Asia Carves out Own Ideas on Political Values with the Collapse of the Soviet Threat, Asian Nations Have Drawn Closer, Partially on the Basis of a New Anti-Westernism. A Political Debate Is on over Democracy and Human Rights, Which Some Regimes Label as Western Concepts. Economically Powerful Japan, Which Seeks to Take the Lead Politically, Is Sometimes Suspect among Asians for Supporting Some Western Views. A Four-Part Series Concludes Today. Series: CONTEST OVER ASIA. TODAY: POLITICS. Asians Assert Their Own Definitions of Human Rights and Democracy. Japan and the US Compete to Lead the Region. Part 4 of a 4-Part Series. First of 3 Articles Appearing Today

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A POP song hit the charts in the Philippines last year that told volumes about Asia's current frame of mind. The song's title: "America Is Not The Only World."

The words, however, were in English and the music was American rock roll.

The irony of the message not fitting the medium revealed how difficult it is for many Asians to articulate ideas different from the West. But since the end of the cold war and Asia's emergence as an economic dynamo, a new confidence has developed in the region from Bali to South Korea to challenge the supposedly universal values of the United States and other Western countries.

The debate centers on the extent of democracy …