EWC Adjunct Senior Fellow Dick Baker discusses current developments regarding democracy in Asia in a recent segment of the online video show ThinkTech Hawaii. Interviewed by Hawaii Pacific University professor and Asia-Pacific columnist Bill sharp, Baker discusses recent developments in Thailand, Indonesia and more.
ThinkTech Hawaii also features a variety of other video segments hosted by Sharp and focusing on Asia-Pacific issues.
By Dr. Gerard Finin, Deputy Director of PIDP and project director of the Election Observation Mission
In November 2008 the Department of State contacted the East-West Center to discuss the possibility of submitting a competitive grant proposal to lead an international Election Observation Mission to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The FSM is a country that has a long and close association with the East-West Center. Prior to nationhood in 1986, the EWC during the UN Trust Territory era made special efforts to recruit and help educate future leaders from across Micronesia. Based on initiatives undertaken both before and after independence, some 725 individuals from the FSM have participated in EWC programs, with 46 baccalaureate or master’s degrees being awarded through the University of Hawaii. All but one of the FSM’s presidents is counted as part of the EWC alumni organization.
A critical prerequisite to our involvement hinged on receiving the FSM’s invitation to have an international Election Observation Mission organized by the EWC. Based on our years of cooperative activities with FSM, we were aware of the strong overall record of holding fair and honest elections that were free of bribery, coercion or violence. However, the dearth of national and local newspapers or news organizations suggested there might be insufficient critical oversight or public knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of election protocols and processes. To be sure, we were aware of the logistical complexities posed by hundreds of voting sites that are distant from administrative centers.
Given the high level of trust built upon the extensive alumni network, the Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program proceeded to put together a high quality team of observers, many of whom had previously spent time at the EWC. The State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor also provided significant assistance by suggesting individuals who were well qualified for the EOM activity. Once in country, EWC alumni from the College of Micronesia Chuuk campus were particularly helpful in providing faculty for the group’s orientation program, and also identifying some of Chuuk’s best and brightest college students to accompany the observers to their home islands on Election Day, March 3, where they served as interpreters. Continue Reading »
By Scott Kroeker, JCC Project Officer, PIDP
Along the southeast coast of Weno, Chuuk where myself and three others were trekking, we kept coming across quite new fire hydrants complete with four concrete posts to prevent vehicles from knocking them over. This wouldn’t be unusual except for the fact that we were trekking on a dirt footpath, the only access to this part of the island, and we had left the nearest road at least 30 minutes ago and hadn’t seen a structure of any sort. Later we found out that the fire hydrants were part of an Asian Development Bank project, which I’m sure was a relief to two of my fellow trekkers who were representatives from the U.S. Department of State and who had been fully convinced that this was another example of how badly the Department of Interior had screwed up in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).
This was only one of many fascinating experiences I had while working on an East-West Center coordinated International Election Observation Mission to the FSM. We weren’t actually trekking through the jungle looking for harebrained development projects, but instead were in search of three or four polling stations supposedly located along this roadless stretch of verdant coastline. After passing idyllic (to outsiders) and typically cliché scenes of young girls washing their laundry in the steams, young adults playing volleyball near the mangrove covered shoreline, and several beautiful churches that seems to rise out of the jungle, we finally emerged at a small village where we found the only polling station we saw that day. It was located in the open veranda part of someone’s house and the owner proudly retrieved the ballot box from its location locked in the main house. He showed us the box, which was also locked as it should be, and he told us that it would be opened at 7 a.m. the next day for the balloting to begin.
After that hour and a half trek, covered in sweat, we felt like we had accomplished our mission. We had been able to observe pre-election activities and organization. We could now retreat up the path back to our 4×4 and eventually the comfort of our air conditioned hotel for a beer. The next day would be the election and we hoped it would come off better than the fire hydrant installation project.
