Globalization, Economic Crisis in Asia and Its Impact on Higher Education

The SET '98 was held in Chiangmai, Thailand from August 16-30. The SET was attended by 15 movements, about 25 people, from all over the Asia-Pacific countries. The SET Program is both a leadership formation and a consensus building exercise on the issue of Higher Education from the perspective of the youth and students. The objectives of the SET 98 were as follows:

• To critically examine the globalization process, which is dictated by IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization, and its effect on higher education in Asia and the Pacific;

• To come up with a position paper on Higher Education, which will be submitted to UNESCO for its consideration in its meeting on the issue of Higher Education;

• To share the diversity of our peoples' struggles and celebrate the plurality of our resistance, and our hopes, especially to reaffirm SCM's option for the poor communities - to build alliances of SCMs, student and social movements at grassroots, local, national, regional and global levels;

• To share and celebrate the plurality of our spirituality, as spirituality is the capacity for resistance and the courage to construct new alternatives and paradigms, and also the energy to transform;

• To share biblical, ecumenical spirituality in the midst of globalization;

• To self-critique and assess the life of our national movements and our personal lifestyle so as to enable ourselves and our movements to contribute to a new community of affirming justice, peace and the integrity of Creation.

The program opened on Monday, 17 August 1998, with an opening worship. A keynote address was given by Dr Nicola Bullard, who focused on the current economic situation of Asia and the more immediate causes of the 'crisis'. In the afternoon, participants got to know each other a little, discussed then-expectations of the program, learned about WSCF structures, and established committees to arrange various aspects of the program.

Exposure

Following an orientation to the exposure program, three groups of participants visited different places in Thailand to focus on situations related to globalization;

1. Exposure in Chiang Mai: HIV/AIDS (Human Immune-deficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)

The first exposure group talked with people living with HIV or AIDS and with community groups dealing with associated issues.

The group reported that in Chiang Mai about 20% of the population is now living with the virus.

The group visited the Church of Christ in Thailand AIDS Ministry, which provides outreach to Churches, health promotion, education and training, and a public hearing by another non-governmental organization, which looked at communities solving problems in their own areas, including the issue of HIV and AIDS, and a shelter for street children, which helps protect the children needing to turn to prostitution, thus protecting them from HIV. The group also went on a mock 'sex-tour' of the city, which provoked much discussion about the structures that support this industry. With the AIDS Counseling Training Centre, the group went to Mae Wang district for a community consultation with people living with HIV and their families.

The group also learned of the effect of HIV and AIDS on women outside the sex industry. Because they have not been targeted for education, a larger number of housewives than prostitutes are now living with HIV. These women have lacked the education, resources and confidence to ask their husbands to use condoms.

There are several large structures, which make it difficult to address the issue of HIV/AIDS in Thailand, and improve the situation for sex-workers. These include the way the Government is set up, the capitalist nature of the country, and the power men have in Thai society. Politicians financially supported by business people who make their money selling drugs and selling women, lack incentive to criticize this practice. The issue of men's control of their wives needs to be changed if women are to be empowered to take responsibility of their own bodies and health. The capitalist system has turned everything into a commodity, including the human body.

The group's response to the situation is to encourage education - with the community, about how to avoid contracting HIV and about the realities of people living with the virus, and also with those living with HIV, about self-care. Other suggestions were to hold leadership training with the topics of HIV and AIDS, to establish small groups for education and research, and to encourage SCMers to work as interns in countries impacted by HIV.

2. Exposure in Chiangrai: Migrant Women

The purpose of the exposure visit to Chiangrai was to gain insight into the issues that migrant women face and to see the work of the local NGOs in this region. The group particularly focused on the impact of globalization and its impact on the women and children in the Chiangrai region.

The group visited a shopping mall, the local night bazaar, a nightclub, the New Life Centre (a place for shelter and education of young girls, to protect them from prostitution and provide better life opportunities), a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, and hill tribe communities.

At the shopping mall, the group witnessed women working in go-go bars and saw the blatant display for sale of girls who were barely 13 years old. Most of these girls were from Burma or the hill tribes and were not able to obtain identity cards, without which they cannot legally gain employment, and are discriminated against. Foreign men in the night bazaar were actively seeking sexual services from the local young women. At the nightclub, young teenagers under the legal age limit (18 years) were drinking heavily and the Thai music was very heavily influenced by American MTV culture.

