Social Democratic Parties in Southeast Asia ­Chances and Limits Norbert von Hofmann * , Consultant, Januar 2009 1. Introduction The people of Southeast Asia, both masses and elites alike, looked for many years foremost up to the United States of America(US) as a role model state. However, the war on terrorism waged by the current US administration linked with cuts in civil liberties and human rights violations, especially the illegal detention and torture of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, has in the eyes of many Southeast Asians considerably discredited the US concept of liberal democracy. Furthermore, the US propagated classical economic liberalism has failed to deliver the most basic human necessities to the poor, and the current food and energy crisis as well as the latest bank crisis in the US prove that neo-liberalism is itself in trouble. The result of neo-liberalism, dominated by trade and financial liberalization, has been one of deepening inequality, also and especially in the emerging economies of Southeast Asia. Falling poverty in one community, or one country or region, is corresponding with deepening poverty elsewhere. The solution can therefore not be more liberalization, but rather more thought and more policy space for countries to pursue alternative options such as “Social Democracy”. The sudden call even from the most hard-core liberals for more regulations and interventions by the state in the financial markets and the disgust and anger of working people everywhere as their taxes being used to bail out those whose greed, irresponsibility and abuses have brought the world’s financial markets to the brink of collapse, proof that the era of“turbo-capitalism” is over. After the Asian financial crisis of the late 90s, this new crisis will again threaten jobs, homes and futures of millions of human beings, also in Southeast Asia – those who never drew profit from the years of excess, whose work has been underpaid and degraded and who bear no responsibility for what is now happening. Social democracy strives to secure the necessary social and economic conditions and to attain equal freedom for all. It is an ongoing task that can be fulfilled in a variety of ways and at different levels depending on given recourses and conditions. Social rights are based on the premise that all citizens assume responsibility for their own lives to the * Mr. Norbert von Hofmann is an independent consultant on Southeast Asian–European co-operation in Germany and an advisor to the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s Office in Jakarta/Indonesia. Formally he was the Head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s Office for Regional Cooperation in Southeast Asia in Singapore.