Greetings from the editors

As far as the editors are concerned this is the first Journal on Social Democracy in Asia. Since 2007, Indonesia has its own journal on social democracy. Confidently we hope, the ideas and the ideology of social democracy will flourish in Asia.

Basically, the philosophical perspective and ideology in Asia have their social democratic dimensions. We prefer collectivity and togetherness instead of individualism. Let us take a look at the constitutions and laws in Asia. The principles of solidarity and social justice have become important guiding principles that have to be implemented everywhere. However, there are differences in realizing these socialist principles. Social democracy wants socialism to be implemented based on democracy, as well as the assurance of civil, economic, political, social and cultural rights. Therefore, it is interesting to observe the developments in Latin America where socialism is built on democracy. In addition, Latin America is also politically and culturally close to Asian countries. Obviously, we also have to learn from other Western European countries with strong social democratic roots such as Germany and Scandinavia.

Nevertheless, in the end, social democracy in Asia needs to learn from itself. Despite the fact that socialism has been practiced in many Asian countries, the implementation of socialism through democracy is not an established tradition. This is something that has to be constantly strived for. The struggle through civilian democracy and politics often cause a country become too liberal, and trapped in neo-liberalism. On the other hand, preventing liberalism will cause a country to be trapped in an authoritarian system. Therefore, a version of democracy that is ensuring civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights needs to be endeavored time and time again.

Though this biannual journal we hope to identify different schools of thoughts, ideas and experiences in European, Latin American and Asian countries in implementing the principles and perspectives of social democracy. The writings of Asian experiences will be dominant in this journal. Therefore, the ideas and experiences must be operational, specific and technical.

We hope that the articles will become a source of inspiration and knowledge for social democratic movements in Asia, so that their programs and networks can be improved.

The first edition of this journal will be about the first meeting of the social democratic network in Manila that was conducted on 20 – 23 May 2009. The topic of the meeting was “RESPONDING TO A SYSTEMIC CRISIS – ASIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS IN SEARCH OF POLICIES AND PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS”. As the reader will see, this journal contains the conclusions of meetings, and comments from a number of experts about those meetings. Comments from social democratic figures that were not presented in the meeting are important to get a different perspective as well as valuable information.

For the next editions, we will add more experts’ comments and opinions in order to make the journal more attractive.

This first edition will also include among others a number of articles from the Manila conference, other articles, a book review, as well as profiles of social democratic organizations in Asia.

For the second edition, We will have the analyses and conclusions of the regional meeting of social democratic networks in Asia which will be held in Penang, Malaysia from 19 – 22 november 2009. The topic of this meeting is “EFFECTING REAL CHANGE IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE: PERSPECTIVE FOR SOSIAL DEMOCRATIC POLICIES”. We hope that the coming journal will be more complete and interesting, because the editorial staffs will provide transcripts that contain the debates and discussions, instead of only providing the conclusions. This will help the reader understand about the ideas that have led to the conclusion. Other interesting articles will also be found in the next journal.

The editorial staffs welcome everyone who is interested in sending an article for our magazine. Yet, articles for this magazine must be able to contribute to the strengthening of social democratic movements in Asia. We realize that there are different political systems in Asia. The differences range from authoritarian, semi – authoritarian, democratic as well as liberal. It will be very interesting for us to read the contributions from other social democrats living in different political and social systems. Hopefully, this journal can give inspirations and strengthen the network of activists and social democratic movements. Keep up the struggle, and happy reading!

EDITORS.