Value principles of liberal democracy, former Thai prime minister advised
(Former Prime Minister of Thailand and now chairperson of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats Abhisit Vejjajiva(Cald))
A former Prime Minister of Thailand urged the youth to protect and give importance to the values and principles of liberal democracy as today’s liberals and democrats.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, chairperson of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (Cald), believed that “the only sustained path for development still has to be one that is tied up to liberal democracy” and that the youth should relay to the people.
“We have to be able to tell people why our values of [liberal democracy] matter, why our solutions can help their problems and make for a much better and more sustained development,” Vejjajiva said.
But the liberals and democrats, according to Vejjajiva, are “poor at communicating.”
“We’ve done the right things and yet somehow we failed to communicate. Somehow, we failed to connect to people,” Vejjajiva said.
Vejjajiva explained that these communication problems are triggered by fake news and the tendency of emotion instead of facts to appeal to the public opinion.
The Cald chairman encouraged professional journalists to have the highest standard of filtering information and the quality of service that they give to the public.
Liberal democracy in the world of politics
Vejjajiva said when liberal democracy began to dominate, politics became less about ideologies and principles and more about who’s better at managing and delivering results, and who could deliver faster and who could deliver more.
“We [forgot] about the means, the process which are key to the principles of democracy; we just look[ed] at the results and began to throw some of these principles away,” Vejjajiva said.
“Most of the populist leaders always project themselves as [the] outsides – somebody outside the usual political frame, somebody who succeeded in business and therefore [sent] a new message targeting the poor, the people who have fear[ed] globalization and change,” he added.
He said these leaders who became people in power have “no respect or rules for the fundamentals and for the principles of liberal democracy.”
“These leaders throughout history engage in corruption, engage in abuse and violation of basic rights of the people and several groups,” Vejjajiva said.
A trend and a threat
Another threat to liberal democracy, Vejjajiva said, is the trend of illiberalism--a system in which the people are allowed to vote but are cut off from knowing activities of those in power--and authoritarianism or the enforcement of strict obedience to authority, opposing individual freedom.
These trends of illiberalism and authoritarianism are happening worldwide and are threatening some of the core values that the liberals and democrats have always believed in.
“It seems that some of the core principles [of liberal democracy] are now actually quite easily dismissed by the people who carried the flags of illiberalism and authoritarianism,” Vejjajiva said.
“We have to try to understand the fears, concern and insecurities that give rise to illiberalism and authoritarianism. We have to educate people,” he added.
Vejjajiva said the first step in combating the threat of illiberalism and authoritarianism is to recognize and fill in the needs and concerns of the people.
He also urged the youth to recognize the changes that are happening to be more self-critical.
“Liberals and democrats tend to do well when we are seen as a force of progress,” Vejjajiva said.
It is not just about communications, but also trust to the people, he said.
“We [should] have faith in the people. When we don’t have faith in the people, our values of democracy and liberalism will collapse.”
The lecture titled “Liberal Democracy in the time of Post-truth Politics” was held at the Ateneo Professional Schools, Makati on Wednesday. SAMANTHA TIO
