Anti-American sentiment is rising in Asia, in sharp contrast with the dramatic improvement in government-to-government ties between the US and the region, experts told a forum on America's role in Asia yesterday.
"In fact I would say that anti-American sentiment is growing at a disturbing rate and has never been that bad as it has become today," former senior South Korean diplomat Kim Kyong-won told the conference in Washington.
He said US-Northeast Asia inter-governmental relations at present had blossomed to "unprecedented" levels, with Washington close to governments in China, South Korea and Japan.
But the story is different if one goes out onto the streets, noted Kim, a former envoy to the UN and US.
"This is rather surprising because there is huge gap between formal inter-governmental institutions and the popular public man-on-the-street perceptions," said Kim, now the president of the Seoul Forum for International Affairs, a private group.
He said anti-Americanism in Northeast Asia may have resulted from democratization and a "connection" between growing nationalism and democracy.
In South Asia, the US is equally unpopular with the masses.
"For the first time in 50 years, relations between the US and all the countries in the region, notably India and Pakistan, have been good and yet, paradoxically, the US has never been more unpopular than it is today," said Farooq Sobhan, a retired senior diplomat from Bangladesh.
Sobhan said the US invasion of Iraq, its policy in the Middle East and the recent Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal involving American soldiers contributed "to this strong, growing hostility towards the United States.
"The fact that the United States opted to go to war without a second UN resolution did have a profound effect on the region, which is one reason why there are no South Asian troops in Iraq today," said Sobhan, the president of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, an independent think tank.
Singapore's ambassador-at-large, Tommy Koh, told the forum that Southeast Asian governments perceived the US as a "benign superpower," although "I do worry that there is growing disconnect between the favorable attitude of the governments and the less favorable attitude of the people."
The three experts had led workshop discussions among policymakers and scholars in their respective regions on "America's role in Asia: Perspectives from Asia" and presented their findings with their comments on Tuesday at the forum organized by Asia Foundation.
The San Francisco-based group is a non-governmental organization that supports programs across Asia that help improve governance and law, economic reform and development, women's participation and international relations.
Kim warned the growth of anti-American sentiment was a "serious matter."
"If you try to be a leader in the context in which the people disapproved of what you are doing, you are bound to be ineffective and bound to pay a much extra cost to achieve what you set out to achieve," he said.
Kim advised the US, the only remaining superpower after the breakup of the Soviet Union, to "lead well" and "gain a philosophical understanding of and empathy for the people of the changing countries" in Asia.
Sobhan suggested that the US develop a long term strategy in its relations with South Asia based on a comprehensive approach rather than focused on security.
"Critical to this exercise is that we need to be approached in a more inclusive manner," he said.
"The US propensity towards unilateral action, to put it bluntly, is deeply resented in South Asia," he added.
Sobhan called for greater interaction between the US and Asia.
Koh said Southeast Asia wanted the US "to show us a little more love and respect.
"The Chinese are courting us with love and respect, the Japanese are courting us with love, respect and money and the Indians are courting us with love, respect and history," he said.
Koh proposed that US and Southeast Asia hold a summit, emulating the region's annual summits with China, Japan, South Korea and India.
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