By Jerome Sayre

Jerome Sayre is the Deputy Country Representative for The Asia Foundation in Bangladesh.

Nine months after a military-backed Caretaker Government assumed power in Bangladesh after the cancellation of parliamentary elections, the tireless cycle rickshaw drivers that navigate the traffic-snarled streets of Dhaka are adjusting to the “new” rules of the road. These new rules are, in fact, the old rules that are now being enforced more strictly and consistently by the Bangladesh Police.

Improved traffic management is part of a larger effort to reform the Bangladesh police, until recently rated by citizens as among the most corrupt public agencies. Bangladesh’s centralized national police force was used by successive elected governments to advance grand corruption, cover up violent crimes and allow political intimidation.
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By Wilfredo Torres

Wilfredo Torres is a Program Officer for The Asia Foundation in the Philippines.

In the Philippines, the way elections are carried out tends to exacerbate political rivalries and is one of the major causes of feuding amongst families. This is one of the key findings in The Asia Foundation’s book, RIDO: Clan Feuding and Conflict Management in Mindanao, the most comprehensive and informative resource on rido (family and clan feuds) in Mindanao. Mindanao, home to a majority of the country’s Muslims, is a region suffering from poor infrastructure, high poverty, and violence that has claimed the lives of more than 120,000 in the last three decades. The book provides readers with findings from coordinated research on feuding, as well as a wealth of rido case studies, personal accounts and recommendations to government, communities, and conflict resolution advocates. While the book deals with rido dynamics and other related conflicts in Mindanao, it also looks into conflict resolution and healing by highlighting the vibrant and promising efforts of local communities to address such conflicts.
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Mindanao, home to a majority of the country’s Muslims, is a region suffering from poor infrastructure, high poverty, and violence that has claimed the lives of more than 120,000 in the last three decades. At a ceremony held today at the Intercontinental Hotel Manila, The Asia Foundation released Rido: Clan Feuding and Conflict Management in Mindanao, the definitive reference book on clan violence and conflict resolution in the Philippines. The book offers the most comprehensive and in-depth analysis of rido, which is defined as feuding between families and clans and is characterized by sporadic outbursts of retaliatory violence between families, kinship groups, and communities.

Written by leading conflict resolution scholars and advocates, the book aims to dispel widely-held stereotypes. Indeed, rido is only one aspect in the complex web of violence in Mindanao, which also includes Muslim separatism, communist insurgency, and banditry. The interaction of these different conflicts has explosive consequences for the long-running separatist war in Mindanao. A deeper understanding of specific conflicts is crucial to disentangling the blurred lines of conflict and to enable communities and the government to effectively address the problem.
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By George Varughese

George Varughese is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, The Asia Foundation released “Afghanistan in 2007: A Survey of the Afghan People,” which covers the largest population sample ever surveyed at one time in all 34 of Afghanistan’s provinces. This survey follows polls conducted by the Foundation in 2004 and 2006. Collectively the three surveys establish an accurate and long-term barometer of public opinion across Afghanistan to help assess the direction in which the country is moving in the post-Taliban era. Below is a summary of the key findings from the 2007 poll; you can access the poll in its entirety here, in addition to the 2004 and 2006 polls.

In 2007, the national mood in Afghanistan continues to be optimistic, with 42 percent of the respondents saying things are moving in the right direction. Some 24 percent think that the country is moving in the wrong direction, and 25 percent have mixed feelings. In 2006, some 44 percent of the respondents said things were moving in the right direction, 21 percent said they were moving in the wrong direction, and 29 percent had mixed feelings.

According to the survey, 39% of the Afghan people have a favorable impression of reconstruction and rebuilding activities taking place, while insecurity is the main reason for the people to believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction (48%). In the eyes of men and women of Afghanistan, the security situation in the country has deteriorated. Likewise, security-related issues have also been identified as the biggest problem facing the country at the national level.
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By Brenda Norris

Brenda Norris is a Program Manager for The Asia Foundation in Nepal.

