharmaceuticals should be used

128

and purchased, with no choice given to the consumer andlimited competition for the producers.
Article 30 of the TRIPs Agreement allows Member Statesto include in their patent law some limited exception to the
exclusive rights of patent holders.

Parallel imports 54 ,permissible under the principle of exhaustion of rights, mayalso be listed in patent law as an exception to exclusive rights.
Compulsory licensing 55 , article 31 of the TRIPs
Agreement allows “other use without authorization of therights holder”. This refers to the use by government or third
parties authorized by the government.

TRIPs Plus: Pressure from the United States
In Thailand, pharmaceutical products were not protected bypatent before 1992, where only the manufacturing process of apharmaceutical product could be patented. As a result, theoriginal manufacturers did not possess exclusive rights to their

54 Parallel importing consists of purchasing proprietary drugs from a third party inanother country, rather than directly from the manufacturer and taking advantage ofthe fact that pharmaceutical companies sometimes charge significantly lower prices
in one country than in another. This is commonly and widely practiced in thedeveloped countries.
55 Compulsory licensing is using of a legal intervention to restrict the monopoly
rights of existing patent holder and make generic drugs more available andaffordable. In certain instances, such as public health emergencies or unfair pricing
practices, compulsory licensing is used where production of drugs by companies
other than the patent holder is allowed. This is also widely practiced in thedeveloped countries.

129

drugs and thus it was possible to produce and market thesedrugs, provided if a different manufacturing process was used.
Under pressure, the government accepted an interim measure to
give the exclusive rights to pharmaceutical products, by the administration
system of the Food and Drug Administration of Public Health Ministry,
which is called “Safety Monitoring Program (SMP)”. In Thailand, FDA
through the SMP must assess the safety, efficacy and quality of any new
drugs before it is put on the market. A new drug must stay in the SMP for
at least two years before it can obtain registration. During this period, thedrug is only available in public or private hospitals where possible adverse
drug reactions are is monitored. No generic equivalent can be registered.
The Patent Law of 1979 was again amended in 1992 to include
pharmaceutical products-patent. Under pressure (and sanctioned) fromthe US government, the Thai Government forcibly revised its
Pharmaceutical Patent Act. Parallel importing of drugs was stopped andpatenting56 for products that have been invented anywhere in the world
after 1992 was introduced and accepted, paving the way to complete control
and monopoly by patent holders.
Again two years ago, the Thai government was pressed bilaterally
by the US government to cut and limit some important provisions on its
authority on compulsory licensing of drugs and to cancel its Pharmaceutical
Patent Review Board.57 (Table 1) What this means for the Thai consumers isthat multinational drug companies will maintain their monopoly on
production and marketing of drugs and therefore the price of drugs remains
high and hardly accessible. Even worst, the current economic problems
faced by Thailand made unemployment and inflation soared and has
affected most members of the Thai Society. But those hit the hardest arethose least able to defend themselves, such as the sick, the poor, and theother underprivileged.
56

Product patenting is the exclusive rights given to the manufacturer of the product57 Role & Responsibility of Pharmaceutical Patent Review Board

1) monitor of and price controlling and comparing of patented andoff-patents drugs2) report information to Price Control Committee of the Ministry ofCommerce to use compulsory licensing3) give recommendations to Ministerial Committee about pharmaceuticalpatent policy and measure for pharmaceutical research anddevelopment4) looking for funding and budgeting committee’s finance to support
pharmaceutical researchand development

130

The Bilateral Agreement of Trade between Thailand and the UnitedStates has Thailand enjoying trade preference through the General System
of Preference (GSP) which other developing countries are also enjoying.
This GSP was suspended and Thailand was threatened with trade sanctions
through the United State Trade Representatives National Trade Estimate(USTR-NTE). For example, from 1985 to 199258, Special 301 & Priority
Foreign Country (PFC) have been used. Since the United States is thedestination of 25 % of Thai exports, the sanctions can limit the import of
textile, wood products, jewelry and others from Thailand59.
Table 1 Facts and Figures of Pharmaceutical Patent Law in Thailand andseveral amendments made in 1979, 1992, and 1998 following theinternational agreement and the pressure from the United States.

Patent Protection:
•
•
•

1979
15 years protection
Reciprocity
6 months retroactiveof invention

•
•
•

1992
20 years protection
Reciprocity
12 months retroactiveof invention

Pharmaceutical Patent Protection:
Patent protection on Product patent
process (different
Introduced (different
process was allowed) process was not allowed)

Consumer Protection Measures:
1) Canceling of patentrightsNone• if no production

•
•

•

1998
20 years protection
National Treatment,
Utility Model &Right of Priority
Extension to 18
months retroactiveof invention

Product patent(different process is
not allowed,
following WTO’s
TRIPs Agreement
Article 27)60

None

58 Increased import taxes 100 % (Special 301) and pressure by bilateral agreements

such as Priority Foreign Country (PFC) and Priority Watch List Country (PWLC).
59
Textile is under the agreement of Multi-fiber Arrangement and Monitor by Textile
Surveillance Body (TSB); Thailand can report and log complaints to TSB.
60 TRIPs Agreement, Article 27: “Subject to the provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3,
patent shall be available for any inventions, whether products or process, in all fieldsof technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are capableof industrial application. Subject to paragraph 4 of Article 65, paragraph 8 of Article
70 and paragraph 3 of this article, patents shall be available and patent rights
enjoyable without discrimination as to place of invention, the field of technology andwhether products are imported or locally produced.”131in 6 years in the
country2) Parallel importing• Allowed
3) Compulsory licensing
Verystrong:after
granting a license for 3
years,
compulsory
licensing can be used if
there are no production
or selling of drugs in the
country.

4)
Pharmaceutical
Patent Review Board• NoneNot allowed

AllowedStrong: after granting alicense, 3 or 4 years after
applying, any of them willbe the last to use
compulsory licensing if noproduction or selling ofdrugs but has to contact
the patentee for a certain
period to be granted. The
Pharmaceutical
PatentReview Board can directlyuseCompulsory
Licensing(reportinformationtoPriceControl Committee of the
Ministry of Commerce touse compulsory licensing)

Very
weak:
after
granting a license, 3 to 4
years after applying canusecompulsory
licensing, in case thepatentee has behaved to
avoid production or
selling of drugs but it
has to contact thepatentee for a certain
period of time to be
granted.

•Cancelled

Yes

Problems of Accessibility to HIV/AIDS Drugs in Thailand
While people living with HIV infections may live longer before theirinfections lead to secondary diseases and eventually AIDS, survival iscomplicated with symptoms and medical conditions. Many of these
symptoms and conditions are manageable with drugs, however, access tothese drugs is difficult due to economic reasons where in Thailand a majorityof the infected persons are living below the poverty line. Treatment is notjust for once a day or just for one drug but it usually is multiple or a
combination of one or two drug everyday for the rest of one’s infected life.
Drug prices are eventually soaring high for consumers in a countryof 62 million people where the average daily wage is only Baht 120/day or
US$3.00. The high price also has a large impact on the country’s National
Health Budget and eventually the disadvantaged. Also the safety nets
including insurance scheme have increased due to drug prices which
comprise 35% of the total health care budget, approximately 60 billion Baht
or US$15 billion annually.
The average price of effective treatment contains three drugs, whichcost in the range of Baht 18,000 to Baht 26,000 per month or between US$450

132

to 650. In truth, the price of these drugs should be much lower, where
HIV/AIDS drugs such as AZT and DDI are simple compounds, which areeasy to produce and formulate. The Thai Government Pharmaceutical
Organization (GPO) has been supplying the generic equivalent of AZT
called “zidovudine” since 1993, the price has decreased by 300%. Thailand
is very capable of producing good-quality cheap generic drugs, but local
production has been limited and regulated because of the US government’s
continued trade pressure.
Furthermore, the following are the present problems of accessibility:
1) About one million people infected with HIV in Thailand.
2) 30,000 to 55,000 new AIDs and symtomatic patients each year.
3) Only two of the HIV related drugs (zidovudine and fluconazole) areavailable at an affordable price from generic competition.
4) Consequently, 5% of PLWA can afford antiretroviral double therapy
and only 1% can afford antiretroviral triple therapy.
5) Monopoly by one multinational drug company of the HIV/AIDS
drugs, mostly the anti-fungal and anti-retroviral medicines are
retained in the SMP system, thus making these drugs highly priced
and unaffordable to PLWA, a majority of whom are low-income
earners.
6) The economic crisis caused a big change in Thailand’s AIDs budget.
The current budget of $34 million is 28% less than it was four yearsago.
7) Continued unethical marketing strategies and profit-oriented
concept of pharmaceutical companies.
8) Attitude and beliefs of doctors about PLWA and capability of
medical team to cope with HIV and AIDS.

Commonly Asked Question
The increasing use of compulsory licensing and parallel import will be aserious threat to research and development for new drugs.
The manufacture, marketing and sale of pharmaceutical drugs havealways been “big profitable businesses” worth billions of US dollars to thehuge transnational companies that dominate the world market. These
MNCs have always claimed that medicines are expensive because of thepainstaking and long years of research and development put into the newinventions but it is not always true according to the real cost structure ofthese companies obtained between 1983 and 1995, which Table 2 illustrates.
Table 2 Comparative percentage cost structure of MNCs between 1983 and133

199561

Cost structure
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Manufacturing
Promotion
Research & Development
OthersProfit1983

1995

40.5 %
17.0 %
9.7 %
12.1 %
20.7 %

25 %
24 %
13 %
10 %
28 %

Parallel imports and compulsory licensing were commonly used bydeveloped countries especially, the United States and the EU. In addition,
universal coverage of health insurance in most industrialised countries
ensures that the burden of drug costs is rarely substantial for any individual.
This is opposite to the situation in most developing countries.

The Thai NGOs Three Strategies on Access to Treatment
Group Campaign62
1. Information strategy
1.1. Collection of information about the number of PLWA who can or
cannot access treatment to anti-virus drugs for opportunistic
infection diseases especially cryptococcal meningitis, HIV infection
and AIDS-related cases.
1.2. Information education and dissemination about Patents, WTO andTRIPs Agreements that directly affect consumers.
2. Campaign with government agencies, NGO networks, related NGOs
and US embassy.
2.1. Meeting with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
2.2. Successive meeting with AIDS Division of the Ministry of Public
Health and the National AIDS Committee.
2.3. Campaign against the USA through its embassy in Thailand via
peaceful rally and demonstration in front of its Bangkok embassy
and submission of petition letters to the Ambassador, theProf. Dr. Jakrit Kuanpot. Lecturer on local and international law Sukhothai
Thammarirat Open University, Nonthaburi, Thailand
62 The Thai NGOs with coordination and access to treatment groups comprise ofThai NGO Coalition on AIDS (TNCA), ACCESS, The Thai Business Coalition on
AIDS (TCBA), People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWA) network, Medicines Sans
Frontiers, Belgium, The Co-ordinating Committee for Primary Health care of Thai
NGOs (CCPN) and Foundation for Consumers (FFC).
61

134

Department of Health Secretary, and the Department of Trade
Secretary.
2.4. National meeting with NGOs and related NGOs.
3. Exploring the possibilities of manufacturing own HIV/AIDS genericdrugs and looking for ways on how more people can access the drugs
3.1. Use of compulsory licensing for the new drugs.
3.2. Cooperation
betweentheGovernment
Pharmaceutical
Organization of Thailand (GPO) and AIDS Division to produce
some important HIV/AIDS drugs.
3.3. Cooperation with the Community Pharmaceutical Company toforge interest in producing and marketing the HIV/AIDS genericdrugs.
3.4. Cooperation with the business sector to forge interest in producing
and marketing the HIV/AIDS generic drugs.

Conclusions and Recommendations
Medicinal drugs represent an indispensable contribution to humankind andto the reduction of morbidity and mortality.63 But in the wake of the recent
two decades, there were impressive scientific feats, advances andinnovations in drug therapy notably for deadly diseases such as
tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, new infectious diseases andothers. Accessibility and affordability are the reasons why people cannot
obtain the life-saving drugs, which have become commodities for trade andfor profits, where money has also played an important role.

The May 2000 gathering of the World Health Assembly(WHA) had produced resolutions, which were approved
unanimously and have a great impact on health particularly theaccess to drugs. The member states that gathered at the 52nd
World Health Assembly (WHA) from 17 to 25 of May 2000
approved and adopted the drafted Resolutions on Revised
Drug Strategy (RDS) of the WHO without debates andamendments, which this is a breakthrough. RDS emphasizes

Consumer Reports on Medicines NEWSLETTER, Netherlands: Health Action
International Europe; July 2, 2000.
63

135

that “public health interests are paramount in pharmaceutical andhealth policies” and addresses “the impact of relevant international
agreements, including trade agreements, on local, manufacturing
capacity and on access to and prices of pharmaceuticals in developing
and least developed countries.”64 This breakthrough gives WHO,the international body on health, the authority to monitor
clearly the consequences and impact of international trade
agreements for public health. It also gives WHO a mandate toassist countries in their efforts to safeguard public health while
implementing trade agreements where member countries arebound. But the UN/international agency such as the WHO, isat the mercy of big institutions (WB/IMF) and TNCs, where it
could not fully implement public health before commercial
interest.

Citing the case of Thailand where the country’s

national legislation on anti-smoking absolutely prevent public
selling, advertising in any form, and importing cigarettes.
Tobacco TNCs brought Thailand to the the GATT court andThailand even with WHO’s backing on stressing public health’sinterest in the said legislation, lost in the negotiation and
Thailand, now allowed to import cigarettes.
In this perspective, international NGOs, national and local
NGOs have to be vigilant not to repeat the same event. Thereare clauses in the trade agreements that can be usedalternatively to put health before profits and these have to be

64 52nd World Health Assembly (WHA), Geneva, Switzerland; 17 to 25 of May 2000

136

explored and maximized.

