Page 61 - The Ethics of ASEAN

Practical Ethics in a Diverse ASEAN

at the International Labour Organisation as the youngest participant; recently he joined
another forum as the oldest and discussed the different communication styles across
generations.
Youth activism is practical ethic in a diverse society because it overcomes the mutual
negative preconceptions of different generations and works to establish common ethical
practices and solutions to ethical issues.

Ethical Takeaways
This discussion of ethics showed several examples where different ethical types clash,
leading to poor policies and lack of action. Taking place during the first wave of a
pandemic, several speakers noted the need for collaboration and described the obstacles
to taking action. Reflecting on this dialogue we can see that the Covid-19 pandemic
created a perfect example of emerging ethics during a crisis and results-based ethics
concerned with how to deal ethically with a pandemic.

Dora Heng’s example of Singapore’s neglect of migrant workers during the first wave
of Covid-19 infections led to a government’s re-evaluation, less on the basis of human
rights than based on the pragmatic need for fair treatment because non-treatment was
the main cause of transmission of the virus. Worldwide, different countries reacted with
different ethical priorities, from the refusal by many Americans to wear masks in order to
demonstrate individual freedom to the Chinese government physically sealing entrances
to apartment buildings without consulting the inhabitants. A virus has no ethics and no
borders, but the response to a pandemic is full of ethical lessons for how society deals
with it.
What can we learn about the ethics of ASEAN from the Covid-19 pandemic? As a
test-case for ASEAN’s ethic of cooperation gotong royong, it largely failed. ASEAN did not
immediately create a high-level task force, unlike with earlier successful responses to the
avian influenza and SARS pandemics. Each ASEAN Member State managed its pandemic
independently without consulting its neighbours, and called on China, Russia or the United
States for vaccines. Results-based ethical lessons were learned. Following the immediate
crisis ASEAN created a Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases and
promoted investment in building vaccine research and production capability across the
region.
The perspectives and concrete examples coming out of this dialogue were not
actually focused on the Covid-19 pandemic. The dialogue was about diversity and building
ASEAN ethical capability to apply in practical situations.
Dr Marzuki Darusman discusses the ethics of ASEAN as a moral orientation for how
diverse societies live together. He describes three current dilemmas, “diversity vs unity”
concerning the degree of regional integration, the “paradigm vs. ideologism:” concerns
rules-based ethics compared to state ideologies and virtue ethics, and finally “humanism
vs. religiocentrism”, where a more secular humanism allowing for a diversity of virtue
ethics conflicts with placing religious doctrine at the core of national ethics.
Dora Heng described the ethical paradoxes and contradictions as the source of
ethical dilemmas, using the example of immigrant workers in Singapore. She underlines

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