Rivers are gifts of nature. Rivers have given rise to civilizations, and those civilizations depend upon their rivers and the accompanying ecosystems for their livelihoods: for water, food, bathing, community, and the benefits of the surrounding environment.
But I must convey to you the atrocities that have been committed against our beautiful natural world by the human drive for development. Natural resources and the environment have been transformed into currency. Rivers, forests, and the air have been altered and destroyed without recognizing their true value. Increasingly, rivers are “owned” by those who can extract the greatest commercial value for themselves.
On the Mekong River, the construction of dams and the blasting of rapids to create a commercial navigation channel, in the name of energy and trade, have had devastating effects on the river, surrounding ecosystems, and the livelihoods of more than 70 million people, including my own family and my community. Project developers see rivers as roadways to be improved, and the cliffs and rapids of the river channel as obstacles to commercial shipping. But the cliffs are home to local and migratory birds, the rapids are home to fish, and for us villagers, the river is our culture, our home, our life. The Mekong supports the world’s largest inland fishery, accounting for as much as 25 percent of the world’s freshwater catch and providing livelihoods for tens of millions of people.
The Mekong River in Thailand. (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)
Over the past 25 years, we have observed marked changes due to dam construction in the Upper Mekong and its tributaries. Currently, there are 12 dams in the Upper Mekong, and if development proceeds as planned, there will be 11 dams in the Lower Mekong.
Let me share with you the impact of the dams already built on the Upper Mekong:
The flow of the river no longer follows the seasons. Water levels fluctuate continually with the opening and closing of dams. Dry seasons become wet, and wet seasons become dry.
Vital, nutrient-rich sediment has disappeared from the river, dramatically altering the surrounding ecosystem.
The Mekong is now one of the world’s top 10 rivers in the volume of plastics and microplastics that it carries to the sea.
In February 2020, my community was confronted with an initiative to enhance the Mekong navigation channel for cargo vessels. We discovered that this “enhancement” would alter 248 miles of the Mekong River’s natural course, affecting not only a million people in eight provinces of Thailand but also people in 10 provinces in Laos and communities in Cambodia.
Khru Tee speaks with community members. (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)
I am just a teacher, but despite the odds, I set out to organize communities, mobilize demonstrations, and recruit government leaders to listen to our cause. We were able to convince the Thai government to listen to our concerns and change their plans. In a major milestone, the Thai government terminated the project to blast the rapids in the Upper Mekong River. It was the first time the government had halted an international project due to its predicted adverse impacts on local communities and the environment.
The Asia Foundation has honored me with the Chang Lin Tien Leadership Award recognizes that sustainable development requires the engagement of local groups in critical decision-making. Local communities and civil society organizations understand their local contexts and the challenges facing their communities better than anyone else, and here in Northern Thailand, my group, the Rak Chiang Khong Conservation Group, has already been working to address the challenges facing our community.
The absence of public participation and the lack of engagement by so many of the local stakeholders in Mekong Basin development have made it challenging to achieve equitable outcomes. Without mutual agreements on development among the Mekong countries, the public participation of all stakeholders is hindered.
Despite the clear negative consequences, which transcend national borders, large hydroelectric dam projects continue to multiply. People in the Mekong Basin demand an end to destructive dam construction, solutions for the devastated basin, and healing for the Mekong River and its people.
The Mekong River in Thailand. (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)
These demands require a renewed understanding of the importance of nature. For development to be sustainable, it must strike a balance between human needs and the requirements of the natural environment, which can only be achieved with the participation of civil society in making decisions and shaping development policies. This is more important than ever now, in the face of the rapid and severe climate change happening on our planet.
For the survival of the future world, we must walk towards a world that belongs to all of us, where there is no yours or mine.
Niwat Roykaew, also known as Khru Tee, is chair of the Rak Chiang Khong Conservation Group and director of the Mekong School’s Institute of Local Knowledge, in Chiangkhon, Thailand. He is the recipient of The Asia Foundation’s 2023 Chang Lin Tien Leadership Award and the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize. Boonthida (Kam) Parnnui is a senior program officer in The Asia Foundation’s Thailand office. She can be reached at[email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not those of The Asia Foundation.
by Mark Koenig, Khaliun Ganzorig, and Undraa Nergui | November 1, 2023 | Blog | 1 comment
A session with Sunjidmaa J., cartoonist Tsogtbayar S., and iBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, Mongolia. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
Every caregiver and educator knows the excitement that a new book can stimulate in a young reader. Whether it’s the story, the art, the rhythm, or the rhyme, good books draw on a range of elements to engage their readers. But while we understand how powerful a book can be and salute the talent of the author or the illustrator, sometimes we don’t fully appreciate the thought, planning, and hard work that go into producing high-quality children’s literature. The ecosystem that creates these books includes not just artists and authors, but also art directors and editors, creative communities that offer mutual support and the exchange of ideas, and publishing companies that share the risk with creators and invest in their visions to bring them to market.
In many places, especially those with a mother tongue spoken by only a small population, this ecosystem has not yet developed. In Mongolia, for example, with a population of just over 3.5 million, the small market makes it difficult for even the best publishing companies to invest in the creative ecosystem of children’s literature, even when literacy levels are very high. But mother-tongue content is important, and children everywhere need stories that relate to their experience.
The Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read program offers a free digital library and an online application that are expanding access to original books in mother tongues while opening new opportunities for creators in Asia to share their work with readers. In Mongolia, in addition to developing the Let’s Read library of Mongolian-language books, the Asia Foundation also recently offered a three-month fellowship for experienced and emerging creators of children’s books. The initiative was generously supported by the Lorinet Foundation, a key partner for promoting reading in Mongolia.
A visual design workshop for children’s book illustrators conducted by Chris Haughton. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
The fellowship was an investment in Mongolian authors and in the broader community of creative professionals producing children’s books in Mongolia. It offered skills development, encouraged the exchange of ideas among authors, artists, and publishers, and successfully workshopped and developed several original books.