Further, the following arerecommended:
1) Breaking down of the monopolistic system of manufacturing,marketing, and selling of medicines.
2) Changing and modifying international agreements that havenegative effects and impact to consumers and their healthparticularly the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights(TRIPs)3) Modify and update of the Essential Drug List at the nationallevel4) Capacity-building and strengthening of PLWA and their groups5) Review and modify medical academic curriculum

137Asia Leadership Fellow Program 2000
Resource Persons and Program Staff
Resource Persons
Aoki Tamotsu

Professor, National Graduate Institute for
Policy Studies (GRIPS)

Hara Hiroko

Professor, University of the Air

Inoue Nobutaka

Professor, Kokugakuin University

Ishida Takeshi

Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo

Kang Sangjung

Professor, University of Tokyo

Mushakoji Kinhide

Professor, Ferris Women’s University

Sakai Naoki

Professor, Cornell University

Ui JunProfessor, Okinawa University

Ito Retreat Participants
Patricio N. Abinales
Fujiwara Kiichi

Associate Professor, Kyoto University
Professor, University of Tokyo

Furusawa Kiyoko

Lecturer, Keisen University

Ishizuka MasahikoManaging Director, Foreign Press Center

Kaida Machiko

Director, International Center for the
Rights of the Child

Kamiko Naomi

International Department, Association to
Preserve the Earth

Nagafuchi Yasuyuki

Nagai Hiroshi
International

Associate Professor, Nagoya Institute ofTechnology
Professor,
Studies

138

Kanda

UniversityofSorpong Peou

Associate Professor, Sophia University

TakedaProfessor, Dokkyo University

Isami

Tsuboi Yoshiharu
Watanabe Akio

Professor, Waseda University
Professor, Aoyama Gakuin University

Tamura Yuko (observer) Intern, Japan International Volunteer Center

Program Staff
Japan Foundation Asia Center
Otsuka Yoshihito
Fukazawa Yoo

Managing Director
Director, Intellectual Exchange Division

Shiozawa Masayo

Intellectual Exchange DivisionThomas Redwood

Intellectual Exchange DivisionInternational House of Japan
Kato Mikio

Managing Director

Maruyama Isamu

Chief Program Officer

Shimamura Naoko

Program Officer

Sonoda Kimihiro

Assistant Program Officer

Rapporteur
Sarah Miller

Graduate

Washington

139

Student,

UniversityofForeword
In 2000, both the International House of Japan and the Japan Foundation
Asia Center once again joined hands in organizing the Asia Leadership
Fellow Program (ALFP) for the fifth consecutive year. This program aims
at encouraging intellectual leaders from Asian countries to share andexchange their views on issues that concern them and to promote mutual
understanding and positive professional relations among them. We can takepride in the fact that ALFP 2000 ended with success. Five individuals took
part in the program. They came from five different countries: Faruk fromIndonesia, Urvashi Butalia from India, Saree Aongsomwang from Thailand,
Park Won-Soon from South Korea, and Kumaoka Michiya from Japan.
This year we were fortunate to have someone from South Asia participate in
the program for the first time. Also noteworthy is the fact that the fellows
came from diverse backgrounds in Asian countries, and that they had awide range of interests to share with others. Their research topics include“Global Culture and Orality: Some Indonesian Experiences with
Globalization” (Faruk), “Culture and Identity in an Age of Globalization: A
Focus on Gender” (Butalia), “Access to Drugs in the Globalization Era: The
Case of Thailand,” (Aongsomwang), “Civic Movements in South Korea”(Park), and “NGOs and the Development of Civil Society: A Case from
Cambodia” (Kumaoka). These research projects focus their analyticalattention on the impact of globalization on different Asian societies and therole of non-state actors.
As shall become evident throughout this publication, the ALFP
fellows were also involved in other interesting activities. Besides working
on their own individual research topics, presenting their research proposals
and reporting on their findings in the various workshops during their
two-month stay in Japan, they made several field trips, paid visits todifferent institutes, and took part in seminars led by resource persons on
various issues.
We would like to express our sincere appreciation for thecontributions the five fellows made to our program, for the good insights
the resource persons offered during their seminars, and for all the assistanceour staff provided. Last but not least, we would like to thank both Sarah
Miller for serving as rapporteur and Chola Chek for editing this report.

140

The International House of Japan and the Japan Foundation Asia
Center trust that this report will provide a solid basis for future work aimed
at meeting our objectives.

International House of Japan
Japan Foundation Asia CenterTokyo, July 2001

141

Profiles of the 2000 ALFP Fellows
Urvashi Butalia (India)

Founder, Kali for Women
Proposed ALFP Research Topic:
Culture and Identity in an Age of Globalization:
A Focus on Gender
Ms. Butalia co-founded Kali for Women, the first feminist publisher in India.
She has been active in the women’s movement in India and in international
citizen’s exchange conferences, as well as in researching the modern historyof India. Her book, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India,
an oral history of the tragic separation of India and Pakistan, has been abestseller in India.

Faruk (Indonesia)

Lecturer, Faculty of Letters,
Gadjah Mada University
Proposed ALFP Research Topic:
Global Culture and Orality: Some IndonesianExperiences with Globalization
Dr. Faruk is a scholar who is interested in recent international issues aroundtheoretical and practical questions of culture. He is also a renowned
literary critic on contemporary Indonesian literature, and has written many
articles on literature and culture in general. His work has also been
published in journals of culture, the arts and literature.

Kumaoka Michiya (Japan)
President, Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)
Proposed ALFP Research Topic:
NGOs and the Development of Civil Society:
A Case from Cambodia
Mr. Kumaoka is one of the founding members of the Japan International
Volunteer Center (JVC), which was founded in Bangkok in 1980 in order toextend assistance to refugees from Indochina. Through the activities of142

JVC, Mr. Kumaoka has worked as a vocational instructor at refugee camps
or vocational schools in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and has been
involved in numerous emergency relief activities as well as ruraldevelopment and environmental protection for the past 20 years.

Park Won-Soon (Korea)
Secretary General, People’s Solidarity for
Participatory Democracy (PSPD)
Proposed ALFP Research Topic:
Civic Movements in South Korea
Mr. Park came to be known as a human rights lawyer through his
involvement in legal support activities for political prisoners. In 1994, heparticipated in the formation of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory
Democracy (PSPD), which advocates social justice through the social
participation of the people. During the April 2000 campaign for a fair andjust general election in South Korea, he acted as the representative of the“Citizens’ Alliance for the 2000 General Election (CAGE),” which was
successful in preventing the election of 70 percent of the candidates listed as
unfit.

Saree Aongsomwang (Thailand)
Executive Secretary,
Confederation of Consumer Organization, Thailand
Proposed ALFP Research Topic:
Access to Drugs in the Globalization Era:
The Case of Thailand
Ms. Aongsomwang is a pioneer and a respected spokesperson in Thailand’s
consumer protection movement.
She was instrumental in several
successful health campaigns, such as rational drug use in the countryside,
the rights of patients, and the rights of consumers. Ms. Saree has
established a consumer magazine, which is a widely read “alternative”
magazine for consumers. She also established the “Complaints and Legal
Assistance Center” for complaints, particularly those of the underprivileged,
as another part of the consumer protection program of her foundation.

