This volume is dedicated to the study of Human Security in Asia. Conceptually, it resides within the broader framework of Non-Traditional Security.

Human security is still very much a contested concept. This notwithstanding, there is no disagreement among scholars that, at the core, human security is about the wellbeing of the individual—in contrast to the well-being of the state. This well-being of the individual is measured in terms of two basic freedoms: freedom from want and freedom from fear. An individual who is free from deprivation of his basic needs, such as food, water and shelter, can be described as a secure person. A society that is free from fear for its safety can equally be deemed as a secure society.

Human security therefore views security not in terms of the traditional notion of security of the state but the non-traditional concept of the security of the individual. Hence, human security is people-centred. The definition of human security reached a conceptual highpoint in 1994 when the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) issued a Human Development Report, which defined human security as “not a concern with weapons” but “a concern with human life and dignity”. The UNDP identified seven categories of threat to human security: environment, food, health, economy, personal, community and political.

There are four key characteristics of human security as defined by UNDP: that it is universal, interdependent in its components, is preventive and is people-oriented. Scholars see the UNDP version of human security as an organising concept in security studies.

This volume focuses on human security at a time when security of the Asian person is increasingly under siege from the forces of nature and man-made disasters, especially in the last few years. There has been an increase in the numbers as well as the frequency of natural calamities around the world. All of them triggered consequences that led to human tragedy and suffering; some even generated political consequences. The year 2010 began with a major earthquake in Haiti.

Japan's earthquake on 11 March 2011—and the tsunami that followed it—is the strongest on record in the country and has been dubbed as Japan's worst crisis since the Second World War. The increasing ferocity and unpredictability of these natural disasters seriously challenged Japan's record of effective disaster management capabilities and high safety standards. As the country grappled with the ensuing threat of multiple nuclear meltdowns after explosions at three nuclear power plant (NPP) reactors in Fukushima and a leak at a NPP reactor in Onagawa, questions were being raised as to the overall impact of these developments.

This disaster is a critical reality check for Southeast Asia as the region continues to consider nuclear energy as a means for sustaining energy needs and economic development. The Japanese experience has shown that dealing with the latent threats of nuclear safety issues would require more than reliance on advancements in nuclear science and technology.

Managing Japan's Triple Disasters

As Japan counted the human and property cost of its triple disasters, it was engulfed in an uphill task in managing disaster relief operations as well as mitigating further damage to the NPPs. The death toll surpassed 18,000 within weeks of the tragedy while almost two million households were without power supply and 1.4 million without running water in the colder northern regions of Japan. Moreover, Japan's ageing population also faced higher vulnerabilities in terms of health and safety.

This situation got worse when the government started rolling blackouts in a bid to conserve energy—energy that would be needed to maintain the cooling systems in Japan's NPPs to avoid nuclear meltdowns.

Naval ships from as many as 20 countries have been deployed in anti-piracy patrols off Somalia since 2009. Despite this presence and the measures taken till now, the International Maritime Bureau has reported that there were 445 acts of piracy during 2010 and 410 during 2009 as against 293 in 2008.

Effects of Increasing Piracy

The Somali pirates have been proving to be tactically ingenious. After the arrival of warships in the Gulf of Aden, the pirates have extended their hunting ground up to 800 nautical miles into the Indian Ocean. This means that virtually any vessel sailing between Europe and East Africa or the Persian Gulf/South Asia, is potentially at risk of attack. At risk are not only the vessels sailing through the Suez Canal, but also those that go via the Cape of Good Hope.

In the meantime, oil transportation costs are beginning to go up on account of increased insurance cover of up to US$1 million for a medium-sized tanker, as well as due to re-routing of vessels to avoid the Somali coast. The disruption caused to the shipping industry by piracy is dramatic, but the outcome in human terms is also considerable. In 2010, Somali pirates held 1,181 seafarers hostage, eight of whom were killed and 13 injured.

Making Anti-Piracy Efforts More Effective

Unified response for optimum utilisation of resources

Naval ships from a large number of countries and groupings are deployed in anti-piracy patrols in the area. These include at least 20 countries and represent a wide variety of political, economic and individual interests, signifying the absolute necessity of weeding out the piracy menace. There is, therefore, definitely a common meeting ground and purpose, which is also mandated by the UNSC resolution.

The G20 Summit is a process that is still evolving. No one can predict how and where it will end up. The group was self-appointed as the “premier forum for international economic cooperation”. There are important questions related to membership and agenda that need to be addressed. But, like it or not, the process is here to stay.