The three-month program included lectures, virtual and in-person workshops, team building, peer review, and more. Experienced book creators and experts from Mongolia and abroad, including award-winning illustrators and authors Grace Lin, Marianne Dubuc, and Chris Haughton, gave virtual lectures on their own approaches to writing and illustrating children’s books, offered advice on growing as a creator, and recommended practices and exercises to help participants improve their work. Children’s author Katrina Goldsaito (The Sound of Silence) visited the fellows in Mongolia and led a writers’ retreat for the emerging authors to help them develop the core elements of a unique story that only they could tell. The fellowship concluded with a visit from veteran publisher Claudia Bedrick of Enchanted Lion Books. Bedrick conducted a formal portfolio review with each fellow, critiquing drafts they wrote during their fellowship and offering advice on the direction of their work.
Group photo on the first day of the fellowship program. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
The stories and art that emerged in the course of the fellowship were quite diverse in their themes, characters, and literary style, including books on coping with the loss of a beloved pet, preparing to enter kindergarten, the importance of childhood curiosity, and nostalgia about times spent with a grandparent. Each book is unique, but all of them bear the distinctive stamp of their Mongolian creators, who drew on their own lives to craft their stories and images.
The first books to emerge from the fellowship have already begun to be published, and the community of creators behind them has continued to be strong and productive. We eagerly await their next chapter.
Click here to view a short video documentary about the Let’s Read children’s book fellowship in Mongolia.
Mark Koenig is The Asia Foundation’s country representative in Mongolia, Khaliun Ganzorig is the acting senior project officer for Let’s Read Mongolia, and Undraa Nergui is a Let’s Read consultant. They can be reached at[email protected], [email protected], and[email protected], respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not those of The Asia Foundation.
Shocking news reached us on October 23: our dear friend and colleague Leopold Sudaryono had passed away. Leo was a dedicated activist for democracy, human rights, and legal-sector reform in Indonesia. Just a week before his death, he joined other activists to sign the “Juanda Public Statement” expressing their concerns about declining democracy in Indonesia and the rise of political dynasties as the 2024 presidential election approaches. Indonesia’s great Reformasi of 1998—which Leo passionately supported—has been betrayed, the statement says.
Leo joined The Asia Foundation in 2006. He came with an activist background and worked on election monitoring, human rights, and legal aid services through various organizations, including KONTRAS, the Jakarta Legal Aid Organization, and Oxfam. He combined extensive on-the-ground experience with a master’s degree in human rights law from the University of Leicester in the UK.
Leopold Sudaryono (left) with staff of The Asia Foundation in Indonesia
In the years that followed, Leo worked on various legal reform and democracy programs, including community-oriented policing, religious freedom, and legislative capacity building. But his most important legacy for the Foundation and, more importantly, for Indonesia has been the prison reform program. Leo directed the launch of this important Foundation initiative, developing the concept, mobilizing resources, building a coalition for reform among government officials and civil society organizations, and implementing the program on the ground.
With assistance from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, prison reform became a flagship program of The Asia Foundation in Indonesia, which supported the Directorate General of Corrections (DGC) in developing and issuing its first blueprint for corrections reform, in 2008, laying out strategies for reforming the Indonesian corrections system and reducing prison overcrowding.
Leopold Sudaryono (left) meeting with the Directorate General of Corrections, Indonesia
Leo and the Foundation continued to support the DGC as it implemented a key element of the blueprint: developing an electronic database for the corrections system. The database transformed DGC’s operations, allowing the agency to manage one of its most pressing issues, prison overcrowding, by accurately monitoring the number of inmates in all Indonesian corrections facilities. As the system has developed, it has added features such as tracking prisoners on parole, monitoring inmate health, and identifying and tracking disabilities.
The electronic system has become an indispensable part of prison operations and has been honored by Australia’s DFAT in recognition of its significant contribution to prison reform in Indonesia.
Leo’s growing knowledge and expertise eventually made him the go-to person on prisons and criminal justice in Indonesia, but he felt that he needed a theoretical framework for his work on the ground. In 2015, he left the Foundation to enter a doctoral program on the political economy of prison reform at the Australian National University in Canberra.
He rejoined the Foundation in 2019 as a consultant in the Law and Justice unit, working to develop a public-perception survey on restorative justice in collaboration with Universitas Indonesia and the National Development Planning Agency. In the last couple of years, he was also a part-time lecturer in criminology at the University of Indonesia, and he worked with the national Anti-Corruption Commission, the KPK.
Besides his astonishing professional career, Leo was an active contributor to the social life of The Asia Foundation in Indonesia. He launched the Foundation’s photography club and became the office’s “informal official photographer,” known for his video tributes to departing staff. He was also an active member of the #TAFGoFit movement, from yoga to biking, to walking and running.
So long, dear friend! Your passing is a huge loss to the justice-sector reform community in Indonesia. You will be dearly missed not only for your professional legacy but also for your friendship, your jokes and laughter, and your love for your colleagues and fellow activists. May you rest in power.
Erman Rahman is IDIQ activity director in The Asia Foundation’s USAID ERAT program, and Mohamad Doddy Kusadrianto is director of The Asia Foundation’s Law and Justice program in Indonesia. They can be reached at[email protected]and[email protected], respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not those of The Asia Foundation.
by John Rieger and Tracie Yang | October 11, 2023 | Blog
Baseball in Thimphu, Bhutan. (Photo: Matthew DeSantis [@matthewrdesantis])
The Kingdom of Bhutan in the eastern Himalayas is the world’s highest country. The mountainous terrain of this remote Buddhist nation of 700,000 seems an unlikely home for the sport of baseball. But one man’s childhood passion for the game, and what was supposed to be a short visit to Bhutan, turned into a decade-long journey and a league of their own.
