Are We Hypocrite?: A Prospective from an Asian

Jeevan Baniya

Before making a very strong decision to come to South Korea as an international student from Nepal to pursue my Masters Degree in NGO Studies, there was a crucial dialogue going inside mind. Certainly, making the decision was not so easy for me at that time as very few students long to come to Korea for their higher studies. However, my big eagerness to understand the charisma of Korea’s rapid economic growth within short spans of time, the social, cultural and political development in the country guided me to Korea.

While heading with my education, I decided to critically understand and evaluate the Korean Civil Society closely. Working with some civil society organizations provided me lots of eye-opening experiences in my life. I am really fascinated and overwhelmed by their contributions to Korean democracy, economic equality, human rights, peace, justice and the rule of law. I wish civil society in Nepal were like that of here!!

On my way of studying them, one day I encountered to seriously think over the dream of some Korean civil society activists to formulate “Asian Civil Society”; Woo, very good news for Asians!!

But my happiness was very soon overshadowed by the glimpse of skepticism when I started to explore the possibilities to materialize that dream. I saw many big clouds ahead to be penetrated. Of course, I also saw some lights in the darkness and some rays of hope in despair.

My realizations sprung up from my personal realization of the hypocrisy that exists not only in the activists but also in Korean people’s way of understanding and interpreting Asian Solidarity.

May be for Koreans, my viewpoints will be irrational, but I think it will add an advantage at least for Korean civil society activists. To my eyes, the culture of analyzing and looking at other Asian countries from the eyes of their past entities is the great enemy to kiss this goal. I know that it is sensitive to state at this point {though it is a fact} that – many Koreans are massively Americanized, Japanized and Chinatized politically as well as culturally. The point that I want to make here is that if some we advocate for the Asian Solidarity, we should have some independent, original and humanistic ideology to extend our solidarity among Asian people.

Likewise, it is a must for us to broaden our map of Asia and include the other countries out of East Asian counties as well. Because, many people in East Asian region, in practice think that only the countries in the region exist in Asia.

Many people have been advocating for providing higher Official Development Assistance, Unofficial Development Assistance and employments to the people from poor Asian countries to extend their solidarity. Leaving behind the national interests and strategies of Korea in the region for another issue to discuss over, I opine that it will be better to struggle in changing the attitudes and prospective of our people inside our country to look at other people who are simply different. Just raising the voice for Asian Solidarity in some conferences or meetings is not enough.

I myself have undergone several such situations in Korea in which I have realized the smell of discriminations and racism. Whenever I travel by public transportations like subways and buses, Koreans people don’t want to travel sitting next to me; rather they long to stand in the bus no matter how far they have to travel. It is a kind of humiliating kind of treatment, we generally assume.

Adding on it, I with some hesitations want to share my bitter experience with some of my professors while studying in my university. I have taken several classes with some of the fellows from western countries in my university. What really pinched me is that some of the professors {who are also considered to be the most intellectuals in this country} instruct the class focusing only to the students from western countries as if there are no Asian students; many of the students from the Asia have the same realization and complain. It is ridiculous that the very professors are found to have often talked about Asian solidarity and cooperation.

Since the intellectual circle itself is the victimized by the vicious tendency of hypocrisy, building the Asian civil society and sharing the solidarity in the region is like living in a “Never Never Land”. As many Asian people working as migrant workers have been badly exploited, ill-treated, and denied to entertain their labor rights in many Korean industries, it is better to fight to make them realize that Koreans have really been great to them.

It is request to the Koreans advocators who want to initiate for establishing the “Asian Civil Society”: before reaching out to other countries with the mission of, elimination of the discriminating manners of the people, discouragement to ill-intentioned minds behind the our plan, ending of the growing hostility among countries and finding of the common enemy and thereby formulating effective strategies to tackle with the enemy will be a benchmark to march ahead. On top of these, it is an urgent tasks for us to make our citizens realize that they belong to Asia not the West. As Korean civil society activists advocated, creating Asian Civil Society is not impossible though many challenges to combat with.

Therefore, let’s try to embrace the people from different countries regardless of nationality, region, culture, race and language!! Let’s try not to be discriminating!! Let’s share our unconditional love for humankind in this region!! Let’s mobilize the region against Racism, Casteism, Exclusions, state of impunity and corruption!! Let’s not only export Koreans cars, electric goods, mobile phones and TVs to other Asian countries but also export our helpful hands and creative minds for the harmonious, peaceful and democratic Asia; only then it will be formal inauguration of Asian Civil Society!! At last but not the least let’s uproot our deeply rooted hypocritical instincts from our life for Asian Solidarity!!

*This article was originally published in www.peoplepower21.org in 2007. I had written on the issue of migrant workers and foreigners who were discriminated in South Korea on the basis of race, region, color and so on. Later one of my friends, Bonojit Hussain's case geared up the issue, which is good both for Korean societies and migrants in Korea.