At the Pittsburgh Summit in 2009, President Obama categorically announced that the G20 would replace the G8. Two G20 Summits were held a year later, in Toronto on 26–27 June and in Seoul on 11–12 November 2010. The Toronto Summit, among others, took stock of the implementation of exit strategies from the expansionary monetary and fiscal policies of the world's major economies. The Seoul Summit selected two additional longer-term issues for discussion. The first was financial safety nets to better insulate emerging markets from systemic instability. The second was actions to close the development gap, especially for the poorest. Issues related to climate change were also addressed in the G20. So how should Asia respond?

How Should Asia Respond?

Asia is represented in the G20 by six countries—China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and—if it is defined as part of Asia—Australia. In addition to pursuing their bilateral agenda, say with the United States or the European Union, how can the Asian members of the G20 jointly synergise and leverage their growing economic and political clout into more effective participation in the G20? How can Asia collectively strengthen its voice in the G20? Three suggestions could be offered.

Firstly, realising the centrality of ASEAN in Asian regional architecture, Asian countries should lobby to formalise the membership of the ASEAN representatives in the G20.

Did climate change and food insecurity have a hand in the Tunisian revolution? In this surprising people power revolt that exploded at the start of 2011, the usual recipe for an uprising was at play—fundamental underlying issues like repression, autocratic rule, corruption and growing unemployment. But the trigger or the immediate cause, significantly, was fuel and food, especially rising food prices. The rising food prices that shook Tunisia—and brought down the Ben Ali government—came at a time when global food prices broke record highs at the turn of the New Year. Erratic global weather patterns caused by climate change have affected the supply of crops and grains.

The resulting shortage pushed up prices, hitting the unemployed worst, and unleashing the long-standing pent-up resentment that has since transformed into, and inspired popular protests beyond Tunisia—into neighbouring states such as Egypt, Yemen and Jordan. In other words, what we are witnessing now in North Africa and the Arab world is the political impact of climate change. The implications are obvious: what if the global climate gets worse, and food scarcity turns into a huge global crisis affecting human security? Will Southeast Asia be spared from such a dire scenario?

Rising Prices and the Tunisian Revolt

It all began on 17 December 2010 when an unemployed engineering graduate burnt himself when his fruit and vegetables push-cart was taken away by overzealous authorities. His death shocked not only Tunisia but also the rest of the Maghreb and Arab world where self-immolation is unprecedented. Taking one's own life, just as suicide bombings, is against their religion, Islam. That it was resorted to speaks immensely of what must have been the intense frustration of the people. The act resonated immediately with the wider population, triggering a revolt against the Zine Ebidine Ben Ali government.

Since its birth in Peshawar, Pakistan, on 11 August 1988, Al Qaeda has suffered a series of significant splits and losses. Despite this, it has demonstrated its resilience. A by-product of the anti-Soviet multinational Arab mujahidin campaign, the group has sustained its momentum as an ideological and an operational vanguard. Whenever Al Qaeda suffered the loss of operational capability, heightened motivation has always enabled the group to recover.

Nonetheless, the death of Osama bin Laden on 1 May 2011 may be different. Osama—or “bin Laden”, as the West calls him—had been, until his death, the principal architect of Al Qaeda. He was also the unifier of the network of like-minded groups in Asia, Caucasus, Africa and the Middle East, and the driver of a global movement of supporters and sympathisers. Is his death a killer blow? Will core Al Qaeda, the Al Qaedadirected network of groups, and the Al Qaeda-inspired global movement recover from this loss?

Al Qaeda at the Core

Al Qaeda is managed by an Emir (Commander or Prince) responsible to the Majlis Shura (General Command Council). Of the ten members that staff the council, six of them head committees—the military; security and intelligence; administration and finance; fatwa; information; and political. The six committees were headed by Osama from Saudi Arabia (Political Committee), Ayman al Zawahiri from Egypt (Information Committee), Subhi Abd Al Aziz Abu Sita alias Muhammed Atef from Egypt (Military Committee), Mustafa Abu Al Yazid alias Sheikh Sai'd from Egypt (Administration and Finance Committee), Saif al Adel from Egypt (Security and Intelligence Committee) and Abu Hafs from Mauritania (Religious Committee).

Today, the ideological virus of “global jihad” spread by Al Qaeda has spread both in the global south and in the global north.

Singapore's approach to both corrections and its drug problems is positive and direct. For that reason its policies are either lauded as sensible or criticised as repressive according to the commentators’ own position on the current drug and correctional controversy. Like most other countries, Singapore is not yet able to show that any one policy rather than another has been conspicuously successful: and even if it did claim success there would doubtless be scope for varying interpretations of this according to the criteria used. If one begins however with the modest assumptions that the people responsible for policy in Singapore are neither unlettered nor uncultured, that they are widely travelled and alive to the developments on corrections and drug problems in other countries of the world — and that they are genuinely concerned about the best interests of their country, then it is possible to identify objectives and tease out the principles for some future evaluation.