Matthew DeSantis was once a baseball-obsessed kid from New England. While working in Bhutan in 2010, in a flight of fancy, he teamed up with his colleague Karma Dorji to put on a baseball clinic in the capital city of Thimphu. Today, their fanciful idea has become the Bhutan Baseball and Softball Association.
The BBSA recently crossed paths with our own baseball-obsessed John Brandon, so we invited Matt, John, and BBSA general secretary Sanjeevan Raj Gurung to join John Rieger and Tracie Yang for a conversation.
JR: Matt, you’re the cofounder and chairman of the Bhutan Baseball and Softball Association. That’s a surprising plot twist for a guy from Connecticut. What’s your connection to Bhutan, and why baseball?
Matthew: The initial connection goes back to secondary school, where I met His Royal Highness Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck, who is the second son of the fourth king of Bhutan.
My professional relationship with Bhutan began with computer systems. After college, I worked for the IT company Accenture. I had a lot of free time at night, and so I was helping build computer systems for various parties in Bhutan. That’s how I first decided to go to Bhutan and spend what was supposed to be just a few weeks.
But you go to Bhutan, and it’s tough to just stay three weeks. It’s a beautiful place with amazing people. Baseball was always a love since I was a child, and the entire kingdom loves sports, so it was a natural introduction.
TY: What about you, Sanjeevan?
Sanjeevan: I’ve been a part of the national cricket team of Bhutan for the last 14 years, and I got a call, “We are trying out coaches, why don’t you come train some of the baseball and softball players?” We started with five teams of boys and girls. Then we started a league.
The interesting thing about baseball and softball is that anyone and everyone can play. If you are playing basketball, you have to be a tall guy. But in baseball, it’s all about strategies.
BBSA Cofounders Mathew DeSantis and Karma Dorji. (Photo: Bhutan Baseball and Softball Assoc.)
(Photo: Bhutan Baseball and Softball Assoc.)
TY: So how did you start a baseball league in a country that had never really seen the game?
Matthew: The original concept came from me and Karma Dorji, who is the other cofounder of BBSA. At the time, Karma was working for the Bhutan Olympic Committee, and I was assisting with a project at the Committee.
We were spending a lot of time together in the office, and we had the idea to run this camp. We used social media channels to let everyone know that we were hosting the camp and providing the camp for free. The first week we had more kids arrive than we had ever really expected, and by the third week we had hundreds of kids showing up, so we couldn’t stop.
(Photo: Bhutan Baseball and Softball Assoc.)
JR: Baseball, of course, is played on large flat fields, and Bhutan is the highest country in the Himalayas. Is there a problem there at all?
Sanjeevan: Yes, the landscape itself is pretty slopy, but every school in Bhutan has a soccer field. So, currently, we are playing in a school called Motithang Higher Secondary School, which, compared to other schools, the ground is quite good to play. And we are grateful to the Motithang principal for allowing us to play, train, and conduct our league there.
Matthew: For the first number of years that we were playing, it was always on concrete slabs. And it still remains a constant challenge for us, and we do hope someday to be able to build a baseball field in Bhutan. But we’ve made long, long strides since the very beginning when everything was played on concrete.
(Photo: Bhutan Baseball and Softball Assoc.)
TY: What was the knowledge level of these kids coming in? Did they have a good idea of how baseball worked or was it totally new to them?
Matthew: Television and internet were only introduced to Bhutan in 1999 and 2000, and there’s no channel that broadcasts baseball. So, in the early days, there was no knowledge of baseball. As the game started to grow in popularity, we began to see YouTube being used as a main source for learning the game. And, Sanjeevan, I believe that’s what most of the kids do nowadays as well, is that correct?
Sanjeevan: Yes. In terms of coaching as well we have been learning everything through YouTube. To add to that, there was a cartoon character on television.
JR: A cartoon character?
Sanjeevan: Yes. It’s a Japanese anime called Doraemon. It was based on baseball. So, when we asked, “Do you guys or girls know about baseball and softball?” they would say, “Yeah, we used to watch the cartoon. So, we fell in love with the game by watching that cartoon character.”
JR: Well, one thing you can say about a cartoon character that plays baseball is that there’s going to be mighty swings of the bat and great whacks of the ball. So that’s got to make it look good.
Matthew: And in Bhutan, with the high altitude, we’re trying to do that in person, too!
JR: Oh, it’s like Coors Field in Colorado, a great place for the long ball!
Matthew: That’s right. Bhutan is the highest altitude country in the world. We’ve been fortunate to have an incredible coaching staff, and a few years back they led this effort to build a sandlot-style field. It was posted on Reddit, and we got a big response from people comparing it to Coors Field because of the altitude.
Women’s Head Coach Tshering Zangmo. (Photo: Bhutan Baseball and Softball Assoc.)
JR: Sanjeevan, you are the general secretary of the Bhutan Baseball and Softball Association. What does your work consist of?
Sanjeevan: My role is to oversee all the development of baseball and softball in Bhutan. I work as a general secretary, I work as a groundsman, I work as a coach. I work to have baseball and softball in Bhutan reach the highest level of accomplishment—getting in touch with associated federations like the World Baseball and Softball Confederation, Softball Asia, the Baseball Federation of Asia, and our national Olympic committee.
(Photo: Bhutan Baseball and Softball Assoc.)
TY: So, then, would you say that baseball’s catching on in Bhutan?
Sanjeevan: I think the journey so far has been very remarkable. More and more kids in Bhutan are taking up baseball and softball and falling in love with the sport. We were also joined in 2022 by a volunteer coach from the U.S., Mervin Moore, who has 30 years of experience coaching baseball, and his contributions have helped us immensely in terms of developing skills and game strategy.
