Page 44 - The Ethics of ASEAN

The Ethics of ASEAN

development professionals in ASEAN have agreed that ethics is foundational. But they
needed an ethics committee. Ethics committees are common for professional bodies,
from medicine to finance. They define ethical behaviour for their members and give
guidance on emerging ethical issues. They also advocate for improving ethical practice in
their domain. For AHDO, the mission of developing people at work needed a guiding ethical
philosophy, and the many emerging ethical issues in the world of work required awareness,
research, discussion and guidance.

Figure 9: ASEAN Human Development Organisation signing ceremony of 5 countries, September 2019

As working professionals, AHDO members are bound by the institutions of their work.
They cannot speak out publicly on ethical issues without weighing the implications as
representatives of their company, university, consultancy, NGO or national government.
Besides, what constitutes unethical behaviour can vary in different cultures and social
contexts. To take an example, what constitutes corruption in business practice can be
seen as wrongdoing or as the way business is done, depending on cultural acceptance of
the practice and maturity of legal anticorruption enforcement in a given country.
The Myanmar crisis provided a case study of an ethical dilemma for professionals. At
AHDO all the founders agreed that the military putsch violated human development ethics,
especially in the capability of citizens to work for a better life. We received a call from our
Myanmar founder saying that she would be cut off from communication, and were left in
the dark about her situation for months before creating a new Board.
At the same time, however, we were not all in a position to make public declarations
implicating our organisations and governments. Companies operating in Myanmar in the
early stages of the Tatmadaw regime, did not know whether pulling out would lead to even
more suffering if the economy collapsed. They wanted to ensure the livelihood of their
employees during the crisis and wanted to be open for business when the crisis was over.

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