There are two arms to Singapore's action to deal with drugs and crime: and the policy is gradually to bring these together in a pincer movement to improve rehabilitation. One arm is the country's drive to develop, socially and economically. There is a keen appreciation of Singapore's need to be competitive in exports and to serve as an international market. With two million people crowded on about 600 square kilometres which offer little except human resources, secondary industry, tourism [and] commerce loom large as means of survival and improvement in the quality of life. Singapore is sensitive to the fact that it must produce and market on competitive terms to earn its foreign currency. It has therefore sought to mobilise the relatively unused human resources in the prisons and in the rehabilitation centres to provide selected competitive exports. The second arm of correctional and drug policy is the personal rehabilitation of the inmates of institutions with a corresponding reduction in the rates of recidivism. The attempt to join these two arms into a total thrust to benefit both the community and the individual is well illustrated by the creation of SCORE — the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong

Prime Minister's Office

Orchard Road

Istana

Singapore 238823

Dear Mr Lee,

May I begin this letter by wishing you and your family a Happy and Successful Lunar New Year.

In the midst of the so-called OPEC war in the mid-seventies when the price of oil escalated and inflation went wild, NTUC Welcome Consumer Co-operative, now known as NTUC FairPrice was set up to combat inflation in our country.

The late Mr Lim Kim San was Chairman Board of Trustees and I was Chairman Board of Directors as well as CEO.

Through a system of cross-subsidy by progressively reducing the prices of about a dozen essential items that had direct bearing on the cost of living of the workers and subsidized by profit margin from the rest of the other items, we were able not only to contain inflation but managed to get it reduced when inflation was rising elsewhere. Gradually, those essential items became loss leaders and because of competition, the other supermarkets and provision shops were compelled to adopt the same strategy. The attached article from the Straits Times of September 11, 1978 showing the inflation rate of Singapore and selected countries would give you an insight into the success of the system.

If you consider the system worth pursuing, I will be delighted to brief you further on the matter.

Yours respectively,

BAEY LIAN PECK

Encl. Straits Times article, September 11, 1978 [see APPENDIX II]

c.c. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

Note: In the following week, Prime Minister Lee Hsien replied to thank Dr Baey for the advice while Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's response was “Good work. Put it in NTUC News.”

First, I would like to thank you for your presence. This will be the only occasion in which SCORE is holding a dinner on its own. We will be joining the Prisons Department when it holds its future annual dinners.

This evening is perhaps a good time to reflect on what objectives SCORE has set out to achieve, what are expected of the staff and what roles private enterprises can play.

SCORE's objectives, as they have often been stressed, are:

(i) To inculcate in inmates exact industrial discipline; and

(ii) To provide work to as many inmates as possible.

We have one aim; that is, to lead and rehabilitate those who have gone astray and try [to] turn them into useful citizens again.

The task of rehabilitation falls no less on the Prisons Department than on the staff of SCORE. Staff of SCORE must therefore share this responsibility in an enduring and positive manner. Working in a rehabilitative environment is more than a job. It is a public service. And we will be doing the public a great service if, through our collective efforts, we are able to inculcate in drug takers and prison inmates (particularly the recidivists), the will and determination to reform themselves.

We have done quite well over the last 2 years but there is no cause for [rejoicing] yet. We still have much more to do in the years ahead. It is the duty of the management to ensure that conditions of service for staff are competitive to Government departments and related industries in the private sector. Every officer must, however, demonstrate his or her commitment to the Corporation. In order that management can build up the infrastructure for a conducive working environment, it is important that there must be more feedback from staff on the ground level. The submission of fortnightly reports on workshops’ performance, though a chore, is necessary so that experience from the workshop could be translated into effective policies.

I am therefore basically a businessman, and, fortunately, I gained financial success very early in life. So, from thirty-eight years old onwards, a lot of my time went into serving Singapore, and I could do that without ever taking payment for my work for the government.

This was my national service.

I think my commitment to work for the country came when Lee Kuan Yew cried on the air, when Singapore was kicked out of Malaysia in 1965. After the Japanese Occupation, we had all felt that we had to become independent. Either you chose to migrate or you stayed to fight. My old man and I actually discussed that, and we decided to stay.

Lee Kuan Yew took us into the federation in 1963, and at that time, I remember I didn't agree with him. But I soon saw that he was learning, and changing his policies accordingly. After that, I was all for him. I remember Dr Toh Chin Chye asking me to enter politics. He could not guarantee that I would become a Minister, but a position of Minister of State was a foregone conclusion. I said no to him. I saw myself as a businessman. My father taught me things as a businessman, and we had always been doing business. Certain things you may do in business which you cannot do in politics. In business, you make use of the grey areas. One gets involved in what used to be called “yellow culture”, for example. I mean, I was doing business with the Americans in Vietnam. I knew who did what to whom, and when.