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Schedule of Activities
Sept. 1Introductory Session

Sept. 2 - 5

Field Trip to Hokkaido

Sept. 7Workshop I: Presentations by the Fellows (1)“Global Culture and Orality: Some IndonesianExperiences with Globalization,” by Faruk“Culture and Identity in an Age of Globalization: A
Focus on Gender,” by Urvashi Butalia

Sept. 8Workshop II: Presentations by the Fellows (2)“Access to Drugs in the Globalization Era:
The Case of Thailand,” by Saree Aongsomwang“PSPD and Civic Movements in Korea,” by Park WonSoon“NGOs and the Development of Civil Society:
A Case from Cambodia,” by Kumaoka Michiya

Sept. 12 Workshop III: Discussion on Collaborative Topic
Sept. 13 Workshop IV: Discussion with Kato Mikio (1)Sept. 14 Workshop V: Interim Evaluation and Future Direction
Sept. 18 Seminar I: “Globalization and the Fast-foodization ofJapanese Society,” by Prof. Aoki Tamotsu, National
Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)
Sept. 19 Seminar II: “You Asians ― On the Historical Role of theWest and Asia Binary,” by Prof. Sakai Naoki, Cornell
University
Sept. 20 Visit to the Asia-Japan Women’s Resource Center
Sept. 22 Visit to Minamata Forum

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Sept. 23 - 27

Field Trip to Kyushu

Sept. 29 Visit to the Asian Rural InstituteOct. 2Visit to JANIC/JVC

Oct. 4

Visit to the HELP Asian Women’s Shelter

Oct. 6

Seminar III: “Postcolonialism and Diasporic Space inJapan,” by Prof. Kang Sangjung, University of Tokyo

Oct. 11

Seminar IV: “Japan in Asia: Memory, Responsibility andthe Future,” by Emeritus Prof. Ishida Takeshi,
University of Tokyo

Oct. 13 Seminar V: “To Overcome the End-of-Century Crisis in
Asia,” by Prof. Mushakoji Kinhide, Ferris Women’s
University
Oct. 16 Seminar VI: “New Religions in Japan and Asia,” by Prof.
Inoue Nobutaka, Kokugakuin University
Oct. 19 Workshop VI: Discussion with Kato Mikio (2)Oct. 20 Seminar VII: “Development and Industrial Pollution in
Japan,” by Prof. Ui Jun, Okinawa University
Oct. 21 Weekend Retreat in ItoOct. 24 Workshop VII: Preparatory Session for the Symposium
Seminar VIII: “Women/Gender Studies in Japan,” byProf. Hara Hiroko, University of the Air
Oct. 26 Public Symposium: “Action and Reflection: Experiencesof Globalization in Asia”
Oct. 30 Workshop VIII: Evaluation Session
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Introduction
The year 2000 witnessed another successful attempt by the International
House of Japan and the Japan Foundation Asia Center at bringing to Japan
Asian scholars and activists. Their ideas and inputs shared during their
two-month stay enriched our understanding of how globalization evolves
and what impact it has had, and will have, on our everyday lives andsocieties.
Globalism and globalization ― the process referring to the increaseof globalism ― have become one of the most important themes in today’s
intellectual enterprise. i Much of what people refer to as globalism is
associated with economic issues. Economic globalism is a state of theworld that “involves long-distance flows of goods, services, and capital, as
well as the information and perceptions that accompany market exchange.”
Globalism “also involves the organization of the processes that are linked tothese flows, such as the organization of low-wage production in Asia for the
US and European markets.”ii It is a major source of intellectual excitement
and frustration: people from different theoretical traditions have beendrawn into the ongoing debate whether globalization is a “curse” or a“cure” for all the social diseases being witnessed in today’s world. On the
one hand, commercial liberals remain convinced that globalization is aprocess that promotes peaceful globalism or world society.
The more critical perspective on economic globalism andglobalization come from those who take the position that this global
condition has been dominated by powerful economic interests that continue
to create misery around the world. Globalization is often seen as a process
leading to the collapse of modernity. The term captures postmodernists,
who were among the first to write an obituary for the Enlightenment claimsof rationality and scientific progress. Transnational capitalism purports tostimulate economic growth worldwide but ends up “producing”
unemployment and poverty. The gap between rich and poor continues towiden. The state has also come under attack and become less able tosafeguard human rights or to defend social and economic justice against theonslaught of markets. The nation-state is now seen by some as beingcaught between the world economy and individualization, a trend thatcharacterizes society as “losing its collective self-consciousness andtherefore its capacity for political action.” In other words, globalization is aprocess of de-nationalization that gives rise to the anarchistic market utopia
of a minimal state. The question then becomes “what is to be done?”iii
To this end the International House of Japan and the JapanFoundation Asia Center, under the general theme “Development and146

Culture ― Globalization and Asian Experiences,” invited the five Asianscholars and activists to reflect on their understandings of the impact of
globalization on politics, the economy, culture and society. What is unique
about this group of fellows is that they came from the same region ― Asia ―and had different professional and intellectual backgrounds but appeared tohave broad consensus on the various issues related to the process ofglobalization. The Fellows were Faruk (researcher and cultural/literary
critic from Indonesia), Urvashi Butalia (publisher/activist from India),
Saree Aongsomwang (consumer NGO activist from Thailand), Park
Won-Soon (lawyer and founder of a nation-wide NGO in South Korea), andKumaoka Michiya (founder and president of an international volunteer
NGO in Japan). They came from Asia’s major democracies: India, Indonesia,
Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. For the first time we had a fellow from
India ― the world’s largest democracy ― join the Asia Leadership Fellow
Program.
It came as no surprise to anyone then that these Fellows took astrong stand on socioeconomic and political issues and tended to focus on
the role of civil society and on how its actors should respond to the adverse
effects brought about by globalization. Although they saw globalization as
having a negative impact on society, they remained ambivalent about theways people, whose lives have been seriously affected by it, should
respond.
This report is divided into six sections: workshops, field trips,
seminars given by resource persons, the weekend retreat in Ito, the public
symposium, and concluding remarks. The common theme that emerged
from these various activities was the impact of globalization on the diverse
ways of life in different Asian societies.

I. Workshops
A series of workshops was organized, allowing the Fellows to present theirthoughts on issues dear to their hearts. Globalization emerged as theunifying theme.
In his presentation “Global Culture and Orality: Some IndonesianExperiences with Globalization,” Faruk perceived that globalization is acomplicated process in which the world tends, on the one hand, to be aborderless homogenous world and, on the other hand, a heterogeneous
localized world. Since the Indonesian people are mostly still living in andwith oral culture, that is, a culture growing from oral language as a very
simple information technology, it is difficult for them to experience
globalization in its complicated wholeness.

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When posed with activities of global agencies operating in Indonesia
for encouraging a heterogeneous world, like pluralism and local autonomy
programs, they are inclined to interpret them as activities that legitimatize
the people going back to an ethnocentric way of life. In this case, they
forgot or could not catch the other side of globalization, that is, theborderless side of the world implying the necessity, for people, to open theirselves and to have a tolerant mind and attitude to others.
From the Indonesian experiences with it, Faruk intended to say that
globalization and all conscious programs of it conducted by cosmopolitan
agencies must consider various local conditions. Only in this kind ofcomprehension can globalization create a better and a safer world than
before.
Also critical of globalization was the presentation “Culture and
Identity in an Age of Globalization: A Focus on Gender” by Urvashi Butalia,
whose research topic was centered on women in India. In her challenge tothe view that globalization equals progress, she contended that the true
meaning of the term should mean that all economies are equal participants.
But this is not the case. In the 1990s globalization brought to India the
global media. It also introduced global capital to India, making pictures ofWestern men and women accessible to most Indian families, changing thepeople’s dress preferences and buying habits, and compelling them to use
savings for their children’s education to acquire the latest products they see
advertised on TV.
The overall impact of globalization has been negative. The year
1992 marked a significant turning point for both globalization in India andthe rise of Hindu fundamentalism. Indian women responded favorably tothe courting of the right-wing Hindu party and its promises to help them on
many issues by taking violent action: by participating in the destruction ofmosques, for instance. This presented a setback for Indian feminists who
had been fighting for women’s rights and for public space.
Globalization has not merely given rise to Hindu fundamentalism
but has left the feminist movement on the sidelines and redefined women’s
rights: the influx of multinational corporations has neutralized the state’s
willingness to fight for women’s rights, which now appear to be centered on
consumption, and nothing more.
The negative impact of globalization on Thailand’s development was
dealt with in Saree Aongsomwang’s presentation entitled “Access to Drugsin the Globalization Era: The Case of Thailand.”Her focus onpharmaceutical companies and their influence in Thailand was placed
within the broad context of globalization, which has forced many countries
to change or amend their national laws related to TRIPS (Trade RelatedIntellectual Properties) and have reduced the capacity for self-regulation.

