An index for democracy in Asia was unveiled at the biennial conference of the World Forum for Democratization in Asia held in Taipei this week.
The Asia Democracy Index 2005 was a project conducted by the Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia (ARDA), one of the organizers of the forum.
The 16 territories or countries surveyed in the project are Japan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Afghanistan, India and China were not surveyed because of the size of China and India's respective populations, the ARDA said, without citing specific reasons for the exclusion of Afghanistan from the index. Countries such as Vietnam and Laos could not be surveyed because of political situations, it said.
ARDA chairman Chee Soon Juan, from Singapore, said that the index will help to fathom democratic progress in Asia, will provide an ongoing study of how governments and countries rank according to the index, and will promote democracy.
The survey was carried out by local grassroots organizations, which ARDA deemed to be more reliable and unbiased, using survey takers who were "politically aware."
The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy was in charge of the survey in Taiwan in which 500 people were polled.
The survey questions were divided into six categories: civil rights, elections and political processes, governance and corruption, media, participation and representation, and rule of law.
Questions such as whether people can openly question and discuss official policies without fear and whether the government allows peaceful demonstrations were asked under the civil-rights category, in which Taiwan ranked second.
Taiwan was also ranked in the top five for government transparency and accountability, which fell under the "governance and corruption" category, and for the "rule of law," which indicated a judicial system that effectively protects human rights and democratic principles. Overall, Taiwan was ranked third.
However, the rankings should not be thought of as a mere comparison between the 16 countries, said Paul Scott, a professor at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan.
"For example, Japan cannot be compared to Cambodia in many aspects," Scott said. "The results of the survey indicate the state of democracy as applicable in the country polled."
"What the index and survey results show is that Asia is still promoting democracy and that democratization still has a long way to go in the region," Scott said. "The index measures progress, not results, or else I wouldn't be at this conference."
Sharing his perception on the democratization of Taiwan, Scott said that Taiwan was deemed rather successful.
"People sacrificed a lot for democracy in Taiwan, so they have high expectations of it. Sometimes they even have over-expectations of what democracy can deliver," Scott said.
"Democracy is a learned culture. It takes time to develop, and what is happening in Taiwan with political parties is a predictable and necessary step in the process of democratization," Scott said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching