By Doug Bereuter

On Tuesday, Asia Foundation President Doug Bereuter testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia on “A Reliance on Soft Power – Reforming the Public Diplomacy Bureaucracy”. Below is an excerpt.

…My primary message is to emphasize that for a truly effective public diplomacy effort, America must return to (and I do emphasize the words “return to”), reinforce, and remind people around the world by example, what they had especially admired about our country and people.  It won’t be accomplished by an improved governmental public relation campaign, by governmental reorganization, or only by adding more State Department public diplomacy officers in our embassies, consulates, or Washington, D.C.  However, greater good will, respect, credibility, and support for our country can be regained.  Changes in policies and emphases, a smarter variety of public diplomacy, and perhaps governmental reorganization are part of the answer.  Yet the primary orientation of our effort must be to remind people abroad, and re-enforce by example and their direct experience, what they and their leaders traditionally have liked and admired most about Americans and our country.  We have done that well in the past; we can and must do it again.  Full Testimony.

By Robin Bush

Dr. Robin Bush, The Asia Foundation’s Deputy Country Representative in Indonesia, provides more in depth analysis of Sharia regulations in Indonesia in her recent essay “Regional Sharia Regulations in Indonesia: Anomaly or Symptom?” published in August 2008 by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) as a chapter of Expressing Islam: Religious Life and Politics in Indonesia. She can be reached at rbush@asiafound.org.

Indonesia’s rich cultural diversity is on display in full force once again this week as activists, intellectuals, dancing musicians, and women dressed in brightly colored lace dresses have taken to the streets to protest a shoddy piece of legislation that just won’t go away. The poorly-named “Anti-Pornography Bill” was first introduced by legislators in early 2006. After nearly a year of protest, heated debate, demonstrations, and conflict, the bill was sent to committee where it essentially got shelved until a couple of weeks ago when a legislator from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) decided to revive it as what he called a “Ramadan gift” for Indonesia.
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By Scott Snyder

Scott Snyder is a Senior Associate at The Asia Foundation. He can be reached at ssnyder@asiafound-dc.org.

Since there have been periodic rumors about the state of Kim Jong Il’s health over the years, it’s easy for North Korea-watchers to become skeptical about unattributed reports from capitals outside of Pyongyang regarding the pulse of the Dear Leader.  It has long been the case that rumors about the stability of North Korea are inversely proportional to the distance one is from Pyongyang; by this logic, rumors started in Washington require special skepticism.

But this time, multiple reports from intelligence officials in many countries are beginning to add up.  These reports suggest that Kim Jong Il experienced an impossible-to-predict “medical event”—apparently a stroke—in mid-August.  But it was particularly his non-appearance at last week’s 60th anniversary events to mark the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) that sparked international speculation.  Intelligence regarding special teams of physicians that had entered North Korea to treat Kim Jong Il has led to a broad array of reports about Kim’s condition and recovery.
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With rumors of Korean President Kim Jong-Il’s ailing health abounding, Former Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to the U.S, Han Sung-Joo addressed packed crowds in Washington and San Francisco at the formal launch of The Asia Foundation’s America’s Role in Asia.  Ambassador Han asked: “The question is, is North Korea more or less likely to give up its nuclear weapons if there is a government change; or, if Mr. Kim Jong Il becomes incapacitated, is North Korea going to become more or less dangerous than now?”  At both the National Press Club and the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, and at the Four Seasons in San Francisco, Ambassador Han addressed policymakers, Asian and U.S. diplomats, executives, journalists and philanthropists.
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By John Brandon

John Brandon is The Asia Foundation’s Director for International Relations programs. He can be reached at jbrandon@asiafound-dc.org. For on-the-ground analysis of the situation in Thailand, click here for The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Thailand, James Klein’s, comments to the Christian Science Monitor. He can be reached at jklein@asiafound.org.

On September 8th, Thailand’s constitutional court rendered the decision that Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej must resign after being found guilty of violating a ban on ministers for taking money from a private company.  Article 267 of the constitution prohibits ministers from taking money from outside interests.  In this case it was for accepting money from a TV station to appear on his popular cooking show, “Tasting and Grumbling.”   Some may argue that rule of law has won the day as Samak has become the first Prime Minister to ever have to resign by court order.  Most former Thai prime ministers have fallen from power by military coup.  To Samak’s credit, which he has earned little as of late, he has agreed to accept and abide by the court’s verdict.

