In Seoul, on Monday, July 7, The Asia Foundation organized a public forum on “Development Assistance in Areas of Conflict in Asia: Lessons from the Field”. The forum addressed providing development assistance in conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Timor Leste, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and southern Philippines, and brought together international experts, Korean policy makers, as well as Korean and Asia Foundation managers of development projects to discuss the complex relationship between conflict and development and effective strategies for working in difficult environments. For more information, please contact Mr. Chun Sang Moon: csmoon@asiafound.org.

In Tuesday’s New York Times, The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Mongolia, Bill Infante, was quoted on post-election riots in a piece called “In Election Dispute, A Challenge for Mongolia’s Democracy”.

By William Foerderer Infante

William Foerderer Infante is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Mongolia. To read his recent comments on this unusual episode of violence in Mongolia on CNN.com, click here, and in the Los Angeles Times, click here. He can be reached at binfante@asiafound.org.

Just after noon on July 1st, hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Sukhbaatar square in central Ulaanbatar to protest the June 29th election results, which they alleged were fraudulent. Throughout the afternoon, the demonstration grew in size to more than 8,000, and then erupted into violence around 7pm.

36 hours after the polls closed, the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) led the balloting by a significant margin. Opposition parties, including the Democratic Party and the newly-formed Citizen’s Union, launched the gathering and encouraged citizens to stand up for justice and for free and fair elections. They demanded a recount in districts where malfeasance was said to have occurred. But the demonstration spiraled wildly out of control in the early evening, and was uncontained by police wearing riot gear.
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By Shahnawaz Mahmood

Shahnawaz Mahmood is a Senior Program Officer for The Asia Foundation in Pakistan.

Roti, Kapra, aur Makan — or Bread, Clothing, and Shelter — this has been the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)’s slogan to woo the electorate since the 1970’s. While the PPP emerged from February’s elections with the largest majority, it did not win sufficient seats to claim control of the government and was forced to form a coalition, mainly with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Given the still unresolved question of the restoration of the judiciary, including the Chief Justice of Pakistan and other judges who were dismissed by President Musharraf last year, the PML-N could withdraw from the coalition and the government’s center could collapse — unless the Musharraf-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) were to intercede. This political uncertainty surrounding the new government, combined with the worsening security situation, has inflicted a great toll on economic growth as investors are becoming wary. This will make providing such essentials as bread, clothing, and shelter increasingly difficult.
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The Asia Foundation’s Director for Economics Programs in Indonesia, Neil McCulloch, is quoted in a July 2nd article on Indonesians’ sudden focus on agriculture as a result of the global food crisis. To read it, click here.

In a Letter to the Editor, The Asia Foundation’s Country representative in Mongolia, William Foerderer Infante, responds to the Michael Auslin’s June 24th op-ed “Genghis Putin” stating, “Mongolia’s national and economic security are anchored in diverse and balanced trade relations, and prior investments won’t necessarily give Russia an inside track for the future.” To read it, click here.

By Steven Rood

Steven Rood is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in the Philippines. He can be reached at srood@asiafound.org.

The Philippines is often called the “texting capital of the world,” since perhaps the main means of interpersonal communication is sending SMS “text” messages. The average cellular user sends 10 texts for each time a voice call is made, so it is not surprising that the bad news about typhoon “Frank” (Fengshen is the international name) began to spread through text messages.

First, on Friday, messages came from Mindanao – a friend explained how his school was chest deep in water, ruining everything that couldn’t be moved quickly to the second floor. Bus service was suspended to the capital of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Rice and corn lands in southern Mindanao were inundated. Fishermen were charging 20 pesos (about $0.50, a sizable sum of money for those earning minimum wage) per head to ferry people through the floods.
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By William Foerderer Infante

William Foerderer Infante is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Mongolia. He can be reached at binfante@asiafound.org.

Late in 2007, at a meeting of senior government officials and development partners, Member of Parliament S. Oyun commented, that “how Mongolia develops its mining sector is a matter of national security.” In other words, the choice of which foreign partner will help develop Mongolia’s vast minerals resources is a material concern for Mongolia’s government, its people, and for the international community.

Mongolia shares borders with only two neighbours: Russia and China. For foreign policy and economic reasons, how and to whom mine licenses are granted has regional, and potentially international, implications. Mongolia has an avowed third neighbour policy, which means that it wants to balance relations with its immediate neighbours, China and Russia, and with those of “third” countries in North America, Europe and East Asia.
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On June 20th, Barnett Baron, The Asia Foundation’s Executive Vice President, moderated the World Affairs Council panel, Afghanistan – Progress or Decline, in honor of World Refugee Day. The panel included Khaled Hosseini, UNHCR Goodwill Envoy and Author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns; Ewen MacLeod, Deputy Representative, UNHCR Afghanistan; and Fariba Nawa, Afghan-American Journalist. For Bay Area residents, KQED’s It’s Your World will air the program in its entirety on Monday, July 7 at 8pm. For more information, click here.

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By Silas Everett

Silas Everett is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Timor-Leste. He can be reached at severett@asiafound.org.

The United Nations leaked this week that the UN police in Timor-Leste (UNPOL) will hand over responsibility to the national police force (PNTL) by early next year. The government is currently considering the draft proposal – a seven stage withdrawal which will begin on July 31, 2008 and end with a full handover on May 20, 2009. After that time, 600 UN police officers plan to remain as monitors and backup.

Local media reports indicate, however, that the handover is imminent. UN insiders claim that UNPOL’s gradual withdrawal is not because the national police force wants the UN police to go, but because UN security is needed in other parts of the globe.
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Alexander Tarnoff, Director of Field Operations for Southeast Asia with The Asia Foundation, joined a panel on “Grantmaking Within the Legal Constraints of U.S. Foreign Policy” at the Grantmakers w/o Borders annual conference in San Francisco on June 10. As the Foundation does not operate in Burma, Mr. Tarnoff spoke from his four previous years experience as Country Representative with Save the Children in Burma on how American non-for-profit organizations can effectively deliver humanitarian aid and development assistance in compliance with restrictions imposed by US economic and diplomatic sanctions. On the panel were also two experts on development in Iraq and Palestine. To read about the Foundation’s charity affiliate, Give2Asia’s humanitarian work in Burma, click here.