Charmaine B. Gato
An Article Review on
‘ASIAN VALUES’ AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN HISTORIES
T. N. HARPER
Conflict has always been present in the making of history. At each era, there’s a specific
struggle that drives people to such conflict. Today, we see the shift of focus from the wars of
ideas to the wars of culture which Samuel Huntington calls as “the clash of civilizations”. Asian
civilization has its own culture but because it has been “plundered|” by western colonizers, it
brought about a debate among Asian themselves. Asian values are not pure Asian because
they are western construction. The author criticized Huntington’s analysis on Asian culture.
Huntington emphasizes Confucianism and Islam as a common denominator of Asian values of
which the author called to have been widely misunderstood. Asian systems are “inversion of the
western form” and are even equaled to western conservatism.
He misunderstanding of Asian values among non-Asians is the product of their
disregarding of how Asians themselves define their own values. As Dr. Mahatir MOhamad puts
it, flows of Asian civilization is characterized by economic primacy, ideological hegemony and
the recognition of it as result of the western experience on industrialization leading to moral
perversions and individualism. Asian civilization is an unending debate among Asians. This was
supported by the Harper’s mentioning of some accounts. First, the concept of Asian values as
“a debate of history” considering “the depth by which its encounter with Europe shaped its
internal dynamics and values”. This leads to the issue on the autonomy of Southeast Asian
|History. Another is the sense of which Southeast Asia is a manifestation of modernity; the
embracing and acting upon new things. In this concern on modernity, there are two approaches
given by the author, one of which views modernity through an economic perspective: the rise of
new forms of production and new methods of trade. The second focuses on modernity as an
idea.
There are three themes considered in this article which could help explain how the
modern Southeast Asia identity came to be and also as important contributions to the
comparative study of colonial modernity and nationalism. First is the reconstruction of Southeast
Asian historical time through its history and biography. This speaks of giving a new
interpretation on Asian historical texts. Rather than seeing the history of Asia as mere myth,
they are now “read from within”. The Asian past is becoming a widely-appreciated field of study.
One distinct part of it is the growing interest on “key shifts in consciousness in the modern era
when the nation was just beginning to be imagined”. The author gave accounts which manifest
consciousness, such as that of the “first Filipino”-Jose Rizal.
The second theme focuses on how such manifestations of consciousness “breathed new
life into the colonial history of Southeast Asia”; and the third theme sees the rediscovery of
colonial history as re-examination of the nation. In Southeast Asia, “colonial modernity and anticolonial nationalism have been so intertwined” that looking back to having been colonized and
re-examining the nation cannot simply be separated.
The author concluded his article leaving the fate of the debate in the course of social
change. “Asian values are not only a defense against western individualism but also a response
to its rise in Southeast Asian societies”. What have been seen as common denominator of
Asian values is now bound to emerge in the pattern of the west. As history will unfold, another
form of struggle will arise, no longer the struggle between civilizations but the struggle within
Asia itself.
DISCUSSION
The study of Asian values have attracted much interest at the same time became basis
for debate among scholars, historians and Asians themselves. Critiques of Asian values say
that there’s no such a thing because they see these values as coming from the western’s own
civilization. This could also be seen in the definitions given, always using the west as point of
reference. I would agree on the significance of giving new interpretation on Asian history to fully
see that even during the height of colonization among Southeast Asian countries, the real Asian
values have been manifested.
Asian values as a debate of history could really be said as true. In considering Southeast
Asia as having been carrying the characteristic of modernity, I would say, does not purely come
from our being Asian but I see it also as just another product of our experiences, part of which,
is having been under western colonizers. Nevertheless, I agree with the
concept of
modernization and nationalism being intertwined as result of our going against colonialism.
SYNTHESIS:
Asian values are an issue not only among scholars but to Asians as well and to resolve
such requires revisiting and re-examining our own history. Asian values have not been clearly
defined in the pure Asian perspective but still seen as a western construction. It still calls for
debates as it has been misunderstood widely.
RECOMMENDATION:
The article was a good reading tough the reader will have a deeper grasp of what the
author is trying to explain and argue with Huntington if the whole text on the “clash of
civilizations” be also read.