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The rising power of pharmaceutical companies has raised the cost of
medical care and pharmaceuticals, thus limiting people’s access to them.
In Thailand, only 1 percent of the people affected by HIV and AIDS get
triple therapy of the anti-retro virus, and only 5 percent of them get thebiformula of the anti-retrovirus. The prices of these medical therapies are
too high for people to afford. Meanwhile, the patent system has left local
companies unable to produce inexpensive drugs. AIDS activists andconsumer groups have protested to the Public Health Ministry andpharmaceutical companies for compulsory licensing, but the government
cannot take action because it is afraid of bilateral pressure and trade
sanctions.
The workshops also gave attention to the role of civil society. In his
presentation “NGOs and the Development of Civil Society: A Case from
Cambodia,” Kumaoka Michiya gave a first-hand account of changes in
Cambodia in recent decades. In the late 1980s through the early 90s alongwith the decline and collapse of the USSR and the reforms in Vietnam,
Cambodia began to introduce a market economy. After 1991, local NGOs
were allowed to operate ― prior to that, only international NGOs wereallowed and they provided social services and peace advocacy ― and a civilsociety began to emerge. Unfortunately, the country still faces many
problems, including resource exploitation and mismanagement by the state,
worsening poverty, lawlessness, human-rights abuses, and the culture ofviolence and impunity. But NGOs are very active and trying to establish
networks with international NGOs. Though still dependent on financial
support from international NGOs and ODA, they are starting to set up asystem to support themselves.
The role of civil society was touched on by Park Won-Soon, whose
presentation focused on “PSPD [the People’s Solidarity for Participatory
Democracy] and Civic Movements in Korea.” He shared his thoughts on
how the PSPD got started, having been influenced by NGOs that came inafter the government collapsed in 1961 and 1987. PSPD works with labor
movements and grassroots organizations and remains non-partisan: none ofits members have held a government post. The PSPD relies on individual
donations and accepts no financial contributions from the government.
Park’s research interests led him to look at Japan as a reference point on
how a strong tradition in local government for the protection of rights could
help promote participatory democracy.
In short, presentations by the five Fellows illustrated the point that
globalization has left the poor and needy less and less protected by the state
but more and more vulnerable to economic predators in the era ofglobalization. At the same time, this trend has also encouraged activism
on the part of civil-society actors whose role can empower those most149

negatively affected by global market forces. International NGOs, like thosein Japan, may be weak but still have the potential to assist those indeveloping countries. On the other hand, local civil-society actors like thePSDP can empower individuals to take part in a movement for participatory
democracy, rather than defend the prevailing form of market democracy.

II. Field Trips & Visits
The five Fellows benefited not only from their individual research projects
and the exchange of ideas during the workshops but also from their field
trips to different parts of Japan, where they learned about local situations
and people’s initiatives to restore and protect the environment, to promotehealth, and to (re)build local communities. During the collaborativeinteraction period in the months of September and October, they made two
trips: to Hokkaido and Kyushu.

Field Trip to Hokkaido
During their field trip to Hokkaido, the Fellows visited several
places. During their visit to the area at the foot of Mt. Usu, which had
erupted on March 31, they toured an area around Lake Toya, which suffereddamage during the eruption and subsequent mudslides. They learned froma volunteer coordinator how 5,000 volunteers got together and removed
between 800 and 1,000 bags of ash per house, from some 500 houses. The
Fellows also had the opportunity to listen to Deputy Mayor Tanemura Junof Abuta Town in a session where he gave some background information on
eruption-prone Mt. Usu, including the most recent eruption. The Fellows
further learned about the relief efforts by the municipal government and theassistance provided to the local people at the emergency shelters by 80
volunteers and others. They had the opportunity to discuss volunteer
activities, coordination problems, financial difficulties, and issues related toinsurance coverage. They also visited one of the temporary houses built
for those whose houses were severely damaged or totally destroyed.
The Fellows also visited Nibutani, home of the Ainu people. They
had a chance to visit the controversial Nibutani Dam. The dam wasoriginally built for four purposes, i.e., flood control, irrigation, water supply
for household and industrial use, and electricity generation. Not all went
well, however, and the purposes have arbitrarily been changed from time totime. The dam affected the entire eco-system around the river, including
the spawning of salmon. It also destroyed the forests in the upstreambasin.
Due to the high construction costs and the dam’s alleged150job-creating role in the community, however, the dam has not been torn
down, despite the fact that a district court had declared the dam illegal. It
was useful to the Fellows to be given a chance to hear Mr. Kaizawa Koichi, a
local Ainu, tell of his personal history of struggle against the construction of
the dam. The Fellows also visited the Nibutani Ainu Museum, and met
with Mr. Kayano Shigeru, its founder and president. Mr. Kayano, one of
the Ainu leaders, talked about his personal history and accomplishments.
He has been collecting Ainu artifacts since 1953 and founded the museum in
1972. Also, in 1960 he began recording stories and folktales of older Ainu
people, and from these recordings he has published 45 books. He also
published a 15,000-word Ainu dictionary in 1996, from his memory.
The trip to Hokkaido was wrapped up in a session at Hokkaido
University, allowing the Fellows to comment on what they had seen andheard. An exchange of views between the Fellows and two Japanese
academics, Professor Nakamura Ken’ichi of Hokkaido University andProfessor Kayano Tomoatsu of Hokusei Gakuen University, raised issues oforal and written tradition, origins of Japanese surnames for the Ainu,
historical attitudes of the Japanese towards the Ainu, and the unfairness of
this people’s limited fishing rights. Concern was raised about thewastefulness of the Nibutani Dam and the destruction of nature, which led
to questions of responsibility for the Ainu plight and the Japanese academic
disinterest in it.

