In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

“No American president has ever gone out of his way to reach out to the Muslim world in the way that President Obama has. We applaud that. But our applause is discreet rather than rapturous for these are as yet mere words.” – From ‘Rhetoric and Reality’, The News (Pakistan), June 5, 2009.

The substance of President Obama’s speech was not new – but the act of an American president coming to Egypt, addressing the world’s Muslims, and making a public commitment to closer cooperation and understanding between the United States and the Muslim world, was.

Obama worked to create a speech that would resonate with one billion Muslims spread across every country of the world, with diverse religious practices and beliefs – so it is not surprising that his speech had a level of abstraction and didn’t involve an announcement of any concrete policy or an indication of how he would implement his commitments to the Muslim world.

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For almost three years, Erlinda Cadapan has been searching for her daughter, Sherlyn. A student of the University of the Philippines, Sherlyn was abducted in June 2006 with another female student and a farmer in Bulacan, a province a few hours north of Manila. Like any mother longing for her child, Erlinda has been exhausting all means to find her daughter. Camp searches, court petitions, advocacy meetings, and exhumations have become part of her grueling daily routine. She would rather face her daughter’s death than live in complete uncertainty about what happened to her. In 2008, when Erlinda heard that authorities in Pangasinan Province found a corpse of a woman of similar build as Sherlyn, she insisted on recovering the body. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR), along with a human rights organization, conducted an exhumation. But upon investigation, they found the remains were of another young woman, not Sherlyn.

Erlinda is among the hundreds of mothers and relatives of desaparecidos who are in a devastating, never-ending quest to find their loved ones. In their situation, investigations that provide leads, searches, and exhumations that could eventually direct them to their missing kin are paramount. Unfortunately, relatives of the missing cannot confidently rely on the authorities to assist them. Security forces are often implicated in the commission of abuses. Cognizant that the state cannot renege from its primary duty of protecting guaranteed rights and freedoms, the 1987 Constitution aptly created the Commission on Human Rights as an independent body to investigate, report, and monitor human right violations.

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A year has passed since the Sichuan Earthquake and, while much has been accomplished, there is still so much more to be done. Last month I again had the opportunity to visit the earthquake affected area along with several Give2Asia colleagues and donors. As I have been from the start, I was impressed by the resilience and optimism of the people we met. Despite the loss of their homes, jobs and, in some cases, loved ones, they are moving forward and working hard to rebuild their lives.

Most of the 5.5 million people who lost their homes in the earthquake are still living in temporary shelter communities, and many of these people will never be able to return to their original towns and villages because of the damage done by the quake. While the government is providing some subsidies for home reconstruction, many of the victims do not have the means to raise the additional funds needed to rebuild their homes. However, this is just the start to the challenges the survivors face. The economic hardships created by the disaster make it difficult for these families to send their children to school, which will have a long-term impact of the prospects for their children’s futures. Income-generating opportunities are limited in many of the affected communities, resulting in significant migration of young men and women looking for work in other parts of China. The people there need skills training, capital, and leadership training to reinvigorate the area’s economy.

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In Indonesia, Muslim organizations have long been a force for social and political change, and have been cited by many researchers as playing a leading role in Indonesia’s democratization and in social issues such as gender equality and human rights. In recent years, Muslim organizations have also become involved in efforts to improve the responsiveness of local governments to the needs of the poor and the marginalized. Now, in a world that increasingly recognizes the importance of global warming and other environmental concerns to people’s lives and well-being, it is interesting to take a look at the ways in which Muslim organizations are becoming more involved in environmental protection and their potential for future efforts.

The influence of Islamic organizations comes largely from their size. The two largest mass-based Islamic organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, claim a combined following of over 70 million Indonesians, with local branches throughout the country, down to the village level.

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The recent release of two reports – one from the World Bank/IFC and the other from the IFC/Asia Foundation – compelled more than 200 Cambodians to gather on May 25th in a conference room overseeing the Tonle Sap river. They were business owners, public officials, and development organizations, all keen to discuss ways to make the life of business owners in Cambodia easier and more productive.

The lack of information on regulations, time-consuming procedures, unofficial charges, and the poor delivery of essential public services hamper business growth.   Making it easier, cheaper, and more transparent to start and operate a business could significantly help Cambodia compete in both the international and domestic markets, according to the World Bank/IFC Second Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) and the Provincial Business Environment Scorecard (PBES), published by IFC and The Asia Foundation.  At a time of unprecedented global financial and economic crisis, the issue is not anecdotal. Cambodia urgently needs to improve its business environment at the national and provincial level if it wants to mitigate the shock of the international crisis.

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Standing in Gwanghwamun, the heart of downtown Seoul, amid the sea of sobbing mourners at the funeral of the former Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, a curious déjà vu struck me.

Out of nowhere, the scene in front of me overlapped with a black and white footage of the funeral of Park Chung Hee I had seen some years ago on a local history channel. For a moment, the connections seemed rather unclear. Then it hit me: there was something unusual to the public grief toward the deaths of these two men that somehow surpassed the loss of a political leader.

For years growing up in Korea, I always wondered why there was such hype surrounding Park’s glory in our history textbooks.

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Pre-election polling indicated it would be a tight race between Mongolia’s two presidential candidates: the incumbent President N. Enkhbayar, representing the former Communists’ Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP), and the opposition candidate, Ts. Elbegdorj, representing the Democratic Party.  There was also speculation on how free and fair the elections would be: The Asia Foundation’s Voter Education Survey cited 46 percent of Ulaanbaatar residents believed some malfeasance would occur in the election. Furthermore, tension ran high in the run-up to the election over concern that there may be a repeat of the rioting and deadly violence that followed last year’s Parliamentary Election, in which the MPRP won the majority of the seats.

President N. Enkhbayar has had a long history of political power in Mongolia and was believed to have strong support from the countryside. His party also held the majority of seats in Parliament. It was rumored that he had been advised by high-level international campaign strategists, which included both Russians and former aides to President Bill Clinton.

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I think it was in Bangkok in 1995 where I first met Dr. Chirapol Sintunawa.  He gave me a tour of his sustainable development experiments, which included passive solar building design, eco-friendly landscaping, and the first environmental audits for Thai hotels.  Today, Green Leaf-certified hotels are established throughout Thailand; and Dr. Chirapol and his graduate students – and business and government partners – are busily expanding the reach and impact of Green Leaf certification across Southeast Asia.

However, the Green Leaf program gives us just a glimpse into what Chirapol and his associates are up to. Chirapol is constantly on the move. He trains students in sustainability at his eco-camp in Kanchanaburi; discusses bike lanes with transportation authorities in Bangkok; lectures about water-saving toilets at public events such as rock concert intermissions; and travels around the world to learn new ideas and to inspire others to think more deliberately about the sustainability of our one-planet life. 

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