Freedom slipping in Southeast Asia

Here in Asia, the last few weeks have not been good for freedom - America's top foreign-policy goal.

In Nepal, King Gyanendra dismissed the parliament and imposed a state of emergency, giving him direct control.

In Bangladesh, the capital was rocked by protests against the assassination of top leaders and the arrest of journalists. The instability forced India and other South Asian countries to cancel an upcoming regional summit in Dhaka.

And in Cambodia, moves by Hun Sen - the prime minister since 1985 - drove opposition leaders into exile.

After a spate of elections last year that highlighted progress toward full democracy in places like Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, this year has brought a depressing countertrend in other nations. From crackdowns on dissidents to outright coups, the democratic backsliding is a direct challenge to President Bush's vision of expanding freedom and democracy. It also raises a daunting question: With the ongoing Iraq war, do the US and its allies have the resources and attention to foster more than one democracy at a time?

"The very idea of exporting democracy and freedom is flawed from the start," says Rajeev Bhargava, a political scientist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. "Unless [people] struggle for it by themselves, for themselves, freedom has no meaning."

The situation in Nepal points out the limits of outside influence. The US and Britain have quietly given millions of dollars of military aid and training to combat an eight-year Maoist insurgency. Maoists now control much of the countryside and are active in all of Nepal's 75 districts.

"We've come out very strong against the steps taken by the king," says a State Department official in Washington. "But at the same time we have to recognize that the Maoists are a complete anathema to democracy."

The official knows of no initiatives yet to change the security assistance to Nepal. But he recognizes that balancing support against criticism of antidemocratic moves is delicate and is not unique. "Our ultimate goal is strong democracies everywhere. We don't want to disregard this goal by any interim steps. But at the same time we can't take actions that make the ultimate goal more difficult to reach. It is a conundrum."

Before the coup, India had acted as an adviser to Nepal's bickering democratic parties and offered itself as a mediator to bring the Maoists back into mainstream politics. When Indian diplomats in Kathmandu learned last week that Nepal was moving troops to the capital, they asked the king if these were signs of a coup. The king said no. Then he sacked the government.

In Bangladesh, there are signs of government collusion in political violence. Long admired for its moderate Islamic culture and small-enterprise development programs, the country has lately become the focus of concern over the growing influence of the Jamaat-I Islami, a hard-line Islamist party that forms part of the current ruling coalition. Last week, a police source told the Bangladesh Daily Star that the top suspects in the fatal Jan. 27 grenade attack against opposition leader S. A. Kibria were Jamaat and ruling party members.

Some Indian observers say that turmoil in neighboring countries will force India to get involved.

"Whether it wants it or not, India is being irrevocably sucked into the internal politics of Nepal and Bangladesh," wrote C. Raja Mohan, an international affairs professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in the Indian Express.

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