By Robin Bush

Robin Bush is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Jakarta, Indonesia. She can be reached at rbush@tafindo.org.

The mood on the street in Indonesia is probably more jubilant in many ways than in some parts of the U.S., with the news of the victory of Barack Obama as President-elect of the United States. Indonesians have long been overwhelming supporters of Obama.They say they feel a personal connection because Obama’s stepfather was Indonesian and Obama lived in Jakarta when he was a child. People here from all walks of life know about Obama – and today they say they feel pride that “their guy” is now in the White House. In fact, one of the jokes going around Jakarta today is that, “Obama was able to win against all odds after only spending 4 years in Indonesia – imagine what he could have done if he had spent his whole life here.”

Parties and celebrations were held across the city of Jakarta today – the largest among them was a public celebration held at a large mall in downtown Jakarta. Indonesia’s best rock and folks singers came out to perform, 3,000 balloons were dropped from the rafters, and people celebrated heartily.
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By Robin Bush

Robin Bush is The Asia Foundation’s Deputy Country Representative in Indonesia. Below is a summary of remarks she delivered while on a panel Tuesday on Human Development and Social Change Dialogue at the 2008 U.S.-Islamic World Regional Forum in Kuala Lumpur, co-sponsored by The Asia Foundation, the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, and ISIS. She can be reached at rbush@tafindo.org.

“Human Development” as a concept stands at the center of a vast array of development funding and policy initiatives – and in its broadest sense encompasses indicators of life expectancy, education, gross national product etc.., as well as environmental quality, effective governance, and freedom. For a full elaboration I refer you to the excellent discussion paper on this topic produced by Hady Amr for the 2008 Doha US-Islamic World Forum.

Let’s look at education, because, when one looks at Islamic schools and Islamic education in the region, one can observe a fascinating dualism: in many areas, Islamic education is the poorest in quality and serves the poorest demographics; at the same time, there are Islamic schools and institutions that are centers of excellence, which function as a bridge or vehicle for lifting the human development indicators of entire communities around them.
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By V. Bruce J. Tolentino

Bruce Tolentino is The Asia Foundation’s Director for Economic Reform and Development Programs. On Tuesday, he spoke at the 2008 U.S.-Islamic World Regional Forum in Malaysia, co-sponsored by The Asia Foundation, the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, and ISIS. Below is an excerpt of his remarks delivered on a panel about Trade and Investment Dialogue. He can be reached at btolentino@asiafound.org.

Discussed at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum this week, in Kuala Lumpur, were lessons that could be learned by the Islamic world – particularly the Middle East - from the experience in economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).  The discussion immediately made it apparent that ASEAN’s performance in economic integration may be assessed as “good” or “not so good” – depending on the specific aspect(s) being measured, and the metric being applied.

Usually, we think of economic integration in terms of measures of trade and financial flows – and by these relatively narrow measures, ASEAN has been successful. 
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By Gordon Hein

Gordon Hein is The Asia Foundation’s Vice President for Programs. Below are his welcoming remarks at the 2008 U.S.-Islamic World Regional Forum on Monday in Kuala Lumpur, co-sponsored by The Asia Foundation, the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, and ISIS. He can be reached at ghein@asiafound.org.

Since the U.S.-Islamic World Forum’s launch by the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution in 2004, it has made important contributions to dialogue and understanding, and has served as a catalyst for action among organizations from many countries. It is our belief – and our hope – that by holding this conference in Southeast Asia, we can add an additional, vital element to the dialogue that can make it even richer, deeper, and more successful that it has been to date. For this opportunity, I would like to express our gratitude to Ambassador Martin Indyk and his staff at the Saban Center. We are also pleased to be co-sponsoring this event with ISIS, the Institute of Strategic and International Studies here in Kuala Lumpur – led by Tan Sri Mohamed Jawhar Hassan. ISIS is an organization that has contributed so much over the years not only to Malaysia, but to the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, and it’s an organization with which The Asia Foundation has had a long and fruitful history of cooperation.
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This past week, The Asia Foundation’s Senior Associate, Scott Snyder spoke about the removal of North Korea from the U.S.’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list and the overall current state of U.S.-North Korea relations to the Los Angeles Times and the Christian Science Monitor. He can be reached at ssnyder@asiafound.org.

Doug Ramage, The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Indonesia, spoke to Newsweek over the weekend about Indonesia’s booming economy in “Indonesia As the New India.” He can be reached at ramage@tafindo.org.

By Tommy Koh

Tommy Koh is Ambassador-At-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, and Chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies and the National Heritage Board. He was one of the three Asian co-chairs for the recently released book, America’s Role in Asia: Asian and American Views. Below is an excerpt from his chapter, which provides recommendations for a new U.S.  administration’s foreign policy towards the Southeast Asia region.

The peoples of Southeast Asia are following the 2008 U.S. presidential elections with great attention and admiration, given the open and transparent primary processes. America’s real and vibrant democracy is reflected in the competing candidates’ travels to every corner of the country to win the hearts and minds of voters. This illustrates that the highest office of the land can neither be secured by wealth nor pedigree and, this year especially, neither race nor gender is an insurmountable obstacle. Consequently, in some parts of the world, including Southeast Asia, anti-Americanism has been balanced by a respect for America’s current exercise of democracy.

Thus, every region of the world wants America’s attention; the only question is whether American attention is positive or negative. Washington’s nature is to focus attention on the largest countries, regions, and economies, which can pose a threat to American interest or to international peace and security. By these standards, Southeast Asia — a region largely at peace — does not receive the positive attention it deserves. Read More…

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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This report, recently featured in the Straits Times’ article, “Indonesia’s Political Miracle”, is designed to take stock of developments in Indonesia and identify ways of enhancing our bilateral relationship. The authors, Andrew MacIntyre and The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative, Douglas Ramage, provide important insights based on their deep understanding of the subject. A central theme of the paper is that Indonesia has become a normal country, the world’s third largest functioning democracy, with a very lively, engaged parliament. Indonesia’s transformation of course poses challenges for Australia. In some ways, vibrant democracies are harder to deal with than dictatorships. The authors’ core message in this Strategy is that it’s the consolidation of Indonesia’s democratic governance that we should focus on as we improve our bilateral relationship and pursue our interests in Southeast Asia and the wider Asia–Pacific.

By Neil McCulloch

Neil McCulloch is the Director for Economic Programs at The Asia Foundation in Jakarta. The below is an excerpt and link to the full article in The Jakarta Post.

Which local governments govern best? That is the central question addressed by the Local Economic Governance report launched on Tuesday by KPPOD (Regional Autonomy Watch) and The Asia Foundation. The report ranks 243 districts across Indonesia on the quality of their local economic governance based on a survey of over 12,000 businesses in 15 provinces, one of the largest surveys of its kind in the world. It provides the most comprehensive picture yet of the successes, and failures, of regional autonomy. Read more in the The Jakarta Post.

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.