[Asia Round-up] Democracy is more than the ballot box

Editor’s note: Followings are summaries of editorials from major Asian media on current issues.

Democracy is more than the ballot box
[UAE, Gulf News, 28-07-2013]

Morsi and his supporters are still clinging to the “legitimacy of the ballot boxes” while his opponents argue that democracy is a concept far more than the ballot box. The ballot box could very well be considered the image of democracy. However, democracy itself is a more comprehensive way of governance. What Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party failed to understand was that winning at the ballot box does not give one an automatic right to monopolize power, restrict freedom, unilaterally introduce one’s own constitution and shut everyone else out.

Some think that by introducing a constitution, proclaiming democratic systems and running parliamentary and presidential elections, any country can be a democracy. Unfortunately that is not true. Democracy is a set of social behaviors that regulate the relationship between members of society. It is the belief that all people are equal in front of the law. It is the willingness to accept a different point of view. It is the willingness to co-exist with ‘the other’ without judging them on religious or ethnic lines. These set of behaviors cannot be imported. They have to be nurtured locally.

Egypt finds itself at the brink of civil conflict because he thought his ballot victory entitled him to force a change of social behavior and impose his party’s ideology on an otherwise moderate and tolerant society. But, that is not democracy.

Kanebo Must Address Adverse Effects Complaints
[Japan, The Yomiuri Shimbun,  27-07-2013]

More than 6,800 people who have suffered white blotches and uneven skin tones, among whom 2,250 have reportedly experienced relatively serious side effects following the use of skin whitening products manufactured and sold by Japanese cosmetic company Kanebo Cosmetics Inc., have filed complaints demanding Kanebo to accept responsibility, determine the cause of the problems and take measures to compensate for the damages.

Going through fact-finding surveys and prior consultation case reviews, Kanebo has found that 39 complaints similar to this case had been made since 2011. However, according to the employees who received the inquiries – the cases were attributed to the users’ particular physiological characteristics. Hisan Anan, director general of Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency, criticized the firm saying that Kanebo should have made the issue public much sooner.

And most likely, no system was in place to promptly detect and analyze consumer inquires and work out counter-measures accordingly.

In fact, when Kanebo conducted “effective quasi-drug substance” tests and filed for approval of the ingredients with the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, there were no instances of white blotches reported. Nevertheless, there is always the possibility that an unforeseen problem could emerge once a product is put on the market and used by many people. Kanebo seems to have been naïve about safety precautions as a cosmetics maker. All cosmetics manufacturers should learn a lesson from the Kanebo incident and reexamine their safety measures and contingency plans.

Indonesia has a lot to lose by losing its coral reefs
[Indonesia, The Jakarta Post, 29-07-2013]

Even though Indonesia is part of the Coral Triangle Initiative, which works to protect more than 75 percent of coral species in the world, 90 percent of the nation’s coral reefs are being threatened. According to Ros Salm, a senior advisor at the marine programme of the Indo-pacific Division at the Natural Conservancy, and his experience diving since 1973, even though there are some positive changes in Indonesia’s marine conservation comparing to the 1980s, the coral reefs are under threat due to over fishing and disruptive fishing as well as global warming. When the sea water temperatures rise too high, this stresses the corals causing them to lose color, and grow paler until they die.

Salm explains that losing the coral reefs would be a big loss of Indonesia, approximately facing a loss of about 2 billion USD per year: 1.5 billion USD from fisheries, 378 million USD for coastal protection, and 137 million USD from tourism. The coral reefs also provide many jobs and different types of medicine.

Even though people are more aware of protecting the environment, Salm points out that there still many challenges to reef protection. The main problem is that enforcement of regulations in some areas is very difficult and expensive as people illegally enter these vast protected areas and the law enforcers are not equipped with adequate equipment such as fast boats.

Why deny Malaysia’s top students of their choices?
[Malaysia, The Star, 25-07-2013]

With an onus lying on the government to explain the record-low number of seats given to Chinese and Indian students and denying the brightest students courses and universities of their choice, the new intake process for the public universities remains opaque. For students are a talent pool that would do the nation proud in years to come, and as some of them are also poor and under-privileged themselves hoping to use education as a ladder to climb out of poverty, this state of affairs is completely unacceptable.

Apart from the Chinese students, there were 30,903 bumiputeras (Malays and indigenous groups), 1,824 Indians and 933 other races that made up the total number of successful applicants.

The Malaysia-China Association (MCA) in particular wants to know why there is a low intake of Chinese students – 7,913 successful applicants out of 41,573 for 20 public universities this year. While in previous years, and since meritocracy in the university intake was introduced from 2002, Chinese student intake had never dropped below 25 percent, however, according to the education bureau chairman Dr Wee Ka Siong, “Malaysian Chinese student intake at a mere 19% of the total for the new academic term” is contradictory.

The government has to play an annual balancing game with meritocracy on one hand and giving the under-privileged a chance at high value courses on the other hand. Dr. Wee worries that the admission mess in Malaysia will allow its neighbor Singapore to become the main beneficiary of Malaysia’s talent.