Page 100 - The Ethics of ASEAN

The Ethics of ASEAN

to personal dignity and preserves a sense of collectivism, is
part of a face-saving culture in the ASEAN workplace. From
outside ASEAN, we understand why ASEAN work ethics can be
judged as passive and lacking courage when disagreement and
speaking out against injustice is required. This is an area where
ASEAN’s virtue ethics in the workplace need to change in favour
of a rules-based ethics of work and human development.
Nadiah takes the example of sexual harassment used
by her AHDO colleague Phuc to explain that while there
are improvements in ASEAN laws and code of practice in
dealing with ethics issues such as undesirable behaviour in
a workplace, to take ethical action inside the organisation
requires concrete and meticulously sourced evidence to prove
that harassment has actually happened. Otherwise, there is
a risk of placing blame on the harassment victim, which then
creates a culture where future victims are discouraged and
don’t make complaints inside the company out of fear. Hence, it
can be difficult to apply a rules-based code of ethics in practice
without changing the company culture.
Nadiah concludes that for human development
professionals, there is more work to be done in raising
awareness to where universal ethics are actually applied in
the ASEAN workspace. In order to ensure a smooth process of
establishing a rules-based work ethics that actually works in
ASEAN cultures, a strong public-private relationship between
the region’s policy sector and the business sector is needed.
Human development in ASEAN needs to address the larger
issues related to inequality and sustainability. This will require
education and training for workers and leaders to enable them
to learn, adapt and make work a life-long experience of human
thriving for individuals.

Sizs Jerry: human development with
indigenous communities requires direct
engagement
Ms. Sizs Jerry, is Superintendent of Community Economic
Development in Papua for Freeport. She brings to the ethics of
the ASEAN workplace the perspective of her company’s copper
and gold mining operations in Papua, Indonesia, which is home
to 255 indigenous tribes with 268 local languages.
Figure 3: Ms. Sizs Jerry, With more than 25,000 employees worldwide, Freeport
Superintendent of directly engages with indigenous communities where they
Community Economic
Development in Papua for operate. Human development is crucial because contractually
Freeport

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