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Japan’s Peace Constitution:
A Valuable Common Asset for the Whole Human Beings
February 008
By Hsi-chieh Chien *
and Szu-chien Hsu **
Peacetime Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan
Sekai
The
significance
of Japan’s peace Constitution
Year
2000 is the “UN International Year for a Culture of
Peace.”
In celebrating the event, the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
praised the Japanese Constitution as the most advanced written
constitution in the world in terms of realizing the value of world
peace. The Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution is the only case
in
human being’s history to institutionally crystallize the
right of
peace with constitution. For the collectivity of the human beings, we
urge all people and governments in the world to commit themselves to
pursue the spirit of Article 9.
Article
9 of Japan’s Constitution is a milestone in the following
senses. First, legally speaking, it is significant for people in the
world to understand the importance of banning wars through
incorporating peace rights into the constitution. Second, practically
speaking, Article 9 has set a leading example for other countries to
follow to enact a peace article into the constitution, so that all
countries can pursue “just and orderly international
peace”
together. Once peace rights are constitutionally guaranteed in more
countries, it would be easier to constrain the politicians all over
the world from provoking hatred and antagonism.
However,
the right wing parties and elements in Japan now are trying
to mobilize the nationalistic sentiment to amend the peace article,
Article 9, of Japan’s Constitution. They intend to abolish
Article
9 and resume the right of war within 5 to 6 years. Amending Article 9
of Japan’s Constitution should not be simply seen as a
domestic
affair. It has vast impact and deep implications for international
community, and the international community therefore should be
seriously concerned about this matter.
Once Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution is abolished, such a move would inevitably
raise suspicion of neighboring nations toward Japan’s intention. Such suspicion
would then in turn induce the right wing or conservative political forces in other
neighboring countries to strengthen their military force, and to oppose including
peace article into their constitution. In facing the increasing military build-up,
Japan would be forced to strengthen its own military power too. Then not only
the self-fulfilling “security dilemma” in the region shall be deepened,
but also the advocacy for peace made by civilian organizations and citizens in
the whole region would be left powerless and isolated. If we can foresee such
a self-defeating consequence, how can the civil societies in all countries in
the region and the international community sit idly and not act immediately together
to prevent the abolishing of Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution? Article
9 of Japan’s Constitution therefore is thus not only an example for the
rest of the country, but a cornerstone for the regional peace and stability in
Asia Pacific.
How Taiwan responds to the Global Article
9 Campaign
As a
peace movement NGO in Taiwan, Peacetime Foundation is working
toward incorporating the peace article into Taiwan’s
Constitution
in the future. We shall concentrate our efforts in the following two
aspects:
1. To respond to the “Global Article 9 Campaign”
with concrete
local actions, such as holding educational workshop and public
events;
2. To push for enacting a peace article into our own constitution.
We shall promote
a culture of peace in Taiwan through civil society movements and
activities, so that Taiwanese people can understand why incorporating
a peace article into our own constitution shall have positive
implications for Taiwan’s participation in the international
community, and how efforts made by Taiwanese people shall in turn
help Japanese people’s effort in preserving Article 9 in
Japan’s
Constitution.
We have
to admit to
promote peace movement in Taiwan is extremely difficult. Taiwan is
facing immediate military threat from China. Chinese jet fighters can
attack Taiwan within few minutes. China has deployed more than 1,000
missiles aiming at Taiwan, with the number of missiles still
increasing every year. China has also made tremendous advance in
developing and purchasing high-tech military power to deter the
interference of US and other countries in the scenario of military
conflict across the Taiwan Strait. In such an insecure environment,
people in Taiwan tend to think the idea of peace is either pointless
or too luxurious.
However, it is
exactly such fear of insecurity that forms a trap of military
confrontation across the strait that not only force us to keep
increasing our national defense budget, but also to make Taiwan
Strait one of the most dangerous hot spot in the region. In short,
the more fearful we are and the more we rely on military force to
protect ourselves, the farther away we push ourselves from peace.
This is exactly why we think it is urgent for us to promote peace
movement in Taiwan, and to introduce the spirit of Article 9 into our
society.
A
concrete way to promote peace movement is to
follow the Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution by also enacting
a
peace article into Taiwan’s constitution. The article should
address statements such as “Any political contention with
Mainland
China or any controversy with other country should and can only be
settled by peaceful means,” and “Our country shall
not be
committed to build any armed forces. Instead, we shall commit
ourselves in developing nonmilitary civilian defense. Therefore, our
country shall neither be engaged in any military alliance, nor in
attacking any other county, based on the reason of security.”
