All democracies but one in Southeast Asia are taking a beating

BANGKOK, Thailand — With only a single rising star on the horizon, democracy in Southeast Asia is taking a beating as mass demonstrations seek to dislodge an elected but authoritarian leader in Thailand and the Philippines reels after a weeklong state of emergency over an alleged coup plot.

Across the region, the health of democracy varies from fragile to abysmal, with one once unlikely exception. Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation and still recovering from three decades of dictatorship, is making significant progress toward rule of law, media freedom and transparency.

"The problem in some cases is the abuse of weak democracies, the exploitation by leaders of those parts of the system which aren't really democratic or strong," says Robert Broadfoot, of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy.

Although the tide against him appears to be rising, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand has managed to survive mass street protests calling for his ouster on grounds of corruption, abuse of power and gutting democratic institutions.

So far the protests have been peaceful compared with the military interventions and bloodshed that used to bedevil Thai politics. But its democracy is moving into uncharted political waters because opposition parties are vowing to boycott an election Thaksin called for April 2.

In the Philippines, fear is mounting that a campaign to destabilize President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's rule is fraying the fabric of democracy as she cracks down on opponents suspected of plotting to overthrow her government.

Arroyo declared a state of emergency last week to quash the alleged plot, and capital charges have been filed against 16 suspects. The emergency, which allowed arrests without warrants and intervention of the military, was lifted on Friday.

Ironically, Arroyo is facing the same array of "people power" and political opposition that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos exactly 20 years ago and opened the road to democracy.

Overall, representative government has made some impressive gains in Asia since the end of the Cold War, most notably in Taiwan and South Korea. Thailand and the Philippines would have counted, too, but given their latest setbacks, their region has fallen on the global democracy charts.

Southeast Asia includes two of the world's five communist states, Vietnam and Laos; one of its longest-running military dictatorships, Myanmar; two countries where a single party has held power for decades, Singapore and Malaysia. Cambodia, still recovering from the genocidal Khmer Rouge era, has a democracy of sorts, but it's fragile and messy.

Analysts cite a number of reasons for democracy's rocky road, including corruption, cronyism, massive vote-buying and patronage systems built on powerful leaders rather than ideals.

Analysis