In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

It seemed appropriate for the last class of my semester at SAIS teaching “Domestic Politics of Southeast Asia: Philippines and Thailand,” to focus on the “troubled souths.” The two countries garner international attention for any number of reasons, but one obvious similarity is that both have Muslim minorities…

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In January, I took a break from research for the just-released Malaysia Business Environment Index (BEI), which measures perceptions of district-level firms on their business environments, to get a broader perspective…

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On May 8, The Asia Foundation launched a new data visualization tool to help policy-makers and citizens explore the findings of the new 2012 Malaysia Business Environment Index (BEI), the only diagnostic tool designed to measure the business-friendliness of local governments in the country.

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The Asia Foundation just released its first-ever interactive online annual report with first-person highlights from each country office written by Foundation staff on the ground. The report includes audio interviews with contributing staff writers, including Chen Liuting on China’s energized charity sector; Mandakini Devasher Surie on India’s Right to Know Act; Korea Senior Program Officer [...]

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President Obama’s overnight visit to Afghanistan underscores the long-term security and financial commitment of the United States to this country in advance of the NATO Summit later this month.

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On April 28, Bersih 3.0 – a movement in Malaysia that is supported by 64 NGOs as well as the opposition party components – organized what turned out to be the largest street demonstration in Malaysia in a decade. Bersih in Malay means clean, and tens of thousands of Malaysians thronged the streets…

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Of course, the headline is something of an exaggeration of the situation here in Washington, D.C. – in the news, for example, are visits from the prime minister of Japan, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to China – not to mention President Obama’s “surprise” trip to Kabul on the anniversary of Bin Laden’s death.

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The roads leading to the Kuala Lumpur’s Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) were jammed with people instead of cars on Saturday, April 28. Easily tens of thousands, though later estimates put the total figure somewhere between 200 to 300,000…

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Last week, The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia launched an online campaign with Pearson Foundation’s We Give Books initiative to help bring 5,000 new children’s books to schools in rural Indonesia. For each book read online, We Give Books will donate one new book to support…

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On May 8, The Asia Foundation launched the first-ever Business Environment Index (BEI) that measures local business managers and owners’ perceptions about the business environment at the district level. The findings reveal issues and challenges that are relevant to local economic growth in Malaysia, such as transparency, regulatory costs, crime and security, and land access. [...]

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