Page 33 - Rights beautiful : collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik

Rights Beautiful Collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik

elitism; and,
(iii) Collective recognition of the real need for self-reform on the
basis of self-reliance and the right to development, so that
the endogenous sources of knowledge and creativity could
be revitalized and developed as the basis upon which
modern knowledge could also be effectively and appropriately
adapted and assimilated. 2
All these, to be sure, come more or less within the purview of
this conference. Only that it is so vitally important as to deserve to be
emphasized and put into a coherent policy and strategic plan of common
action. As a matter of fact, initiatives have already been taken on the part
of local peoples and communities themselves the world over. So much so
that there have now been emerging the new concept of collective rights
based on the community ways of life, and naturally in a great variety
of forms and practices. This current trend of cultural pluralism is admittedly
the new phenomenon in the Western self-proclaimed style of universal,
individualistic and mono-cultural sphere of influence in the field of human
rights. It is inevitably bound to meet with powerful resistance and
opposition, or destruction if possible. Since it obviously not only poses a
spiritual and intellectual challenge, but also stands in the way to the
ultimate goal of domination and hegemony inherent in the Western
civilization ever since after the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions
centuries ago. This is indeed the real “clash of civilizations”, to borrow
Samuel Huntington’s notorious phrase, though in entirely different context
of Globalization vs. Re-localization. Or, in the more familiar political
economy jargons, Global Totalitarianism vs. Grassroots Emancipation
and Democracy. This trend of cultural confrontation is most likely to be
st
characteristic of and long lasting into the 21 century. So let us try to
2
Saneh Chamarik, “Technological Self-Reliance and Cultural Freedom”, in C.G, Weeramantry,
ed., Human Rights and Scientific and Technological Development, Tokyo, United Nations
University Press, 1990, p. 56.

OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF THAILAND 27