In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Polls closed on Wednesday in Indonesia’s presidential election, and unofficial ballot counts put incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono well beyond the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff in September. So far, there have been no reports of major disruptions at the 450,000 polling stations set up across thousands of Indonesia’s islands. Yesterday, as Indonesians began casting their ballots, The Asia Foundation’s Senior Director of Programs in Indonesia, Sandra Hamid, blogged about the historical significance of this election.

Recently, on an unbearably hot and steamy day walking down a traders lane in Mumbai, I found myself marveling at how much the country has truly transformed. As a first-generation Indian-American, I have been traveling to the country since I was child, and, while I have noticed the obvious economic changes taking place-the beautiful new Bangalore international airport, the glow of television sets in even the most informal dwellings in Mumbai, the sight of cell phones in a remote Rajasthan village where houses are still constructed from cattle dung-I had truly missed the real change until that moment: the growing confidence in Indian society. India had become a place of dreams.

My earliest memory of India was arriving at Mumbai international airport with my parents and getting stopped by customs officials. Like most Indians living abroad, my father would pack suitcases full of items that were difficult for my family to buy in India (or for which the quality in India was bad). On that particular trip, my grandmother had asked for a toaster. The officials inspected the toaster and pulled my father aside to tell him there would be a large customs duty for this “foreign luxury item.”

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In Cambodia, the garment sector is certainly where the global economic crisis is having the most impact. As an essential pillar of the country’s economy, it accounts for about 80 percent of all exports and, until recently, employed more than 300,000 employees. In the last few months, experts say between 40,000 to 60,000 garment workers have lost their jobs. Since it is estimated that a single garment worker helps support about five people in his/her home village, the social and economic impact of the downturn is a big concern for countless factory owners, the government, and, of course, the workers themselves.

One of the questions often raised in an attempt to mitigate the impact of shrinking international demand and ensure that Cambodia will remain globally competitive, is whether labor compliance (one of Cambodia’s oft-cited comparative advantages) will be sufficient to ensure a future for the sector.

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My recent 5-1/2 week trip to 11 countries and 13 cities in East and Southeast Asia was to finalize arrangements with Asian host organizations for 16 new Luce Scholars. It also inspired thinking about the dozens of organizations that have hosted these young fellows since the program began in 1974.  In the past four decades, the long list of organizations that have hosted more than 550 Luce Scholars – promising young American leaders in their twenties – is a literal “who’s who” of Asian universities, think-tanks, technical institutes, NGOs, media outlets, companies, and arts/cultural organizations.  The organizations mirror the diversity of interests of the Luce Scholars from year to year, ranging from economic development, the law, legislative affairs, and foreign policy to environment, human rights, health, the arts, and science and technology.  As a result, Luce Scholars have been privileged to spend their 10-month fellowship with a rich diversity of organizations ranging from Peking University, Korea’s East Asia Institute, the Kyoto Lacquer Restoration Research Institute, the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Medical University, and the Mongolian  Veterinary Research Institute in East Asia; to the Hanoi School of Public Health, Phnom Penh Post, Indonesia’s SMERU Research Institute, Singapore International Arbitration Center, the Thailand Environmental Institute, Manila’s Venture for Fund Raising, and Malaysia’s Women’s Aid Organization in Southeast Asia, to name a few.

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Televised debates have been held, the campaigning has concluded, and Indonesians will vote for their president today. In the country’s more than 60 years since independence, this is only the second time that Indonesians have voted for their president. The country’s first two presidents, Sukarno and Suharto, held office for 23 and 32 years, respectively. Presidents Habibie, Abdurrachman Wahid, and Megawati Sukarnoputri followed Suharto after his downfall in 1998 and, like their predecessors, none of these presidents was elected directly by the Indonesian people. It was only in 2004, following constitutional changes, that Indonesians finally secured the right to vote for their president. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – popularly known by his initials: SBY – won that historic election, and is now running for his second and final term. If SBY succeeds, he would be the first incumbent president to win a second term through a democratic election and his victory would highlight the maturity of Indonesia’s democracy.

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