Matthew: We’ve also had a successful year beyond the field itself. This year, we had two baseball players who, for the first time in the program’s history, received scholarships to Royal Thimphu College. And we have one player who is going to be signed by the new Middle East and Indian subcontinent professional league, Baseball United. So, come November, we’ll have the first internationally signed professional baseball player from Bhutan.
(Photo: Matthew DeSantis @matthewrdesantis)
The first recipients of college scholarships for achievements on the baseball field, awarded by Royal Thimphu College. (Photo: Matthew DeSantis @matthewrdesantis)
JR: My sons both played youth baseball here in the United States, and I really learned to love the leisurely pace of the game. What’s it like watching a baseball game in Bhutan?
Matthew: Well, Bhutan is just a very harmonious country. And the way that baseball is played in Bhutan resembles that: you feel it and you see it. There’s such joy seeing the kids laughing and playing on the field and after the games, sharing the moments together as two teams. So, I’d say that the sport, it’s reborn in a way in Bhutanese Buddhist philosophy and culture. It’s a heavenly place to play baseball.
Baseball in Thimphu, Bhutan. (Photo: Matthew DeSantis [@matthewrdesantis])
TY: So what challenges are you facing as you try to grow the league? Equipment? Expanding into more of the rural areas? Keeping the parents in line? (I know that’s a big one in the United States!)
Matthew: Giving kids across the country the ability to play is an ongoing effort. We’ve been very successful in Thimphu, where we have quite a number of youth leagues and six club teams that run independently across six of the 20 districts, but it’s a very bittersweet feeling to see kids in some of the smallest villages reaching out to us on Facebook saying they want to play while we still have obstacles to providing the sport to them on a regular basis or, in many cases, at all.
The reality is that we have more kids who want to play than the league can handle, and we have more kids who want to be involved in clinics and camps, especially kids from other districts who want to come and play in these camps, which we were finally able to do through our work with The Asia Foundation.
And so, really, it’s across the board, from equipment, to field access, to expanding the reach of the game. And the final thing to mention is—and this is a very important element of what we’ve designed and what we’ve built—we offer this sport for free to all the kids.
JR: You mentioned that The Asia Foundation lent you a hand. Tell us a little bit about that.
Matthew: Years back, when no one knew that baseball was being played in Bhutan, we received an email from a man named Ramon Riesgo, who’s now the executive advisor to BBSA. He’s a big fan of baseball, from San Diego, and his first question was, well, who knows about this? How are you building relationships? So, Ramon, through his network, connected us with John Brandon, and we’ve been extremely thankful for all of The Asia Foundation’s support to date, because without that, we wouldn’t have been able to run a lot of the camps that we’ve done.
JR: So, that brings us to you, John Brandon. How did the BBSA find you?
Brandon: Well, they had noticed a blog post I had written about the influence of the United States in Japanese baseball—about Lefty O’Doul, about Babe Ruth, about Moe Berg and some others—and the people from the Association thought maybe the connection would be a good avenue to approach for support.
It reminded me of when I lived in Thailand 40 years ago: I played fast-pitch softball for the National Meteorological Association of Thailand. And I said that our Nepal office ran our modest programming in Bhutan, and that perhaps together we could make a grant that would be helpful to the Bhutan Baseball and Softball Association.
JR: Is a youth baseball league a bit of a stretch for The Asia Foundation?
Brandon: I think early in the Foundation’s history it wasn’t at all. We did such a variety of creative programming—arts and culture, all sorts of things. We might’ve done it in countries like Japan and Korea or even Taiwan, where baseball has developed a resonance over the decades. Maybe now, in the areas where we work—rule of law, civil society, environmental protection, climate resilience, women’s empowerment, international relations, regional cooperation—yeah, it may seem like a bit of a stretch, but where it’s an exact fit is our work on youth engagement in all these areas, even in ways that sometimes seem unexpected, including arts, culture, and even sports. We know that team sports can help develop healthy, well-rounded young people who will go on to be future leaders. That’s a good thing for them and their societies if you ask me. So, this is a small investment, but it can yield dividends that are far greater than the investment itself.
Sanjeevan: In the project with The Asia Foundation, we have talked about expanding baseball and softball to Paro. Paro is a district to the north of Thimphu, about 40 kilometers away. So, by the end of September or the first week of October we are planning to go to Paro. We are starting in three schools there, and we have already talked with the principals.
The Thimphu Red Pandas. (Photo: Bhutan Baseball and Softball Assoc.)
TY: So, what does the road ahead look like now? Do either of you think Bhutan could one day become a baseball power like Korea or Japan?
Sanjeevan: Yes. The journey, I think it looks bright. We are taking baby steps and focusing on the grass roots, developing fundamental skills of baseball and softball with kids. But yes, the future looks bright.
JR: Sanjeevan Raj Gurung, Matthew DeSantis, and John Brandon, thank you all for joining us.
Chap Goh Mei, the annual Lantern Festival of the Chinese-Indonesian community, which was banned under the Suharto regime. (Photo: Rudolf Klavert / The Asia Foundation)
One of the world’s most diverse countries, with thousands of ethnic groups and multiple state-sanctioned religions, Indonesia’s path to democracy since the end of the authoritarian Suharto regime in 1998 has held out the promise of fundamental rights for all citizens. Yet key tenets of democracy—freedom of expression, association, and political participation—have not always protected the rights of disfavored minorities, and instead have been exploited by conservative groups to dictate social values and to decree what is acceptable in the religious, political, and private spheres.
The government of Indonesia and civil society actors concerned with religious freedom have grown increasingly alarmed by the spread of radical religious views that promote discrimination against groups and individuals considered “unacceptable,” including both followers of minority religions and nonconformists of accepted faiths. Steadily growing reports of violence against minority religions have tracked the gradual spread of these radical ideas, dramatically escalating levels of religious conflict across the country.