Field Trip to Kyushu
The Kyushu trip was five days long, visiting Minamata and Oita.
During their visit to the city of Minamata, the Fellows met with a local
activist, Ms. Ito, who took them to see reclaimed land and part of the Chisso
plant, the wastewater of which caused the tragic Minamata disease.
During the discussion at the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum, one of
the concerns raised was related to environmental protection. Although thegovernment was slow in responding to environmental problems, Minamata
City has raised awareness about environmental issues and started arecycling program, as well as promoting environmental shops and activities
such as giving out an annual prize to groups in Japan and developing
countries working to improve the environment. The Fellows also learned
about Minamata disease when listening to people involved in community
work. Their visit to the Chisso plant helped them to learn that the slow
investigation of the disease was mainly due to people’s arrogant attitudes
toward nature and their top priority given to rapid economic growth.
They were also briefed about the efforts that have been made since thedisease occurred to ensure environmental protection.
Following Minamata, the Fellows visited Oita. They could see and151

learn some of the effective strategies for community development. The
Fellows’ visit to Tama-no-Yu in the town of Yufuin was helpful: they learned
about the development of spas, the challenges the town faced in building its
reputation as a spa town, and about the “One Village One Product”
Movement.
The town has regulations against tall buildings andencourages cooperation among farmers and traders to promote
environmental activities. They learned more about the “One Village One
Product” Movement during their visit to the city of Oita and more about
environmentally friendly farming and self-reliance. In Oita, the Fellows
also visited the newly opened Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.

Study Visits
In addition to the field trips, the Fellow also paid several visits tosuch places as the Minamata Forum, the Asia-Japan Women’s Resource
Center, the Asian Rural Institute, JANIC (Japan NGO Center forInternational Cooperation) and the HELP Asian Women’s Shelter.
The Fellows learned more about Minamata disease during their visit
to the Minamata Forum. A number of changes have been made: most of
the unauthorized patients have now been acknowledged; the treatment ofsludge containing mercury is almost completed; the national government
had to bail out Chisso when near bankruptcy; and local governments andresidents no longer see patients as a taboo subject. Problems remain,
however, including the government’s rejection of claims by most people
that they are affected with the disease, and its position that there are no
more victims.
The visit to the Asia-Japan Women’s Resource Center gave theFellows a chance to discuss environmental and social issues. The
discussions focused on various women movements, such as thoseconcentrating on the environment, human rights and democracy, Japanesefirms’ exploitation of women and migrant women in Japan, non-Japanesesex slaves in Japan, and bride markets.
During their visit to JANIC, the Fellows learned about its main
purposes, its legal status, and the role of Japanese NGOs, which tend tooperate, mostly in Asia, in such areas as education, health, and theenvironment. Japanese NGOs tend to be outward-looking due to anumber of factors: Japan is an affluent country, with relatively few domestic
problems; young people now have more access to information oninternational issues and problems. Overall, Japanese NGOs remain weak
due to the lack of a national consumer movement, a weak tradition of
advocacy, and a culture of non-confrontation with the state. JANIC’srelations with the government and the women’s movement remain limited,despite the fact that 80-90 percent of the participants in its seminars are152women.
The Asian Rural Institute (ARI), in Nishinasuno, Tochigi Prefecture,
is a unique organizaion which invites 20 to 30 rural grassroots leaders from
Asian and African developing countries every year, and trains them as ruralleaders. On campus, trainees, staff and volunteers live and work together
aiming towards self-sufficiency based on organic farming and forming a justand peaceful community. During a one-day visit to ARI, the Fellows
informally exchanged views and ideas with the trainees and staff members,
and participated in a very informative tour of its campus, which is equippedwith various facilities for organic farming. Human resource development,
as thoughtfully planned and implemented by ARI, would be one area where
Japanese NGOs can contribute.
In short, the Fellows’ field trips and several visits gave them aglimpse of what civil-society groups in Japan have accomplished, theproblems and challenges they have been facing or struggling with, and an
overall impression of their future agenda.

III. Seminars by Resource Persons
Altogether there were eight seminars led by Japanese academics. The eight
academics were Professors Aoki Tamotsu of the National Graduate
Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Sakai Naoki of Cornell University,
Kang Sangjung of the University of Tokyo, Ishida Takeshi of the
University of Tokyo (emeritus), Mushakoji Kinhide of Ferris Women’s
University, Inoue Nobutaka of Kokugakuin University, Ui Jun of Okinawa
University, and Hara Hiroko of the University of the Air. These seminars
are divided into the following sections: environmental issues, cultural andreligious issues, and ethnic and national identity, as well as social andpolitical issues, all of which are related to globalization and raised some
important questions about counter-strategies.

Development and Industrial Pollution in Japan
Globalization has contributed to environmental degradation. In his
presentation “Development and the Industrial Revolution in Japan,”Professor Ui explained the pollution problems Japan still faces, theimprovements it has made, and some obstacles to further improvement.
One major obstacle lies in the weak opposition parties which regard
pollution as a secondary problem. They have made it possible for the
Liberal Democratic Party, which has had strong ties with business, toremain in power. Another obstacle can be found in the mainstream
scientists: they take money from big business and the government and do153not regard pollution issues as something for them to get involved in. The
economic obsession in Japan after World War II has been part of the
problem: Japan gave up culture after the war to focus on moneymaking
because culture cannot provide food. Still, hope for environmental
progress can be found, especially in areas outside Tokyo.

Globalization and the Fast-foodization of Japanese Society
Professor Aoki touched on the globalization of food culture andfashion in Japan, starting with the entry of foreign fast-food restaurants into
the country and using McDonald’s as the best example of successful
marketing practices. Though unhealthful, fast foods have become popularin Japan, which has absorbed cultural values from other societies and thus
tends to be more inclusive. The globalization of food culture in Japan was
also due to its economic growth, increase of nuclear families, and the
movement of women away from housework, all of which have beentransformed in the process of ‘fast-foodization’.
Questions were raised in response to Professor Aoki’s argumentthat there is a relationship between globalization and the culturaltransformation of food. Other Asian countries have not experienced such atransformation to the same degree that Japan has. The Westernization of
Korea was less smooth. Korea was opened up to the outside world underJapanese pressure. How globalization should be measured is yet to befurther discussed: by the spread of fast-food chains, or the spread of ethnic
restaurants, or by clothing?

New Religions in Japan and Asia
Globalization also has given rise to new religions and religious
movements in Japan. In his presentation “New Religions in Japan andAsia,” Professor Inoue explained how globalization has permitted new
ideas to spread around the world, thus making religions more readily
acceptable to other peoples, including those in Japan. The recent foreign
religions that have entered Japan include Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons,the Unification Church, Rajneesh and Raelien, some of whose characteristics
make it easy for their members to understand them and whoseorganizational systems make it easy for them to pass their religions on toothers. New religions are rising in popularity: unlike traditional ones,
which function as a social custom, they offer practical guidance in times of
personal crisis. Some of them have even become more business-oriented.

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You Asians ― On the Historical Role of the West and Asia
BinaryThe issue of national identity was raised during Professor Sakai’spresentation. A number of questions were raised: “Who are the people
who call themselves Asians?” “Where is Asia?” The word “Asia”
originated in the West, not in Asia. According to Professor Sakai, we
cannot talk about Asia positively, but only as a negative of the West ― andthe West is also an arbitrary creation. Japan’s current national tradition
and the unity of its culture are a byproduct of the US Occupation afterWorld War II. Nevertheless, we cannot even define the West, which has nounity except a desire for it. Cultural identities are created by our
prejudices. There is also a need to abandon our obsession with cultural
identity. Cultural values operate in a variety of ways. The family
structure, for instance, remains very strong in various parts of Europe, but
the nuclear family in Japan is becoming stronger.
Some Fellows agreed that there is not a single definition of Asia.
Korea, for example, is closer to the United States than to India. Korea andIndia have less in common. The Japanese idea of a Co-Prosperity Sphere
did not have any appeal to other Asians.