The group was told that drug use was prevalent among young people in nightclubs.

The group emphasized that we cannot blame the young girls or their parents for what they are doing. In the age of globalization, the policy of liberalization of the economy is leaving society's most vulnerable open to exploitation by the powerful. The hill tribe and Burmese women have become victims of forces beyond their control and have experienced complete loss of voice, have been raped of their culture and have become mere commodities in the free-market-place. Loss of land, unemployment, low wages and increased living costs have widened the gap between rich and poor with increasing speed.

The group also noted many organizations, including some of those they visited, provide for only the immediate needs of victims without addressing the root causes of the problems, pointing out that prostitution, addiction and crime are symptoms of unjust socio-economic structures. They drew attention to the fact that some instances of 'help' in fact further the exploitation, such as certain initiatives introduced by the Thai monarchy. One project claimed to have created job opportunities for hill-tribe people, when in fact it had cleared those people from their land to create the fancy Mae Fan Luang Garden, leaving its former residents vulnerable to further exploitation.

3. Exposure in Bangkok Slum Area: Urban Poor

The third group introduced their report with a drama of what they had experienced during the exposure visit. They dramatized the development of a slum through unjust employment practices and cheap labor, and later the effects of attempts to clear residents from their dwellings.

During the exposure, the group visited the slum areas, and a red-light district. In this all-male exposure group, many of the participants were shocked by the experience of visiting a go-go bar and witnessing the exploitation there, especially among children. The group also discussed the situation in one slum area owned by the Port Authority, who tried to relocate slum residents, often leaving them unable to maintain their already minimal income-earning activities outside their old city area. In relation to globalization, the group talked of the rural-urban drift, of the attractiveness of consumerism to urban poor people, and of how the need for money leads to cheap labor, drugs and prostitution.

As a follow-up to the visit, the group encouraged students to become volunteers in urban poor areas. There was some discussion of how a visit of a few days does not really give an indication of the severity of difficulties with which urban poor people live, and some participants suggested internship as a more appropriate way of working.

Presentations and Discussions on Globalization

1. Panel Presentation by Korean, Thai and Philippines Participants

Kim Jung Hee introduced the current economic crisis in Korea. She talked about how the economic situation had developed through a number of factors involving government, large enterprises and financial institutions. Kim talked about the failure of structural adjustment. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided a bailout to Korea on 3 December 1997. As conditions of the 'assistance' package, the IMF ordered a tight monetary policy, restricted government control of the economy, a capitalistic market open to foreign investment, and Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) for large enterprises and insolvent financial agencies.

The situation has deteriorated under the IMF imposed system. Since November 1997, an average of 25 people have committed suicide every day due to unemployment, lack of food and bankruptcy; the number of homeless people has increased from under one thousand to over 15,000 people; the number of students unable to bring lunches to school has increased; unemployment has risen more than 5% between November 1997 and August 1998; and robberies and violent gang crime has increased 50% from 1997.

Year and Par (the Thai participants) reported the current situation in Thailand. They advised that many of the causes and symptoms of the Thai economic crisis were in common with Korea. They discussed how corruption within financial institutions, and 'dodgy' financial loans had also contributed to bringing the situation to crisis, although they alone were not the root causes of the problem.

The group talked about the social impact of unjust economics, as had been witnessed during the exposure program. They also explained that although most of the 'debt' to foreigners had been obtained privately, the responsibility for addressing its consequences had fallen on the Thai people, most of whom had not experienced any benefit from the excessive borrowing in the first place.

Edengaile Ibay talked about the Philippine economic situation, both before and after the 'crisis', and debunked many myths about supposed growth in the Philippines. The trade deficit, local, and foreign debt have all increased. While foreign investment has increased greatly, there has not been a corresponding increase in employment, as 80% of the foreign investment is 'speculative', which will never increase the productivity of the Philippine economy. 'Speculative' investment essentially means gambling on financial markets; the foreign investment is not mainly in the production of 'real' products or materials. Philippines' industries tend to use very expensive imported machines for production of mainly raw materials or 'low value-added' products for export, resulting in deficits in trade balances. Peasants regularly lose land through land conversion (i.e. the land no longer being used to grow its traditional crops) or compulsory acquisition by the government for industrial or other projects. The government is also in the process of awarding up to 46% 6f Philippine land to foreign mining firms, entitling the firms to excavate for 75-100 years.