Tolerance and intolerance in Indonesia
Two national laws allow discrimination against minority religions: the Blasphemy Law of 1965 and the Religious Harmony Regulation, adopted under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2006. The latter strengthened the Blasphemy Law and added weight to many of its oppressive regulations. The SETARA Institute for Democracy and Peace, an Indonesian nonprofit, has found that from 2007 to 2022 there were 573 episodes of religious intolerance directed towards places of worship, from refusal of permission to worship and refusal to grant permits for places of worship, to intimidation of minority believers and other forms of intolerance.
New laws and regulations by themselves cannot effectively address this problem of radicalization and intolerance. What is needed, rather, is the reinforcement of social values and practices that are known to reduce intolerance, while working with communities and various government agencies and officials to create a supportive environment for minorities.
The rise of identity politics
In late 2016 and early 2017, many observers were shocked to see that a conservative strain of “muscular” Islam that had largely been confined to the fringes was beginning to dominate public debate. Several studies found that these radical views were being propagated through schools, universities, and mosques in addition to online and social media.
Indonesian elections have witnessed a corresponding rise of religious identity politics. Without strong support from the political grassroots, politicians are instead invoking religious allegiances, exploiting radical and exclusionary religious views as they work with conservative groups. This, in turn, is affecting the way different communities relate to each other.
To identify with a group is part of human nature. Once people connect with a group, their identities can become powerfully bound to it. When such a group feels threatened, they can become deeply defensive, and when the unity of an identity group is based on the existence of a perceived enemy, identity politics can create deep and even violent social polarization. By tapping into this powerful element of human nature, the discourse of religious intolerance threatens democracy with a zero-sum logic of us-versus-them. The health of Indonesia’s hard-won democracy requires an antidote to the rising fever of religion-fueled identity politics. Defusing the antagonism between religious identity groups is the only way to deal with Indonesia’s deepening polarization and religious division.
Fostering interfaith dialogue: the Pelita Padang story
In the city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, which the Setara Institute ranked third from the bottom in tolerance out of 94 Indonesian cities in 2022, two young women, Angelique Maria Cuaca and Silmi Novita, set out to bridge the chasm between young people from different religious backgrounds. They created an interfaith youth organization called Pelita Padang, in 2019, to promote dialogue across religious communities.
A meeting of PELITA Padang. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
Pelita Padang is a group of young people with an aspiration to break free from the entanglements of past religious conflicts. It was born from the anxiety they felt over the increasing problem of intolerance in Indonesia, especially in West Sumatra. Informal meetings are held regularly and include speakers to discuss various topics such as Indonesians’ constitutional right to worship and the root causes of religious conflict and cultural clashes.
With support from The Asia Foundation, Pelita Padang often holds interfaith dialogues, film discussions, and writing competitions, mainly focusing on religious diversity. It also works actively on issues with other organizations. When Covid-19 hit, Pelita Padang collaborated with one of the oldest Chinese associations in Padang to organize a mass vaccination event. Together with a local community group, they also supported Chap Goh Mei, the annual Lantern Festival of the Chinese-Indonesian community, which was banned under the Suharto “New Order” regime.
PELITA Padang activists posing with The Asia Foundation’s Democracy and Governance team after a workshop on advocacy for freedom of religion and belief. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
Community support and participation can help people heal from the trauma of discrimination. Pelita Padang believes intergroup communication can be achieved in these smaller dialogues where people can set aside biases and embrace differences with compassion and understanding on a more personal level.
Pelita Padang aims to increase youth awareness and participation in freedom of religion and belief issues in West Sumatra. We hope active youth participation can help build a tolerant community more appreciative of differences in faith and culture.
— Angelique Maria Cuaca of Pelita Padang
The idea is to create friendships across faiths to break down barriers and stigma. This will ultimately lead to tolerance and inclusivity. Religious tolerance is the underlying theme of Indonesian democracy, and a more tolerant future for the world’s third-largest democracy depends on its ability to build inclusive communities.
A. Jamet Hamidi is a program officer in The Asia Foundation’s Democracy and Governance program in Indonesia. He can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author, not those of The Asia Foundation.
by Anuja Patel and Aryasatyani Sintadewi | October 11, 2023 | Blog | 1 comment
The cover of Aduh! (“Oh No!”), by Urfa Qurrota Ainy, illustrated by Hanny Juwita, from the Mighty Girl series developed in The Asia Foundation’s BookLab
How we educate our children and the materials we use to do it play a powerful role in our societies. In Indonesia, for instance, girls have now achieved numerical parity with boys in secondary education, but a closer look at the data shows that Indonesian girls still do not pursue their post-secondary education as far as boys. When they drop out early, their reasons for doing so often reflect gender norms, such as early marriage for girls or their responsibility to provide unpaid care, that are commonly reinforced in textbooks and other educational materials. This reality shows us that striving for parity of participation in the schools is not enough. We also need to focus on how the gender norms that we convey in our schools and educational materials may either help or hinder people of all genders in realizing their full potential.
Addressing this issue is a matter of fundamental human rights, but it also has an impact on sustainable development. Countless research studies have shown that greater educational attainment for women is associated with smaller families, higher earnings, and even lower carbon emissions. Educating a girl does not just benefit her; it has resounding, multiplying effects throughout her community, because women raising families tend to pass along their values and beliefs, and women are more likely to invest the higher earnings that come with higher education in their families and communities.
Teaching children early in a way that reinforces positive values, and adopting strategies to fulfill those values, can lead to greater retention of girls in school and high-paying jobs, and ultimately to a society that is more just, peaceful, and equitable. Storytelling that represents the diverse experiences and opportunities of different people is a powerful way to communicate these values. Representation matters, and storytelling can be a powerful way to achieve this representation. Engaging girls and women in the storytelling process can ensure that their ideas are expressed, and their voices are heard.
Books as Bridges
In Indonesia, The Asia Foundation’s Books as Bridges project is working to amplify the voices, leadership, and creativity of adolescent girls and female authors and illustrators.
