Page 40 - The Ethics of ASEAN

The Ethics of ASEAN

foundational and must go beyond the nationalist meaning of merdeka. His statement
published in 1985 about the need for an ethical shift in the meaning of freedom remains a
challenge for ASEAN today. 22

Figure 5: ASEAN’s 5 founders in 1967 (Rajaratnam is at the far right)

The nation state still represents to many in the Third World the
largest unit of political organisation in which it is possible to identify
and the most effective vehicle for the pursuit of the aspirations of
its people. Still, it would be unrealistic not to observe a generational
shift in value orientation away from the preoccupation with
national independence and nation building of the older generation
to the concern with freedom, justice and the entire populations’
participation in the process of social, economic and political
restructuring of the nation. This ongoing enterprise in developing
nations is one which must be completed in order for freedom to
unfold in its full dimensions.

Ethical leadership can also be heroic, meaning that an individual or group of individuals
decide to confront powerful institutions and even a whole government to advocate for an
ethical cause. ASEAN has its share of heroic ethical leaders of which probably the most
obvious examples are its three Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
The first is Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar,
who received the Nobel Prize in 1991 and played the essential role in Myanmar’s transition
from military junta to partial democracy in the 2010s. She spent 15 years in house arrest
after the NLD won 81% of the seats in Parliament and the military refused to hand over
power. She survived an assassination attempt in 2003 and continued to lead the NLD in

22 Soedjatmoko, The Primacy of Freedom in Development, University Press of America 1985, page 4. His writings
are a precursor to the model of human development created at the United Nations in the 1990s.

30