Page 108 - The Ethics of ASEAN

The Ethics of ASEAN

nations are not highly rated in international rankings on freedom of speech, free courts of
justice, press freedom, religious freedom, freedom of sexual orientation and free access
to education and work. 2
Mynamar is ASEAN’s test case for preserving freedom among its Member States.
Numerous credible sources have documented continuing violations of freedom by the
military junta since February 2021: they include overthrowing free elections, arbitrary
arrests and detention of civilians, use of torture and sexual violence on prisoners, bombing
of civilians in conflict areas and blocking delivery of humanitarian aid. These violations
3
have not been condemned by all ASEAN Member States and implementation of the ASEAN
5-point process of peaceful resolution had not really moved forward during the two years
in which this book was written.
The ethics of freedom is also highly personal. Should I stand up for freedom or
advocate for specific freedoms? For this ECAAR dialogue, we invited activists for freedom
at the level of political leadership, the press, human rights, education and youth who
provided their perspective on these questions.
We have the honour of welcoming two globally recognised champions of freedom,
laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize: Jose Ramos-Horta and Maria Ressa. Maria Ressa
participated in this webinar only five months after being recognised by the Nobel
committee along with Dmitry Muratov of Russia for freedom of expression in the face of
authoritarian governments. And the very day of our webinar, Ramos-Horta was elected as
President of Timor-Leste for a second time.

Jose Ramos-Horta: Freedom ethics includes willingness to fight
for it
José Ramos-Horta served as the President of Timor-Leste from 2007 until 2012 and was
elected again as President in 2022. He and Timorese Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo were
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for their work toward a just and peaceful solution
to the conflict in East Timor. Ramos-Horta played a key part in the Timorese resistance
movement during Indonesian occupation from 1975 to 1999. As the resistance exiled

2 Of the national freedom watch organisations, a well-known ranking is provided by Freedom House. This is a
non-profit organisation headquartered in Washington, D.C. whose ethics are based on the core conviction that
freedom flourishes in democratic nations where governments are accountable to their people. In their 2022
index on political rights and civil liberties, no one country among the 10 members of the Association of South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was ranked as free while Timor-Leste was ranked as free, and Singapore, Malaysia,
the Philippines and Indonesia were ranked partly free https://freedomhouse.org/search?key=ASEAN retrieved
16 July 2023. Another ranking is the US-based Global Economy website which collects data for researchers,
academics and others. It provides a ranking of countries based on on how well fundamental rights and freedoms
of people are observed and respected by the state. https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/human_
rights_rule_law_index/South-East-Asia/#:~:text=Human%20rights%20and%20rule%20of retrieved 16 July
2023.
3 International Rights Organisations condemning Myanmar include the United Nations report of the Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human right in Myanmar https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/
a77494-report-special-rapporteur-situation-human-right-myanmar as well as organisations such as Amnesty
International https://www.amnesty.org/en/ and Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023.
The 2021 ASEAN Five-Point Consensus on the situation in Myanmar can be found here https://asean.org/wp-
content/uploads/Chairmans-Statement-on-ALM-Five-Point-Consensus-24-April-2021-FINAL-a-1.pdf

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