A Books as Bridges resilience and self-awareness workshop for adolescent girls in 2023. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
This year, the Foundation worked with local youth-empowerment organizations to conduct resilience and self-awareness training for adolescent girls throughout Indonesia. Young women who were trained as mentors conducted the workshops, and girls reported afterwards that they felt more confident acting as leaders. One said her male family members even started helping with household chores after she explained what she’d learned.
In addition, we conducted a BookLab to recruit and train aspiring female writers and illustrators to produce children’s storybooks on STEM topics, which were then published on The Asia Foundation’s free Let’s Read platform, where they can be accessed by readers worldwide. To extend the reach of the work, the books were announced on social media with local partner organizations.
The Books as Bridges illustrators’ workshop. (Photo: Aryasatyani Sintadewi / The Asia Foundation)
On the island of Java, we worked with another group of girls to publish an illustrated series called Mighty Girls that has already accumulated over 1.2 million downloads from the Let’s Read website. The Mighty Girls are scientists, students, and space explorers, helping to open new futures for girls outside of traditional paths.
Left: Roti Harapan (“I Have to Find a Way”), by Jessica Valentina, illustrated by Stephanie Susilo. Right: Menari Bersama Singa Merah (“The Red Lion Dancer”), by Jessica Valentina, illustrated by Alima Nufus.
This women-led approach to authorship and outreach is helping a growing audience of girls and women—and boys and men—to question and transform traditional gender norms: Perhaps women can be scientists. Perhaps fathers can be caregivers. When you see it, you can believe it and be it.
This is especially true when it comes to the representation of women and girls in STEM. The fact that only 20 percent of STEM jobs in Asia and the Pacific are currently held by women underscores the need to model these roles and opportunities early. Educational materials and institutions can be pathways to a reimagined vision of what girls can do, be, and become.
Books as Bridges 2023 STEM-themed BookLab. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
On October 11, the world observed the International Day of the Girl. Let’s continue to reinforce positive gender roles by supporting girls’ leadership and storytelling. And let’s encourage boys to do this too, both as allies and as beneficiaries of a gender-equal world.
Anuja Patel is a program officer in The Asia Foundation’s Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality program, and Aryasatyani Sintadewi is a Books for Asia officer in The Asia Foundation’s Indonesia office. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected], respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not those of The Asia Foundation.
by John Rieger and Tracie Yang | September 27, 2023 | Blog | 2 comments
The ger, also known as a yurt, is the traditional dwelling of Mongolia’s nomadic herders. (Photo: Dina Julayeva / Shutterstock)
Mongolia may be experiencing a more radical transformation of its traditional way of life than any other place in Asia, says Badruun Gardi. He’s the founder of Gerhub, a Mongolian NGO working on the most pressing issues in Mongolia’s rapidly growing capital city.
Thirty percent of Mongolians are still nomadic herders, living in traditional gers, or yurts, on the vast, empty steppes that have been their home for millennia. But today those yurts sport solar panels and satellite dishes, windows to a different Mongolia that is inexorably drawing people to the city. Nearly half of Mongolia’s population now lives in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, a majority in the sprawling settlements of yurts and small dwellings known as the ger areas, where new arrivals contend with a host of urban problems.
Gardi joins us today from Ulaanbaatar. He is a graduate of Stanford University and has just finished a year-long Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard School of Design, which brought together practitioners from around the globe who are addressing societal challenges in the built and natural environment. Gardi is also a creative executive at Salmira Productions, a media finance and production company, and a term trustee of The Asia Foundation.
In this week’s conversation, Gardi calls Mongolia “the last nomadic state,” and reflects on the stresses of development and the lessons to be learned from this still-vibrant nomadic population as we all confront the growing prospect of worldwide climate disruption.
by Naruemol Tuenpakdee and Micheline Rama | September 27, 2023 | Blog
(Photo: The Asia Foundation)
A wave of digital technologies has revolutionized the Asia-Pacific region, transforming societies, economies, and the fabric of life. This digital wave has swept almost the entire region, from its bustling metropolises to its remote corners and distant islands, bringing unprecedented opportunities for prosperity, connectivity, and access to information while also presenting daunting challenges to peace and security, human rights, democracy, and development.
At the center of this technological revolution is an intricate conversation between digital technologies and digital rights—fundamental human rights, extended into the digital sphere—including the core principles of privacy and data protection, freedom of expression, access to information, and the freedom to assemble and associate online. The question at the heart of this conversation is this: how can we harness the boundless potential of technology to advance flourishing societies while navigating and neutralizing its inherent drawbacks?
Last May, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the Digital Rights Asia-Pacific 2023 Assembly (DRAPAC23) brought together a broad array of experts for an exchange of views that showcased both optimistic “tech-solutionist” and pessimistic “tech-problematizing” perspectives. Their views shed light on technology’s promises and pitfalls, its profound impact on politics and society, and the myriad realities of a digital realm where the fortunate can benefit from cutting-edge tech while the poor and marginalized struggle for basic digital access and are often hurt by online activities.
A session by the Resiliency Initiative, “Enabling CSOs to Tackle Intolerance and Promote Peace through Social Media,” at DRAPAC23. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
A new frontier of manipulation and repression
In many Asia-Pacific nations, online spaces have become a new frontier of human rights violations, violence, and conflict, where political actors often adopt digital repression as a core political strategy.
Internet censorship and surveillance have become common, stifling freedom of expression as social media platforms become breeding grounds for manipulation. Governments and nonstate actors employ social media influencers as “cyber troops” to shape public opinion on controversial issues, at times weaponizing internet access for control and as a shield for impunity. Tactically deployed internet shutdowns facilitate ongoing human rights violations by limiting communications and access to vital information, education, and social support networks.