Eden also outlined "prospects for The Philippines under the new president, Joseph Estrada, who came to power by proclamations of his commitment to the masses. Even before he was elected, however, Estrada had assured the US government and powerful locals of continuation of the existing policies. To raise funds for foreign debt servicing, Estrada has been pursuing the privatization of more than 100 government owned and controlled institutions including hospitals, schools and other institutions vital to the people. Also, his administration is pushing the ratification of an agreement between the Philippines and the United States which seeks to re-establish the US bases in the country and further strengthen the military, political and economic hold of the US in the Philippines and the whole Asia-Pacific region. Previous Philippine experience of US bases have shown effects including destruction of the environment (during military exercises), massive displacement of peasants and indigenous peoples, threat of nuclear attacks and the spread of gambling and prostitution as part of the 'rest and recreation' aspect of military training.

Non-governmental research has shown that 70% of the Philippine population is living below the poverty line. In April, 13.3% of the workforce were jobless, and a further 20% were underemployed. There has been a 27% increase in living costs over the past three years within metropolitan Manila. Workers in factories and industries are suffering the brunt of the current 'crisis', however the ongoing problem of bad conditions for the farmers and peasants (70% of the population) continues, with landlessness being a major problem. Superficial government initiatives to address land issues are not proving successful.

2. Globalization and Women: presentation by Dr Gigi Francisco

Dr. Francisco talked about the economic aspects of globalization, the relationship between globalization and national policies, the impact of globalization on gender relations. She emphasized that while globalization is new, the process of domination has been around for a long time; many aspects of globalization are continuations of old inequalities seen earlier in colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism, with much power held by Northern countries. A few aspects are new. Globalization hegemonizes ideas of democracy, politics, culture and 'universal' human rights.

She outlined how when governments liberalize economies, as they are often obliged to do by the pressures of globalization, costs are transferred to women, through the unpaid work which women take on, through unemployment (it is 'women's' jobs which are most frequently lost in government cut-backs or retrenchment of export-processing zones), through growing divisions between rich and poor (which impact more greatly on poor women than poor men), through technological development of traditional women's work, crops or products, through loss of food security (which is usually primarily the responsibility of women), through limited access to education, information and resources, particularly in non-traditional subjects, and through difficulty in accessing credit (collateral such as land and property is most often under the title of men even if a woman works that land or property). Migrant workers are now most frequently women

3. Globalization and Higher Education: presentation by Rev. Kangwa Mabuluki

Rev. Mabuluki discussed areas of demand on higher education such as: financing; equity of access; enhancement and preservation of quality teaching; teaching, research and services; relevance of programs; and employability of graduates. He began from the premise that education should be empowering; education's aim should be for making full, effective citizens or self-determining moral and political agents. This is education for citizenship rather than simply education for employment. Education is an indispensable tool in developing peace, freedom and social justice. It should help protect and enhance societal values by addressing moral and ethical issues.

Rev. Mabuluki talked of the need to replace the ethic of competition with the ethic of cooperation, the ethic of dominance with the ethic of solidarity, and the ethic of indifference with the ethic of compassion. He discussed four stages in eroding community and society by globalization: the economic stage, involving material change; the shift of power from political and social institutions to market institution (governments have contracted and transnational corporations have expanded); the battle of ideas and confusion of concepts, looking at the ethical and moral aspects of a globalized ideology; and the harmonization of social policies to conform with economic imperatives. The economic stage links capital markets to form one global market, introduces values of neo-liberalism, giving every element of life a market value, including nature, pollution and knowledge. The commodification of education emphasizes its commercial viability, and it becomes a market force.

Following each of the presentations above, the participants divided into three groups to discuss the issues further and to share the situation in their own countries. There were some differences among the major issues for each nation, but many commonalities.

Throughout the program, there were spaces of devotion and worship, of bible study, there was opportunity to share a little of the culture of each nation and sub-region during the Cultural Bazaars, opportunity to get to know other participants and socialize, and to see something of Chiang Mai. One evening was spent discussing gender issues with all participants together, and later gender caucuses were held, where women and men discussed gender issues separately.

