Asia Democracy Index Report launched at WFDA conference
The keenly anticipated Asia Democracy Index (ADI) was launched on 17 September at the World Forum for Democratization for Asia (WFDA) conference that was held in Taipei, Taiwan.
The ADI is the first of its kind in the region that measures and evaluates democracy, good governance and the status of human rights among Asian governments. The unique feature of the ADI is that Asians themselves had assessed evaluated and also recommended prescriptions for democratic reforms to take place in their own countries.
The results and overall ranking of the sixteen countries that participated in this project were unveiled at the launch. These countries were:
Bangladesh
Cambodia
Hong Kong
Indonesia
Japan
Malaysia
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Pakistan
Philippines
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Singapore
Taiwan
Thailand
Dr. Paul Scott, the Project Director presented the results at the launch. Dr. Chee Soon Juan, Chair of ARDA, spoke of the need for Asia, especially the countries that are still governed by autocrats, to embark on the democratization process. This was followed by dynamic discussions among the participants and the panelists.
The participating countries conducted a survey designed by the ADI Survey Team. The survey sample ranged from 100 to 1000 respondents. Political situations in each country had to be understood and appreciated by the Editorial Board. For instance, it would have been immensely difficult to carry out a survey of 1000 people living in Myanmar without risking repercussions of the oppressive military junta that rules the country.
The survey was designed to assess the countries on six categories:
Civil Rights
Elections and Electoral Processes
Governance and Corruption
Media
Rule of Law
Participation and Representation
For each of these categories, the results were discussed and interpreted by the country partner responsible for the report. Recommendations to improve the democratic scorecard are also found at the end of each country report.
The press attended the launch and reported on the ADI Report 2005. This included the China Post, Taipei Times and Taiwan News.
The overall results of the study are presented below:
1. Japan | 62.41% | 2. Hong Kong | 62.01% | 3. Taiwan | 55.47% | 4. Bangladesh | 53.21% | 5. Philippines | 51.18% | 6. Thailand | 50.85% | 7. Indonesia | 50.38% | 8. Mongolia | 50.33% | 9. Sri Lanka | 50.19% | 10. South Korea | 47.3% | 11. Pakistan | 46.88% | 12. Cambodia | 44.17% | 13. Malaysia | 41.93% | 14. Nepal | 32.13% | 15. Singapore | 30.42% | 16. Myanmar | 19.16% |
It is no surprise that Myanmar is ranked at the bottom with an overall percentage of 19.16%. The people of Myanmar still live under a dictatorship and thousands of political prisoners are still languishing in cells there.
Japan is ranked the country with the highest democratic freedoms in this ADI with an overall percentage of 62.41%. However, this does not mean that all is ideal in the democratic, political and social front in there.
It baffled some that Singapore, the most affluent South East Asian country, is ranked second last. Its overall percentage of 30.42% reveals that its political scorecard is worse off than in Nepal (32.13%) that is now being ruled by the King after he dissolved parliament early this year.
The launch of ADI Report 2005 was a successful and productive one. More reports of the ADI will be put up on the website soon.
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