The Asia-Pacific region is also experiencing the spread of online disinformation, which is polarizing politics and fraying the social fabric. During elections and crises, crafted narratives and rumors are used to tarnish opponents, erode trust in institutions, and amplify social tensions by manipulating long-standing stereotypes and biases against specific groups, particularly ethnic and religious minorities.
Amidst these concerning developments, social media algorithms have intensified social polarization. Social media platforms employ algorithms that curate content to maximize user engagement (creating “virality”). This often turns users’ news feeds into echo chambers, where they are presented with content that reinforces their existing beliefs and biases and reduces their exposure to alternative voices.
The combination of digital repression, disinformation, and algorithmic curation creates a potent brew that threatens human rights, both offline and online. The repercussions are far-reaching, challenging the essence of freedom of expression, access to information, and the right to participate in democratic discourse.
A struggle for inclusion: connecting the unconnected
In theory, digital rights are not a luxury reserved for tech-savvy urban dwellers; yet, a digital divide emerges in practice, a digital literacy gap that affects people’s ability to navigate online platforms, access digital services, and exercise their rights.
The digital divide leaves marginalized populations unconnected, entrenching systemic inequalities. With limited access to the internet and information technology, and sometimes facing language barriers, “unconnected” individuals struggle to engage in civic activities or to access government services and economic opportunities such as online job markets, education, and e-commerce.
Gender inequality is another aspect of the digital divide. Women and girls in many areas face cultural norms and economic constraints that prevent them from accessing digital resources and opportunities, hindering their participation in the economy and the community.
Digital activism and civic engagement
The leading role of civil society in protecting digital rights and fostering an inclusive digital environment in the Asia-Pacific region was clearly on display at DRAPAC23:
Civic leaders and campaigners are raising awareness of digital threats, including censorship and surveillance, through notable projects such as Advox’s Unfreedom Monitor and the Digital Defenders Partnership’s Digital Protection Accompaniment program. Focusing on reporting, advocacy, and mobilization, such initiatives are exposing the effects of repressive tactics and empowering human rights defenders with information and digital security training.
Initiatives like Common Room’s Digital Mapping Workshop and the Google–Asia Foundation collaboration Go Digital ASEAN are trying to bridge the digital divide by providing connectivity and reducing inequalities through community-based internet infrastructure and digital literacy programs.
Safeguarding digital rights, particularly for journalists working under authoritarian regimes, remains a significant concern. Media organizations such as Free Press Unlimited and Exile Hub share insights, best practices, and digital security strategies. They stand as strong advocates for protecting journalists’ rights and safety and upholding online freedom of expression.
Addressing online gender-based violence and the limited internet access experienced by women in many countries, local NGOs such as Malaysia’s EMPOWER and the Philippines’ Foundation for Media Alternatives advocate policy changes that prioritize women’s needs.
Tech-savvy, youth-led organizations such as Hashtag Generation in Sri Lanka and Save Youth in Bangladesh are combating online hate speech and disinformation by promoting digital activism through social media campaigns and community engagement.
Paving the way forward
The Asia-Pacific region has experienced rapid development driven by industrialization, demographic dividends, and improvements in education and infrastructure. Today, digital technologies have become an integral part of the region’s development trajectory.
The surge in online activity presents both opportunities and challenges, requiring the collective effort of stakeholders to secure a future where human rights can thrive. Governments must promote digital inclusion and protect digital rights by developing infrastructure, digital literacy programs, and legislation that addresses malicious or illegal content. Civil society organizations and technology innovators must work to foster safe, inclusive, and equitable digital ecosystems.
Phet Sayo, executive director of Engage Media, believes that civil society can champion the mass adoption of digital technology while still remaining vigilant in protecting online human rights. “We don’t have to trade positive benefits for negative impacts,” Sayo told the DRAPAC23 audience, but “there’s a great deal of work for us to do.”
DRAPAC23 was an impressive effort to expand the digital rights movement in the region. It fostered face-to-face connections and engaged young advocates, allowing diverse actors to exchange knowledge, collaborate, and forge a shared vision of a rights-respecting digital future.
Naruemol Tuenpakdee is a regional program officer in The Asia Foundation’s Conflict and Fragility program, and Micheline Rama is a social behavior change consultant for The Asia Foundation’s Law and Human Rights program. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected], respectively. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not those of The Asia Foundation.
by Dinusha Wickremesekera | September 27, 2023 | Blog
The bookshelves of almost 10,000 schools, universities, and technical colleges, government offices, civic organizations, and public libraries in Sri Lanka hold books bearing the seal “Gift of The Asia Foundation.” From the capital city of Colombo to the smallest villages in the remote countryside, it is common to hear, “I read books from The Asia Foundation,” “I got specialized publications from The Asia Foundation,” and, especially, “is that nice gentleman from the books program still there?”
Anton Nallathamby at work with the Asia Foundation seal. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
It is safe to say that these books, donated by the Foundation’s Books for Asia program, have had a profound impact on reading in many parts of Asia. In Sri Lanka, Books for Asia commenced in what was then Ceylon in 1957 and continued until the Foundation temporarily closed its office in 1970. When the office reopened, in 1980, Books for Asia returned at the invitation of the government.
Relying at first on donations from American booksellers and publishers, Books for Asia soon developed partnerships with the Sri Lankan private sector. Commercial banks, private businesses, alumni associations, and social service clubs have donated funds to support the acquisition, shipment, and distribution of more than 100,000 books for Sri Lanka each year—almost 5 million in 42 years.
Books for Asia has not only filled the shelves of libraries with high quality books; it has also supported English-language instruction, helped to train librarians, and assisted in the publication of new works in Sinhala and Tamil. Books for Asia has also extended its Sri Lanka programs across the Indian Ocean to the Maldives, providing much-needed books for children, students, and professionals and even bringing Maldivian librarians to Sri Lanka for training.