The Maoists were polite, but firm: no civic or voter education activities could be conducted until their national political demands were met. Hours of negotiation succeeded only in convincing the young men not to burn the voter education materials that our local partners intended to distribute. For the previous two hours we had watched our partners complete a two-day voter education training of facilitators and a mock election in the small classroom in Nepal’s Rasuwa District. The trainers were dedicated and professional, and were visibly excited to educate their fellow villagers about the upcoming Constituent Assembly election. With the memory of violence from Nepal’s ten-year-long Maoist insurgency still fresh in their minds, they watched as the Maoists ripped posters from the walls and carted all the voter education materials away. As we learned later, this heartbreaking scene in Rasuwa was being played out in districts all across Nepal, with voter and civic education activities being disrupted in scores of localities.
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By Nilan Fernando and Ramani Jayasundere

Nilan Fernando is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Sri Lanka; Ramani Jayasundre is the Program Manager, Access to Justice for the Foundation in Sri Lanka.

In April 2005, the Law Commission of Sri Lanka began work on the first-ever law in Sri Lanka to guarantee the rights of witnesses and victims of crime. The law’s enactment has been “a long-felt need in Sri Lanka,” which, according to Dr. Lakshman Marasinghe, Chairman of the Law Commission, will “greatly enhance the country’s quality of criminal justice.”

At the request of the Law Commission, the governmental body under the Ministry of Justice responsible for reviewing and reforming the law, The Asia Foundation provided research support, expert advice, public consultations, and advocacy for the draft Bill for the Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses. The Commission’s public consultations began in April 2005 and involved members of the bar and judiciary, the police, the medical association, and other civil society organizations who collectively discussed the legislation’s value and content over the course of two years. Earlier this month, the Bill received Cabinet approval and it is soon expected to be passed into law by Parliament.
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By To Kim Lien

To Kim Lien is a Program Officer for The Asia Foundation in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, women’s status is determined by a complex interaction of social, family, economic, and cultural factors.

In recent years, the Vietnamese government has taken some positive steps to promote gender equality, including supporting policies and programs aimed at increasing women’s participation in public decision-making and political life. While these efforts have been quite successful in increasing the number of women who hold public office, little effort has been made to build capacity of women to be effective once in office. As a result, even when women do manage to enter the political arena, they often find themselves marginalized in the male dominated culture, with real power remaining in the hands of a select group of men.
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By Kim McQuay

Kim McQuay is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Bangladesh.

Lack of public confidence in the integrity of the national electoral roll (voters list) was one of many factors contributing to Bangladesh’s recent political crisis. The crisis resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency on January 11, 2007, the appointment of a new Caretaker Government, the cancellation of the national parliamentary election (scheduled for January 22, 2007), and the reorganization of the Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC). A significant number of names on earlier electoral rolls were either in error or reflected duplicate registration. The errors affected 13% of the estimated population of eligible voters, exceeding the internationally acceptable standard of 5%.
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By Scott Snyder

Scott Snyder is a Senior Associate with The Asia Foundation and can be reached at ssnyder@asiafound-dc.org. The following opinion article was originally printed in the Korea Herald:

An inter-Korean summit meeting by its nature provides Korean leaders with a powerful opportunity to shape the future of the peninsula and to create new opportunities for peace and co-prosperity. It is a step toward solving “the question of the country’s reunification independently by the concerted efforts of the Korean nation responsible for it,” as stated in the June 2000 North-South Declaration. But how far can the two leaders go without addressing the number one regional concern of all of Korea’s neighbors—the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula?
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By Kim Hunter

In May 2002, Timor-Leste (formerly known as East Timor) became the first new nation of the 21st century after more than four centuries as a Portuguese colony and a quarter-century under Indonesian administration. As a young nation, with a literacy rate of only 50%, the country is struggling to establish institutions, provide basic public services, and create an informed citizenry. With limited access to educational opportunities and 53% of the population under 17 years of age — and 34% between 12 and 29 — a priority concern is reaching children and youth. To respond to these challenges, The Asia Foundation recently funded two local initiatives to spur literacy, promote understanding of democratic principles, and strengthen civic participation: a youth essay contest on the constitution and a reading contest for all school children in Aileu District.
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