IF Frederic Bastiat, the French philosopher who wrote an outstanding essay on the government in 1848, lived today and joined the recently concluded Asean People Forum, he would have won his wager on the tone of the forum and the statement issued by the civil society organisations.

In his essay, published during the French Revolution, Bastiat wrote: “Sir, I do not have the honour of knowing you, but I wager 10 to 1 that for six months you have been making utopias; and if you have been making them, I wager 10 to 1 that you place upon the government the responsibility of realising them. And you, Madame, I am sure that you desire from the bottom of your heart to cure all the ills of the mankind and that you would be in no way embarrassed if the government would only lend a hand.”

Yes, he would have won the wager because the seven pages of Civil Society Statement of the Asean People Forum have exactly that tone. The statement, “Reclaiming the Asean Community for the People”, contains 27 recommendations for Asean members.

Some of the recommendations contain measures that Asean governments have to take to ensure that the principles of human rights and standards are upheld, the problem of inequalities of wealth, power and resources between countries addressed, and discrimination and restriction of civil liberties ended.

Despite the title of the document that champions a greater role for the people in the Asean Community, the tone is exactly what Bastiat predicted. Asean’s civil society organisations “place upon the government the responsibility of realising” the vision of making Asean more people-centered and they ask the government to “lend a hand” to realise that vision.

The statement has valid reason to put the responsibility upon the government. Many problems that plague some countries such as corruption, political prosecution and restrictions on civil liberties, are caused by government policies. The only way to resolve them is to push for the government to remove them.

But to place upon the government all the responsibility to realise the vision of a people-centered Asean, especially to ensure the welfare of the people, is a futile attempt. Why?

First, civil society organisations in the region know better than anybody else that the government is not an entity that can be fully trusted. The first two pages of the statement clearly point out the inability of the government to actually deliver the responsibilities that we, as the people, put on it annually. And yet, every year without fail, we keep placing on it more responsibilities and asking it to lend a hand to cure all the ills that our community has.

Our dependence on the government is quite amazing. Bastiat described it quite aptly in his essay: “The government is a mysterious personage and certainly the most solicited, the most tormented, the busiest, the most advised, the most blamed, the most invoked, and the most provoked in the world.”

Second, we sometimes forget that the government needs resources to fulfil the responsibilities that we place upon it. For those resources to be available, it will either take more from the people, or take something from some people to give to some others. The government “cannot procure satisfaction for some without adding to the labour of others”.

If we put responsibility on the government to “relieve women of the burden of unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of social care services and infrastructures”, it will demand that citizens pay more taxes to provide for these. If we put the responsibility upon the government to “provide equal pay”, it will force business to increase wages and lay some workers off. If we put responsibility on the government to nurture and develop certain businesses, it will have to put all resources into those businesses and deprive others.

This does not mean that we, the people of Asean, should not make demands on our governments, or remind them that as keeper of the taxpayers’ money, they have a duty to be accountable and open, to respect the rights of their citizens to speak, and to provide security for them.

However, Bastiat’s essay can serve as a reminder that when we invite the government to take a greater role in ensuring the people’s welfare, there is a cost to it. A people-centred Asean should be realised not by having the government play a greater role in ensuring the people’s welfare, but by making sure the people are capable of doing it themselves.

Sri Murniati is manager, Governance and Political Economy Unit, at the Kuala Lumpur-based Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS)

This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on May 11-17, 2015.

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