In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

With presidential elections set for March 17, followed by parliamentary elections in June, Timor-Leste is now in full political campaign mode. Some prominent figures in the country will compete for the post in Saturday’s presidential election, including incumbent president Jose Ramos Horta; the just-resigned commander of the armed forces, Taur Matan Ruak; Vice Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres; the sitting president of the National Parliament, Fernando Lasama; and Lu Olo, the president of the main opposition party FRETLIN.

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Given that I’ve written that kinship is the idiom of social organization in the Philippines, it’s probably not surprising that when asked for one book to read about the Philippines I often recommend An Anarchy of Families: State and Society in the Philippines, edited by Alfred W. McCoy.

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There is so much said about the adverse effects of extractive industries on social, economic, and political development in fragile states. However, in Timor-Leste, the truly ominous signs of the “oil curse” have not befallen the country. As Bob Brown, the leader of Australian Greens Party, famously stated in 2003, “It’s the one resource that can give East Timor the kick-start it needs.”

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As Mongolians prepare for next week’s Mongolian Lunar New Year festivities, government and non-governmental organizations are celebrating the passage of two long-awaited pieces of legislation that the Parliament of Mongolia passed in January. The passage of a standalone Law on Combating Trafficking in Persons marks a milestone in Mongolia’s anti-trafficking efforts, and signifies the culmination of more than three years of intense advocacy.

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Nearing its 65th year of independence, India, the largest democracy and second-most populous country in the world, is undergoing another transformation: a second freedom struggle. Birthed from decades of frustration over rampant corruption, a large-scale movement led by activist Anna Hazare has energized the country’s youth…

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The Thai National Human Rights Commission awarded The Asia Foundation for its landmark public affairs television talk show, Let’s Talk Rights. The highly acclaimed show which began airing in 2009 brings together often strongly opposed policymakers, politicians, top government officials, academics, activists, and marginalized individuals to participate in very civilized debates on hot-button human rights [...]

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One of the virtues of a regular exercise at peering into a new year is that you can check your own predictions from the past year. My predictions that I made here for the Philippines in 2011 were correct in three of four instances: Peace talks did begin (those with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front had more progress than those with the National Democratic Front)…

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The Philippines long had a terrible reputation for telecommunications, with Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew famously saying that in 1992, 99 percent of the population in the Philippines was waiting for a phone and 1 percent was waiting for a dial tone. However, beginning with the administration of Fidel Ramos (1992-1998) and followed by President Estrada (1998-2001), the telecoms industry was liberalized, and phone ownership skyrocketed.

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September 28 is celebrated internationally as Right to Know Day, highlighting the critical importance of people’s right to access information held by their governments. In India, following a nationwide campaign led by grassroots and civil society organizations…

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India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with an average GDP growth of about 9 percent over the past several years. Yet corruption remains a pressing problem in the nation of 1.2 billion. The Asia Foundation’s Katherine Loh spoke with T.R. Raghunandan…

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