By Teguh Santosa, EWC Degree Fellow in Political Science from Medan, Indonesia
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I just came back from a ten-day trip to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) where I participated in the Election Observation Mission (EOM) funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. The project was organized by the EWC’s Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP) together with the Asia Pacific Democracy Partnership (APDP), an informal coalition of democratic states formed to support, develop and extend democracy promotion in the region.
I truly feel honored and grateful for this precious opportunity. For me the Pacific Ocean is a living mysterious puzzle of the world. I didn’t have many ideas about the Pacific islands before. I might be wrong, but it seems to me that many Indonesians tend to ignore these islands. For me, the main story about the Pacific came from a few war movies and some readings about the Second World War, one of my areas of interest.
Visiting the FSM has given me an important opportunity to learn more and connect with the region. Before I left to the FSM I spent some time reading articles about the country and the region in general – the beauty of its lagoons, its historical stories, its people and cultures, and its role in the current context of global politics. Based on these readings and my personal experiences in the FSM and Chuuk state in particular, so far I have written 13 short articles that have been published in my newspaper’s online version and on my personal website. I hope these articles raise awareness amongst Indonesian readers about the Pacific islands in general and particularly, the FSM. Continue Reading »
The American participants in this year’s Senior Journalists Seminar are currently traveling to Jakarta; Johor, Malaysia; and Singapore to gain first-hand insights into Islamic communities in Asia, while Asian participants are visiting Washington, D.C., Nashville and L.A. to experience diverse U.S. communities.
Check out this Jakarta video by Wall Street Journal Senior Editor for Video Adam Najberg:
Watch all Adam’s videos here.
CNN News Wire Editor Tricia Escobedo has filed a couple of stories from the trip:
Violence unlikely to mar Indonesia election, analyst says
Islam helps shape coming Indonesian elections
Tricia is also posting photo galleries on Google’s Picasa Web Albums.
On April 3, both groups of journalists will be sharing their experiences at a public luncheon forum at EWC in Honolulu, titled “The Media’s Role and Impact on U.S.-Muslim Relations.”
The East-West Center has signed on as a cooperating organization for “Asia Pacific Business Outlook 2009,” a conference co-sponsored by the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
EWC participants, staff or alumni who wish to attend the April 6 & 7 conference in Los Angeles can receive a special NGO/educational discount that is more than 40% off the full regular registration fee. For more info, visit WWW.APBO2009.COM
The Center will have a display at the conference, and EWC Washington staff will be presenting a briefing on the new Asia Matters for America initiative. Continue Reading »
On the day of President Obama’s inauguration, the East-West Center received several mentions in a front page story in The New York Times exploring the First Family’s diverse roots. The article mentioned the Center as a place where Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, spent time and also where the president’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, met her husband, Konrad Ng. (Click the link above to read the full NYT article.)
President Obama’s mother and stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, were both East-West Center grantees, although at different times. Konrad Ng worked from for several years as a graduate research intern in the International Cultural Studies Certificate Program, a joint program between the East-West Center and the University of Hawaii.
By Toufiq Siddiqi, Adjunct Senior Fellow
I was in Islamabad, Pakistan, when the terrorist attacks at the two hotels and other sites in Mumbai took place a few weeks ago. The immediate reaction of the people there was that, irrespective of who the culprits were, this was a tragedy not only for India but for Pakistan as well, since it was likely to result in setting back the reconciliation process that had been going on for the past couple of years and had accelerated since a civilian government had been duly elected in Pakistan. The anticipation was that India would immediately blame the ISI, the Pakistani military intelligence service, for the attack, just as Pakistan frequently sees the hand of RAW, ISI’s Indian counterpart, behind terrorist incidents that often take place in many Pakistani cities.
