The Solidarity Center promotes workers' rights in Pakistan. Above, union members mobilize to demand the protection of labor rights at a concrete factory in Punjab.

Asia

The state of democracy in Asia in 2008 was marked to a large extent by the re-emergence of electoral politics across the region. Elections in Pakistan in February and in Bangladesh in December marked the end of military backed-rule and the return to elected, civilian governments.

In Nepal, Constituent Assembly elections in April brought to power a civilian-led government that quickly moved to abolish the monarchy and declare Nepal a democratic republic.

In Bhutan and the Maldives, national elections resulted for the first time in the peaceful transfer of power. Moreover, the electoral success of the democratic opposition in the March elections in Malaysia offers hope that yet another country may be shedding its authoritarian past. All told, six Asian countries comprising over 400 million people made significant, electoral advances in 2008, although significant challenges to democratic consolidation remain.

The advance of democracy across the region, however, was negated in part by political setbacks in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Thailand, until recently seen as among the freest most democratic states in the region. In Sri Lanka, the ceasefire between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam officially collapsed in January, resulting in increased fighting, massive displacement of civilian populations, and restrictions of press and association. In the Philippines, entrenched corruption, extrajudicial killings, internal armed conflicts, and low public support for political institutions combined to threaten one of Southeast Asia’s few standing democracies.

Meanwhile, Thailand remained mired in a political swamp as factions fought for political power, driven in large measure by a desire to deny former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his successor candidates from assuming power, despite their electoral success in December 2007 elections.

China, Vietnam, and Singapore retained their status as the world’s most economically successful authoritarian countries, providing an alternative development model for states seeking to reduce poverty while preventing the emergence of a genuinely open society and democratic politics.

And, in Burma, where national-level voting was held in May for the first time since 1990, the blatantly non-democratic referendum on a draft constitution reinforced the regime’s grip on power while laying the foundation for equally problematic national-level elections in 2010.

In 2008, the Endowment continued to concentrate resources in one or two critical countries in each sub-region of Asia, while also expanding its programming in a handful of countries where democracy is losing ground. :: MORE