In its 2016 Freedom of the World report, Freedom House—a leading non-governmental organization in human-rights and democratic-change advocacy—said 2015 was the 10th consecutive year that global freedom declined and was also when it fell the sharpest in the past decade.
Out of 195 countries studied, freedom advanced in 43 but declined in 72. Now, only 40 percent of the world’s 7.3 billion people live in a country the report considers “free,” down from 46 percent a decade ago.
Overlapping crises, the report explains, “fueled xenophobic sentiments in democratic countries, undermined the economies of certain states and pushed authoritarian regimes to crack down even harder on dissent”—which, when taken together, accounts for this democratic decline.
The intractable Syrian Civil War, for instance, has put front and center the long-brewing crisis of
confidence in the political institutions and liberal values espoused by leading democracies in North America and Europe.
Meanwhile, the economic slowdown in China has fomented further uncertainty and restiveness, which has tempted some governments—especially those already authoritarian or with authoritarian pasts—to impose political and civil restrictions.
Asia has been a bright spot for democracy in recent years. The 2014 Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit found that Asia was the best-performing region and has been since 2006, the first time the index was conducted. In fact, the 2015 Freedom in the World study stated that Asia Pacific has been the only region to record steady gains in political rights and civil liberties in the past five years.
Two bright promising stars recently emerged: Myanmar and Taiwan.
Last November national election in Myanmar—the first in 25 years—saw the National League of Democracy led by long-time opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyii clinching an unprecedented two-thirds of the seats in parliament.
While some analysts highlight lingering concerns over military influence on politics, deep-seated
ethnic tensions and even the NLD’s inexperience, others point to Myanmar as an upcoming success story for democracy.
Taiwan’s general election in January has generated similar optimism with the landslide victory of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its front-runner Tsai Ing-wen over the ruling Kuomintang. Pollsters predicted the upset,
especially in the wake of 2014’s Student Sunflower protests against the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement with mainland China. But as one Al Jazeera analyst explains, few anticipated the magnitude of DPP’s victory.
Despite these positive developments, democracy’s decline can still be observed in certain parts of Asia.
For instance, the military junta’s continuing hold over power in Thailand paints a setback for democracy in Asia—with no less than the junta’s head declaring last March that his country has “seen so much trouble because [it has] had too much democracy.” Elections were promised for October 2015, but the junta has since postponed them to this month—though some believe 2017 would be the more likely year.
Many may have lauded Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s victory in 2014 as a signal for the continuing democratic maturation of world’s largest Islamic country, Indonesia. But democracy in the archipelago-nation has not been measuring up to expectations, with vestiges of its authoritarian past rearing its head.
Asia may continue to be a bright spot for democracy, despite its global decline. But, while the picture is generally mixed, the arc of history could very well bend either way.
E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.