I had gone to Islamabad for a meeting organized by the SAARC Energy Centre, which focused on the opportunities for cooperation between the countries of South Asia in the fields of energy, environment, and other related areas, and the benefits that could accrue to the region from such cooperation. The pace of high-level meetings between India and Pakistan had picked up considerably, since many of the senior policy-makers in both countries were aware of the enormous benefits that could accrue to the two countries and the whole of South Asia, from increased cooperation between India and Pakistan. Disrupting any blossoming rapprochement between the two countries may well have been one of the primary reasons for the Mumbai attack. Continue Reading »
By Jean E. Rolles
(Ed. Note: After the EWC’s recent alumni conference in Bali several members of the Center community experienced unanticipated travel adventures as a result of the protests at the Bangkok airport. EWC Board of Governors member Jean Rolles posted this account of her overland exploits on the website of Outrigger Enterprises, where she is Vice President of Community Affairs, and gave permission for it to be reprinted here.)
I recently traveled to Bali, Indonesia, to attend a five-day meeting of the East-West Center Board of Governors, and afterwards, some of the attendees and I traveled to Laos for a quick look at that beautiful country. I had carefully planned to leave the group two days early (November 24) so I could enjoy Thanksgiving with my family in Honolulu. All my good plans went for naught, however, as I got caught in the Bangkok airport mess and was stranded for five extra days, trying every which way to leave Thailand and get home.
My adventure began when I arrived at the Bangkok airport about 1 a.m. from Laos; it was only supposed to be a transfer point so I could catch a Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo and on to Honolulu. Instead, I found a wild airport scene of five thousand people dressed in yellow T-shirts screaming and chanting. (The disturbance, I soon found out, was a chaotic anti-government protest that wound up keeping the airport shut down for about 10 days, with full operations delayed several days longer!)
Luckily, I was in the foreign arrival section, so it was closed-off and secure. I was told to grab my bag and run through the back parking lot to the Novotel Hotel, where I would be safe. I took a room and got four hours of sleep and then got up, dressed, repacked, and was ready to go at 6 a.m. for my flight. However, you could not get any information from the airport or the airlines as to whether flights were leaving as scheduled. The front desk told me not to go to the airport because it was not safe, as there had been some shootings, leaving four killed and 25 injured. We were literally locked in the hotel with private guards outside. The only news I could receive about the airport situation was from CNN!
Continue Reading »
By Huma Sheikh
Asia Pacific Leadership Program participant
Last month, I visited Sichuan province in China as part of the Asia Pacific Leadership Program and was curious to see survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake that killed 70,000 people and rendered thousands homeless, especially after witnessing another earthquake that was the worst ever natural disaster in my hometown of Kashmir in 2005.
In China, I went to Di Jian Yu, which is one of the worst affected areas, and was expecting to witness helpless survivors braving biting cold in makeshift houses. More so, the memories of Kashmir earthquake survivors still struggling in temporary houses, especially during snow in harsh winter, were fresh in my mind. ‘‘India is a democratic country but quake survivors are still in makeshift houses even after three years so the situation in China in a non-democratic setup will undoubtedly be worse as the Wenchuan earthquake was only six months ago,’’ I thought.
As I reached Du Jiag Yan, I saw some damaged houses with visible cracks. Some meters ahead were piles of brick and sand mounds of the affected houses dismantled for new structures. Some pre-quake residential colonies had become open grounds after damaged houses were razed to ground in the aftermath of the quake. The neighborhood looked like a newly-discovered place where people have just been settling down, with construction work going on in full swing.
I asked a pedestrian if there was any other place where huge damage had taken place, and I was surprised to hear the place I was standing was badly impacted by the quake. But everything had changed except for a few buildings with some visible cracks. Somebody suggested Puyang Lu colony, where most damaged houses still existed. It was a residential colony before the quake and one of the buildings, where a government-run company resided, was completely destroyed, burying over 100 people at the time of the disaster.
However, except for that damaged building, still in tatters, there was hardly anything different from what I had seen earlier. One of the ladies at the site, who was heading the company, was kind enough to give me the address of people in temporary houses. Li Mingyong said her family was also living in temporary shelters provided by the China government. And about her company, she said she was now running it from a nearby building provided by the government. She said the government was seriously considering shifting the quake survivors to their new houses as soon as possible, while she pointed to some construction workers at the site. Huge numbers of workers have been employed in order to expedite construction work.
Continue Reading »
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