Postcolonialism and Diasporic Space in Japan
More of the identity-related issue was discussed by Professor Kang,
whose presentation entitled “Post-colonialism and Diasporic Space inJapan” sheds light on the faltering ideology of an ethnically homogenous
state. The difference between the public and private spheres exists. In
Japan, the public sphere is defined by exclusion based on gender andnationality. But there exists a problem of defining one’s identity at thegroup and ethnic levels. Japan’s postwar history has been formed by theinteraction of nationalistic groups, pro-US or ‘soft-peace’ groups, andpacifistic or domestic reform groups. Still, none of these groups has a placefor Korean residents in Japan. Furthermore, even Koreans themselves
have difficulty defining their identity as a single group due to a number offactors: divisions based on North vs. South origins, degree of Korean
language ability, and frictions between long-time and new Korean residents.
On political and social issues, a number of seminars gave attention to
the role of history in contemporary politics, to the movements launched by
women activists and their impact on politics, and to calls for indigenous
solutions to local problems.

Japan in Asia: Memory, Responsibility and the Future
The seminar “Japan in Asia: Memory, Responsibility and Future” by155Professor Ishida added more insights into the discussion on national
identity. He warned that any insistence on a dichotomy between East andWest is dangerous: there is much fusion between the two worlds. We
should also give attention to domestic fusion within individual countries.
Not very hopeful for the future, his presentation was centered on threeissues: Japan’s early industrialization and its negative impact on the
peripheries in and around Japan; the issue of war responsibility; and somehindrances to change.
Japan attempted to catch up with the West by rapidly industrializingat the sacrifice of its domestic periphery and then, when facing the
population’s complaints, exported the pollution to other Asian countries.
Concerning war responsibility, some Japanese companies were made to pay“sympathy money” to victims of slave labor during World War II, but thelatter have received very small compensation and the former did not takeresponsibility for their suffering. Although many historians in Japan talkabout the Imperial Army’s disgraceful behavior, those who emphasize
Japanese guilt are called traitors. In spite of some improvement incoverage of military actions in textbooks, the trend is now reversing.
Thirdly, Japan’s inability to change was attributed to a number of factors:
passive support of the ruling conservative elements; consumers’ growing
political apathy created by globalization; populistic, nationalistic tendencies
also created by globalization. All this has resulted in people becoming
apathetic and desiring strong leaders to resolve their problems immediately.
The IT revolution may offer hope, if it increases global solidarity among
NGOs working to improve human rights.
The discussion on how to deal with Japan’s past led to suggestions
from some Fellows, who provided examples of how NGOs could play sucha role. Korean NGOs are now working to get compensation for victims of
Korean actions. Civil society groups might also need to take advantage ofglobalization, if new technologies like the Internet provide the means forbuilding global solidarity. Professor Ishida stressed that while such means
are necessary, face-to-face networking is very important, as well.
Women/Gender Studies in Japan
Gender issues were raised during the seminar led by Professor Hara,
whose talk “Women/Gender Studies in Japan” shed light on the state of thewomen’s movement in Japan. Women’s studies developed from the war
period through the 1970s, when it became an academic discipline. She
discussed her approach to training students and her goals for future study.
Although things have been changing, Japan has nothing to be proud ofcompared to other Asian countries like India or Korea. The presence ofgender studies has not made a considerable impact on mainstream

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academia.

To Overcome the End-of-Century Crisis in Asia
A more active tone against globalization and a call for more
attention to endogenous solutions to the existing problems were made byProfessor Mushakoji in his talk “To Overcome the End-of-Century Crisis in
Asia.” He warned against global hegemonic ideas and against the way
human rights are treated as “universal” and are used to justify violence,such as the bombings of Serbia by NATO in 1999. Such humanitarian
intervention may be necessary, but this has served as a basic tool ofcolonialism. Unlike others who seek to promote liberal values in Asia,
Professor Mushakoji asserted that “We cannot just transfer in outside ideals
like ‘democracy’ or ‘civil society’“. He was thus happy about the current
trend against neo-liberalism.
Overall, the seminars gave a very strong impression that the global
trends toward a postmodern world seem to be growing stronger. The
above environmental, cultural and religious issues, matters related to ethnic
and national identity as well as to social and political problems ― all these
are related one way or another to globalization and raised importantquestions about counter-strategies. The discussions, though, seemed to
put these issues in a more negative light. The participants appeared toconverge on how to deal with the harmful effects of globalization on society:they tended to put the emphasis on non-state, civil society-based or local, as
well as transnational, activism.

IV. Weekend Retreat in Ito
The 2000 Asia Leadership Fellow Program’s retreat took place from 21 to 23
October, at the Ryokoh Club, in the city of Ito, in which 25 people
participated. They were five Asia Leadership Fellows, 12 participants fromacademia, journalism and NGOs, three representatives of the JapanFoundation Asia Center, and four from the International House of Japan.
The retreat began with opening remarks by Mr. Kato Mikio of theInternational House, who introduced this year’s theme of development,
culture and globalization and spoke briefly about the pros and cons ofglobalization before inviting the Fellows to present their findings.
Faruk elaborated his idea of globalization and orality with someideas and impressions he had found in the field trips. Here he saw the“One Village One Product” Movement of Oita community in theperspective of orality and postcoloniality.

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In his presentation Faruk said that the movement is indeed a good
movement for Oita community. But, it does not necessarily mean that thesame movement can achieve the same result in other countries. The
success of the movement in Oita cannot be separated from the specifichistorical and cultural background of the people of the town. It is theirstrong written tradition and culture that make the people of the town used
to strong independent way of life, to be able to manage their movement in a
way that is reasonable and makes sense for the global market and people.
It is their Japanese colonial and post-colonial history that has given them awide road to strike back to the center of the Japanese country.
Compared with Oita community, almost all of the small or local
communities in Indonesia have a very different cultural and historicalbackground. It is for this reason that one local community in Indonesia
which tries to imitate the movement called their movement “Back to
Village” Movement. In Faruk’s opinion, the name of the movement is very
strange since the related Indonesian community has never left its village inthe broad sense of meaning.
In her presentation, Urvashi explained how a nation comes toterms with its memories of the past. There are similarities, for instance,
between Japan and India in their history of repressing memories of negative
actions and violations against weaker groups in their societies. The
partition of India and Pakistan caused many people to suffer greatly andproduced the largest migration in the world. But all this has been ignored.
Many women were raped and abducted, but most families did not want toremember them. Nowadays the Hindu right-wing party uses thesepartition memories as justification for violent acts against Muslims, claiming
it is retaliation for the partition-era rape of Hindu women committed by
Muslim men. She concluded by asserting that both Japan and India would
need to learn how to deal with such unhappy memories.
In his focus on Cambodia, Kumaoka compared the 1990s with the
1980s and made some suggestions on how to help the needy. The 1990s
witnessed rising social and economic problems: trafficking of children, an
increase of landless farmers and slums. He then discussed the changing
role of NGOs in Cambodia and wondered if they should provide a safety
net for these people. In his view, they should start with resource
development before moving slowly toward a market-based economy.
The NGO community in Japan remains small (about 400
organizations, compared with 2000 in Thailand) and weak. The tax systemremains unfavorable. He suggested that NGOs, which were originallyseen as anti-government, have a working relationship with the government
or even the military (especially in areas related to land mines), and also withacademia and think tanks.

