Page 36 - The Ethics of ASEAN

The Ethics of ASEAN

Virtue ethics are often used in founding institutions since they can be both aspirational
and philosophically grounded. To take an example, the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle
famously identified the goal of ethics to be the “Good Life” and listed its components as
virtues (virtue ethics is so named because of Aristotle). Aristotle was explicitly referenced
by Amartya Sen as the foundational philosophy in defining human development for
United Nations in the 1990s, where freedom is the necessary condition for people to
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“achieve the kind of lives they have reason to value.” His important concept of potential
was transformed into capability (which is more measurable) in UN human development
approach by Martha Nussbaum who had written a book about Aristotle’s Good Life. 13
When it comes to applying virtue ethics in practice, we must keep in mind that
espoused ethics are not necessarily ethics in practice. In other words, announced values
do not automatically translate into behaviour. This is true of individuals, families, politics
and even religions: people don’t always “practice what they preach” and they may fail to
“walk the talk”. The word “hypocrisy” can be applied when the disconnect is conscious
between espoused ethics and ethics in practice. In business, the expression “virtue-
signalling” refers to corporate marketing of the company’s purpose, products or business
practices that are presented as “purpose driven”, “sustainable” or “green” -- when in fact
they aren’t. Criticism of the virtue ethics of the ASEAN Way and the principle of non-
interference in violation of ASEAN-agreed rules-based ethical declarations on human
rights, democratic process and sustainability show that ethical coherence can be a
challenge for organisations. 14

ASEAN’s Rules-Based ethics
Another kind of ethics of importance for ASEAN is rules-based ethics. You find rules-based
ethics in law, in policies, in guidelines, in religion, in military rules of engagement and even
in social etiquette.

Over the years, ASEAN has been developing as a more rules-based organisation. You
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can see this in the 2007/8 publication of the ASEAN Charter with its list of Principles. In
the list you find formal commitments to the rule of law, good governance, the principles
of democracy, constitutional government, upholding the United Nations Charter and
adherence to economic commitments. In the ASEAN 2015 Declaration you find the
ethical commitment to develop an inclusive community with high quality of life, human
rights, equitable access to opportunities for all, education, cultural flourishing, poverty
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eradication and social welfare .

12 Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen (1999) Oxford University Press.
13 The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy by Martha Nussbaum (2001).
Cambridge University Press.
14 ASEAN’s ethic of non-interference principle, which has purposely never found an official definition, is discussed
in this article as either a conscious avoidance of taking action against a member state because as an ethic or in
as a practice. Two cases of the overthrow of governments in Cambodia and Myanmar are discussed. “Norm or
Necessity? The Non-Interference Principle in ASEAN” by Tram-Anh Nguyen, Cornell International Affairs Review
2016, VOL. 9 NO. 1
15 The ASEAN Charter can be found in ASEAN documents online https://asean.org/wp-content/
uploads/2021/09/21069.pdf retrieved 1 February 2022
16 ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025 was published in 2015 http://carum.um.edu.my/wp-content/
uploads/2015/05/ASCC-Blueprint-2025.pdf retrieved 1 February 2022

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