Page 55 - The Ethics of ASEAN

Practical Ethics in a Diverse ASEAN

Marzuki Darusman: the Ethics of Diversity is
about living as a regional society
Dr Marzuki Darusman has been involved in practical ethics most
of his career. He is the Chairman and Founder of The Foundation
for International Human Rights Reporting Standards (FIHRRST),
an international association dedicated to the respect, protection
and fulfilment of human rights. He was the former Attorney
General of Indonesia and Cabinet Secretary, serving under
Indonesia’s first democratically elected President Abdurrahman
Wahid in 1999-2001. In 2009, he was appointed by UN Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon to a three-member UN Commission of
Inquiry to investigate the assassination of former Pakistani Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto. He would continue to serve as a Special
Rapporteur on human rights in the DPRK from 2010-2016. He is Figure 1. Dr Marzuki
currently the chairman of a UN Human Rights Council mission in Darusman, Chairman and
Founder of the Foundation
Myanmar since 2017 and is currently the Director-General of the for International Human
Human Rights Resource Centre for ASEAN. Rights Reporting Standards
(FIHRRST) and founding
Dr Marzuki discusses ethics not just as a set of rules but member of ECAAR.
a moral orientation for how societies live together. He notes
that while ASEAN aims for “unity in diversity” there is still a
fundamental issue regarding the degree to which integration
is desired and how much ASEAN citizens have genuinely
internalised an ASEAN identity.

For him, issues like political conflict and the ethics are part
of a dynamic of change that societies go through. Even business
as a social institution is affected by ethical considerations of
their obligations to the state and society.
Despite ASEAN’s vision, there is an acknowledgement
that the region is facing dilemmas that hinder ethical action.
The first is the dilemma of “diversity vs. unity”: ASEAN finds
itself challenged to reconcile various norms and cultures and
its aim to integrate them into a harmonious society. Second is
the dilemma of “paradigm vs. ideologism:” this as a push-and-
pull between state ideologies and beliefs and scientific and
evidence-based approaches. Conflicts between the traditional
and the modern would have to be resolved. Lastly is the dilemma
of “humanism vs. religiocentrism”, one that ASEAN countries
have approached differently. Some have placed religion as a core
part of its national philosophy, while others lean more towards
individualistic humanism.
Dr Marzuki believes that by having conversations on the
place of ethics in ASEAN, these dilemmas could be better
reconciled.

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