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Saree gave her presentation on the limited access to drugs in
Thailand. Drug patents make it difficult for developing countries, which
do not have good safety nets, to get access to good medicines that have been
discovered and developed. She talked about the negative effects ondeveloping countries when joining the WTO requires amendment of
national laws and compliance with TRIPS, which demands that all countries
involved have the same regulations. This is to protect pharmaceuticalcompanies for 20 years. Due to pressure from the United States by way of
TRIPS, monopolies on drug patents are on the increase; compulsory
licensing is rarely used. But she insisted that the United States is not the
only country to blame; Thailand, too, is a problem: it hesitates to challenge
the United States in fear of economic sanctions.
Park presented his personal story ― his imprisonment after his
protest against the Park Chung-Hee government, his becoming a lawyer
defending protestors, and his hopes for democracy. He eventually left thelucrative legal profession and started the People’s Solidarity for
Participatory Democracy. He observed the difference between Korean andJapanese civic groups: the former have few ideas of their own but a lot ofexperience in organizing protests; the latter, in contrast, have a lot of ideas
but take little action.
The discussions during the retreat focused on the role of civilsociety. Saree suggested that we move away from the present system ofrepresentative democracy and move toward participatory democracy withsupport from international civil society. Park saw the potential in NGOs in
influencing politics, citing examples of the role of Japanese intellectuals
during the protests in Korea (Tokyo was the center of distribution for the
opposition).
Urvashi gave an example of transnational action: thewomen’s movement is part of the civil-society movement that has madetransnational alliances.
The retreat in Ito provided a good opportunity for the Fellows toshare their thoughts and experiences with their counterparts in Japan, andfor the impending public symposium in search of a discussion theme, which
turned out to be “new paradigms for the 21st century.” After an exchangeof views, Professor Patricio Abinales of Kyoto University summed up someof the new paradigms: the state as our enemy and friend, identity andculture, participatory democracy, and civil society as an important actor.

V. Public Symposium
The symposium took place on 26 October, under the title “Action and
Reflection: Experiences of Globalization in Asia.” Maruyama Isamu of the159International House of Japan introduced the Fellows, followed by a brief
speech by Otsuka Yoshihito, Managing Director of the Japan Foundation
Asia Center, who welcomed the panelists and audience and thanked themfor taking part in the symposium. Professor Takeda Isami of Dokkyo
University, who served as moderator, invited the Fellows to begin theirpresentations. Most of the discussions were related to what the Fellows
had already shared earlier.
Urvashi reiterated most of her points on the impact of globalization
on many aspects of human lives, the violence committed against women
during the partition of India, and the ways the Hindu right wing used thememories of this violence. She also introduced the women’s movement,
which has made serious attempts to keep traditional crafts alive and use
them to preserve memories, but still faces challenges from globalization.
Faruk tried to explore other cultural implications of orality byreferring especially to the case of multidimensional crisis in Indonesia.
According to him, since information stored in oral language will always bevanishing, the people who live in and with it need personal guidance todetermine the truth and the falsity of the information. It is this kind oftechnological necessity that makes Indonesian people used to living in acontinuously dependent way of life. In turn, it is this way of life thatmakes the people unable to overcome the crisis by themselves as otherpeoples can do.
Saree also returned to her theme regarding the unfavorable impactof the WTO and globalization on small and developing countries.
Although Thai companies can produce good quality drugs at low prices,pressure by the United States in the form of TRIPS-Plus has resulted in adecrease in the amount of inexpensive drugs available.
In addition to his earlier talk, Park asserted that his role was toensure transparency and accountability. One of his goals was to build civilsociety in Korea. He believed civic groups should serve as watchdogs andbulldogs: by pointing out problems and not giving up until they wereresolved. NGO development took a long time, but the PSDP has had manysuccesses in getting rid of corrupt politicians in its raksen undong(blacklisting movement). Globalization has had a positive impact on thedevelopment of transnational cooperation. Park said he would like toencourage relationships between civil-society groups in Japan and Korea,
and those in Korea and other Asian countries.
Kumaoka repeated what he had said earlier about his personal
involvement in Cambodia and explained what Japanese NGOs haveaccomplished in this country ― digging of wells, providing health care forpregnant women, education, and farm development. Due to Japan’s
economic successes since the 1970s, he thought it was time for Japan to start160

helping other countries. The large number of Cambodian refugees and thetremendous amount of violence in Cambodia made him want to serve as an
advocate for the marginalized.

VI. Concluding Remarks
The extent to which globalization has improved or impoverished the lives ofordinary people around the globe remains a bone of contention. The
Fellows made clear that all is not well: By and large globalization has
exacerbated the socioeconomic and political conditions for individuals whoare increasingly left to their fates without adequate state protection. To
that extent, the call for action to protect human rights ― to empower
individuals in coping with the growing power of powerful economic
interests in the process of globalization ― appears to be the next logical step.
Globalization, which also allows transnational action to be taken for thispurpose, has opened a window of opportunity for building participatory
democracy and a global civil society.
Endnotes

For more works on globalization, see David Held et al., Global
Transformation: Politics, Economics, and Culture (Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1999); Philippe Aghion and Jeffrey Williamson (eds.), Growth,Inequality and Globalization: Theory, History, and Policy (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1998); Dani Rodrik, Has Globalization Gone Too
Far? (Washington: Institute for International Economics, 1997).

i

Robert Koehane and Joseph Nye, “Globalization: What’s New? What’s
Not? (And So What?),” Foreign Policy (Spring 2000), p.106.
ii

See, for instance, Ulrich Beck, What Is Globalization? (Cambridge, UK:
Polity Press, 1997), p.8.

iii

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Cambodian Problems and NGOs
Under Cold War

1991

Post Cold War

The Paris Peace Accord(1991)
Democratic Kampuchea
Pol Pot Regime

Vietnam Gov.
Vietnam Army

Soviet Union
Eastern Block

The 1st general election(1993)

D.K. Coalition Gov. in exile
People’s Republicof Kampuchea
Western Block and China
NGOs for Refugee Relief
on the border(over 100 organizations)
1. Poverty of diplomacy for peace
2. Unbalanced AssistanceRoyal Gov. of Cambodia

UNTAC

The 2nd general election(1998)
1997 Hun Sen Coup d’Etat

Kingdom of Cambodia
The monitoring of generalelection by NGOs
Local NGOs such as COMFREL
International NGOs
such as ANFREL

Return of Refugees
NGOs for Emergency Relief
and Rehabilitation Cooperationin Cambodia (15 organizations)International NGO Forumon Cambodia

the Birth ofCambodian NGOs

1. Lack of democracy and ‘Impunity’
2. Forestry issues and land dispute
3. Land mine issue

Cambodia into part of “Globalization” inin economic term in 1980s
1980s to 1990s
1990s
Poverty was generally shared in 80s for:1. Mutual help system (“Samaki”= solidarity) was maintained.
2. Even small scale farmers could farm and live on.
* There were no landless farmers.
* No /few practice of child selling.

A very sharp gap between the rich and the poor was created for:1. Land could be sold and bought. (“Privatization”)
2. Market economy system was hastily and carelessly introduced.
3. Big money suddenly poured into the war torn country.
* More than 16% of farmers became landless. (1998)

1980s1980s

65* Practice of child selling. (Child labor and prostitution)
1990s
1990s