By Steven Rood and Crisanto Cayon

Now that the Philippines is gearing up for the May 2010 general elections, and Mindanao looms large as a policy issue, it is worthwhile to look back over the year and examine discussions that took place in 2009 in light of what subsequently transpired. A year ago, ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) gathered newsmakers concerned with Mindanao together for a forum in Davao. ANC broadcast “Mindanao: The Way Forward,” with support from The Asia Foundation and the Embassy of Canada, as a 3-hour special in two segments on February 6 and 7, 2009.

Viewing the show a year later, one is immediately struck by the cruel irony in a comment that Congressman Pax Mangudadatu made at the beginning of the forum that peace and order is not a problem in his province of Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao. On Nov. 23, 2009, it was his family that was the primary victim of the massacre in the neighboring province of Maguindanao when his nephew Esmael Mangudadatu attempted to file papers for his candidacy for governor. Fearing trouble, he sent female relatives, including his wife and journalists, to actually deliver the papers; they were waylaid and more than 50 slain.
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By Rajendra Abhyankar

Defence Secretary Robert Gates’ three-day visit to New Delhi last month not only bolstered India’s role in promoting security and stability in Afghanistan and the region, but also boosted bilateral defence cooperation and trade. His visit helps pave the way for President Barack Obama, who is expected to visit India this summer, and helps answer an important question the two countries have asked each other since India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington last year: Do we take a “strategic pause” to heal some rising negativity brewing in the relationship, or do we look for the “next big idea” to keep up the momentum?
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By Karl F. Inderfurth and Chinmaya R. Gharekhan

The 68-nation London conference at the end of this month will focus on the future of Afghanistan, against the backdrop of major new military commitments by the United States and NATO, promises from the international community of increased civilian assistance, and pledges of new anti-corruption measures from President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.

But assuring Afghanistan’s future will require more than a military and civilian surge and better Afghan governance. A diplomacy surge is also required. Specifically, in the words of a recent statement signed by 20 former foreign ministers led by Madeleine K. Albright, “there needs to be a regional solution to Afghanistan’s problems.”
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By Najla Ayubi

“I operate daily under extremely dangerous situations in the south and southwest regions of Afghanistan, especially in Helmand Province. While there, I am expected to be completely covered in a Burqa and am advised to not carry a women’s style handbag or laptop bag. My phone should be off so that it is never heard ringing. Shaking hands with men is a taboo and talking directly about women’s rights could be punishable by death. However, the secret behind my success is that I am educated and have established contacts with local elders – and I abide by all these conditions. This is why I am able to run my development projects successfully,” said an Afghan woman who recently spoke to me on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
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By Nilan Fernando

Sri Lanka’s presidential election will be held on January 26, 2010. The race has been more competitive than people expected. The incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), elected in 2005, is battling for a second term against the former army chief, General Sarath Fonseka, who together with the president and his defence secretary defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009 and ended Sri Lanka’s three-decade-long civil war.

General Fonseka entered the race in early December as a joint opposition candidate bearing a grudge against the president and defence secretary after feeling personally slighted by them after the war. Fonseka was encouraged to run by Ranil Wickremesinghe, the leader of the main opposition party the United National Party (UNP), because his own chances of winning were slim. Mr. Wickremesinghe is hindered by the fact that he was the architect of the unsuccessful peace process with the LTTE from 2002 to 2004. The peace process is so discredited and Mr. Wickremesinghe so closely associated with it that a Wickremesinghe-led UNP could not hope to mount a serious challenge to the popular war president. Opposition leaders were grateful that Fonseka was available, none more than Mr. Wickremesinghe.

A campaign poster for the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Photo by Karl Grobl.

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By Gillian Yeoh

On January 12, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti and devastated thousands of lives. The panic, the sorrow — and the desire to help — are all too familiar, given the many disasters that have occurred in recent years all over the world. But we can draw on lessons from each of these catastrophes as we plunge into the recovery phase.

My organization, Give2Asia, has served as a leader in U.S. philanthropy for short-term and long-term recovery in times of disaster. Our recent work has supported survivors of the 2008 China earthquake, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008 and typhoons Ketsana and Parma in Southeast Asia this past year.
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By Edward Reed

Korea’s immediate commitment of $10 million in assistance to Haiti and the response by corporations and the Korean public is impressive.

Clearly Koreans want to help, but how can they be sure that their aid will be most effective?

In an emergency of this scale and complexity, and in a relatively limited area, the most important thing is coordination among the aid providers. Korea should work closely with the United Nations and other major donors to ensure that assistance is provided in an integrated and coordinated way. [Read a recent Washington Post op-ed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for more on the UN's role in the disaster.]
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China’s Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong spoke to a packed room of 350+ yesterday at a World Affairs Council event, co-sponsored by The Asia Foundation, on the future of U.S.-China relations. In an atmosphere of increasing tensions between the U.S. and China, due in part to recent reports of wide-scale cyberattacks, the ambassador referred to the relationship between the two countries as “one of the most dynamic and influential bilateral relationships in the world.” The Ambassador praised President Obama’s trip to Beijing in November to meet with China’s President Hu Jintao, and said, with the signing of the Sino-U.S. joint statement, the two leaders “have pledged to work together to build a cooperative China-U.S. relationship for the 21st century and to steadily build a partnership to address common challenges.”  The audience challenged the Ambassador’s upbeat remarks with some tough questions on Google in China, the environment, human rights, and China’s relationship with an increasingly unstable North Korea. The Ambassador spoke just up the street from The Asia Foundation, in the Gold Room at the Fairmont Hotel.  Below are some of the Ambassador’s responses to questions the audience posed.
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By Michael Finnegan

The Republic of Korea (ROK)’s pledge to return to Afghanistan after more than two years of absence can be viewed in several ways – as a domestic political breakthrough, as a recognition of Korea’s interests in the world, or as a reflection of an evolving alliance with the United States. Perhaps it is all of these and more. The full motivation for the decision and specific plans to implement the mission will not be clear until the Lee Myung-bak administration explains its rationale and plans for deployment to the Korean people. As he does so, President Lee Myung-bak should avoid the mistakes of past Korean administrations by clearly articulating South Korea’s national interests and strategic rationale for the deployment.

Read the full piece published in the January Center for U.S.-Korea Policy newsletter.

Michael Finnegan is a Senior Research Associate at the National Bureau of Asian Research. He was a panelist at a Center for U.S.-Korea Policy-Brookings conference earlier this month.

By Scott A. Snyder

North Korea has traditionally utilized the new year to set priorities and provide guidance to its people. Under Kim Jong Il, this guidance has come out in the form of a combined New Year’s editorial published by three major media outlets. South Korean presidents have also used a New Year’s speech outlining major priorities. North Korea’s joint editorial and Lee Myung-Bak’s New Year’s speech emphasize that both Koreas are putting importance on the economy while refraining from criticizing each other.

The similarities end there. North Korea’s joint editorial emphasizes its technological accomplishments (satellite launch and nuclear tests), heavy industry advancement (improved steel-making methods), and political loyalty (fireworks displays allegedly organized by putative successor Kim Jong-eun). From a North Korean perspective, 2009 was a good year; “The victorious great upsurge of last year confirms that the DPRK is developing in leaps and bounds. …”

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