But does the constitutional court’s decision end the political paralysis Thailand is facing? 
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By Karl F. Inderfurth

Ambassador Karl Inderfurth, a Trustee of The Asia Foundation and contributor to America’s Role in Asia: Asian and American Views, summarized his recommendations for a new U.S. administration on how to strengthen the U.S.-India relationship for The Hindu. In the op-ed, he provides a seven-point agenda for the United States, which focuses on strengthening strategic ties, realizing economic potential, pursuing a broader nuclear dialogue, highlighting higher education, supporting India’s United Nations bid, collaborating more in the neighborhood, and promoting a cooperative triangle with China.

By Steven Rood

Steven Rood is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in the Philippines, where he has lived for 27 years. He can be reached at srood@asiafound.org.

After living as an American in the Philippines for 27 years, I’ve grown accustomed to explaining the U.S. electoral system every four years. As a political science Ph.D. whose dissertation was on elections in the United States, I fulfill this duty with pleasure.

Recently, I was in Davao, in the southern island of Mindanao, attending an evening session on the peace process (or, rather, the breakdown of the peace process) between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, when I received a call from Ricky Carandang, a TV host on the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), the local cable news network.  He wondered whether I could appear on his show the next morning to serve as a non-partisan commentator on the acceptance speech of Senator Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention.  I hopped on a flight to Manila the next morning, making it into the studio just in time for air.
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By John Brandon

John Brandon is The Asia Foundation’s Director for International Relations programs. He can be reached at jbrandon@asiafound-dc.org.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is struggling for his political survival and is increasingly finding himself in a “no win” situation. For the past week, a group of well-organized, anti-government protesters known as the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has taken over and occupied Government House, Thailand’s equivalent of The White House. The protesters refuse to leave until Samak resigns. Since the occupation, the situation has worsened. On September 2nd, political tension erupted into violent street clashes between pro and anti-government supporters that left one person dead and more than 40 injured. These clashes are believed to have been instigated by members of the pro-government Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship (DAAD). In response, Samak has declared a state of emergency in Bangkok.

Under normal circumstances, protesters taking over Government House would be removed and arrested for their civil disobedience. But these are not normal times in Thailand.
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By James Klein

James Klein is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Thailand. He can be reached at jklein@asiafound.org.

Once right-wing factions of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) began busing pro-government supporters into Bangkok under the banner of the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship (DAAD) to confront the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the violence that erupted was predictable. PAD has been protesting against the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej for the past 100 days and has held the ground of the Government House for the past week. They’ve been successful in maintaining a relatively peaceful demonstration, as they have in the past when organizing protests against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2005 and 2006. However, when red-shirted DAAD forces have made an appearance on the streets, the DAAD resorted to confrontation and violence to force its point of view.
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By Zarah Rahman

Zarah Rahman was a 2007-2008 Luce Scholar based in The Asia Foundation’s Vietnam office, where she focused on public health issues.

I sat cross legged on the floor of a single room house at the end of a bumpy dirt road, drinking bitter green tea and looking at the faces of the men around me as they told us about their lives. The family’s few belongings were neatly stacked under the beds and family photos were pinned to the white walls. We - a group of public health researchers - were sitting alongside a group of young Vietnamese heroin addicts, several of whom were HIV positive, hearing a few of the stories behind the statistics on drug use and HIV here in Vietnam. These young men, mostly under the age of thirty, have watched many of their peers die from drug overdose or from AIDS, and have felt their own lives crumble around them.

Contracting HIV/AIDS from infected needles is an urgent problem facing countries all over the world and, in Vietnam, HIV/AIDS in Vietnam cannot be separated from injection drug use, primarily of heroin. While the overall prevalence of HIV is under 1%, the rate among drug users is estimated to be 32%, with rates as high as 66% in some provinces. Sharing needles and unsafe injecting is the cause of 50 to 60% of HIV cases here.
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