Towards the end of the program, Action Plans were developed to follow up the training when participants returned to their national SCMs. Participants brainstormed ideas about what they would like to accomplish at local, national, regional and international levels, and formulated this into practical planning according to their skills, resources and help available. A Position Paper was written to express the ideas developed about Globalization and Higher Education, to take to a UNESCO consultation about these issues (refer to following pages).

"People will build houses and live in them themselves - they will not be used by someone else. They will plant vineyards and enjoy the wine - it will not be drunk by others. Like trees, my people will live long life. They will fully enjoy the things that they had worked for." (Isaiah 65:21-22)

We, the participants of the Student Empowerment for Transformation (SET) Program of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) Asia Pacific region, gathered here in Chiangmai, Thailand from August 16-30,1998 call upon the attention of the UNESCO to look into the impact of globalization on higher education in the various countries of the Asia Pacific region. The SET Program has brought together the voices of 25 students from Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Fiji, Australia, Aotearoa, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and focused on the theme: "Globalization, Economic Crisis and its impact on Higher Education".

Whereas, globalization has caused irreparable damage to the socio-economic and cultural lives of our people as well as our environment. The current financial and economic crisis in Asia are but symptoms of the bankruptcy of the "free market-led growth" ideology expounded by the neo-liberalist. Globalization has been and is still now part and parcel of this ideology. Capitalism has been integrating nations since the 16th century and making the colonized nations of Asia, Africa, Pacific and Latin America as main suppliers of much-needed raw materials and cheap labor. Through free competition, manufacturers were able to accumulate wealth and profit, giving rise to monopolies and cartels near the turn of the 20th century. This time, the "internationalization" (globalization) of capital quickened as the monopolies and cartels (mainly US trans-nationals) became more aggressive in opening up new markets to resolve the ever pressing crisis of overproduction and contracting market. The monopoly capitalists have laid claims to continents of the globe for their economic plunder.

Whereas, the Bretton Woods financial institutions, namely the IMF-WB, established after the two world wars (essentially a war among imperialist countries) heralded the world dominance of US monopoly capitalists, their prescriptions of deregulation, privatization and liberalization to the devastated economies after the war laid the foundation for a smoother path to "globalization" essentially shifted the economy of many countries to one that is export-oriented and import-dependent.

Whereas the GATT Uruguay Round, an international trade treaty paved the way to the creation of the WTO and the formation of regional trade blocs such as NAFTA and APEC, these trade blocs merely ensured the acceleration of trade liberalization among member nations. For US, it has much to gain in this whole "globalization" scheme with which it defers its own crisis. Through APEC, US wins unlimited access to the region's natural resources, dumps products into ready and unresisting markets and outplay all puny local competitions.

Whereas the framework of globalization is a super-structural subjugation by a nation state of weaker nations, especially the so-called developing countries, it is in the educational sector where this concept is further redefined and disseminated. Education, together with the mass media, is at the forefront of a socio-cultural offensive in forcing local communities to accept the inevitability of globalization.

Whereas our country situation reports confirmed and highlighted the integration of our national economies in the global market economy and the weakening of political control by our government over national economies imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), these international institutions have pressurized our governments to privatized the education systems and relinquish its role of providing education to the citizens, thereby leaving it open to the business sector to extract as much profit as possible. The following reports illustrate this dismal and alarming trend in our countries

The Pacific: In Australia, higher education has become elitist. As a consequence of globalization, there is more competition for jobs. Universities are becoming more of a place to produce workers with vocational skill rather than critical thinkers. Higher education is no longer free and the fees are continually rising. As the focal concern for a lot students is to get a well paying job at the end of their study, they are less inclined to become involved in extracurricular activities and less enthusiastic in building the student community. In New Zealand, commerce is becoming the dominant choice of study for students resulting in massive rise of commerce degree based programs and leading to the closure of departments such as arts and sciences. Programs on commercial study are mostly filled by foreign students. The government is also pushes the universities to open up to competition and the process of restructuring in higher education is highly undemocratic. Globalization in higher education is resulting in the loss of control within universities, thus subjugating education to the whims of the "free market". In Fiji, the government in 1995 encouraged the privatization of school, which in turn has caused an increase of school fees annually.

