Human rights more important than profits
THE issue of ''human rights'' has recently emerged as a bone of contention between certain Asian governments and their critics from the West or even from their own citizens.
The more despotic and totalitarian regimes, especially those dominated by military elites, like to pose as the defenders of ''Asian values'' and ''our authentic cultures'' and they strenuously resist efforts by international monitoring bodies to investigate abuses in their systems.
The communist regime in Beijing is perhaps the most visible and vocal proponent of this sociopolitical theory, claiming that most people are only interested in food, clothing and shelter and therefore not too concerned about civil liberties. They like topretend that their regimes provide the basic freedom to exist, whereas Western democracies allow citizens to go hungry or homeless in the name of ''freedom''. Their argument is basically ''my virtues are obviously preferable to your vices''.
It is extremely disappointing to discover many Western bodies, especially businessmen and chamber of commerce people acting as the defenders of this scurrilous theory. There are, sad to say, all too many commercial interests that actually prefer repressive regimes to democratic ones and they are very happy to provide them with legitimacy and access to world opinion. The most recent example is the huge lobbying efforts of US and UK businessmen on behalf of South Africa's apartheid regime which kept millions of black and coloured people in semi-slavery for decades until the whole rotten facade of racism collapsed (naturally, there was less money to be made).
Although the Soviet Union never enjoyed this form of spokesmanship and support from Western capitalists, its successor as the major communist power now is blessed by legions of lobbyists and millions of dollars in influence peddling.
Do these power brokers ever recall the thousands of Americans who died in Korea and Vietnam because of Chinese communist weapons? Do they realise the threat that a re-armed and aggressive communist power poses to peace and stability in Asia? The major political power in China is the People's Liberation Army which is acquiring even more economic power by its investments and extensions into all projects. More money means more weapons, more control of the populace and more threats to neighbouring countries. China's wide-ranging sales of arms to the Middle East, to Pakistan and to Burma show that it is not to be constrained by any global desire for peace or disarmament.