Pacific Affairs: An International Review of Asia and the Pacific

Volume 74, No. 4

 

Parochial Universalism, Democracy Jihad, and the Orientalist Image of Burma: The New Evangelism
By Michael Aung-Thwin

 

Abstract

Throughout history the strong have rationalized their hegemony through universalist ideals, so the parochial universalism of today's Pax Americana is not unique but predictable. Although the current rationalization is secular rather than religious, and the goals are this-world oriented rather than the next; nevertheless, the zeal, the righteousness, the imagery and the vocabulary with which this universalism is proclaimed are uncannily evocative of earlier religious evangelisms.

The mechanism to effect this hegemony is what I call "democracy jihad," a secular crusade to implement a western conceptual system amongst the "political heathen," measured by their alleged human rights records. Although reminiscent of the zeal and piousness found in the literature of nineteenth-century imperialism, the "superior" religious and racial ideology (Christianity and the white man) has been replaced with equally "superior" secular political and social ideology (democracy and human rights). The message may have changed but not the righteous assumptions held by the messenger. Nor is it exclusively the domain of the state, but rather, a "consolidated vision" shared by the public, academia and the media.

Perhaps the most destructive aspect of democratization is that it invariably means decentralization, which, in most non-western contexts today, encourages social and political anarchy. In countries such as Burma, anarchy is feared far more than tyranny, so that if there exists a genuine desire to promote freedom from that fear, issues important to Burmese society should be addressed, not assumptions concerning the universalism of western values.