What has Peacetime Foundation done to
promote peace in Taiwan
Along
this spirit of peace advocacy, the Peacetime Foundation has
made the following endeavors in the recent years to promote peace in
Taiwan’s society:
The presidential election in 2004 was
not quite a peaceful process. President Chen Shui-bian, then also a candidate,
was shot by two bullets the day before the election. Although the incident did
not cause lethal wound to President Chen, it still brought about tension among
ethnic groups and between political camps. In such an antagonistic political environment,
the Peacetime Foundation organized a workshop, to allow citizens from different
social and political backgrounds to understand each other’s political positions
through a process of peaceful dialogue. We use a balanced sampling method to choose
participants from self-enrolled citizens from all over Taiwan, and allow people
from different positions on the political spectrum to live together for 2 days,
and to have dialogue in a well-designed program. We have also recorded this workshop
into a documentary, and played it in Public Television in Taiwan. We have also
made it available for educational purposes in schools, as well as played it in
the Peace Movie Festival that our foundation organized. We have tried to pass
our message in the documentary to the society through many channels, hoping such
message could help alleviate the tension and antagonism among ethnic groups and
political camps created by the electoral politics.
In 2005, we continued the momentum we
gained from the 2004 workshop to hold another one. This time we allow citizens
from different political positions to conduct dialogue on a more difficult and
complicated issue: the cross-strait relations. In this workshop, 60 citizens participated
in a 3-day camp and live together. They reached a consensus through many rounds
of dialogue and opinion exchange. The most important significance of such a workshop
is not to produce or to invent some ground-breaking proposals, but to learn the
experience of how to listen to each other and understand the logic of the other
side, and then to build a collective trust toward each other. We believe it has
to be based upon such mutual understanding and trust that a consensus beyond the
positions of unification and independence can be reached in Taiwan’s society.
As a
result of this workshop, the Peacetime Foundation has developed
our own argument regarding the most heatedly debated issue in Taiwan,
that is, the issue on “unification versus
independence.” Our
argument contends that “democracy and peace
compose a set of
value that is higher than the set of value of independence and
unification.” We contend that for those
in Taiwan who
advocate unification, they must accept the principle that if their
goal of unification was to be realized, it must be done through a
democratic process in Taiwan’s society. On the same token, we
also
contend that for those in Taiwan who advocate independence, they must
also accept the principle that if their goal of independence was to
be realized, it must be done without bringing about any non-peaceful
consequence.
Taiwan is going to go through another
presidential election this year. The issue of independence and unification is
again manipulated by politicians for their electoral purposes. Such manipulation
has not only again caused tension among different ethnic groups and antagonism
between political camps, but it has also led to more tense relations between Beijing
and Taipei, as well as between Washington and Taipei. It is again the time for
Peacetime Foundation to make effort to work hard to spread the idea of peace to
prevent the escalation of ethnic tension and political confrontation.
Developing nonmilitary defense
Under such a political atmosphere, the
Peacetime Foundation would like to reemphasize our idea on promoting peace within
Taiwan as well as in the region. We shall keep advocating that Taiwan should develop
a “nonmilitary defense” so that we can gradually reduce
our reliance on conventional military defense. We believe that people’s
strong will to pursue just and peace shall be more powerful than any other weapon
to frustrate strong powers’ will to invade. We shall convince Taiwanese
people that if we set a good example for other societies in the region on pursuing
people’s right of peace, then we can also join, help, and encourage people
in other nations to pursue our common rights of peace together. When people from
different countries in the region act together, we shall be able to build the
strongest guarantee for collective peace. By playing such a role model, Taiwanese
people shall make a tremendously progressive contribution to the world.
If
Taiwan can
successfully develop a peace article in our constitution, it will
definitely contribute to a more peaceful relation across the strait.
It will let the international community to understand our insistence
on pursuing the highest values of all the human beings, that is,
democracy, peace, and human rights. Furthermore, when we renounce our
appeal to use of force to settle any dispute across the strait, we
shall also render China’s appeal to use of force
illegitimate. At
the same time, if Taiwan can also successfully develop our
“nonmilitary defense” with feasible measures of
non-cooperation
and resistance, then we shall exert even more powerful moral pressure
toward any invasive intention by China. If Taiwan renounce our appeal
to use of force to settle our political disagreement with China, then
China would have no excuse to continue develop and deploy military
threat against Taiwan. China would also have no excuse to increase
its military power to deter US. In that case, China will be forced to
stop and cut down its military build-up, and then the whole region
will be able to engage in a movement of de-militarization and
de-escalation. In other words, if Taiwan could develop a nonmilitary
defense together with enacting a peace article in our constitution,
we would not only be able to alleviate the confrontation across the
strait, but also to contribute to the peace building in the region.
People
may worry that to renounce the right to the use of force may
imply to demobilize army and to do away with weapons. To incorporate
the peace article into the constitution would then imply to sacrifice
our national security. The Peacetime Foundation maintains that we
should replace the conventional concept of national defense with
“nonmilitary defense.” It is a concept of
“civilian-based
defense,” based on the idea of Gandhi’s
non-cooperation and
non-obedience movement to resist British colonial power with
overwhelming armed forces. The people of Baltic nations also
expressed their will to frustrate the invasion from Soviet with their
way of non-violent resistance. We believe military equipment is
neither the only means, nor the most powerful means, to defend our
own security. Armed force cannot bring about absolute security; quite
on the contrary, it always brings about escalated armed threat toward
each other. Moreover, by not relying on military force we can save
vast amount of national budget, which we can then use to improve
education, social welfare, and social safety net, so that we would
have even better chance to nurture a real socially-embedded culture
of peace.
Taiwan’s alternative participation
in international community
Therefore,
only when people are confident to rely on their own power
instead of on armed forces to protect themselves, and thus to
renounce the right to the use of force in their constitution, can
they then really not constrained by worries about national security.
Japan is the only country in the world that has such a peace article
in its constitution. Japan therefore is also the country that has the
advantage and is most qualified not only to develop a
“nonmilitary
defense” for itself, but also to set an example for the rest
of the
world. If such a concept can be duplicated and extended around the
world, then any intention to initiate a war shall lose its legitimacy
and be condemned by international community. This is exactly the
final goal of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed
Conflict (GPPAC).
It is indeed a pity that Taiwan cannot join the United Nation.
However, Taiwan can pursue and promote the idea of peace with the
spirit of Article 9 by enacting a similar constitutional article and
by developing nonmilitary defense. We also believe if Taiwan can have
more NGO’s like Tzu-chi Foundation, Taiwan Medical Peace
Corps, and
World Vision Taiwan, not only to provide global humanitarian
assistance, but also to defend human rights and prevent armed
conflicts in the world, Taiwan shall not only be respected in the
world, but shall also be able to protect ourselves with the moral
power that we earn. We suggest, in order to practice the spirit of
the United Nations in promoting peace, Taiwan should allocate 0.7% of
its annual national budget for engaging in international peace
affairs.
Of course, Taiwan should also work hard to enhance mutual
understanding between Taiwan and the Chinese people as well as with
the Chinese government. Both sides across the strait should not only
work jointly to solve our own problems, but also to contribute to
global peace together. The two sides across Taiwan Strait should stop
engaging themselves and involving other countries in a military
competition and to make Taiwan Strait dangerous water in the region.
It is the duty of the civil society of the region to work together to
create a positive cycle to bring ourselves out of the militarized
trap. Let us start from joining the Global Article 9 Campaign!
Building regional peace by expanding
Article 9
If
people from different nations in Asia Pacific region can act
collectively to start a movement of peace constitution by enacting a
peace article into each nation’s constitution, and make such
a
common pursuit the central value of the Asia Pacific region, then we
shall be able to set a firm foundation for future regional
integration. Such a regional integration shall be different from the
European experience which started from free trade and self-interest.
Our regional integration shall start from a common value, that is,
the pursuit of collective peace. A regional order based on peace
constitution in each member nation shall set a mutually-benefiting
foundation for all nations. Such a peaceful institution embedded in
each nation’s domestic politics shall enable all the nations
to
transcend their historic memories and prejudices and to tear down
political barriers. People from different nations shall have an
institutionally guaranteed environment to enhance mutual
understanding and to build mutual trust. They shall then be able to
learn how to settle their difference in a peaceful way, and how to
gradually integrate by accepting each other.
Article 9 of Japan’s peace Constitution, allow us to
emphasize
again, is not merely an idiosyncratic constitutional framework for
Japan; it is also such an extremely valuable common asset for all
human beings that the whole world should work together to preserve
and expand it. It is a milestone and an indicator, not only for a
better future of the region, but also for a more promising future for
all the human beings.
About the Authors:
Hsi-chieh
Chien is the Executive Director, Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan
Szu-chien
Hsu is a Board Member of the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan, also an Assistant
Research Fellow of the Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica
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