North-east Asia: In Japan, higher education has become a tool to produce passive students. In recent years, students go into tremendous cramming to pass exams and meet the school requirements. There is a lack of opportunity to meet people and to discover the meaning of life. The educational system does not cultivate independence, imagination or critical thinking. In Hong Kong, the demand for students to focus only in schoolwork has prevented them from getting involved in extra-curricular activities and social concerns. Many are apathetic to the real issues of life and are searching for the meaning of their lives.

South-east Asia: In the Philippines, where 80% of higher education institutions are already privatized, the remaining state-owned universities are rapidly being privatized through leasing out part of the university's property for commercial use. The government's financial support for education is becoming less and less each year, and its orientation continues to serve the interest of the MNCs /TNCs. In Myanmar, the schools and universities have been closed for the last two years due to the country's sensitive political situation, thus totally violating the rights of its people to education. In Thailand, the economic crisis has further pushed the poor students to the side. Education is becoming less accessible to the majority of the population.

South Asia: In Pakistan, the government is giving priority to arms purchase or inventions rather than education. Privatization has resulted in education being unaffordable to many people. Education has become a profit-making industry. In Sri Lanka, vocational education through institutional arrangement within the normal school system is not cost-effective. In Bangladesh, government has given little attention to education in its yearly budget. Even the small budget for education is slowly dwindling. In India, commercialization of education, patenting of intellectual rights draws the life of students into contradiction. The student's rights and welfare are curtailed.

General Effects of Globalization

1. Gender inequalities: women are increasingly marginalized in the globalization process. Though many of them have joined the production sector, they are overworked with the dual role of reproduction (household chores, childrearing) and production. They receive very low wages and are the first to be laid off when the factories shut down their operation.

2. Political Intervention in the educational systems and Campus repression: State intervention in programs and policies of the education system to ensure that it is geared towards the economic interest of globalization. Cases of the use of military to suppress the rights of students are common

3. Reduction of government subsidy to education: A result of privatization and deregulation of education.

4. Job-oriented: Education is geared towards job-seeking rather than teaching the students to understand meaning of life and relevance to the society. This has led students to competition.

5. Political apathy of students and lack of critical thinking: The values of education has further, led students to become individualistic and money or career-oriented.

6. Increase of disparity between rural and urban people.

7. Re-orientation of academic curriculum, which favors profitable courses such as engineering and science. General education subjects are further streamlined.

8. Non-guarantee of employment for new graduates causing a massive emigration of graduates to seek for better opportunities in other countries.

9. Increased academic demand on students such as higher-grade requirements and quotas on specific courses.

10. deteriorating quality of education.

11. worsening teaching environment, eg. low wages and heavier teaching loads.

Our Alternative Demands

• Promote an educational system that enables the students to be creative and be able to develop critical thinking ability. It should promote equality between men and women and ensure the access of women in all courses of study, it's orientation should be geared towards the holistic development of individuals and serve the interest of its nation. It should promote social justice, peace. and liberation as its core value and encourage the development of everyone's potential. It should not be profit-oriented.

• Oppose the globalization process and expose its oppressive policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization, which are anti-people, anti-national and anti-democratic. Join campaigns and initiatives related to globalizations (i.e. debt-crisis, MAI, etc.) Build international link and solidarity against globalization. WSCF or our national SCMs could unite with other international and national student and people's organizations who are anti-globalization.

• Raise the consciousness of the youth and students in the campuses and in the church. Study our societies - their histories and issues our societies are confronting. This should also include the particular issues and concerns of the youth and students regarding the crisis of our educational systems. Analysis of the developments in the sectoral, local, national and international situations should supplement and deepen our study.

• Uphold the students' democratic rights and welfare. Oppose the privatization and deregulation policies on education as well as the suppression of students' rights to organize and voice out our opinion.

• Integrate and struggle with the oppressed sectors of the society. Advance the peoples' issues and struggles in the campuses. Witnessing and experiencing the actual life struggle of the oppressed sectors in the countryside, factories and urban poor communities deepens the commitment of the youth and students to serve the people and the society. Only through this would the youth-student sector becomes a potential force for social change.