Memories of Books for Asia in Sri Lanka, 5 million books later. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
Anton Nallathamby
This story of Books for Asia in Sri Lanka is inextricably tied to one man, Anton Nallathamby. His retirement this year marks both an end and a beginning: the end of distributing physical books, and a new commitment to digital content.
When the Foundation reopened in Sri Lanka in 1980, our country representative, Frank Dines, was looking for a person to lead the distribution of the first shipment of 5,000 books. He gave the position to an energetic young librarian who would eventually become one of the Foundation’s longest-serving employees and whose passion and commitment—through insurrection, civil war, tsunami, pandemic, and economic crisis—are reflected in the millions of books that bear the Foundation’s seal.
That young man, Anton Nallathamby, had joined the Sri Lanka Library Association (SLLA) just out of school. He went on to become a chartered librarian and a member of the SLLA Council. He was working at the Institute of Cost Management Accountants (today the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) when he was offered the job.
At that time the Foundation had just six employees in Sri Lanka, and Books for Asia was a central part of the Foundation’s programs. Sri Lanka had just liberalized its economy, and there was a growing demand for English-language proficiency. Previous policies had prioritized the vernacular languages, and there were few teachers of English and limited books and teaching materials, particularly outside of Colombo and other main towns.
Children’s books in English, Sinhala, and Tamil created by Books for Asia. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
From American publishers to Sri Lankan readers
When Mr. Nallathamby distributed that first shipment of 5,000 books in 1981, he recorded the inventory by hand. In just this year of 2023, over 200,000 books have been distributed in Sri Lanka, and a computerized database tracked each and every one. Mr. Nallathamby has worked with over 95 percent of the libraries in Sri Lanka, ensuring that each receives the books that they need. What hasn’t changed is the recognizable seal, bearing the name of The Asia Foundation and the promise that the books are not for sale.
Looking back, Mr. Nallathamby is proudest of the network of academics, professionals, and librarians that this program helped to establish and nourish, not just in Sri Lanka but in the Maldives as well. He also recalls with pride the day in 1984 when the president of Sri Lanka, J. R. Jayawardena, visited the Foundation with his wife. They came to thank the Foundation for the special collection of books on international relations donated to the Presidental Secretariat library, and they took the opportunity to learn more about the Foundation’s work.
Distributing over 100,000 books a year has been a major exercise in logistics, often made more complex by challenging national circumstances. During the civil war, the Peace Secretariat became a key logistical partner for deliveries to libraries in the embattled North and East. During the pandemic and the economic crisis that followed, the postal service, private couriers, and local transport networks were enlisted to make deliveries to local libraries. One Books for Asia team member who first joined as a computer specialist developed such a fascination with these constantly changing logistical puzzles that he set off to study logistics overseas!
Since 2012, Books for Asia has augmented its shipments of books from the United States with books in local languages. More recently, the Foundation has begun to work with local writers, illustrators, and publishers to commission new, locally written children’s books in Sinhala and Tamil.
Now, the Books for Asia program is transitioning, winding down shipments of hard copy books. The undistributed inventory of books has shrunk to zero, a number unseen since 1980, and the bookshelves are empty. But the end of this durable and successful program is also a new beginning. While Books for Asia will no longer be distributing physical books, the program is going all in, in the digital realm. There, other challenges await, including the digital divide and the uneven access to digital information in Sri Lanka.
Forty-two years after the restart of Books for Asia in Sri Lanka, the shelves are finally empty. (Photo: The Asia Foundation)
Mr. Nallathamby will be retiring after 42 years as one of the best-known faces of the Foundation in Sri Lanka. He has been a respected colleague, a tireless team member, a mentor, and a friend, who has left an indelible mark on libraries and readers throughout the country.
As The Asia Foundation moves forward with its new digital platform, LetsReadAsia.org, the legacy of Books for Asia and its dedicated staff, led by Anton Nallathamby, will provide the bedrock on which new relationships will be forged, and the culture of reading will continue to flourish in Sri Lanka.
Dinusha Wickremesekera is a justice and gender consultant for The Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka. She can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author, not those of The Asia Foundation. Next year, in 2024, The Asia Foundation marks 70 years of working on the ground in Asia and the Pacific.
Indonesian born and raised, with degrees from Padjaran University and the University of London, Satriyo joined the Foundation as a program officer in 1998 and later served as director of Gender and Women’s Participation and director of Environmental Governance programs. An expert in local governance, decentralization, legislative development, and human rights, she also expanded the Foundation’s interethnic and interfaith dialogue programs in Indonesia. She’s proud of the Foundation’s efforts to improve the public’s digital literacy, and she predicts that the 2024 elections will be a test of Indonesia’s democratic resilience.
In addition to her 25 years as a development practitioner, Satriyo notched some diplomatic experience when her husband served as ambassador to the UK. In this week’s conversation with John and Tracie, she discusses diversity, democracy, and development on the vast and heterogeneous Indonesian archipelago, and she shares a few bemused reflections on her adventure as an ambassador’s “trailing spouse.”
Provincial Map of Indonesia. (Graphic: Bennylin, own work, derived from Indonesia blank map colored.svg / CC BY-SA 4.0)
Gardi joins us today from Ulaanbaatar. He is a graduate of Stanford University and has just finished a year-long Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard School of Design, which brought together practitioners from around the globe who are addressing societal challenges in the built and natural environment. Gardi is also a creative executive at Salmira Productions, a media finance and production company, and a term trustee of The Asia Foundation. 
Indonesian born and raised, with degrees from Padjaran University and the University of London, Satriyo joined the Foundation as a program officer in 1998 and later served as director of Gender and Women’s Participation and director of Environmental Governance programs. An expert in local governance, decentralization, legislative development, and human rights, she also expanded the Foundation’s interethnic and interfaith dialogue programs in Indonesia. She’s proud of the Foundation’s efforts to improve the public’s digital literacy, and she predicts that the 2024 elections will be a test of Indonesia’s democratic resilience.