FREE ESSAY ON ASIAN CRISIS

ASIAN CRISIS

The continuing Asian economic crisis that began in mid-1997 ranks as Asia's second biggest
event since World War II. The crisis suddenly halted the region's unprecedented three
decades of rapid economic growth. 
Within Asia itself, the crisis has had not only serious domestic social, political, and
economic impact, it has affected intra- and extraregional international relations, as
well as intellectual and policy discourse.
At the same time, the crisis has almost incompatibly, spawned the deepest uncertainty yet
among Asian government and business leaders and the public at large about the wisdom of
following the universalistic (but really Western, especially American-propagated)
capitalist doctrine of free markets, private enterprise, international openness and
political democratization as the most secure path to economic prosperity and social
well-being. 
There is now more or less an agreement that the domestic origins of the Asian crisis lay
in macroeconomic imbalances, structural deficiencies in financial sectors, and
shortcomings in political and corporate governance. Some or all of these problems were
more severe in the countries most affected-Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia-than in
those that were relatively unscathed-Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan.
A year ago, at a Corporate Conference organized by the Asia Society in Hong Kong, a
multinational Eminent Persons Group delivered a report, Asia at the Crossroads: The Path
Ahead. In that report, the assembled experts concluded that provided the needed changes
are put into place, the
Countries of East and Southeast Asia should emerge from the crisis better positioned to
improve the lives of their citizens and to contribute to international stability and
prosperity.
I hope that the situation will change. On January 8, 1999, the ASIAN Secretariat issued a
press release about the Second Meeting of ASIAN Heads of Statistical Offices, held in
Bali on January 5-6.