Politics is something else altogether. So, I did not want to discredit the party. That was my official excuse to Dr Toh. But in truth, I did not want to. It was as simple as that.

Years later, after my work with NTUC Welcome, Lim Kim San also wanted me to join politics. I turned him down too, and for the same reason. To be sure, I became a cadre for the PAP in 1971. I was on too many important boards to not be one, I suppose. Although I stopped being a cadre later, I remained a member of the PAP. So I knew the top leaders very well.

I knew Baey Lian Peck through his work in the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprise (SCORE). I found him public-spirited, willing to give of his time in spite of his business schedule. From SCORE, he went on to other duties for the government. I always found him responsive and diligent in carrying out the duties he voluntarily undertook.

Without people like Baey Lian Peck, Singapore could not have been as well run. We have decentralised many of the functions of government into institutions run primarily by publicspirited men and women. The government supplies the secretarial staff. Baey Lian Peck was one such man.

Singapore's current inflation rate is the highest in three years. But there is no cause for alarm as the price increase here is among the lowest in the world.

Latest figures from the International Monetary Fund show that the nation's inflation is running lower than three of its Asean partners and its arch Asian export rival, South Korea and Taiwan.

Also, the rise in consumer prices is slower than the average of the industrialised nations.

For the first seven months of this year, the nation's consumer price index, according to government statistics, rose by 5.3 per cent which is higher than increases for the past three years.

IMF statistics show that the annual increase of Singapore's consumer prices for April is 5.1 per cent against 7.2 per cent for the Philippines, 9.1 per cent for Thailand, and 10.9 per cent for Indonesia. April figures for Malaysia are not available yet.

The inflation rates for Taiwan and South Korea are 8 per cent and 12.4 per cent respectively.

The consumer price rise for 14 industrialised nations averages 6.4 per cent, reports the IMF. These countries are the US, Canada, Japan, Britain, Switzerland, West Germany, Italy, Holland, Sweden, France, Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Norway.

Economists have predicted that Singapore's consumer prices will rise between 4 and 5 per cent for the whole of this year. Last year, the CPI increased by 3.2 per cent.

The main reasons for the hike in local consumer prices this year are increases in the cost of food, transport and miscellaneous items such as medical fees and cinema admission charges. The barmy days of rock-bottom inflation rates in Singapore (consumer prices rose at annual rates of not more than 2 per cent in the 1960s and early 1970s) ended when prices soared to 22.9 per cent in 1973 and 22.3 per cent in 1974.

Without a doubt, the oil crisis triggered off spiralling inflation in the world economy. But its underlying causes stemmed from the lack of world financial discipline, resulting in deficit financing and easy credit creation, something which had been going on for two decades.

The 1950s and 1960s saw the emergence of the inflationprone consumer society of US and other parts of the world.

Letter to myself

41-24, Lengkong Satu,

Off Jalan Kembangan,

Singapore 14

27th May 1957

Dear Baey,

When you open this letter, you will be nearly 46 years old, and married for 21 years. If God permits, you will have children of your own, and soon hope to be a grandfather, as your dear wife Daisy, is now pregnant and will be having a baby in the middle of the next month.

The reason for this letter to yourself is that you are almost certain that you will succeed in business, and that the Company, Baey Kim Swee & Co Ltd, will be ever bigger and prosperous, not only in this line, but in all the field of commerce, and that you might be swell-headed (like your father) and put all the glory to yourself, instead of to the other people who helped you to succeed.

Should you succeed, and be much more wealthier than your father, you promised that you will be generous and helpful not only to your relations but to the people, whom you made your money from. You would not make the mistakes your father made, by taking all the credits and blaming the bad and unsuccessful on other people.

By now, some of your children would be in school, and you promised to give them a good education, girl or boy alike, so that they will be able to [fend] for themselves in later years. Although you wish them to follow your footstep in business, you must not force them, if they wish to take up any other type of professions.

You promised not to have second wife, because of your unhappy childhood days due to the two stepmothers, and your own mother being kicked out by your father.

You know that it is impossible to be entirely faithful to Daisy, but you promised to yourself that should you ever feel tempted by woman, you will pay them with money (or other ways) for the enjoyment. But you will never marry a second wife, so that your children will not suffer as you have suffered.

If you are rich, and have succeeded in reaching your ambition, that is: a millionaire with steady income from your many investments, you would not forget your friends and relations, and would endeavour your utmost to help them.